John Tonje’s professional basketball journey has already included three NBA organizations, two G League affiliates and no guarantees.

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But the former Wisconsin men’s basketball star keeps creating opportunities for himself.

The Portland Trail Blazers have signed Tonje to a two-way contract, giving him another chance to establish himself at the NBA level after a strong showing with the Boston Celtics during NBA Summer League. He fills Portland’s final two-way roster spot.

For Wisconsin fans, the way Tonje earned this opportunity should feel familiar.

His basketball journey has rarely followed the most direct path. Tonje spent five seasons between Colorado State and Missouri before transferring to Wisconsin as a sixth-year senior, with relatively modest expectations surrounding his addition.

In one season under Greg Gard, Tonje developed into a consensus second-team All-American, a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection and one of the most prolific single-season scorers in Wisconsin history.

Tonje averaged 19.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game for the Badgers while shooting 38.8% from three and 90.9% from the free-throw line. The 6-foot-5 guard’s 724 points were the second-most in a season at Wisconsin, behind only Frank Kaminsky (732), while his 231 made free throws established a new program record.

That breakout season helped him become the No. 53 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, where the Utah Jazz selected Tonje in the second round.

His rookie season was spent primarily in the G League before Utah traded him to the Boston Celtics. Tonje later appeared in six NBA games for the Celtics, averaging 2.5 points in seven minutes per contest, while continuing to show his scoring ability at the developmental level.

Across his G League appearances, Tonje averaged 18.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He also delivered a 42-point performance for Maine that offered a reminder of the microwave scoring ability Wisconsin fans watched throughout his lone season in Madison.

Tonje entered Summer League without a guaranteed contract waiting for him. He responded by averaging 14.8 points over five games while shooting 45.2% from three-point range and showing growth defensively.

Boston Summer League coach Amile Jefferson publicly praised Tonje’s development and said he believed the former Badger was an NBA player.

“He’s one of the guys I’m most proud of because he wants to make it,” Jefferson said. “And when a guy wants to make it, and when a guy wants to be in the NBA, that’s how you look. If somebody wants to know how hard it is to be in the NBA — you can all see how good he is. He’s given himself a really good chance. He is definitely an NBA player.”

That performance ultimately helped Tonje earn his next opportunity, even if it came somewhere other than Boston.

“Everyone wanted to see the defense from John, and I think he showed that at a super high level,” Jefferson said. “I am proud of the effort he’s given. He is a high-level shot-maker at all three levels. He can get to the rim, he can shoot the mid-range, and he can catch and shoot the three and off the dribble.

“You just want to see, for his position, can you guard the ball? Can you pressure the ball? Can you be in your shifts? Can you be where you need to be? And I think he showed that he can do that at a high level.”

A two-way deal does not guarantee Tonje a permanent NBA role. Tonje will still need to prove himself with Portland and the Rip City Remix while competing for minutes on a young and developing roster.

But Tonje has spent most of his basketball career proving that the first evaluation does not have to be the final one.

Wisconsin gave him the platform to change the trajectory of his career. Since exhausting his eligibility, Tonje has continued to do what made his season with the Badgers so memorable: staying ready, scoring when called upon, and making it difficult for NBA teams to overlook him.

We appreciate you taking the time to read our work at BadgerNotes.com. Your support means the world to us and has helped us become a leading independent source for Wisconsin Badgers coverage.

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The offseason is often when some of the most interesting questions about the Wisconsin men’s basketball program come into focus.

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Wisconsin has a new athletic director in Shawn Eichorst, raising an obvious question: Is that a good thing or a bad thing for head coach Greg Gard? The Badgers once again attacked the transfer portal aggressively to reshape the roster this offseason, but someone will need to emerge and fill the scoring void. Who might that be? And despite no longer being on staff, Kirk Penney’s fingerprints remain all over the program’s recruiting efforts.

Let’s dive in.

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The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program didn’t enter the offseason looking for another point guard to carry the offense.

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The Badgers had already invested heavily in building around one of the Big Ten’s most talented frontcourts. What Greg Gard needed was a point guard capable of organizing the offense, leading a new-look roster and helping change the identity of a defense that struggled to get consistent stops a season ago.

That's why, when Australian guard Owen Foxwell became available after LSU's coaching change, Wisconsin quickly renewed its pursuit. Existing relationships, particularly with forward Austin Rapp, along with the involvement of New Zealand basketball legend Kirk Penney, helped the Badgers land one of their most important offseason additions.

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Everyone remembers how much fun Wisconsin’s offense was last season. It was one of the most dynamic groups Greg Gard has ever coached.

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The Badgers averaged 83.0 points per game, finished 10th nationally in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, and attempted a program-record 32.3 three-pointers per game, the seventh-highest mark in the country. It was one of Wisconsin’s most efficient scoring attacks in years.

San Diego State transfer Nick Boyd blossomed into an All-Big Ten guard. John Blackwell gave Wisconsin another dynamic scoring option on the wing and earned All-Big Ten Honorable Mention. The duo formed one of the best backcourts nationally, and opposing defenses rarely got a break.

