The Wisconsin Badgers have had some excellent basketball players over the history of Badger basketball. While the NBA production hasn't always followed, there have been some real legends to wear the red and white. And once again, Wisconsin is known for taking unranked and 3-star prospects and turning them into all-timers. Like Frank Kaminsky, who was a 3-star recruit, or even more recently, John Blackwell, who was also only a 3-star and under-recruited.
However, this list is a list of the top-5 highest rated basketball recruits. Blackwell and Kaminsky don't make the list as they weren't the highest-rated recruits. Also, this list only has the modern era; recruiting rankings only came to be in the early 2000s, and so anything before that won't make this list.
First, let's identify the top-5 recruits in Wisconsin history (from 24/7 Sports) in order based on how highly rated they were out of high school, and then let's re-rank them.
1. Brian Butch - 5 star - 0.9933
2. Sam Dekker - 5 star - 0.9936
3. Joe Krabbenhoft - 4 star - 0.9784
4. Greg Stiemsma - 4 star - 0.9760
5. Jalen Brown - 4 star - 0.9704
1. Sam Dekker
Dekker is the gold standard and a player who lived up to all the hype coming in. He was part of the most successful run of Wisconsin Badger history with Final Fours and a National Championship game. Dekker was elite as a Badger and ended up being a first-round draft pick. He's the true top recruit out of those five.
2. Joe Krabbenhoft
Krabbenhoft and Butch can be a legit debate as the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, but it feels like it has to be Krabbenhoft. He didn't have the same level of pressure or expectations weighing him down like Butch. Krabbenhoft was also a culture-setter even as a player (which is why he became a Wisconsin coach later on). Players looked to him; he was also a four-year starter. He's also the only player in Wisconsin history with at least 750 rebounds and 250 assists.
3. Brian Butch
As the top-rated recruit to ever come to Wisconsin, he had a lot of pressure, and while he didn't have that one-and-done or the four-year All-American career, he was solid. If he were a 4-star or 3-star, people would think differently of his career. He also had to deal with a bit more injuries than others, and that can plague a career. However, at the end of the day, he had over 1,000 points and over 600 rebounds in his career. for Wisconsin.
4. Greg Stiemsma
Stiemsma just never quite became the player that everyone assumed he would be, yet, like Butch, he had a respectable career. Stiemsma's defense even helped him jump into the NBA. Injuries played a bit of a role in how his career played out for Wisconsin, and he's a "what if" sort of story.
5. Jalen Brown
He hasn't even signed his letter of intent, and yet he's a top-5 Wisconsin recruit of all time. That's a great sign for the future of this class. Brown's story is incomplete, and hopefully it plays out more like Dekker's, but even if it's another name on this list, that will be just fine.
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