Wisconsin Badgers quite familiar with former four-state in-state guard who entered the portal

MADISON, Wis. - Sifting through a transfer portal that will easily exceed a thousand players promises to be no easy task for college coaching staffs over the next month. Good thing not every player will be a complete stranger to the Wisconsin coaches.

St. Thomas (MN) redshirt freshman Nick Janowski is entering the transfer portal, according to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, a talented guard out of Pewaukee who Wisconsin offered in high school.
A first-team All-Summit League selection and the conference's freshman of the year, Janowski averaged 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in his first college season.

St. Thomas-Minnesota redshirt freshman Nick Janowski has entered the transfer portal, source told ESPN. Big name from the mid-major ranks. Averaged 16.1 points and 5.1 rebounds this season, named first-team All-Summit. Janowski redshirted at Nebraska as a freshman.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) April 7, 2026

Janowski was a four-star recruit by ESPN.com, ranked among the nation’s top 125 seniors by both 247Sports and Rivals, and was a top-150 pick by On3, ranked among the top 25 shooting guards in the class by all four major recruiting services.

He totaled a school-record 2,297 points, 606 rebounds, and 357 assists at Pewaukee, which won three state titles, had one runner-up finish, and went 106-14 during his high school career.

Janowski averaged 30.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game as a senior, while shooting 53 percent from the field, 37 percent from 3-point range, and 84 percent from the line. He was a Nebraska commit at the time, choosing the Huskers from a scholarship list that included power-conference offers from Georgia Tech, Iowa, Iowa State, USC, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin.

The Badgers offered Janowski in April 2022, but their interest tapered off once the staff landed point guard Daniel Freitag, who would join a guard group that at the time included Connor Essegian, Max Klesmit, and an already-committed Zach Kinziger. The program's highest-rated point guard when he committed, Freitag struggled and played limited minutes at Wisconsin before transferring to Buffalo last season.

Janowksi traveled to every game during his true freshman season in 2024-25 but ended up redshirting.

Experienced guards are expected to be a major focal point for Wisconsin during the portal window, which opened today and will extend for 15 days. Not only did the Badgers graduate starting guards Nick Boyd and Andrew Rohde and top reserve Braeden Carrington, but the program also saw three-year contributor John Blackwell announce he's entering the NBA Draft process and the transfer portal.

Currently, the only guards on UW's roster who logged meaningful minutes last season is junior Jack Janicki and sophomores-to-be Hayden Jones and Kinziger, although they'll be joined by 22-year-old Australian point guard Owen Foxwell and incoming recruits Jackson Ball and LaTrevion Fenderson.