But as the season wore on, the trade-off became harder to ignore. The Badgers could score with almost anybody, but they could not consistently string together enough stops on defense to reach their ceiling.

Wisconsin allowed 76.1 points per game, finished 56th nationally in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency, and graded out in just the 45th percentile in CBB Analytics defensive rating. Opponents shot 44.6% from the field, 33.4% from three, and the Badgers rarely generated turnovers or protected the rim at a level capable of offsetting those deficiencies.

Ultimately, that imbalance helped define the season.

Even during a 24-11 campaign that produced a fifth-place finish in the Big Ten and a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament, Wisconsin’s inability to string together consistent defensive stops kept the Badgers from reaching their ceiling. Those imperfections were on full display when 12-seed High Point scored 83 points in an opening-round NCAA Tournament upset.

Gard has spent very little time pretending that wasn’t a problem.

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Former Wisconsin men’s basketball guard Braeden Carrington is officially seeking another season of college eligibility.

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According to a report from On3, Carrington has joined a lawsuit seeking an injunction that would allow him to play during the 2026-27 season despite exhausting his eligibility under the NCAA’s previous rules.

Carrington is among a growing group of athletes challenging the NCAA after its recent adoption of the “five-for-five” eligibility model, which allows student-athletes five years to compete in five seasons.

Players from the 2022 recruiting class, however, were not grandfathered into the new system, leaving many — including Carrington — ineligible for another season despite the rule change. The lawsuit represents another attempt to secure additional eligibility through the courts after a separate group of athletes received a preliminary injunction earlier this offseason.

The possibility of a return to Madison for the Brooklyn Park (Minn.) native had already become a topic of conversation.

Carrington was present during Wisconsin’s summer practice open to the media, participating in drills with the team while not wearing a practice jersey. At the time, head coach Greg Gard acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the situation.

“We’re evaluating with the injunction just how that all impacts and who’s going to be attached to that,” Gard said. “Does the injunction stay? Does the NCAA push back on it immediately, or do they wait? I think there’s some unanswered questions there.

“That thing is changing by the hour. I don’t know what his intentions are, if he’s gonna get involved in that. He’s kind of taken a wait-and-see approach, as we all are. I think we’ll know more by the end of the month.”

Those intentions now appear much clearer.

Wisconsin currently has 14 of its 15 roster spots accounted for entering the 2026-27 season, leaving flexibility should Carrington ultimately receive another year of eligibility. Gard said the Badgers remain open to adding one more player. However, Gard indicated that the coaching staff has primarily been evaluating frontcourt options overseas while continuing to monitor developments in the various eligibility lawsuits.

If Carrington is ultimately granted another season and returns to Wisconsin, he’d immediately become one of the most experienced players on the Badgers’ roster.

The former Minnesota and Tulsa guard enjoyed the best season of his collegiate career after transferring to Wisconsin, averaging 8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists while emerging as one of the Big Ten’s most dangerous perimeter shooters off the bench. Carrington connected on 40.1% of his three-point attempts and averaged 2.1 made three-pointers per game, providing a consistent scoring spark as the Badgers’ sixth man.

The 6-foot-5 guard’s signature performance came late in the regular season when he erupted for a program-record nine made three-pointers and 32 points against Washington. The scoring outburst marked the most points by a Wisconsin reserve since Rob Wilson scored 30 against Nebraska in 2012 during the Big Ten Tournament and showcased the type of instant offense that made Carrington such a valuable bench piece.

Whether Carrington ultimately returns to Wisconsin will depend on the outcome of the ongoing litigation and how Gard and his staff ultimately decide to use their final roster spot. After adding Trey Autry in the portal, retaining Jack Janicki, Zach Kinziger and Hayden Jones, and welcoming freshmen Jackson Ball and LaTrevion Fenderson, the Badgers have considerably more depth on the perimeter than they do in the frontcourt.

For now, the lawsuit offers the possibility of a reunion, while providing another reminder that the ever-changing landscape of college athletics continues to reshape roster management well beyond the transfer portal.

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The dust has finally settled on another busy offseason for the Wisconsin men’s basketball program.

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The transfer portal has closed. The roster is largely in place. Summer workouts are underway. And after months spent debating who Wisconsin would lose, who it would keep, and who the Badgers would land, the conversation can finally shift toward something much more interesting: what this team actually looks like once the ball gets tipped.

There are still plenty of questions. Replacing nearly 40 points per game from Nick Boyd and John Blackwell won’t be easy. Wisconsin also returns just 29.5% of its scoring from last season, good for 11th in the Big Ten.

But after taking a step back and letting the roster marinate for a bit, I keep coming back to three themes. Some I feel better about than others. And together, they’ll probably go a long way toward determining just how high this team’s ceiling and floor ultimately is during the 2026-27 season.

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The Wisconsin men’s basketball program has landed the final piece of its 2027 recruiting class. Months of relationship-building and persistence ultimately paid off in securing a player the Badgers coveted.

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Four-star wing Baboucarr Ann out of Osseo (Minn.) announced his verbal commitment to Greg Gard and Wisconsin.

