Wisconsin Badgers Basketball Season Review

Today’s post is one that I didn’t think I would be writing for a few weeks, recapping the Wisconsin Badgers basketball season. This was a season that had some great highs and awful lows. I will break down how the team did overall, what next season could look like, and where we go from here. 

Season Lows

Beginning of the season struggles:

Let’s start out with some of the bad parts of the season. The Badgers started the season out well, but got derailed quickly with losses to BYU, TCU, Nebraska, and Villanova within the span of a month. BYU and Nebraska were blowouts, losing by a combined total of 58 and giving up 90+ points in each one. In both losses we shot under 38% from the field and under 25% from three. Shooting from the charity stripe wasn’t great either, but was especially awful against BYU where they shot 65.4%. The two stars, Nick Boyd and John Blackwell, also weren’t able to get going with Boyd only topping 20 points against Nebraska. The other losses provided much less to be hopeful over, with the Badgers not even topping 70 points in either game. While they did rebound from these losses, getting into an early season hole wasn’t great. 

Issues in conference play:

Wisconsin lost six games during conference play, five of them coming after the new year. Some losses were manageable, like losing to Purdue at home and Ohio State away. While you never want to be dropping these games, Purdue was a great team and Ohio State was starting to peak at this time. The other three losses were more inexplicable. Losses to Oregon and Indiana were on the road, but shot under 40% from the field and under 34% from three in both games. Something that plagued the team in both games was the fact that only 2-3 players score in double figures in each of the games. There was little help from anyone outside of Nick Boyd, John Blackwell, and Nolan Winter with the most points coming from this group being 8. While rebounding and turnovers weren’t an issue in these games, a lack of production from role players killed the Badgers in these losses.

High Point Loss:

This might be the worst loss I have seen the Badgers take in a long time. Losing at Oregon was awful, past post season losses have been rough, but this was our year to make a run to the Sweet Sixteen. The issues that plagued the Badgers in the conference losses crept back up in this game too. Boyd and Blackwell balled out, scoring 27 and 22 respectively along with 5 and 10 rebounds. Austin Rapp had a great game as well, scoring 12 points and grabbing 4 rebounds. The next highest scorer was Nolan Winter with 8 in very limited minutes as he was coming back from injury. We scored the ball well, shooting 47.7% from the field, 39.1% from three, and went 11-12 from the free throw line. The issue with this game was the fact that we got outrebounded by a smaller team, allowed 5 players to score in double figures, and let them make 15 threes. Chase Johnston, the High Point three point sharpshooter, went 4-6 from three including one from essentially half court while also making his first 2-point shot of the season which turned out to be the game winner. In my opinion, the Badgers didn’t win this game because we took our foot off the gas when we had a lead and allowed the Panthers to get right back into the game. This is similar to what happened against Washington in the Big Ten Tournament, although we still managed to win that game. This was a game that could and should have been won by Wisconsin, but awful game management cost us a win. This is a loss that is going to stick in Badger fan’s minds for a very long time, most importantly highlighting the inability to win when it matters in the tournament. 

Season Highs

Massive wins:

Wisconsin rattled off four top 15 wins this season, three coming on the road against Michigan, Illinois, and Purdue, and one at home against Michigan State. In these games, Wisconsin scored 372 points, with Nick Boyd and John Blackwell scoring 198 of those points or 53% of the total points. These wins set the tone for the rest of the year, showing the Badgers could be a contender in the Big Ten and potentially nationally. These games were some of the highest highs that Badger fans have had the last few years. We have seen amazing games from John Tonje and AJ Storr, with big wins coming from them, but nothing like the ones we had this year. I personally had so much fun watching this group of guys play basketball this year and won’t forget the season or the feeling any time soon.

Continued dominance over Minnesota:

Wisconsin has beaten Minnesota 11 straight times and have only lost to the Gophers four times since 2010. The two games this year required a comeback, being down at halftime in each game, including an 18 point deficit in the second game. Blackwell and Boyd played fantastic in both games scoring 77 combined points throughout the games, continuing their tear through the conference. The best moment of the games came when John Blackwell nailed a three point buzzer beater in Minneapolis to take down Minnesota in their first year. I will never get sick of beating Minnesota and everyone knows we need it after losing two years in a row in football. 

Scoring team:

This was Wisconsin’s best scoring team since the 1961-1962 season where they scored 84.7 points per game. John Blackwell and Nolan Winter had amazing seasons, averaging 19.1 and 13.1 ppg along with 5.1 and 8.5 rpg respectively. Nick Boyd absolutely balled out in his only season with the Badgers, averaging 20.7 ppg, moving into 5th all time in points per game and the first player since 1994-1995 Michael Finley to average over 20 points per game. A phrase everyone liked to throw around was that this wasn’t your father’s Wisconsin basketball team. These boys could fly around the court, score the ball at will, and make sure teams couldn’t outscore them. This was a fun team to watch with trends pointing towards Wisconsin continuing to score the ball well next year. 

