A few months have passed since the Wisconsin basketball and college basketball season ended. The transfer portal took over headlines for a stretch of time. Players left for NIL deals to other universities. Wisconsin basketball was fortunate last season to keep their core while adding AJ Storr. However, this year, they were not so lucky.
The Badgers lost Storr to Kansas and point guard Chucky Hepburn to Louisville. Greg Gard was able to replace those players in Cameron Hunter, Xavier Amos, and John Tonje, all from the portal. This year’s team will look a lot different, but there are reasons to be optimistic.
Wisconsin Basketball is Getting Three Productive Players Who Will Start
I mentioned earlier this off-season and I’ll say it again: Greg Gard did not bring in three transfer players to sit the bench. He also did not do that with AJ Storr. Hunter, Amos, and Tonje should and likely will all start at least to start the season.
Hunter did not play last season, but averaged 17 points a game with Central Arkansas in 2022-2023, He is a good floor general as well. I am not saying Hunter will be better than Hepburn, but I think Wisconsin basketball will be in good hands with Hunter, who still has two year of eligibility left.
I am excited to see what Xavier Amos brings this year. He had a solid year at Northern Illinois last year averaging just under 14 points a game as well as almost 50% shooting from the field. This also includes almost 39% from three. Amos also scored 26 points at Northwestern, a place where it is hard to score.
Tonje was limited to eight games at Missouri last year because of injury, but he did score almost 15 points a game two years ago in his last season at Colorado State. He is also a 39% three point shooter.
A Large Chuck of Last Year’s Core is Still Around
It is not going to be easy to replace Storr, Hepburn, and Tyler Wahl. However, Wisconsin basketball does return Max Klesmit, Steven Crowl, John Blackwell, and Nolan Winter. Add in Kamari McGee and you have five players you can add in your rotation. With the three transfers, it’s a pretty decent eight man rotation.
Wisconsin basketball could add another player at some point, but either Markus Ilver or Carter Gilmore will see limited action as well. It’s going to take some time to get use to seeing some new faces, but Gard and his staff did a good job replacing those players that departed.
Young Players Poised to Break Out
John Blackwell and Nolan Winter are poised to make second year jumps. Very few saw Blackwell step in right away and average eight points a game while shooting 45% from three. Blackwell has all Big-Ten written over all over him this season. We did not see many freshman errors from the freshman guard too. He can be a special player.
If Winter takes the step we expect him to make, he is a match-up nightmare because of his ability to stretch out big men and shoot the ball behind the three. He had his moments as a freshman, but I think he takes a second year leap for Wisconsin basketball as well.
It’s tough to see what role Daniel Freitag plays as a freshman, but we do know he will play and have his moments as well. Freitag has the skill and ability to break out right away as a freshman.
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