Ann’s pledge gives the Badgers their highest-rated high school commitment of the Gard era and, based on the composite, would rank among the top four high school signees in program history since the advent of the online recruiting rankings.

“Belief. Trust. Development. Family. That’s why I’m a Badger 🦡❤️,” Ann wrote.

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The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program added another name to its growing list of 2028 scholarship offers.

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Following an unofficial visit to Madison, Greg Gard and the Badgers extended a scholarship offer to four-star Illinois wing Cole Kelly, one of the top 100-ranked prospects in the 2028 recruiting class.

“After a great conversation with Coach Gard and staff, I am excited and grateful to receive an offer from the University of Wisconsin!” Kelly wrote.

For Wisconsin, the visit was as much about getting to know Kelly off the court as it was evaluating one of the Midwest’s premier young prospects. Regarded as the No. 2 player in Illinois, the Neuqua Valley standout has quickly established himself as one of the top wings in the 2028 cycle.

Listed at 6-foot-7, Kelly checks nearly every box Wisconsin looks for in a modern perimeter player.

He possesses the size to guard multiple positions, the vision and IQ to facilitate offense as a point-forward, and the skill set to score at all three levels. Whether creating off the bounce, knocking down perimeter shots, or finishing at the rim, Kelly’s versatility consistently stands out on film.

The production only reinforces that evaluation.

After averaging 19 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists per game as a freshman, Kelly followed up with an outstanding sophomore campaign in which he earned First Team All-State honors and became an Illinois Mr. Basketball finalist. Kelly has carried that momentum onto the adidas 3SSB circuit, where he continues producing against older competition.

Wisconsin is far from the only program involved.

Kelly already holds scholarship offers from Illinois, Purdue, Iowa, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Creighton, DePaul, Drake, Saint Louis, and several others, making this one of the more competitive recruitments the Badgers have entered in the 2028 class.

The offer also continues Wisconsin’s work in shaping its 2028 recruiting board. After a busy summer of player evaluations, Kelly joins Minnesota guard Kevin “KJ” Wilson, in-state forward Joey Kohnen, and Arizona wing Terrance Byrd as prospects the Badgers have identified as priorities to continue building relationships with moving forward.

With the anticipated shift to a 5-year age-based eligibility model looming and the uncertainty surrounding international recruiting, Wisconsin seems to be placing renewed importance on identifying high school talent early in the process.

There is still a long road ahead before decisions are made, but Wisconsin wasted little time making its intentions clear. After getting Kelly on campus, the Badgers saw enough to make the left-handed wing an offer and jump into the mix with a host of Big Ten and high-major programs.

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It didn’t take long for the Wisconsin men’s basketball staff to hand out a scholarship offer following its annual advanced camp.

After getting an up-close look at one of the top up-and-coming guards in Minnesota’s 2028 class, Greg Gard and the Badgers extended a scholarship offer to Kevin “KJ” Wilson, a polished scorer who has quickly emerged as one of the more intriguing backcourt recruits in the region.

“After a great conversation with Greg Gard and the Wisconsin coaching staff, I am blessed to receive a Division I offer from Wisconsin” Wilson wrote.

The offer is significant for several reasons.

For starters, it marks Wilson’s first reported Big Ten scholarship offer and provides another example of Wisconsin’s coaching staff identifying young talent early in the recruiting process. As it stands, Arizona State is the only other known Division I program to offer Wilson at this stage.

Wisconsin’s advanced camp has a track record of producing scholarship offers, with players such as Jalen Brown, Jack Kohnen, Deuce McDuffie, Donovan Davis, LaTrevion Fenderson, Daniel Freitag, and Chucky Hepburn all earning offers after impressing the coaching staff in a similar setting.

Not to mention, Wisconsin has aggressively recruited Minnesota for decades, and with the neighboring state serving as a consistent pipeline of talent, Wilson appears to be the next name worth keeping tabs on.

The Tartan High School standout out of the St. Paul area has emerged as one of the top prospects in Minnesota’s 2028 class while starring for D1 Minnesota on the adidas AAU circuit. Depending on the recruiting service, Wilson is viewed as either the No. 1 or No. 2 player in the state.

It’s not difficult to understand the appeal.

Listed at 6-foot-1, Wilson is a skilled combo guard capable of playing on or off the ball. He can create his own offense, operate in pick-and-roll situations, knock down perimeter shots, and make plays for teammates. On film, you can point to his pace, feel for the game, and overall polish as qualities that separate him from many high school players his age.

The production reflects that.

Wilson reached 1,000 career points before the end of his sophomore season and has helped Tartan establish itself as one of Minnesota’s premier high school programs. On the AAU circuit, he has continued to produce against strong competition, while showcasing his ability as both a scorer and facilitator. While the recruiting process remains in its early stages, Wisconsin clearly saw enough during camp to move forward.

