How Wisconsin men’s basketball built its own guardrails in the NIL era
Wisconsin basketball has adapted to the NIL era by building structure, trusting in Greg Gard’s vision, and developing its own process to compete.
A year ago, the cracks in the Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s roster stability were on full display. AJ Storr left for a bigger NIL payday. Chucky Hepburn, a multi-year starting point guard, followed the same path. The Badgers weren’t just losing core players. They were getting an unfiltered view of how ruthless the college basketball marketplace had become.
Greg Gard wasn’t blind to it. He acknowledged then that the game had changed and that NIL, tampering, and pay-for-play systems were now the reality, and Wisconsin’s coaching staff had no choice but to adapt.
“I wouldn’t say anybody is not following the rules,” Gard told reporters last Spring. “There are so many avenues to this that people on the outside don’t even understand. It’s really driven by the market of the players. Yeah, there are programs that maybe color outside the lines. At the end of the day, it’s about the money and where the money goes. When it gets to a point where there are astronomical amounts of money involved, I don’t blame the players for making sure they are in a position where they can financially really take care of themselves and their families.
“Anybody that’s in any type of job and offered an opportunity in a one-year window to double or triple your current salary, you’d likely do it in a heartbeat.”
That was the backdrop. Wisconsin wasn’t alone in scrambling to adjust. But for a program built on stability, development, and culture, it was a shock to the system nonetheless. Fast-forward to now, and Gard’s tone sounds less frustrated, more resolute. That’s because the Badgers have built something that looks like a process in a sport where no rules exist.
Building Wisconsin’s Guardrails
When Gard was asked after practice about the program’s NIL situation, he didn’t dance around how Wisconsin has been able to stay afloat.
“A lot of what goes into it is a lot of generosity from a lot of people that really care about this place that are deeply tied to us,” Gard said. “It’s a relationship and ability to really communicate with people how important that is. It’s continued to grow. It’s grown immensely. I think the biggest question is where it goes from here now that revenue sharing is in play, and what is the landscape in addition to revenue sharing? That’s the next phase that we’ve got to get figured out, and I think everybody across the country is trying to figure that out, but we’ve had great support.”
That’s Gard in a nutshell: grateful, but realistic. He knows Wisconsin doesn’t have the reckless financial backers or blue-blood bankrolls that power the top handful of college basketball programs. But instead of making excuses for what they’re not, Gard and his staff built a structure.
They created a general manager role for Marc VandeWettering, developed recruiting and scouting roles tailored to the transfer portal, and identified price points for projected roles before players even hit the market. If someone left, they weren’t scrambling. They already had a short list of potential fits, with scouting reports and NIL projections attached. That’s not how Wisconsin used to operate. That’s how you have to operate now.
“He has worked tirelessly to make us better every day and has helped us navigate this new era of college basketball very successfully,” Gard said of VandeWettering. “Marc has been a central figure in our evolution as a program and has been handling many of the personnel tasks for the last couple of years. I’m excited to have Marc elevated into this administrative role and know that he will help drive our sustained success.”
Gard was careful to remind everyone that while NIL is transactional in nature, Wisconsin still leans into relationships.
“It’s been a lot of time with our staff, whether it’s meeting with people, doing events with people, connecting. We’ve tried to be very intentional about reaching out and spending time with people and making sure they understand how important this is to our program to sustain the success we’ve had,” Gard said. “But also how much we appreciate their commitment because they want to see us continue to be really good.”
That intentionality matters. It’s what’s allowed Wisconsin to not only raise valuable NIL dollars but keep core players like Max Klesmit, Steven Crowl, John Blackwell, and Nolan Winter over the years. It’s also what gave them the ability to move decisively in the transfer portal, adding plug-and-play pieces that fit their system without overextending in bidding wars.
This offseason, the heavy lifting got done early compared to years past. Wisconsin moved quickly to land its top transfer targets, starting with San Diego State point guard Nick Boyd, an experienced floor general who’s played in big moments and brings stability to the backcourt. The staff then brought Andrew Rohde back home from Virginia, a versatile guard-wing hybrid whose playmaking and feel make him a perfect connecting piece in Gard’s system. They added Austin Rapp from Portland, one of the top 3-point shooting bigs on the market, before rounding out the team’s roster later in the process with veteran bench pieces Braeden Carrington and Elijah Gray, both capable of filling or competing for depth roles.
That level of organization and planning gave Wisconsin the bandwidth to focus on basketball again, not just roster turnover.
The secret sauce here isn’t just NIL dollars, it’s the system. Wisconsin has implemented an offensive identity under Gard and Kirk Penney that is highly appealing to both transfers and international players. Spacing, tempo, freedom. For recruits, it’s proof that Wisconsin basketball can be modern, efficient, and player-friendly. That’s leverage money can’t buy.
The results speak for themselves. In back-to-back seasons, the Wisconsin Badgers have finished inside the top 20 nationally in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, after finishing 140th in 2022-23. That’s proof that the blueprint works. The style of offense they’ve built under Gard and Penney mirrors the kind of basketball many European players grow up playing: spacing, ball movement, pace, 3-point shooting, and fluid decision-making. And in an era that’ll be defined by roster turnover and constant change, having a system that matters as much, or more, than the transfer faces within it is what keeps a program steady.
