The Badgers have found their Nick Boyd replacement for next season in Australian NBL starting point guard Owen Foxwell. Foxwell is coming to the States after a few years of playing professionally in Australia. His brother, Joel, made the jump last season and played for the Portland Pilots, but after one season of success, he has decided to enter the transfer portal. This puts an obvious target for Greg Gard, but the problem is that both play point guard.
Not only do both play the position, but both are also seemingly college-tier-1 starters at the point. Last season as a freshman, Joel had 15.6 points, 6.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. According to DraftExpress writer Jon Chepkevich, Joel is a wizard at the point. So is Owen. Can Wisconsin really go after both of them?
NEWS: Portland’s Joel Foxwell intends to enter the transfer portal, his agent Solomon Dech of @ProMondo_Sports tells DraftExpress.
— Jon Chepkevich (@JonChep) March 25, 2026
The Aussie freshman averaged 15.6 points, 6.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.5 steals en route to 1st Team All-WCC honors.
An absolute wizard with… pic.twitter.com/D14vjJJdyW
Joel Foxwell may want to join his brother and play for Wisconsin basketball
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When Owen was committed to LSU before their coaching change, there were already rumors swirling of how Joel would join Owen in Baton Rouge. So does that now switch to Wisconsin? It is not overly uncommon for college basketball to have multiple point guards. Some systems even have two out there at a time for stretches. However, it would be a weird change for Wisconsin.
Greg Gard basically ran Nick Boyd for the entirety of the games last year. When Boyd wasn't in, he had Rohde or Blackwell taking up charge at the point. Essentially, Gard only had one point guard. The year before, Wisconsin ran a lineup without a point guard. Forced Blackwell to basically do it, but even then, it was a system that didn't really feature a true point guard.
Jumping to two point guards would be a crazy jump, but it would be hard to turn down two elite players at the position. One who's proven it overseas in Australia's NBL and the other who was electric at Portland last season.
If one were simply a backup to the other, it would make more sense, but the hard part is that they both would need to start.