Head Coach Greg Gard and the Wisconsin basketball program have made recent waves on the recruiting trail, adding St. Johns transfer A.J. Storr and highly-touted 2024 prospect Daniel Freitag. The program seems to be taking strides forward after a disappointing 2022-23 campaign.
The 2023-24 team sees Steven Crowl, Chucky Hepburn and Tyler Wahl return for another season and now gets the infusion of Storr and an impressive class of 2023. Signs point towards a highly-successful season upcoming for Gard and his program.
That class of 2023 finished the recruiting cycle ranked No. 34 nationally in the 247Sports composite ranking and No. 7 in the Big Ten. The class of four-star center Gus Yalden, three-star power forward Nolan Winter and three-star point guard John Blackwell has Badger fans excited, and rightfully so.
That class arrived on campus for the first time earlier today, as documented by the Wisconsin basketball Twitter account:
Class of 2023, L O A D I N G . . .⏳🔜
Badger Nation, help us welcome our new freshmen class to campus and give them a follow!
🦡️ @_Johnblackwell1
🦡 @jackjackjanicki
🦡 @NolanWinter5
🦡 @gusbus2023 pic.twitter.com/1bjeHjKZYR— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) June 14, 2023
New Badgers on the Block 👏
Move-in day for the freshmen!
🦡️@_Johnblackwell1
🦡 @jackjackjanicki
🦡 @NolanWinter5
🦡 @gusbus2023 pic.twitter.com/sJWZ42wHcU— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) June 14, 2023
Gard’s program has operated mostly under the radar with the current outward excitement surrounding Luke Fickell and the football program. But as noted, it’s been an impressive offseason, one which seemingly has the team set to be quite good in the next 4-5 years.
Much is left to happen before that point. But it would not surprise me if we see the 2023 recruiting class make an impact as soon as they step on the court.