Reports of Wisconsin's 2027 basketball recruiting class 'losing steam' is overblown

The Wisconsin Badgers’ recent recruiting craze on the basketball side of things has been a delight for fans to see, as for the first time in what seems like over a decade, Wisconsin has had the ability to acquire some legitimate top-end talent. Through this recent surge, the Badgers picked up three somewhat highly touted recruits: guard Jalen Brown, forward Baboucarr Ann and center Jack Thelen.

Most recruiting services view each of the three as top-100 level prospects in the 2027 class — all except one, at least. There is no secret that EYBL and big-school bias plays a part in some websites’ evaluation of players, as sometimes they simply won’t take the time to scout lesser-known guys who don’t have information readily available.

This is how guys like Keaton Wagler can sneak through the cracks, largely due to him not playing at a prep school or on a shoe circuit. And now, that same kind of bias seems to be bleeding through again, this time at the “expense” of Wisconsin hoops.

Subtle Drop

ESPN recently updated its 2027 class rankings for basketball, and just one of the three Badger commits was ranked — that being Brown at No. 96. Even that ranking feels a bit low, as nearly every other major recruiting website has him ranked somewhere in the mid-to-late 60s.

In Ann and Thelen’s cases, it isn’t quite as surprising to see them left off the list. A somewhat underwhelming summer for Ann and a largely unpolished skillset for Thelen make both of them somewhat difficult to project moving forward. With that said, both are still consistently ranked within the top 100 on other websites, so seeing neither of them — along with Brown — receive the same level of recognition from one website in particular does seem a bit fishy.

But, of course, in the long run, things like this won’t really matter. Whether any of the three are ranked as top-10 players or outside the top 100 will all be reset the moment they step foot in Madison for that first practice. At that point, none of these rankings or recruiting-service shenanigans will matter nearly as much as what they actually do on the court.

Wisconsin fans and evaluators alike still view this class as a revolutionary one, and one that could potentially solve some of the problems Greg Gard has had come March. Whether the talent turns out to be truly special or just that — talent — is still to be seen. But for now, Wisconsin fans should be ecstatic with what they have.

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