Wisconsin men's basketball offers fast-rising 2028 wing Terrance Byrd
Wisconsin offered 2028 wing Terrance Byrd at the New Balance P32 event as the Arizona prospect continues gaining national attention.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program has officially made its second known scholarship offer in the 2028 recruiting cycle.
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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