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USA Today
2 days ago
- Business
- USA Today
What Greg Gard said about Wisconsin basketball's 2025 non-conference game against BYU
What Greg Gard said about Wisconsin basketball's 2025 non-conference game against BYU Wisconsin basketball head coach Greg Gard shared his views on his team's recently scheduled nonconference matchup against the BYU Cougars on Tuesday. Roughly one week after reports surfaced regarding the Nov. 21 bout against the Cougars in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Utah Jazz's Delta Center, the program officially announced the game with a press release. "We're really excited that we're able to schedule this game with BYU," UW head coach Greg Gard told "Our game last year was one of the best of the NCAA Tournament and I think both fanbases will enjoy seeing a rematch this season. We have always tried to challenge ourselves in the non-conference schedule to prepare the team for Big Ten play and beyond and this game certainly will do so." The Badgers will certainly gear up for another highly anticipated test against Kevin Young's crew. The Cougars secured a 91-89 victory in the most recent contest between the two teams on March 22, which featured a 37-point performance from former star Badger John Tonje and a 25-tally finish from BYU veteran Richie Saunders. While Tonje will not return to the hardwood for the Badgers in Utah, the Cougars will return Saunders, send out starting center Keba Keita and welcome in freshman small forward A.J. Dybantsa, a five-star recruit and projected No. 1 pick of the 2026 NBA draft. UW, meanwhile, projects to start former San Diego State guard Nick Boyd, Virginia wing Andrew Rhode and Portland forward Austin Rapp alongside two returning starters in John Blackwell and center Nolan Winter. The Badgers' non-conference slate will also include a neutral-site match against the Villanova Wildcats at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on December 19th, an exhibition against the Oklahoma Sooners on Oct. 24 in Milwaukee and an appearance in the Rady's Children's Invitational in late November. Games outside the Big Ten have traditionally enabled the Badgers to gauge where they stand against potential NCAA Tournament participants down the line. Those games also allow Gard to experiment with rotations and evaluate how his athletes perform alongside one another. With Dybantsa at the helm for BYU, Wisconsin's Nov. 21 bout vs. the Cougars will also draw eyeballs. The battle is expected to be the first of a home-and-home, with BYU set to travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2026. Before then, Gard and company will look to notch an early signature win to start the 2025-26 regular season. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
USA Today
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Tom Izzo received a gift from Greg Gard after attending Badgers event against cancer
Tom Izzo received a gift from Greg Gard after attending Badgers event against cancer Tom Izzo is someone that is known around the sport of college basketball, and especially the Big Ten, as an outstanding human being. Izzo has made a ton of friends, in the coaching industry in particularly, and is always doing his best to support those in the industry. To start the month of May, Izzo made the trek across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin, where he made an appearance at the Garding Against Cancer event. The event is put on by Wisconsin basketball and the Badgers head coach, Greg Gard. For making an appearance at the event, and supporting Gard and the Badgers in their fight against cancer, Izzo was presented with a gift from Gard at the event. The gift is something that will make a lot of Spartan fans cringe. Izzo received a customized Green Bay Packers jersey from Gard, with his last name on the back and donning the No. 25. Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on X @Cory_Linsner
USA Today
30-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
What Greg Gard said about Wisconsin basketball landing transfer guard Braeden Carrington
What Greg Gard said about Wisconsin basketball landing transfer guard Braeden Carrington Wisconsin basketball officially announced the signing of Tulsa transfer guard Braeden Carrington on Wednesday. Carrington, who began his career at Big Ten rival Minnesota, joins the Badgers for his final year of eligibility. The veteran averaged 26.8 minutes, 7.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game last season at Tulsa. He previously appeared in 51 games over two years with the Gophers (2022-24), averaging 20.5 minutes, 5.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, one assist and 0.6 steals per appearance. The 6-foot-4 guard projects to fill a major role on the Badgers' bench next season, assuming John Blackwell withdraws from the NBA draft. He and Jack Janicki slot in as the top two bench options, following a projected starting backcourt of Blackwell, Virginia transfer Andrew Rohde and San Diego State transfer Nick Boyd. Gard notes that Carrington's experience was a major selling point during the transfer process, specifically at the Big Ten level. "Braeden brings 3 years of college basketball experience to our program along with a level of maturity and understanding of the Big Ten that is crucial in today's landscape of roster composition," Gard said in a release. "We've followed his career since he was in high school, where he won a state championship in Minnesota. He knows our program and several of our current and former players very well which made for an easy and comfortable transition for him to come back to the Big Ten. We're excited to have Braeden on campus starting in June as we prepare our team for the 2025-26 season." Carrington originally joined the Gophers as a three-star recruit in the class of 2022, ranked as the No. 226 player in the country, No. 32 shooting guard and No. 8 recruit from Minnesota. One of the best performances of his freshman season came against the Badgers in the regular-season finale (a 71-67 Wisconsin win): 11 points, eight rebounds and two assists on 3-of-4 shooting and 1-of-2 from 3 in 21 minutes of action. Badger fans hope for more of that production from Carrington this season, ideally replacing Kamari McGee (graduation) as Wisconsin's sixth man. A repeat of his junior-year production at Tulsa (7.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists on 35% shooting and 33% from 3) would be a major boost for a bench unit that should play a pivotal role in the team's success next season. Gard and his staff are likely to rely on Carrington's experience in a room full of several promising young guards, including sophomore Jack Janicki and incoming freshmen Zach Kinziger and Hayden Jones. While delayed until the end of the cycle, his addition could be just as impactful as any the Badgers have made this offseason. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
USA Today
25-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Has Wisconsin's primary recruiting focus shifted from high school to the transfer portal?