The Badgers have already secured commitments from Jalen Brown and Jack Thelen in their 2027 recruiting class and are beginning to identify future targets in the 2028 cycle. Along with Wilson, Wisconsin has also extended early offers to in-state standout Joey Kohnen of Slinger and Arizona wing Terrance Byrd as the staff builds out its recruiting board.

The recruiting process remains in its infancy, but Wisconsin clearly liked what it saw. By the end of camp, the Badgers had seen enough to make Wilson one of their earliest backcourt priorities in the 2028 class.

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The Wisconsin men’s basketball program has its second commitment in the 2027 recruiting class.

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And this one came together quickly.

Maple Grove (Minn.) center Jack Thelen announced his verbal commitment to Greg Gard and the Badgers, giving Wisconsin another intriguing developmental piece and pairing him with four-star in-state guard Jalen Brown as the foundation of the program’s 2027 class.

“1000% Committed!!” Thelen wrote.

For Wisconsin, the commitment represents a bet on Thelen’s size and untapped potential. Back in May, Thelen was on campus for an unofficial visit. Shortly thereafter, Gard and his staff extended a scholarship offer, and it didn’t take long for the Minnesota big man to decide that Madison was where he wanted to continue his playing career after high school.

Players with his combination of height, coordination, and overall skill set don’t grow on trees. Listed at roughly 7-foot-1 and 235 pounds, Thelen possesses the type of physical tools that are difficult to teach and even harder to find, making him an intriguing wait-and-see piece for the future.

That’s a large part of what made him such an attractive target.

Thelen’s recruitment gained momentum over the past year as college programs began seeing more than just a towering frame. Wisconsin’s staff evaluated a prospect who had become increasingly comfortable moving in space, protecting the rim, rebounding, and making plays as a passer.

The appeal is rooted in what Thelen could become over time.

During his junior season at Maple Grove High School, Thelen averaged 13.5 points and nine rebounds per game while helping lead one of Minnesota’s better programs. While those numbers are solid, they only scratch the surface of what evaluators seem to like about his game.

For a player his size, Thelen displays a good feel for the game.

He runs the floor decently well for his size, shows touch around the basket, rebounds at a high level, and has developed into a capable passer out of the low post. There is still room to add strength, improve the footwork, and continue refining his game, but the combination of size and skill gives him a ceiling that the Badgers staff wants to take a chance on.

Wisconsin wasn’t alone in recognizing that potential.

Before committing to the Badgers, Thelen held scholarship offers from Miami (OH), Murray State, and Montana. More importantly, Wisconsin made it clear that he fit the type of frontcourt player the coaching staff wanted to invest in and continue developing within its program.

In an era when big men command a premium in the transfer portal, identifying, developing, and retaining players remains the most sustainable roster-building strategy available to programs like Wisconsin.

There is another connection worth noting.

Thelen attends Maple Grove High School and plays AAU basketball alongside fellow Wisconsin target Baboucarr Ann, one of the top remaining prospects on the Badgers’ 2027 board. Landing Thelen won’t automatically influence that recruitment, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have an established relationship already inside the class.

The connection runs even deeper, as Wisconsin assistant Brad Davison is a Maple Grove alumnus who has been actively recruiting his former high school.

Wisconsin’s staff also has a compelling track record when it comes to developing players from Minnesota. From Jon Leuer and Mike Bruesewitz to more recent standouts such as Tyler Wahl, Steven Crowl, and Nolan Winter, the Badgers have repeatedly identified, developed, and maximized talent from the neighboring state. When the Badgers staff sits down with prospects like Thelen, there are plenty of examples they can point to when discussing what growth within the program can look like.

Together with Brown, Thelen gives Wisconsin a strong starting point in the 2027 cycle. Brown brings athleticism, shot creation, and versatility to the backcourt. Thelen provides size, likely some rim protection, rebounding, and the long-term potential to develop into the type of back-to-the-basket presence that has traditionally thrived in the Big Ten.

Thelen may not be a finished product today, but that’s not what Wisconsin is buying into. The Badgers are betting that with time, added strength, and continued growth, they may have found another frontcourt piece capable of carving out a meaningful role after paying his dues.

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The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program has landed its first commitment in the 2027 recruiting class.

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And it didn’t have to go very far to find him.

Four-star guard Jalen Brown, one of the top players in the state of Wisconsin and a longtime priority target for Greg Gard and his staff, announced his commitment to the Badgers following a visit to Madison.

“Ain’t nothing like a hometown hero, right?” Brown wrote.

The timing is notable.

With roster construction in today’s college basketball landscape increasingly centered around the transfer portal, high school recruiting no longer carries quite the same weight that it once did. But Wisconsin has remained committed to building much of its program the traditional way, identifying core pieces early, developing them internally over time, and supplementing the roster through the portal when necessary.

Brown fits that vision perfectly.

The Wauwatosa West standout is a player Wisconsin has tracked for years. After offering him following an advanced camp performance in the summer of 2025, the Badgers never really backed off. Multiple visits followed, relationships with Gard and Sharif Chambliss continued to strengthen, and coming out of another portal cycle, the Badgers made it clear Brown remained one of their top priorities in the 2027 class.

Now they have him.

