Wisconsin basketball has a top recruiting class for 2027 with two 4-star commitments and one 3-star commitment. One player is from Wisconsin, the other two are from Minnesota. Greg Gard continues to swoop into Minnesota and pull out the best recruits, and while the results have been mixed on whether they've panned out or not, the recruits keep choosing to leave Minnesota and come to Wisconsin.
Now, a newspaper in Minnesota is putting the latest additions on Niko Medved, the Golden Gophers coach. Medved has only been in Minnesota for a little more than a season, and there are many fans who were hoping the in-state recruiting would be fixed by now. But once again, Minnesota is watching its best player leave the state.
Andy Greder of TwinCities.com (Pioneer Press) says, "the latest two [recruits to leave for Wisconsin] will directly reflect on Gophers head coach Niko Medved."
Analysis » Minnesota boys basketball players keep becoming Wisconsin Badgers. The prospects who have headed east over the last decade have had mixed results, and the latest two will directly reflect on #Gophers head coach Niko Medved.https://t.co/ScMqdI7NnD
— Andy Greder (@andygreder) July 3, 2026
The narrative of Wisconsin taking all of Minnesota's best players is only sort of true
Related: Why Owen Foxwell could be the key to unlocking Nolan Winter's full potential
The interesting thing about this discussion is that Wisconsin doesn't actually swoop into Minnesota every single year and take the best players. Greg Gard's problem with losing top in-state talent to Iowa State is much more of a problem than Minnesota recruits to Wisconsin.
While Greg Gard brought in No. 1 Minnesota player Baboucarr Ann and No. 3 Jake Thelen for 2027, you have to go back to 2024 to find the last Minnesota high schoolers to leave for the Badgers. Wisconsin grabbed Daniel Freitag and Jack Robison that year. Neither worked out for Greg Gard and Wisconsin, and both have transferred.
However, Minnesota fans are still watching Nolan Winter tear it up for the Badgers, and Steven Crowl is a recent reminder. Jack Janicki is still on the team and doing well, and of course, a coach on the bench in Brad Davison is an ever-present reminder of the success of a Minnesota high school player, leaving for Wisconsin only to excel in Madison.
That all being said, Greder of TwinCities.com is right, and Wisconsin fans should love it. Medved hasn't been able to recruit his state well, even in his short time there. He lost the best 2026 recruit in the state to Iowa State and the best 2027 recruit to Wisconsin. And while the rest of the article is behind a pay-wall, and I won't spoil what Greder says, it's clearly a call to the carpet of how problematic it is for Minnesota. Greder has hope that it can be fixed going forward, but Gard would only like to keep it going.
Davison on Gard's staff actually continues to help. Oh, and the top player in 2028 for Minnesota is KJ Wilson. He holds two offers...guess who was first? Greg Gard. Arizona State wasn't far behind, but Gard found Wilson first, and they are already developing a relationship for the top-ranked Minnesota player for 2028. Niko Medved isn't even on the list yet; that's not going to bode well for Golden Gopher fans if Gard grabs Wilson next year after getting Ann this one.
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