Has Wisconsin's primary recruiting focus shifted from high school to the transfer portal? For the past two to three seasons, the Wisconsin Badgers have been one of the most active teams in the transfer portal. That trend has continued this offseason, where the program currently ranks No. 17 in Evan Miyakawa's transfer activity rating, plus No. 26 in his ranking of incoming transfer classes. The graphic, as shared below, highlights a trend that is becoming more and more prevalent nationwide: Many college basketball programs, including Wisconsin, have allocated nearly all of their recruiting resources towards transfer portal talent instead of high school recruits. This is a major shift from the 2010s, where high school recruiting was all that mattered when it came to roster construction. What has caused this shift to happen? It's been a mix of NIL, fewer restrictions on transferring, and less of a draw to loyalty. The result is programs getting access to players with years of development, which can be more beneficial than high school recruits who are starting from square one. This is extremely important for Wisconsin, considering it plays in a challenging Big Ten. The Big Ten is known for its defense and physicality. Many high school recruits that the conference's programs land needed a couple of years to bulk up and learn the defensive fundamentals necessary to excel in the league. Five-star recruits are obviously the exception to this dynamic, but those high-level prospects don't come often to Wisconsin, or to any Big Ten team for that matter. Wisconsin's only consensus five-star high school recruit since 2010 was Sam Dekker, who attended Sheboygan Area Lutheran High School in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Since Dekker, head coach Greg Gard has only landed three four-star recruits, including incoming 2025 commit Zach Kinziger. That's not a ton of high-school talent for a program that made multiple Final Four runs and has been an NCAA Tournament regular since 2000. Because of this, the Badgers relied on three-star and low four-star recruits who were willing to be patient with their development and learn how to play in the Big Ten. That isn't as common anymore for the mentioned reasons, as players can now transfer as many times as they'd like without having to redshirt. We even saw it this past season, when composite four-star recruit Daniel Freitag didn't play much during his freshman season with the Badgers, then opted to transfer to Buffalo, as opposed to waiting on the bench for a year or two. Wisconsin has found success in the portal long before it was common practice to prioritize recruiting in that area. Former Badger and current Utah Jazz player Micah Potter transferred to Madison from Ohio State in 2018, then led the Badgers to a Big Ten title in 2019-20. Those early experiences in the portal helped Gard and his staff become comfortable when transferring became a more popular decision in the early 2020s. Gard and his staff added both Kamari McGee and Max Klesmit from the portal in 2023, each who both later became important pieces on both the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 teams. Not only did the portal help fill necessary gaps in the roster, but it also gave former in-state standouts a chance to play for their home state's flagship school. Neither Klesmit nor McGee was a highly touted high-school recruit, but both played well enough at the mid-major levels to garner the attention of Gard and other members of the Wisconsin coaching staff. The question now becomes, where does Wisconsin go from here? Does it make sense for the program to allocate all of its resources to transfer portal recruiting, or should it still prioritize landing in-state players? The answer is complicated. Wisconsin can't abandon high-school recruiting, especially with how talented in-state high-school basketball has become in recent years. Landing players from Wisconsin that fit Gard's new scheme is crucial. That's why fans can still get excited about players like Kinziger, who is joining the program from De Pere, Wisconsin. His ability to knock down threes and play solid defense guarantees him a shot to make the rotation his freshman year. Looking forward, there are numerous talented players from the state of Wisconsin in both the 2026 and 2027 recruiting classes. Oregon High School standout Vaughn Karvala is the state's top recruit in the class of 2026. He's garnering lots of interest from Power Four programs. In 2027, both Milwaukee guard Dooney Johnson and Kaukauna wing Donovan Davis rank in the class' top-50, per 247Sports. Both could potentially be as high as five-stars by the end of their recruiting cycle. 