In a recent interview with Kyle, Brust and Nortman, head coach Gred Gard dished on how he and his staff went about constructing the 2024 roster.
"We tried to make sure we were two deep at each position," Gard explained. "We brought in a point guard in Camren Hunter. We brought in a wing in John Tonje. We brought in a hybrid forward...and we thought more of a four, but he has more wing skills than we realized in Xavier Amos."
All three players are expected to play large roles this year for the Badgers after transferring in from other programs. With the potential that all three could start, only two starters from the previous season will return to the lineup. But with the new NIL landscape, transferring is now a huge part of the game and it will continue to shape how college rosters are built.
Gard was then asked which is more important, high school or transfer recruiting. He interrupted and said "you have to add a third...internationally has exploded here because of NIL." The Badgers will have Serbian big man Andrija Vukovic joining the team at this point this summer. Based on Gard's high opinion of the international market you can assume the Badgers will continue to pursue this avenue heavily in their future recruiting.
The 2024 Badgers will look very different from 2023, but there is certainly a lot of things to optomistic about. Freshman Daniel Freitag continues to get hype and the fact that Xavier Amos has already shown his versatility in less than a week is a strong sign for the road ahead.