Wisconsin Badgers: The Future Could Not Be More Bright

The Wisconsin Badgers lost a heartbreaker to Florida Friday, and with that loss went four great seniors. However, the future could not be more bright.

Next season will be the first time since Mike Bruesewitz and Ryan Evans were on the court, that a roster for the Wisconsin Badgers would not feature Bronson Koenig, nor Nigel Hayes. Next year’s team also won’t feature Vitto Brown or Zak Showalter.

The Badgers will look much different next year, but the future is as bright as ever. Ethan Happ will be the centerpiece for sure, and reserves D’Mitrik Trice, Brevin Pritzl, Jordan Hill, Charlie Thomas, and Khalil Iverson all return.

Wisconsin also pulled a pretty nice recruiting class. Guards Kobe King and Brad Davison are both 4-star recruits, and big man recruit Nate Reuvers is also an ESPN 4 star recruit. King is a La Crosse, Wisconsin product, while the other two are both from Minnesota.

It will sure be interesting to see how Coach Gard utilizes these guys to go along with the returning roster. Historically, Wisconsin is not a program that throws freshmen into the fire right away, but these three might all need to play a lot early on.

King and Davison should have as good a shot as anyone to start next to Trice. The returning depth is there at guard, but Pritzl, Hill, and Iverson all need to progress this offseason.

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Pritzl looked excellent in games down the stretch, but he also barely played or didn’t play at all in some. Jordan Hill too had some good games but often didn’t see consistent minutes.

Khalil Iverson has to potential to be a stud for Wisconsin. At 6’5 Gard used him all over the court. He’s a good defender and rebounder.

He’s also one of, if not the most athletic player on this team, but he doesn’t have a jumper just yet. When Khalil he gets a jumper watch out.

With Hayes and Brown graduating, the forward position is also wide open. Ethan Happ is going to be one of the big men, but after him it’s open.

Reuvers, the soon-to-be Freshman, can stretch the floor and hit some threes. Having him as a shooter could help space the floor for Happ and the offense. Charlie Thomas was buried on the depth chart and didn’t see a whole lot of time, but he’s a bruiser at 6’8 250 pounds.

Alex Illikainen and the Belgian Andy Van Vliet are also returning next year, but both were buried about as deep as Charlie Thomas was. However, all three of these guys are currently underclassmen, so they have ample time to improve.

Visualizing a lineup for next season is difficult. All the returning players need to work hard this summer and improve. The Wisconsin Badgers also needs to decide whether to play big or small next year.

Coach Gard can and will play around with the lineups in the preseason and summer. It does seem like next year’s roster is better suited to play smaller.

This year the Wisconsin Badgers often played big with Happ, Hayes, and Brown, but they don’t have that personnel next year. Brown and Hayes were exceptional big men that could shoot it from deep, and go inside.

Trice and Happ are the two shoe-ins, and after that, it’s a toss up. A Trice, King/Davison, Iverson, Reuvers, Happ lineup would be excellent. Reuvers can stretch the floor, and Happ could continue to dominate inside.

If Gard finds that to be too young or small of a lineup, he has other combinations he can play around with in the lineup. There are a ton of different things he can do with his personnel.

Even though the sting of the Florida game is still there, Badger fans should be looking forward to next year. Gard has a roster of really good players who are only going to get better in the coming years.

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