Wisconsin Basketball commit Tyler Wahl signed his National Letter of Intent on Wednesday. What will he bring to the program next season and beyond?
It’s official: Tyler Wahl is a Badger.
The Lakeville North (Lakeville, MN) forward signed his letter of intent to join Wisconsin during a ceremony at his school earlier this morning. While Wahl has been committed since June 21 and by all appearances has been solid in his pledge ever since, nothing is ever set in stone in recruiting until the player signs his name on that dotted line, so it is always a relief for fans when National Signing Day comes around and any remaining speculation about potentially losing a recruit to another school can be put to rest.
Wahl, the nation’s No. 140 overall player in the 2019 class and a 4-star prospect according to 247Sports, chose Wisconsin at a time when his recruitment was starting to pick up some serious steam as a result of a series of strong performances on the AAU circuit. When he committed, he had other offers from Butler, Iowa State, Minnesota, Northern Iowa, and Northwestern, among others. If he would have drawn this thing out another couple of months he was almost certainly going to pick up more with the way he was playing, so kudos to Greg Gard and company for locking him down when they did.
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I’m very excited about Wahl’s future in Madison, as his game is about as picture-perfect a fit for Wisconsin’s style of play that you will find. He has the goods to be a four-year contributor and help the Badgers win games from the outset of his career.
Wahl possesses a very versatile skill set. He’s not a sharpshooter and probably is not going to light up the scoreboard most nights, but he will still have a tremendous impact on the game because he does pretty much everything else well and provides Gard with the flexibility to play him at multiple positions.
Wahl is a hard-nosed player with a tireless motor who will instantly inject this program with a welcome boost of toughness on both sides of the court. The 6’7 forward will probably spend much of his time on the wing, but with his size and tenacity, he can be a reliable option at the 4 and with guarding post players when the Badgers go small, something we can expect to see them do quite a bit going forward.
A true point forward, he can also handle the ball and attack the rim and create for himself, is a willing and able distributor to his teammates, and can hold his own on the boards. Simply put, Wahl is going to do all the little things to help the Badgers win, and as such, will likely see minutes immediately as a freshman.
As I have said in the past, the Wisconsin basketball program is built on players like Tyler Wahl.
Wahl is currently Wisconsin’s only commitment in the 2019 class and is more likely than not to remain that way, though the coaching staff will continue to evaluate late-blooming senior players throughout the prep hoops season in case a great fit materializes.