With the amount of hype that justifiably surrounds Wisconsin basketball next season, it is never too early to take a look at what this team will look like in 2020-2021. The Badgers return every key contributor aside from graduating senior Brevin Pritzl, and will have one of their deepest teams in years as they bring in a solid 2020 recruiting class. So what are some early question marks surrounding a team that should be highly ranked in the preseason?
- How will the depth “problem” play itself out? — The luxury that Wisconsin has in terms of seven of the eight rotation players returning next year and the potential for an all-senior starting lineup will prove invaluable. The questions will start early and often, however, about what other guys step into the rotation. We know that returners Micah Potter, Nate Reuvers, Aleem Ford, D’Mitrik Trice, Trevor Anderson, Brad Davison, and Tyler Wahl will be major factors all year long. Those seven players were seven of the eight players who received consistent minutes for Greg Gard’s group in 2019. The question is who else will step in and how deep will the Badgers go down their bench? With a six-person recruiting class that includes three 247sports top-150 players in Johnny Davis, Ben Carlson, and Steven Crowl, there will be freshman that deserve minutes. Will returners such as Walt McGrory or Joe Hedstrom find their way into the rotation? UW will certainly be mixing and matching early in the year as they find a rotation amongst the luxury of the depth they have.
- Who takes a redshirt in the class of 2020? With the depth question and with a six-person recruiting class, you would have to imagine that at least a few Badgers will be redshirt candidates next season. Does class of 2020 PG Lorne Bowman crack the rotation or does he wait another year in order to save eligibility? The same question could be asked of fellow 2020 signees Steven Crowl or Jordan Davis. Without the room to play more than two or three freshman from the 2020 class, the incoming Badgers will have important decisions to make regarding their future.
- How does the 2020 NBA draft change the landscape of the Big Ten? This question is vastly more complex than we would have thought a few months ago. Given the state of the world, the NBA draft has been postponed without definite re-scheduling. There are significant impacts for multiple Big Ten contenders this year in terms of who stays and who goes to the league. Iowa big man and reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Luka Garza is among the names of Big Ten players that are draft eligible but left the door open to return to school. How does the lack of a pre-draft process or the delaying of the draft itself impact players like Garza in terms of their decision? It certainly has an impact, the question to be answered will be what impact. A player of Garza’s caliber returning or staying has massive ripple effects throughout the conference.