Roster Outlook

Seniors:

Wisconsin will be losing four Seniors in Braeden Carrington, Nick Boyd, Andrew Rhode, and Isaac Gard. The biggest loss from this group is obviously Nick Boyd. While we all knew he was only going to be with the team for one year, his court presence and scoring ability made a huge difference each game. Andrew Rhode wasn’t known for his scoring, but he could pass the ball around the court and was a fantastic distributor when we needed it. Braeden Carrington did not always have the best games, but when he was on he was lethal. He could shoot lights out from three and as the season went on, started scoring down low and from the mid-range a bit more. Isaac Gard rarely played, but when he got in the stadium erupted. The highlight of his Wisconsin career came on senior night against Maryland where he hesitated from three before draining the shot flat footed. These seniors, no matter how long they were with the program, left their mark for the better on the team. 

Juniors:

Wisconsin has two key juniors they are going to be looking to retain in John Blackwell and Nolan Winter. John Blackwell tested the NBA waters but decided to come back to Madison for another year. He will likely do the same thing this season, test the NBA waters before making a decision on coming back to college. The fear with him is whether he is going to transfer or not. Michigan State and Illinois are allegedly teams that would be interested if he becomes available. This reminds me too much of Chucky Hepburn from two years ago. Blackwell has been a key Badger since he arrived on campus, losing him to another college team would feel like another betrayal for a big paycheck. Retaining Nolan Winter is going to be key as well. He might test the NBA waters but not sure if he will get the response he is hoping for quite yet. I see him staying in college and would honestly be shocked if he left the Badgers. 

Sophomores:

Retaining the sophomore class is going to be very important as we have some great players. We have already received verbal commits from Austin Rapp and Jack Janicki, two guys that have made a huge difference during their time at Wisconsin. Jack Robison is another piece that will be key to keeping on the team. He didn’t get many minutes but played well when he was able to get into the games. The final sophomore is Ricardo Greppi. Greppi is a guy who has not gotten much playing time during his two years at Wisconsin but he certainly seems like a vibes guy that I hope we can keep.

Freshman:

Outside of the junior class, the freshmen are going to be the most important to keep around. The most important two players to keep around are going to be Aleksas Bieliauskas and Will Garlock. Bieliauskas was a starter this season and made a big impact down the stretch with his offensive skills and interior presence. Will Garlock was a good substitute for Bieliauskas and I think is only going to get better with the offseason. Keeping these two players will set the Badgers up well for a conference that is starting to rely on bigs more and more. Hayden Jones and Zach Kinziger and in the next tier of players I think we need to keep. Hayden Jones got some minutes with the Janicki injury and showed the potential he has. Kinziger mainly got garbage time minutes but still showed some potential. Keeping our freshman is going to be very important this offseason. 

Roster predictions:

I believe we are going to do well with player retention, but not perfect. I am going to group the players below based on who I think we can confidently retain, might be able to keep, and are more than likely losing. I want it to be known that I would love to keep everyone and run it back with our core group of guys and look to add through the transfer portal.

Confidently retaining:

• Jack Janicki

• Austin Rapp

• Hayden Jones

• Nolan Winter

• Aleksas Bieliauskas 

• Will Garlock

Might be able to keep:

• Zach Kinziger

• Jack Robison

• Ricardo Greppi

Likely losing:

• John Blackwell

Projected starting lineup:

• PG: Transfer player

• SG: Transfer player

• SF: Austin Rapp

• PF: Nolan Winter

• C: Aleksas Bieliauskas 

Projected bench depth:

• Jack Janicki

• Hayden Jones

• Will Garlock

• Transfer

• Zach Kinziger

• Jack Robison

• Ricardo Greppi

2026-2027 Lookahead Items

While nothing has been announced for the 2026-2027 season, there are a few things we can look forward to:

Scoring:

I believe that we can expect a continued level of high scoring games like we have seen the last few seasons. The coaching staff has done a great job of improving our scoring ability and developing player makers.

Wisconsin Badger Brand Focus:

A key piece to Wisconsin Badger athletics has always been the focus on the Badger brand. We have seen this with a lot of our teams, with few exceptions. The Badger brand is known for being gritty and tough, never getting the most outstanding recruits but always getting the players who fit the Wisconsin mold and can benefit the community and their teams. When looking at the Wisconsin basketball coaching staff, they truly embody what it means to be a Badger. There is only one coach, Lance Randall, who hasn’t had either decades of experience with Wisconsin or played for Badgers. This is a staff who can develop all players into the brand of Badgers we need to succeed, leading us into the future.

Continued Improvement:

The last few years have seen consistent improvements in scoring and playing ability. There is nothing for me to believe that this is going to be changing come the 2026-27 basketball season. Greg Gard has consistently retooled the roster into Big Ten contenders and this is not going to stop. While we may not be getting the results we hoped for, we are never going to stop improving the quality of Wisconsin basketball.

Final Thoughts

While the end of this season was not what we Badger fans hoped for, we can’t lie to ourselves and say we didn’t have fun watching our guys play. We had yet another amazing transfer in Nick Boyd, proving that if you want to become a college basketball star, you come to Wisconsin. I have no doubt that this coaching staff is going to retool and upgrade our roster yet again. Have faith fellow Badger fans, we are going to come back and be better than ever.

On, Wisconsin

Forever Forward