Wisconsin Basketball: What Does Gard do Without Guards?
Wisconsin basketball adds injuries to its list of problems plaguing the program during a star-crossed 2017-18 season to date
A young Wisconsin basketball team will have to make do without a mainstay and role player at the guard position. This will force Greg Gard and staff to get creative with personnel rotation.
The Badgers will close the opening semester at least without some rising talents at both guard spots.
According to a UW Athletic Department news release, both freshman D’Mitrik Trice and sophomore Kobe King will be missing time. King’s knee injury is a little more hazy as his timeline for return.
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But Trice’s injury sounds a little more serious and will sideline him for an extended period.
"Trice will undergo surgery on his right foot on Monday and his initial rehab process will begin in 2-3 weeks. King will not play Saturday against Marquette with a left knee injury."
On Saturday against Marquette, TJ Schlundt appeared to be given an extended look at filling in for guard depth. Schlundt is a redshirt junior from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin who had played 17 minutes in four games entering Saturday.
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But against the Golden Eagles he logged 13 minutes making his only field goal and snatching one rebound. In his first two seasons, Schlundt played in 18 games and tallied 25 total minutes.
So out of necessity he may get more minutes. But the most obvious candidates to up their respective workloads are freshman Brad Davison and redshirt sophomore Brevin Pritzl. Those two along with Happ, Khalil Iverson, Aleem Ford figure to be regular starting five.
But Wisconsin may end up going a little bigger perhaps using Davison as the primary or lone true ball handler in the lineup. If nothing else, Gard may be to start pulling some guys over from the scout team to mix into the front of the bench rotation.
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A rebuilding year gets even more challenging with Trice and King’s absences. We’ll look for clues in practice reports and the upcoming games as to how this shifts the Badger lineups and depth charts.