At 6-foot-4 and roughly 180 pounds, Brown brings the type of size, athleticism, and versatility that has become increasingly valuable in modern basketball. He can handle the ball, create offense for teammates, score at all three levels, and defend multiple positions.

The production speaks for itself.

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With the Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s offseason calendar starting to hit a bit of a dead period after roster movement, portal decisions, and retention battles dominated the conversation for the past few months, the focus now shifts toward a much more interesting question: what exactly is this team capable of becoming once summer workouts officially begin?

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So for this mailbag, we’re digging into questions surrounding Wisconsin’s roster construction, long-term ceiling, and the balancing act Greg Gard’s program is trying to navigate in the modern NIL era. We’ll talk about which returning players feel primed to take meaningful jumps, whether the Badgers’ Moneyball approach is truly sustainable long term after losing John Blackwell, and how confident I actually am that this roster is capable of getting back to the NCAA Tournament again next season.

Let’s dive in.

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There’s a tendency this time of year across college basketball to reduce roster construction down to a spreadsheet. How much money did you spend? Who did you land? Who did you lose? Did you “win” the portal?

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But listening to general manager Marc VandeWettering talk about the Wisconsin men’s basketball program’s offseason recently during an appearance on Butchie’s Den, it became pretty clear that the Badgers are trying to build something a little more layered than that in Madison.

Not necessarily flashy. Not always headline-driven. But intentional.

“This time of year, through April and May, is a lot of roster construction,” VandeWettering said. “That’s retention, that’s transfer portal, that’s international, and even high school. All can happen within that window there. It’s getting a lot of contracts negotiated. It’s talking to a lot of the agents, visits, Zooms, all the different things are happening at once.

“It’s really just orchestrating behind the scenes and making sure that the coaches can coach, so that I can handle everything else for them.”

And the reality is, Wisconsin’s offseason really did begin with retention.

The Badgers made keeping frontcourt pieces Nolan Winter and Austin Rapp a priority, understanding just how expensive experienced frontcourt players had become in the portal market. From there, the next tier of continuity mattered too, with players like Jack Janicki, Hayden Jones, Zach Kinziger, and Will Garlock all returning to a locker room that now has enough holdover pieces to teach the culture to the next wave coming in.

That matters more than people think.

“Knowing the capital you have to invest in the team as a whole is key to figuring out the strategy of how you want to disperse it,” VandeWettering said. “There are a lot of different ways to go about this.

“Last year, we went heavy on making sure we had two really good guards, and that worked really well for us. Going into this year, we could see where the transfer market was heading and knew frontcourt pieces in the portal were going to cost a lot. So retaining our frontcourt guys — and retaining them early — became a priority, and we made sure to make that happen.”

Even though college basketball continues to drift toward annual free agency, Wisconsin still, in many ways, resembles what the sport used to look like. There are layers to the roster. Different tiers of expectation. Proven veterans. Developmental pieces. Players expected to help immediately. Others expected to grow into something more over time.

The incoming group reflects that balance.

Portal additions like Eian Elmer, Trey Autry, and Victory Onuetu address immediate needs in the rotation, while the addition of 22-year-old guard Owen Foxwell brings another older, experienced piece to the roster despite not technically arriving through the transfer portal after playing professionally overseas. Meanwhile, incoming freshmen like Jackson Ball, LaTrevion Fenderson, Josh Manchester, and Australian forward Isaac Riddle give the roster some developmental runway moving forward.

And if a few of those younger pieces push beyond the tier they’re currently projected into, the overall floor of this team starts to rise pretty quickly.

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The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program has officially made its second known scholarship offer in the 2028 recruiting cycle.

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That offer went out to fast-rising Arizona wing Terrance Byrd, who announced the opportunity from Wisconsin shortly after a strong showing on the AAU circuit with Factory AZ at the New Balance P32 event.

Head coach Greg Gard was in attendance at the tournament, evaluating him firsthand. Byrd remains unranked nationally for now, but Wisconsin became the first high-major program to jump in with an offer, joining the Badgers’ first 2028 scholarship offer to in-state prospect, Joey Kohnen.

And the early evaluation makes sense when you turn on the film.

At 6-foot-7, Byrd fits the mold of the modern multi-positional wing that continues to become more valuable across college basketball. He’s long, skilled with the ball in his hands, and plays with the kind of pace and feel that allows him to impact the game in several different ways offensively.

But what stands out most is how comfortable Byrd looks operating as a playmaker at his size. Whether it’s working out of pick-and-roll situations, attacking defenders downhill, making drive-and-kick reads, or creating offense in the midrange, Byrd already flashes a polished offensive skill set for a player entering only his sophomore year of high school basketball. There’s a natural rhythm to the way he plays that jumps off the screen.

And the production backs up the intrigue.

During the 2024-25 season at Highland Prep in Arizona, Byrd averaged 16.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game while also contributing defensively with 1.2 steals and 1.7 blocks per contest, according to MaxPreps.

The statistical profile reflects what the film suggests — a versatile player capable of impacting multiple areas of the game without needing everything built entirely around him. That versatility and skill set are part of why Byrd has started generating more national attention from coaches this summer.

