Wisconsin fans are caught up in the Milwaukee Brewers playoff run or even what Luke Fickell has been doing on Saturday, but basketball season is around the corner, and the Badgers have played two exhibition games. Wisconsin has won both exhibitions, but Greg Gard has to be joking with the starting five he's rolling onto the court. It almost cost them against Green Bay, and he needs to figure it out before the season starts.
Let's look at it first, then give Gard a couple of "benefits of the doubt," and then propose a much cleaner and more competitive starting five. Here's the starting five Wisconsin has rolled out in both exhibitions:
PG - Owen Foxwell
SG - Jack Janicki
SF - Eian Elmer
PF - Victory Onuetu
C - Nolan Winter
The biggest problem, fairly obviously, is that Janicki has no business being a starter. He really shouldn't even be in the top part of the rotation. Deep bench is a great spot, especially because the reason Gard loves him, and even Badger fans love him, is that he works extremely hard and is a culture leader. However, that isn't always translating to the floor. It has at times, but it usually doesn't. Let him go loose in practices, but keep him lower.
The secondary problem is Victory Onuetu in the starting five. This is a smaller problem, and it wouldn't be surprising to see Onuetu get some spot starts when the Badgers need defense against specific teams. Yet, that spot needs to be Austin Rapp, and Onuetu comes in off the bench.
Greg Gard may be doing this for justifiable reasons but it has to stop, and soon
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The benefit of the doubt we can give Greg Gard is twofold. Maybe he's rolling with Janicki because he's not 100% convinced Braeden Carrington will be eligible, and he's trying to find something in that spot. But he can't be Janicki, and he may have realized it yesterday when he was costing Wisconsin opportunities.
Janicki ended up with only 12 minutes and went 0-3 (all from deep) and picked up three fouls. He hustled his way to three rebounds, but he wasn't helping, and Green Bay was neck and neck with the Badgers throughout his minutes.
The benefit of the doubt we can give Gard for Onuetu is, first, that Onuetu is probably the best defensive option for Wisconsin in that spot. And maybe more importantly, Gard is still managing Rapp's workload as the Aussie power forward is coming back from an injury. Rapp looks rusty, but it's important he has these exhibition reps to find his shooting stroke. We know how dangerous he can be.
So what should the starting five be? After two exhibition games, it's become pretty obvious how it should look:
PG - Owen Foxwell
SG - Braeden Carrington
SF - Eian Elmer
PF - Austin Rapp
C - Nolan Winter
Then we can rotate through the other players that Gard thinks have earned a spot in the rotation. Zach Kinziger looked good against Green Bay; Hayden Jones still offers valuable minutes. Obviously, we talked about Onuetu. Will Garlock shows incredible flashes, and hopefully Trey Autry turns it on and gets his stroke going too.
At the end of the day, Gard can't be rolling into the season with his exhibition starting lineups; they've been a problem.
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