It has helped turn Wisconsin into a recognizable brand internationally, one that’s becoming an increasingly attractive option for European players looking to play college basketball. Between the NIL opportunities, high-level competition, and facilities, Wisconsin now offers a professionalized environment that feels familiar to how many international prospects are developed overseas. What once felt like a transactional process built on resources alone has evolved into something more intentional: a system rooted in team-first basketball that, in many ways, sells itself.
“If there’s an agent involved with the European player, which there is a lot of times. It’s very professional,” Penney told Badgernotes. “They’re used to having players that are older. Here’s my player, here’s the team, there is a conversation, here’s a contract. Let’s go. It is quite transactional.”
While Wisconsin’s ideal roster-construction model will always be to recruit and develop its own talent over time, the staff has always understood the value of getting old and staying old. The portal now allows them to do exactly that, identifying specific skill sets to complement the roster: a shooter here, a ball handler there, a floor-spacing big man when needed. The system itself provides continuity, even when the faces change. And with the international market becoming more of a factor, Wisconsin can maintain that experience edge, often landing players who arrive older and more physically developed than traditional freshmen who are products of advanced training and professional-style development overseas.
“Those that we’ve talked to internationally, they do their homework,” Gard explained. “They do their research. Wisconsin basketball is not a secret in Europe. They come in pretty much with their eyes wide open, understanding what this place is about, and then it’s really in the hands of our older players. They’re the gatekeepers, so to speak, that are able to hand down information, pass on experiences, and get guys up to speed.”
Gard and his staff know exactly what they’re up against. They understand the work required to stay competitive, but they’re not naïve about the realities. Wisconsin can build systems, raise more NIL support than ever, and operate with the precision of any Big Ten program, but there will always be schools with deeper pockets and flashier sales pitches. That’s awareness. And because of that awareness, the Badgers have adapted.
They’ve doubled down on in-state recruiting, betting on players with a higher likelihood of staying and growing within the program. They’ve become more selective and efficient in the transfer portal, targeting veterans to fill immediate needs while continuing to mine the international market for players who arrive older, more polished, and better aligned with Wisconsin’s developmental model. It’s a pragmatic approach built for the long game, and one that prioritizes sustainability over splashes.
The Bottom Line
A year ago, Wisconsin men’s basketball appeared to be a program on its heels if it didn’t adapt quickly. The departures of Hepburn and Storr forced the Badgers’ key decision makers to confront what NIL and the modern transfer landscape had become. Instead of folding, they adapted.
On a budget, Wisconsin rebuilt around fit and function. They landed John Tonje, who went on to become an All-American and the catalyst for one of the most dynamic offenses in the country. They filled roles with intention, played to their strengths, and finished with 27 wins and a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament last season. It wasn’t luck, it was structure.
That process is a reflection of Gard’s growth as much as it is the program’s. He’s evolved from the coach who once felt the need to control every possession into one who trusts his staff, his offensive system, and his players to go out and execute it. He’s learned when to delegate, when to adapt, and when to simply get out of the way. That awareness of who he is, who Wisconsin is, and how to blend both, is the very thing keeping the program steady in college basketball’s most chaotic era.
“I watch a lot of film,” Gard said. “Not just us. I’ll go through us after the season and then maybe revisit it again in the fall. I look at what we were good at, where is the game transcending, to how does this year’s team fit into what we want to do, because every team is different. The rolodex of information is constantly growing. The basic concept stays the same, but we just add branches to the tree as the team evolves. I want to see what these guys are good at. This group so far has been really good at just organically playing. I think that’s part experience in the system now, part experience of our players that we’ve brought in, and then obviously some of the development that’s taken place. So, it’s a combination. ”
That’s a far cry from the coach Gard admits that he once was, who needed to script every play, call every set, and hold the reins tight.
“I don’t have to call a lot or script a lot with this group,” Gard said. “They understand how to play. As a head coach, maybe seven, eight, nine years ago, you felt you had to have a lot of plays. And I still do, but you learn that helping players learn how to play, and letting them play, is more important than how many plays you have. I’ve been accused of having more plays than the Packers. But at the same time, you find that balance.
“I’ve had teams where you really had to script it because they couldn’t swim on their own quite as gracefully. This group can go on their own.”
That’s a coach who’s grown into himself, no longer operating in Bo Ryan’s shadow, but confidently leading his own era of Wisconsin basketball.
Gard made it clear that it’s about relationships, intentionality, and gratitude. But it’s also about structure and trust. Wisconsin has quietly built its own version of guardrails in a sport that refuses to create them.
The arms race isn’t going anywhere. But right now, Wisconsin basketball is running its own race and proving it can win in a sustainable way.
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.
You can also follow Site Publisher Dillon Graff at @DillonGraff on X.
How to remain completive v blue blood big $$ 101. Establish a value based culture, live it, value it and continue to DEVELOP it. Well Done...Always On Wisconsin.
Excellent discussion of the behind-the-scenes skills needed to find the on-court skills to compete at a high level annually.