3 steps Greg Gard has to take now that 4-star Jalen Brown is in the fold

With the Wisconsin Badgers landing arguably the most high-profile recruit of the Greg Gard era, securing four-star guard Jalen Brown following his visit to Madison this weekend, the question has now become: how can Wisconsin continue to grow? Landing Brown alone is a huge deal, as it both satisfies the crowd of Badger fans that want a heavier push on in-state recruiting, along with finding a truly transcendent talent.

However, the fun doesn't stop there, as now Wisconsin is tasked with building a team around Brown that can both maximize his abilities and allow the team itself to flourish. The Badgers were likely forced to spend a pretty penny on Brown, meaning money may be tight in the upcoming seasons, but that's not to say there still aren't steps they can take to build a proper team around him.

Step One: Retain Talent

The biggest and likely easiest step for Wisconsin moving forward is to keep the talent they have in-house, well, in-house. The Badgers have taken an aggressive approach to recruiting upperclassmen over the last couple of years, meaning that there will be a fair amount of roster turnover by the time Brown steps on campus. However, players like Zach Kinziger, La’Trevion Fenderson, Hayden Jones, Austin Rapp, etc. will still have eligibility, barring an unlikely entrance into the NBA Draft.

Keeping those guys around will allow Wisconsin to develop within its own organization, molding the proper talent to fit roles around Brown. Going out and getting other talent is easy enough, but morphing that talent into a cohesive roster is much easier to do when the talent is already in the program.

Step Two: Continue the Recruiting Push

Oftentimes, landing one big recruit can lead to a wave of others choosing to join in, especially if a team can target guys close to the player they have already brought in. In Brown’s case, there is plenty of in-state talent connected to him within Wisconsin that could choose to follow him to Madison.

Guys like Kager Knueppel, Jack Kohnen and Deuce McDuffie are all highly touted four-star talents that remain uncommitted in the class of '27. Bringing each of them in is an impossible task for Gard and the rest of the Badger recruiting staff, but pairing Brown up with one or two of the remaining high-end in-state talents is well within the realm of possibility.

Step Three: Fit the System

When bringing in a talent as cerebral as Brown, it's important that the scheme around him can match his strengths and mask his weaknesses. In Brown’s case, the Badgers got lucky, because there don't appear to be any glaring holes in his game. Brown has shown the capability to play both on and off the ball, taking huge steps forward in recent years in regard to the development of his guard skills, along with proving that he can play off other Division I talents, doing so in both high school and AAU.

Now, the pressure is bestowed upon Gard to figure out a system that can be built around the 6-foot-4 guard. More than likely, Gard will want to put Brown on the ball, using him as the team's de facto point guard, along with giving him looks off the ball. Figuring out how to do such while also satisfying the rest of the team built around Brown is a challenge in and of itself, but it's a challenge worth taking on for the future of Wisconsin’s program.

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