Scouts evaluating the 2028 class have increasingly pointed toward Byrd as one of the more underrated players in the country, particularly because of the combination of size, passing ability, defensive instincts, and shot-creation upside he brings as a big wing. He’s also a multi-sport athlete with a football background, something that often shows up physically in the way Byrd absorbs contact and plays through traffic.

Defensively, there’s upside there too.

Byrd has the length and timing to create disruption around the rim while also moving fluidly enough to project across multiple positions defensively as he continues maturing physically. With a reported wingspan approaching 6-foot-11, the tools are difficult to ignore.

For Wisconsin, the offer also reflects the continued evolution of what the Badgers are prioritizing on the recruiting trail under Gard. The game continues trending toward bigger, more skilled perimeter players capable of handling, passing, and defending multiple positions. And early on in the 2028 cycle, Byrd appears to check quite a few of those major boxes.

At the same time, high school recruiting and the spring and summer evaluation periods no longer carry quite the same weight they once did in an era dominated by the transfer portal and roster turnover.

But Wisconsin still wants to resemble something close to a traditional program by building much of its core and culture internally, which makes identifying the right high school prospects early in the process all the more important — even if the process itself looks very different now.

“Hopefully, we’ll get more stability with multi-year contracts, but right now, we’re evaluating one year at a time,” Gard said at Big Ten Media Days. “How do you build your team? It’s typically from the top down.

“You have to know who your real horses are going to be and where your needs are, then build from there. If you get too young, you’re going to find yourself at the bottom of the ladder looking up really fast.”

This staff has increasingly shifted toward building rosters from the top down, investing heavily in players they believe can immediately impact winning at the highest level. That said, Wisconsin also isn’t afraid to invest in younger prospects they believe can eventually grow into that mold.

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For a lot of Wisconsin men’s basketball fans, Sam Dekker will always be remembered as the hometown hero who helped carry the Badgers to back-to-back Final Fours and a national championship appearance.

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Now, more than a decade after arriving in Madison as one of the most decorated recruits in state history, Dekker is returning to the college basketball scene not as a player using a final year of unused eligibility, but as an assistant coach in the SEC under Lamont Paris at South Carolina.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of Gamecock Basketball. I’m so grateful to Coach Paris for trusting me with this role, and I take it very seriously,” Dekker said. “The decision to transition from player to coach is not one I took lightly, but joining Coach Paris and this program was a dream opportunity. I am thrilled to return to the college game and compete at such a high level in the SEC. My 11 years as a pro have provided so many experiences with amazing players, coaches, and styles.

“Some of my best memories as a player were competing in two Final Fours with Coach Paris, and I look forward to doing that with him again. My goal is to win in March and give our players the best opportunity for success on and off the court.”

In a lot of ways, the move feels fitting.

Paris was a longtime assistant coach on Bo Ryan’s staff during Dekker’s entire career at Wisconsin, helping recruit and develop the former five-star prospect from Sheboygan Lutheran High School into one of the faces of one of the greatest stretches in modern program history.

And few players embodied Wisconsin basketball quite like Dekker did during that era.

Across three seasons from 2012-15, Dekker appeared in 113 games with 81 starts for the Badgers while scoring 1,363 career points, which still ranks 15th in program history. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 12.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for his career while steadily developing into one of the Big Ten’s most dangerous and versatile forwards.

By his junior season, Dekker, who earned Second-Team All-Big Ten honors after averaging 13.9 points and 5.5 rebounds, had become one of the driving forces behind Wisconsin’s run to the 2015 national championship game alongside National Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky and a supporting cast that included Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig, Josh Gasser, Duje Dukan, Traevon Jackson, and Zak Showalter, among others.

That NCAA Tournament performance remains part of Badgers lore.

Dekker averaged 19.2 points per game during Wisconsin’s Final Four run, including a memorable 27-point performance against Arizona in the Elite Eight featuring the now-iconic dagger three-pointer. He earned West Region Most Outstanding Player honors during that tournament run. He finished his college basketball career as a two-time second-team All-Big Ten selection after also making the conference’s All-Freshman Team.

From there, basketball took him all over the world.

Dekker left school with one year of eligibility remaining, opting to enter the 2015 NBA Draft when his stock was arguably at its highest point following Wisconsin’s run to the national championship game against Duke. He was selected 18th overall by the Houston Rockets and spent parts of five seasons in the NBA with the Rockets, Clippers, Cavaliers, Wizards, and Raptors. Injuries prevented him from ever fully settling into a long-term NBA role, but his professional career hardly stopped there.

Overseas, Dekker carved out a highly successful second chapter.

He became one of the more accomplished American-born forwards playing internationally, earning All-EuroCup honors while helping lead the London Lions to multiple championships and individual MVP awards across Europe and the British Basketball League.

Now, the next chapter begins on the sideline.

Paris pointed directly to Dekker’s winning background, professional experience, and ability to help develop players as reasons for the hire.

