Greg Gard Discloses The Key Question Recruits Asked Him This Offseason

The Badgers still have one more spot open on their 2026-27 roster, but for the most part, the next iteration of Wisconsin basketball is complete.

It was another whirlwind of an offseason, with head coach Greg Gard and his staff needing to fill seven spots. Three transfer portal commits, a pair of international signees and one freshman from U.S Soil later, and Wisconsin's roster is nearly complete.

With the college basketball transfer portal window moved until after the national title game, the college hoops offseason was as frantically chaotic as it's ever been. Rosters were torn down and re-constructed simultaneously, and coaches often had to recruit prospects without a clear sense of what their team will actually resemble by the time the ball is tipped off in 2026-27.

That can pose a challenge on the recruiting trail, especially for established players who want to know what kind of team they'll be walking into for what is oftentimes a final year of eligibility. Speaking at his annual Garding Against Cancer event, Gard disclosed what the prospects he recruited this offseason were dying to know about the 2026-27 Badgers:

“As we went through the recruiting process of Owen, Eian, Victory and Trey, they knew, they asked about if (Austin) Rapp and (Nolan) Winter were coming back in the retention, because they wanted to play with them. And I don’t remember which one it was, one of the perimeter players, said, ‘You guys have the best shooting front line coming back in the county,'" Gard said.

"You guys have the best shooting front line coming back in the country."

Greg Gard says that recruits asked prior to committing if Austin Rapp and Nolan Winter were coming back next season.

In the end, it's worked out in the #Badgers favor, as Gard is slowly coming around to… pic.twitter.com/YojKyWAm1e
— Audrey Marr (@AudreyMarrTV) May 4, 2026

Whichever one of the three transfers and/or Owen Foxwell made that comment, they certainly have a point. Nolan Winter shot 37 percent from distance in Big Ten play last season. Austin Rapp, meanwhile, shot 36 percent on the season but was scorching hot in March, hitting 42 percent of his triples on 7.2 attempts per game in the final month of the season.

It's no surprise that recruits are taking notice of Wisconsin's system, which since undergoing an overseas-inspired facelift has produced transfer portal star after transfer portal star in the backcourt.

"When you’re a player, you like to play with other really good players that can stretch the floor. I think Nick Boyd found that out. He had a lot of driving lines to the rim where there was a lot of space. That's because you have shooting around it, great spacing, unselfish players," Gard continued.

Epicenter of Badgers' scheme poised to change in 2026-27?

Wisconsin forward Nolan Winter. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Wisconsin had a very solid frontcourt last season, anchored by a junior year Winter who was a walking double-double when he was healthy. Rapp and former forward Aleksas Bieliauskas added long-range shooting to boot.

Still, the main attraction in Madison was clearly the Badgers' two star guards, Boyd and John Blackwell, who each pitched in about 20 points per game. With both players gone, Wisconsin's roster will have a very different feel in 2026-27, and it should be more frontcourt-centric.

With Winter returning for his senior season, he's arguably the best player on the team. Everything the Badgers do should orbit him and his impact to some extent. Rapp is back as well and could be poised for a major leap in year three. With the addition of defensive spark-plug Victory Onuetu from Hofstra as well, Wisconsin has a rock solid frontcourt that, even with the addition of several very promising guards, could make the Badgers' front line the epicenter of their team.

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