The Wisconsin Badgers had four players this season walk on Senior Night against Maryland. It's been obvious since the start of the season that Wisconsin only had one year left (or one year total) with Braeden Carrington, Nick Boyd, Andrew Rohde, and Isaac Gard. Three of those players are starters or key contributors, and one is a glue guy on the scout team as a walk-on.
Greg Gard will have to find replacements for his starting point guard (Boyd), his starting wing (Rohde), and the Wisconsin sixth man of the year (Carrington). Those three represent 2,628 minutes from this season or 31.9 (Boyd), 26.4 (Rohde), and 18.0 (Carrington) minutes per game.
Wisconsin is losing 3 players to graduation that represent a ton of production
Related: March Madness loss exposed glaring need Wisconsin must address in Transfer Portal
That's a lot of production that is for sure gone this offseason. Gard will be looking in the transfer portal for replacements to all three. Though he has to like how Hayden Jones developed this season, and he could theoretically slide into a Carrington or even Rohde role. Yet, the depth either way will be vital.
Gard also has to make sure those three players naturally graduating and leaving don't create an open door for others to walk through. Especially John Blackwell and Nolan Winter. Both were non-committal about their plans this offseason. Blackwell tested the NBA waters last year and may again this year, but it didn't seem as if he's quite NBA-ready again. There will be plenty of teams interested in him if he tests the transfer portal.
While Winter, who is going into his senior year, said he always planned to be a Badger for all four years, he wasn't ready to talk about his plans after the loss to High Point.
If those two also decide to walk, Gard will be replacing the entire depth chart from 1-6. Austin Rapp will be the only player returning who logged quality minutes, and while his improvement was greatly needed this season, that doesn't inspire a ton of hope.
Gard will need to ensure he keeps Blackwell and Winter as best he can and quickly get high ceiling players to replace the three he's already losing. That will be the big test this offseason, and while he's at it, he may want to figure out why his teams stink in the NCAA Tournament and fix that, too.