Austin Rapp announces return to Wisconsin men’s basketball
Austin Rapp is officially returning to Wisconsin, giving the Badgers a key frontcourt piece to build around heading into the offseason.
The Wisconsin men’s basketball program has its first retention win of the offseason.
Austin Rapp announced his plan to “Run it back ❤️” on social media, signaling he’s put pen to paper on a new deal for the 2026–27 season and will have two years of eligibility remaining.
That matters more than it might seem on the surface.
In a stretch where roster turnover has become the norm and frontcourt pieces like Aleksas Bieliauskas and Riccardo Greppi have already entered the transfer portal, getting Rapp back gives Greg Gard and his coaching staff something to build around instead of starting from scratch.
And when you zoom out, this isn’t just about continuity. It’s about betting on a player who already showed you what the ceiling can look like.
Rapp’s first season in Madison didn’t follow a straight line. It rarely does for transfers making the jump into the Big Ten, especially when you’re a 6-foot-10 forward expected to space the floor and hold your own physically.
He came in with real expectations after a freshman year at Portland, where Rapp averaged 13.8 points and 6.5 rebounds, won WCC Freshman of the Year, and established himself as one of the more unique shooting bigs in the country. Wisconsin saw that skill set and envisioned a frontcourt piece that could stretch defenses and open everything else up.
Early on, though, the adjustment was challenging.
The physicality, the speed, the nightly grind of playing the Big Ten exposed some things. His role shifted. The production dipped at times. Rapp battled through a lower-body injury and a lingering illness, which disrupted any chance to find a rhythm. There was a point where Rapp wasn’t just struggling — he was trying to find his place entirely.
Then something clicked.
Down the stretch, Rapp started to look like the player Wisconsin thought it was getting. The shot came back, and when it did, it came in bunches. He hit five threes against Ohio State in a first-half scoring burst. He gave them 18 off the bench in a road upset at Illinois. He followed it with efficient shooting nights against Iowa and Purdue. And in the Big Ten Tournament, Rapp caught fire against Michigan, knocking down six straight triples in a second-half surge in the semifinal that flipped the game.
That version of Rapp changes things.
For the season, the Australian big man averaged 9.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.6 assists while shooting 36.3% from beyond the arc. Among players 6-foot-10 or taller, he ranked near the top nationally in made threes per game (1.9). And when Rapp scored in double figures, Wisconsin was 12-2.
That’s not a coincidence. That’s impact.
According to Barttorvik, Rapp finished with a 2.6 PRPG, which ranked fourth on the team behind only Nick Boyd, John Blackwell, and Nolan Winter, while posting a 120.1 offensive rating.
Now, heading into Rapp’s junior season, the conversation shifts. This isn’t about whether or not he can adjust. He’s already done that. It’s about what happens when a player with that kind of shooting ability, at that size, pairs it with a full offseason in the program and a clearer role. And just as importantly, it’s about the way he got there. Rapp didn’t pout when his role changed. He took the hard coaching, continued to develop his game as the season wore on, and showed real growth on both ends of the floor.
“The jump Austin’s made? Tremendous,” Gard said after the loss to Michigan. “It’s not just the 3-point shooting. Everybody gets caught up in that, but it’s the other parts of his game that have grown — the defensive awareness, the embracing of physicality, the importance of rebounding. All the things that have nothing to do with shooting have improved, which have helped make him a better shooter and a more confident player.
“His growth has been terrific, and that’s a credit to him to stay true to it. He started early in the year, and he wasn’t ready for that. I thought we needed to make a change. He’s taken that and used it to his advantage, grown his game, and improved immensely as a player.”
With plenty of pieces to replace and a frontcourt still taking shape, Rapp becomes the first real building block. There’s plenty of optimism internally that Winter and Will Garlock will also be back. However, even with that, Wisconsin still needs to add depth and experience to the rotation, whether that comes from the transfer portal or overseas. Not just a returning player, but someone who can step in and play real minutes.
And if the second half of last season was any indication, Wisconsin may be getting back a player whose best basketball is still in front of him.
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