And from Dekker’s perspective, returning to the college game alongside someone he already won with at the highest level made the transition feel natural. He’s also stepping into a program led by Paris, who earned SEC Coach of the Year honors in 2024 after leading one of the conference’s biggest turnarounds. However, South Carolina has struggled to maintain that momentum over the past two seasons and is looking to right the ship.

Dekker will also have the chance to coach former Wisconsin forward Aleksas Bieliauskas, who signed with South Carolina this offseason.

“Development of each player’s individual abilities is as important now as it has ever been in college basketball,” Paris said. “Sam’s unique experiences and skill set will allow him to have a tremendous impact on our players and program immediately. He is a winner through and through, and I am thrilled to add him to our staff as an assistant coach.”

For Wisconsin fans, though, it’s another reminder of just how special that era of Badgers basketball truly was — and how many of the figures from those teams continue finding success both on and off the court.

Dekker has spoken about feeling like he stepped away from the game before the game left him, and now he’ll be positioned to make a major impact in a college basketball landscape where leadership, experience, and the ability to connect with players may matter more than ever.

We appreciate you taking the time to read our work at BadgerNotes.com. Your support means the world to us and has helped us become a leading independent source for Wisconsin Badgers coverage.

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With the Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s roster now largely in place, the offseason conversation shifts from who’s coming in to what this group can actually become once they begin preparation for next season.

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So, I’ve got a new set of mailbag questions to dig into, and this one leans into how the Badgers roster is built heading into the 2026–27 season.

We’ll get into whether or not the Badgers have enough top-end talent to compete at the top of the Big Ten, how important Owen Foxwell is to making this whole thing work, and where the biggest remaining need sits with one roster spot still open. We’ll also touch on the bigger-picture question of how Wisconsin is navigating the current NIL landscape.

Let’s dive in.

Q: Now that Wisconsin’s roster is mostly in place, what’s your biggest question mark or concern about how this team is built heading into 2026-27?

-Dave in Janesville

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There’s a business side to roster building in college athletics now, and for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program, much of what shapes a team happens behind the scenes long before the games begin.

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Retaining players. Managing revenue share. Structuring NIL deals. Navigating agents. Evaluating transfer portal fits. Allocating resources. Determining which players are worth building around and which additions actually complement the roster enough to help impact the bottom line.

That’s all part of the job now.

And as Wisconsin’s staff retooled its roster for the upcoming 2026-27 season, Greg Gard made it clear there has been far more involved in the Badgers process than simply evaluating film and recruiting talent.

The modern portal landscape has often felt like “amateur hour” behind the scenes, with inconsistent rules, varying levels of agent experience, and constant conversations centered around contract structure, revenue sharing, third-party NIL, and payment schedules. Gard acknowledged there are still very few true guardrails in place nationally, which has forced programs like Wisconsin to spend just as much time navigating the business and educational side of roster building as the basketball side.

“There are agents who are really good, who understand this space, are fair and very professional in how they operate,” Gard said on Butchie’s Den. “And then there’s the other side — what I refer to as amateur hour.

“People have jumped into this, and there are no guardrails. We really have no rules in place, and anyone can be involved, so you get a wide variety of experiences. Some just don’t understand how the college NIL landscape works and needs to work in terms of how you can legally pay an athlete.”

That reality is part of why Wisconsin expanded its staff last offseason to more closely resemble a professional front-office model, leaning heavily on general manager Marc VandeWettering throughout the process.

“That’s where Mark has really stepped in, and honestly, it’s been built on the fly,” Gard said while praising VandeWettering’s ability to navigate and communicate through the constantly changing realities of the modern college basketball landscape. “You hate to build an airplane as it’s running down the runway, but that’s kind of what we’ve been doing. He’s done a phenomenal job. I don’t get around the other sports much, but if he’s not the best GM and understanding of it on our campus, I don’t know who is.

“He’s really, really sharp in terms of understanding this new world.”

Wisconsin entered the offseason understanding the challenge ahead.

Yes, the Badgers increased their overall NIL resources from a season ago. But so did much of the conference around them. And while Wisconsin believes it can compete financially, the reality is the program still operates with a budget that sits somewhere in the bottom third of the Big Ten.

That reality has forced Wisconsin to become extremely disciplined in how it approaches roster construction.

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For as much roster turnover as Greg Gard and the Wisconsin men’s basketball program faced this offseason, the staff never viewed the situation they were building for 2026-27 as starting from scratch.

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Not after retaining Nolan Winter and Austin Rapp. And not after watching how heavily those two factored into Wisconsin’s portal recruiting efforts.

As the Badgers worked through another offseason shaped by roster movement, NIL realities, and the transfer portal, Gard’s staff prioritized building around a returning frontcourt that they believed could anchor the next version of Wisconsin basketball. The result was a portal class centered around experience, shooting, athleticism, and defensive upside.

Now that much of the offseason dust has settled, Gard believes Wisconsin has assembled a roster that fits what the staff envisioned, and that optimism begins with the players the Badgers managed to keep.

