The Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team opens exhibition play against Oklahoma tomorrow, October 24, at 7 pm in the Fiserv Center. It will be the first time we can lay eyes on the team ahead of the season when the Badgers are not playing against each other. There are some questions still swirling around, about what this team will look like and how it will function. The three biggest are as follows.
1. Who is the 6th man on the Badgers?
Last year, the sixth man was easy; it was Kamari McGee. He knew his role as the first man off the bench, and he excelled at it. This year, the starting five seems very set with Nick Boyd, John Blackwell, Andrew Rohde, Austin Rapp, and Nolan Winter. But who's the first player off the bench to provide that spark?
The players to watch for this role right now seem to be Jack Janicki or Braeden Carrington. Though it's super unset, and Oklahoma may give us a glimpse of this.
2. What is the big man depth rotation?
This question may actually be the biggest one. It's hard to tell who's going to be in the rotation behind Austin Rapp and Nolan Winter. It seems as if Greg Gard likes Aleksas Bieliauskas and Will Garlock both as true freshmen. Maybe even more than sophomore Riccardo Greppi. Elijah Gray may also factor in heavily, though he didn't play in the Red-White scrimmage, so it's hard to know.
3. What freshman will play and will any of them redshirt?
When the recruiting class first closed, the group of Aleksas Bieliauskas, Will Garlock, Zach Kinziger, and Hayden Jones all signed. It seemed like a shoe-in that Kinziger would be the most likely to play and get minutes his freshman year. It's not as convincing now, as the other three seem to have found their footing more quickly. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Kinziger actually be the redshirt, though that's a big question to look for in these exhibitions. How are the freshmen being used?