'Can't miss' players like both Johnson and Davis are the types of players that Wisconsin should put all of their effort into recruiting out of high school. Both of these players have NBA upside and would take a lot less time to develop than a traditional in-state three-star recruit. Overall, Wisconsin has done an excellent job adapting to the changing times in college basketball. Gard and his staff have hit on many of their portal additions, primarily finding players who were under-recruited and lower-ranked in the portal. John Tonje, who averaged 19.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game for the Badgers last season, is a perfect example. The coaching staff has expanded their focus from developing high-school recruits to also focusing on doing so with transfers. That success has helped the program survive and adapt in the sport's changing landscape. As for what the program should prioritize moving forward, it all depends on the talent available. For most seasons, the portal will have an excess amount of talent that Wisconsin can tap into to reload its lineup, as it has done this offseason. However, in years where the in-state recruits are especially gifted, like 2027, it might make more sense for that to be the place where Badgers extend their resources. Either way, it should depend year-to-year which recruiting method to focus on. It should be an area where Gard and his staff will have to constantly evaluate and pivot. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
USA Today
03-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
What Greg Gard said about Wisconsin star John Blackwell declaring for 2025 NBA draft
What Greg Gard said about Wisconsin star John Blackwell declaring for 2025 NBA draft A Wisconsin program centerpiece could be on the move this summer. Nearly two weeks following Wisconsin's NCAA Tournament loss to BYU, rising junior John Blackwell officially declared for the 2025 NBA draft while also maintaining his collegiate eligibility. The Michigan native announced his decision on Thursday afternoon via X. "After speaking with Coach Gard, the coaching staff, Life Sports Agency, and my family, I'm excited to declare for the 2025 NBA Draft while maintaining my collegiate eligibility," Blackwell said. "My goal has always been to play in the NBA, and going through the process will take me one step closer to my dream." After earning a Big Ten All-Freshman Team nod in 2023-24 after averaging eight points and 3.2 rebounds, Blackwell emerged as the clear-cut No. 2 option for Greg Gard's team as a sophomore in 2024-25. In 37 games, the 6-foot-4 playmaker averaged 15.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists off 45.1% shooting from the field, 32.2% from deep and 81.5% from the charity stripe in 31.2 minutes per appearance. Outside of star wing John Tonje, Blackwell was the most consistent two-way option for a Wisconsin team that finished the season 27-10 and No. 12 in KenPom. He scored at least 10 points on 30 occasions, including eight outbursts of at least 20 points. Gard, who has witnessed Blackwell blossom into one of the Big Ten's most improved players, offered some insight into the former three-star recruit's trajectory and potential return to UW next fall. "John and I have talked many times about his dream to play in the NBA and our staff and I fully support his decision to declare for the NBA Draft while maintaining his eligibility at Wisconsin," Gard said in a statement via X. "John has been a tremendous player for our program the last two seasons and has the drive to be the best player on the floor, wherever he is playing. This is a win-win opportunity for John to receive the feedback from NBA personnel while retaining the ability to play for our program next fall." Gard, who has manned UW's sidelines for nearly a decade, recently witnessed another high-profile player declare for the NBA Draft while maintaining eligibility. A.J. Storr, who led Wisconsin in scoring during the 2023-24 season, declared following the season's end before ultimately transferring to Kansas for the 2024-25 slate. Unlike Storr, Blackwell has committed to remaining in Madison for his junior season, if he elects to return to college. The pre-draft process will give him a clear indication of his draft stock, plus possible areas for improvement entering future years. Blackwell's upside, attitude and clear competitive edge certainly boost his potential as a legitimate NBA prospect. He could make the jump this offseason if an NBA team falls in love with his ceiling. Still, the star guard's return to the Badgers is more likely than not at this stage of the process. Blackwell has until June 15 to withdraw his name from the draft and maintain his eligibility. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
