Wisconsin Badgers forward Aleksas Bieliauskas entering the transfer portal
Aleksas Bieliauskas is entering the transfer portal after one season at Wisconsin, leaving the Badgers with another frontcourt spot to fill.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program lost another starter to the transfer portal.
This time, it’s forward Aleksas Bieliauskas, who is expected to move on after spending one season in Madison, leaving Greg Gard and his staff with another frontcourt piece to replace as they reshape the roster.
Bieliauskas’ departure doesn’t come as a major surprise, but it does come with real substance. The 6-foot-10 Lithuanian was asked to grow up quickly in his first season of college basketball, appearing in all 35 games and earning 28 starts as a true freshman. He averaged 4.9 points and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 43.1% from the field and 34.6% from beyond the arc, including a strong stretch of 37% 3-point shooting in Big Ten play.
That matters in this system.
Wisconsin has leaned into spacing more than ever, and Bieliauskas showed flashes of being able to function within that structure. He wasn’t a high-usage player, but he understood where to be, how to keep the ball moving, and when to take what the defense gave him.
There were moments where it clicked, including a career-high 17-point outing in a road win over Michigan and a 16-point outburst against Purdue on the road that showed what it could look like when everything came together.
But zoom out, and this becomes less about what he was and more about what the path forward looked like.
At 20 years old, Bieliauskas arrived from Lithuania with professional experience under his belt. However, he was still early in his development relative to some of the other international additions that Wisconsin targeted. He was learning on the fly, adjusting to the physicality and pace of the college game while carving out a role that, at times, felt more complementary in nature than foundational to the Badgers’ success.
But that progression was evident to the coaching staff.
“I can’t be more proud of him, of how he’s just stayed the course,” Gard said of Bieliauskas. “He’s tough, he wants to get better. He’s just thirsting for knowledge and instruction. I’m just so happy for him. In a short period of time, he’s progressed and really immersed himself in the team.”
And heading into next season, the picture in the frontcourt was starting to get crowded.
If Wisconsin is able to retain its top priorities, Nolan Winter projects as a centerpiece for the Badgers. Austin Rapp, who settled in and improved drastically as the season went on, gives them another floor-spacing option in the frontcourt. Add in a year of growth from a younger piece like Will Garlock and any potential additions from the transfer portal, and you start to see where an expanded role could become harder to come by.
That’s the reality of it.
For Bieliauskas, the question likely became whether there was a clear path to a larger role, or whether his development might be better served in a different situation. In today’s landscape, those kinds of decisions happen quickly, and they don’t always come with a long runway.
For Wisconsin, it’s another reminder of how fluid roster construction has become. The Badgers are now looking at a group that has already seen multiple departures, including starters like Bieliauskas and star guard John Blackwell, with more work to be done as the transfer portal cycle unfolds.
What they’ve shown, though, is a willingness to adapt, whether that’s leaning into the international market, targeting experienced players, or reshaping the frontcourt to better align with how they want to play.
That said, Bieliauskas’ exit fits into that larger picture.
He gave Wisconsin meaningful minutes as a freshman (20.1 per game), handled a role that expanded as the season went on, and showed enough to suggest there’s more in his game to unlock. But this is a transactional sport now, and he came in and did what this staff needed from him in his one year, which is about all you can realistically ask.
When you’re operating with a limited pool of resources, you have to make decisions on where your priorities lie. Wisconsin has already seen Jack Robison and Riccardo Greppi enter the portal this offseason, and with a roster being retooled in real time, not every piece is guaranteed to carry over. And now, both sides will move forward in search of the right fit.
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