Former Badgers Star John Blackwell Makes Final Decision About His Senior Season

Former Wisconsin star John Blackwell has finally made a decision about his senior season of college basketball.

The ex-Badger, who developed into a national star as junior in Madison, will officially withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to the college ranks, where he'll play for Duke, NBA Insider Chris Haynes first reported Friday afternoon.

John Blackwell - one of top collegiate guards in country - is withdrawing from 2026 NBA Draft to finalize transfer to Duke for senior year, sources tell me. He averaged 19.1 points for Wisconsin last season. Repped by Todd Ramasar and Alexis Liatsos of Life Sports Agency. pic.twitter.com/KfyzYaFdA4
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) May 22, 2026

Blackwell went through the NBA Draft process for the second consecutive offseason. Coming off a sophomore campaign in which he averaged 15.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists, the guard tested the NBA waters but made it clear that he would return to the Badgers if he didn't receive an evaluation he liked.

As a sophomore, Blackwell was clearly a blossoming star, but he also clearly wasn't an NBA prospect quite yet. And given his declaration that he'd return to Wisconsin if he wasn't ready for the NBA, it was pretty clear that he would be a Badger as a junior.

His junior campaign was a different story. The guard exploded onto the national scene, averaging 19.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists. His game took steps in several areas; he got to the free-throw line more often, averaging 5.4 attempts per game from the charity stripe, and he knocked down an impressive 86.3 percent of his free throws.

He also returned to form from downtown, hitting 39 percent of his shots from deep on 7.3 attempts per game.

It became clear that the Badgers wouldn't be able to retain their home-grown star if he chose to test his value on the open market, and indeed, big-time programs came calling as soon as Blackwell hit the portal.

"For me, I want to be more on the ball," Blackwell said to The Field of 68's Jeff Goodman. "I'm 6-4, so I'm naturally a point guard. And that's just the things I didn't do at Wisconsin. No knock to them. It's just how I want to elevate my game to go to the next level."

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