Will Garlock Discloses The Critical Skill He's Working On This Offseason

For the multitude of questions swirling around head coach Greg Gard's squad, Wisconsin's frontcourt heading into the 2026-27 campaign looks extremely promising.

The Badgers retained star forward Nolan Winter, a highly-skilled big man coming off his best season yet — he could very feasibly develop into one of the best bigs in the Big Ten and the entire nation, and that's not hyperbole.

They also re-signed 6-foot-10 Australian sniper Austin Rapp, who was a walking bucket from downtown towards the end of the season. With another year in the Badgers' system, he should take great strides as well.

Wisconsin also added Hofstra transfer center Victory Onuetu, a long, athletic forward with quick feet who excels as a rebounder, shot-blocker and lob threat.

With those three promising players all set to see serious minutes next season, rising sophomore forward Will Garlock from Middleton has been somewhat overlooked in the bigger picture of the Badgers' roster construction for 2026-27.

Wisconsin Badgers forward Will Garlock celebrates with teammates. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Still, Garlock figures to play a sizable role for this team as well. He got involved as a true freshman, appearing in 30 games and averaging 1.1 points and 1.1 rebounds across 6.8 minutes. It wasn't a sizable role, of course, but it was an important one for him to get his feet wet.

At seven feet, 243 pounds, Garlock already has a body equipped for the physicality and grind of the Big Ten. Unlike Winter and Rapp, he's more of a traditional forward who almost exclusively operates out of the paint. However, he's working on changing that this offseason.

Appearing on Brian Butch's Butchie's Den podcast, Garlock revealed the area of his game he's working the hardest at this summer:

“The way we play now, it’s a lot of run-and-gun, run-and-shoot threes. Obviously Nolan and Aussie do a great job of spacing the floor. If I could develop — maybe not shoot the volume they shoot the threes — but if I could knock down an open three every game, I think that could really help us. A big area I’m improving on is shooting and being able to stretch the floor. So that makes it easier on the guards getting downhill, and it’s a really fun way to play," he said.

What Garlock adding a three-point shot would mean

I've already written about how Garlock and Onuetu adding a three-point shot would make the Badgers' offense exponeitially more dangerous. And Garlock hit it on the head: he doesn't have to take the same volume of threes as Winter or Rapp — the threat of him being able to hit an open look from beyond the arc is enough to do wonders for this offense.

With his size and background, Garlock still figures to be more of a post player, and that's fine. Wisconsin already has two stretch bigs. But if he could hit an open three every once in a while, a la an upperclassman Steven Crowl, the Badgers' spacing would improve significantly and defenses would have so much more to account for.

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