Welcome to my team preview series for 2024-25. Each day between now and the start of the college basketball season, I will preview one team or conference, both on Instagram (@collegehoopsoutlet) and through an article here. The preview will go in-depth on the roster build of the team, my expectations for their upcoming season, and the state of the program under their current head coach.
Wisconsin (Projected: 17th in Big Ten)
It was another disappointing early exit for Greg Gard’s Wisconsin Badgers this March, upset in the first round by James Madison. The Badgers lost three starters from last year’s team this offseason, and did less than I expected them to in the transfer portal. There’s no proven dominant force on this Badgers team like last year (AJ Storr) and for that reason I’m worried about the Badgers competing in the stacked Big Ten this season.
The two Badger starters that return are guard Max Klesmit (10 ppg) and forward Steven Crowl (11 ppg, 7 rpg). Klesmit is a microwave scorer, exploding for 20+ three times this past season. With Storr gone, he’ll likely become the #1 offensive option, and it’s a wait-and-see to see if he’s ready to fill that role on a nightly basis. Crowl has spent the past three seasons as a contributor in the Badgers frontcourt and will now have it to himself with Tyler Wahl graduated. Klesmit and Wahl both have played well as secondary guys, but it will be intriguing to see how they play as the main options.
John Blackwell (8 ppg) is the only other returner who played meaningful minutes in the rotation. Blackwell came off the bench in the backcourt last season as a freshman and should now be placed into the starting lineup. The rest of the returners are Nolan Winter (2 ppg), Kamari McGee (2 ppg), Carter Gilmore (2 ppg), Markus Ilver (1 ppg), Chris Hodges (1 rpg), and Jack Janicki (Redshirt). All of the players listed should see at least a slight increase in minutes, with just a handful of changes to the roster.
Just four players left the Badgers basketball program this offseason, but three of them played big minutes last season. Leading scorer AJ Storr (17 ppg, 4 rpg) transferred to Kansas, point guard Chucky Hepburn (9 ppg, 4 apg) transferred to Louisville, and senior forward Tyler Wahl (11 ppg, 5 rpg) graduated. The fourth departure was Connor Essegian (3 ppg) who played limited minutes in 2024-25, but had averaged 12 ppg in his freshman campaign in 2023-24.
The transfer portal was lightly used by Greg Gard, finding three players from the mid-major level. Camden Hunter (17 ppg, 5 rpg, 4 apg at Central Arkansas in 21-22) seems to be the big fish for the Badgers, a do-it-all offensive point guard. The biggest worry with Hunter is injury concern, as he last played for UCA in 2021-22. If Hunter fails to stay healthy, it could become a very long season for the Badgers. Xavier Amos (14 ppg, 6 rpg at NIU) transfers in from Northern Illinois hoping to replace the void left by Tyler Wahl inside. Amos had quite a few big games for the Huskies this past season, including a 26-point outing vs Northwestern. The translation from the small mid-major level to the Big Ten will be a big but necessary one for Hunter and Amos if the Badgers hope to compete in the Big Ten.
The third and final transfer is John Tonje (15 ppg, 5 rpg at Colorado State in 22-23). Tonje, like Camren Hunter, has struggled with injuries, playing just eight games this past season at Missouri after transferring there from Colorado State. When you lose quite a few key contributors and replace them with injury-laden transfers, the expectations even at a program like Wisconsin have to drop quite a bit.
The Badgers brought in three freshman this offseason alongside their transfers. Forward Andrija Vukovic (Serbia) is a bit of a wild card, but is a guy that could be called upon to play big minutes in the frontcourt if he can make the transition to life in America easily enough. Two traditional high school recruits join Vukovic, guards Daniel Freitag (4*, NAT 117) and Jack Robison (3*, NAT 159). The health of Hunter and Tonje will likely decide just how much we see of Freitag and Robison in their first season at UW.
The talent level of this Badgers team is a lot lower than I would’ve imagined. Although it’s a Wisconsin tradition to play well above these levels, with how stacked the Big Ten is this year, I’m not confident in what the Badgers will achieve. It feels wrong to project a Badger team in the lower half of the Big Ten, but I think some Badger fans wouldn’t mind if Greg Gard felt some pressure this year and the following year.
There’s no clear leader on this team headed into the season, and I’m not exactly sure who it will be because it could be any of the top six or seven guys. The X-factors for me are Camren Hunter and Max Klesmit. Hunter will have to make the jump to the Big Ten after two years of not playing and the question of if he can do that or not needs to be answered on the court. Klesmit showed he could be the #1 option in some games this season when Storr wasn’t at his best, but I’m unsure of how he’ll fare with the opposing gameplan centered around stopping him.
In an absolutely loaded Big Ten, I see a down year coming for the Badgers. Outside of their fast start and impressive showing in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Tournament, the Badgers struggled in conference play this seasons including a 3-8 stretch from February 1st to March 10th. I’ve got the Badgers finishing 17th out of 18 teams in the conference, but as I’ve mentioned before all of the teams from 8th to 18th are narrowly separated in my eyes.