Winter and Rapp returning gave the Badgers both continuity and flexibility as they reconstructed the roster around them after losing their entire starting backcourt. Leading scorer Nick Boyd exhausted his eligibility, while John Blackwell ultimately transferred to Duke after entering both the NBA Draft and portal process to gauge his value on the open market.

But internally, Wisconsin believed it still had something worth selling.

Gard and Joe Krabbenhoft have noted that multiple portal additions specifically asked about Winter and Rapp during the recruiting process because they wanted to play alongside them. The hope is that they can form one of the best shooting frontcourts in the country, which reflects how much value skilled big men now carry in modern roster construction.

And Wisconsin built outward from there.

That process has become far more complicated in today’s college basketball landscape, where a program’s roster construction is just as much about allocation strategy as it is talent evaluation. Wisconsin’s staff has openly acknowledged that building a complete team now requires balancing experience, retention, portal additions, and overall roster depth without tying too much of the budget into one or two players.

“You can’t allocate too large a percentage to one individual or even two individuals,” Gard said on Butchie’s Den. “Because then what you have left to build a team around them becomes very minimal. I think the simplest way to look at this is to view it as a triangle. So we’re building from the top down.

“We’re not building from the bottom up. We want to make sure our primary players — our studs, so to speak — are focused on first, and then you build from your best players down. As you retain players and get a good idea of who’s coming back, then you start building around them.

“Do you want to have a really highly paid player or two and have average pieces around them, or do you want to build the best team possible? Quite frankly, my job is to win games. How do you win games? You get the best team possible on the court. And how that comes together changes from year to year.”

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The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program’s decision-makers knew that replacing Nick Boyd wouldn’t be simple.

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Not because the Badgers needed another all-Big Ten caliber volume scorer running the show. And not because they were trying to find somebody who played exactly like him. What Wisconsin’s staff needed was someone capable of organizing an offense, handling pressure, and bringing experience to a roster undergoing significant changes.

That’s why the addition of Owen Foxwell quickly became one of the most important moves of Wisconsin’s offseason.

“With the retention pieces, we had a pretty good idea what was going to be in place,” head coach Greg Gard said. “We were able to get involved with Owen Foxwell. Really — we didn’t think we had a chance. He was committed to LSU, but then that kind of unraveled there with the coaching change, and we were able to really get in the game quickly.

“That was a major centerpiece, to be able to have a point guard of that experience, of that talent. That maturity at 22 years old, and where he’s played and who he’s played against. That was a big piece for us. I don’t know if we could have found a better point guard than what didn’t have NBA written on them in the States.”

That last part says a lot.

When you evaluate what Wisconsin has tried to do this offseason, the emphasis has clearly been on finding experienced players who fit a very specific brand of basketball. Foxwell checks a lot of those boxes.

The 6-foot-2 guard is set to join the program after spending five seasons playing professionally in Australia’s NBL for the South East Melbourne Phoenix in one of the more physical and respected international leagues.

Last season, Foxwell averaged 11.1 points, 4.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 41.1% from the field, 35.2% from beyond the arc, and 80% at the free-throw line. He also posted a strong 125-to-43 assist-to-turnover ratio. Over the course of his professional career, he’s consistently hovered around 36% from three-point range.

But part of what makes that progression notable is that it didn’t happen overnight. Foxwell had to gradually earn a larger role over time, finding ways to impact games defensively and play within structure before growing into a full-time starting point guard at the professional level.

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At a certain point in the offseason, it’s not about who you can add — it’s about whether what you’ve built makes sense. For the Wisconsin men’s basketball program, this offseason has revealed a very intentional vision.

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And if you listen closely to how the staff talks about it, the approach wasn’t reactionary. It was planned well before the portal ever opened.

Wisconsin was slower to land a portal commitment than most power-conference programs this offseason. Still, part of that came from understanding how quickly the market escalated and staying disciplined enough to trust its evaluation process rather than chasing everyone else.

“Obviously, to get the guys back — starting with the incoming freshmen, Jackson Ball and LaTrevion Fenderson — those are tremendous additions we were able to make over a year ago through evaluations and connections,” assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft said on Butchie’s Den.

“As the retention process started, those talks began before the season even started last year — with our staff, with our GM Mark [VandeWettering], with their representation, and even their families. We haven’t forgotten about the human element of all of this.

“That’s the difference between what we experienced as professional players and this landscape now, which is kind of a hybrid of both. Specifically at Wisconsin, we haven’t forgotten about the human element.”

That part matters more than it used to.

In an era where roster building is constant and decisions are often driven by short-term opportunity, Wisconsin has tried to strike a balance between the business side of the sport and the relationships that still define it. And nowhere was that more evident than with Nolan Winter.

“The big one, obviously, was Nolan Winter,” Krabbenhoft said of retaining Winter this offseason. “That goes back six, seven, eight years ago, when we first saw him… he’s been a huge piece of this program — a pillar — and is going to continue to improve and have a tremendous senior year.

“We wouldn’t be able to get Nolan Winter — his production, stability, the kind of person he is — out of the portal. So for him to want to be here and make that clear played such an instrumental part in other guys returning.”

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