Greg Gard Reveals Surprise Starter if Season Began Today

According to Jon Rothstein, if the season started today, Badger head coach Greg Gard's starting lineup would include forward Nolan Winter, along with Max Klesmit, Steven Crowl and John Blackwell.

It's a bit of a surprise that Winter would get the nod at power forward over transfer Xavier Amos, who by all accounts impressed early on. Winter, now a sophomore, played sparingly as a freshman and averaged 2.4 points in just over nine minutes per game. Most folks thought he would once again be the backup to Steven Crowl in potentially a slightly increased role. However, it looks like that role will be majorly increased if the reports are accurate, and Gard will roll out the two seven-footers to play alongside each other.

The other news here is that John Blackwell is also expected to start at guard, over freshman Daniel Freitag and transfer Camren Hunter. Blackwell was very efficient last season in his minutes off the bench, averaging 8.0 points per game on 44.5% shooting from beyond the arc. This news is somewhat surprising, but also not. A lot of fans might have slotted in Hunter as the starter, but it's also hard to deny that Blackwell is ready for a larger role.

This report also only names four of five starters, leaving the fifth up to our imagination. It seems like transfer John Tonje or maybe even Amos would slide in at the three in this lineup. Tonje is a true wing, but Amos had also shown a lot of wing skills this summer despite primarily playing a forward position.

The season is still a few weeks away and maybe Gard's lineup is still getting tweaked. But nonetheless, it's interesting to see such an unusual group as projected starters.