Former Wisconsin Badgers guard Connor Essegian has finally made a decision in where to play next season for college basketball. Essegian on Sunday decided to committee and play for a Wisconsin BIG10 rival for next season and that is the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
This decision came as a massive surprise to a lot of people. One of the reasons why it came as a surprise he chose Nebraska is because he is from Fort Wayne, Indiana. A lot of people thought he was going to go home and play for the Indiana Hoosiers because that is a team that he grew up rooting for, but there was probably no room for him on the roster in Bloomington, Indiana.
As a sophomore a season ago with the Wisconsin Badgers, he averaged 3.2 PPG, 0.8 RPG, and 0.2 APG. One of the main reasons why Essegian transferred from Wisconsin to Nebraska is because of how his minutes dropped during his sophomore season while playing for head coach Greg Gard.
As a freshman in 35 games played, he averaged 27.4 minutes per game, but then as a sophomore in 33 games played, his minutes dropped to only 7.3 minutes per game.
Connor Essegian Going From the Wisconsin Badgers to the Nebraska Cornhuskers Will Bode Well For His NCAA Tournament Hopes In 2024-2025
Nebraska made it to the NCAA Tournament a season ago under head coach Fred Hoiberg and the Cornhuskers have a better chance as of today to get back there next season than Wisconsin does. The Badgers have lost a lot of key players in the transfer portal. Wisconsin has yet to replace any of them and it will be interesting to see how the Wisconsin Badgers respond in losing Chucky Hepburn, Connor Essegian, and A.J. Storr.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers are not a prestigious college basketball program by any means. This is just how far the Wisconsin Badgers basketball program has fallen. Good for Essegian that he is going to get more play time next season with the Cornhuskers. As for the Badgers, they need to take a look in the mirror and see what is happening in a hurry. A lot of people are blaming it on the current NIL situation, but some are blaming it on head coach Greg Gard as to why players are leaving.
What Wisconsin may be relying on for their NCAA Tournament hopes next season is a four-star incoming freshman Daniel Freitag, who was not ranked in the ESPN Top 100 recruiting for the class of 2024. That is a lot to ask for an incoming freshman for this basketball program.
