Nolan Winter is arguably Wisconsin's most important player going into 2026. It would be hard to make a clear case for any other player on the roster. Winter is also Wisconsin's best player and one of the best bigs in college basketball. However, according to Field of 68, he's only at No. 49. This is about as disrespectful as you can get.
Sure, he's not No. 1 or 2 or even top-10, but to read the player names ahead of him will make you say, "You have to be kidding me?!"
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Nolan Winter is getting very little love from Field of 68 top 50 rankings
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Winter nearly averaged a double-double this last season with 13.1 points and 85 rebounds per game. He has a way to really take over a game, but in an almost quiet way. Winter may not be like Nick Boyd or John Blackwell, where there's a bit of a flash and splash to their big games. However, Winter instead will put up a double-double and do it in a casual way.
That doesn't mean that he shouldn't be ranked higher; in fact, it's more of a reason to be ranked higher, especially for real ball-knowers. The forwards just ahead of him are ridiculous, and whoever came up with this list did not do their research or hasn't watched much Wisconsin Badger basketball.
Seamus Rohrer of SI.com had some choice words for Field of 68 after this ranking: "Placing Winter at 49th is preposterous." Rohrer goes on to be astonished by the players ahead of Winter, "Take Ohio State's Amare Bynum at No. 44. Sure, he had a solid freshman season, averaging 9.7 points and 4.9 rebounds...How about Minnesota's Jaylen Crocker-Johnson? The Gophers' forward had similar stats (13.4 points, 6.8 rebounds) but was way less impactful when you actually break it down."
Rohrer goes on to even list Ivan Kharchenkov from Arizona, who averaged 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Let's add to Rohrer's list and throw in JoJo Tugler, who only averaged 8.4 points and 5.3 rebounds. Those are just the forwards who play a similar position, but geeze, some of the guards ahead of Winter are also wild, like Ian Jackson or CJ Cox.
It's disrespectful, and while Winter probably will shrug about it and go about his business, it feels like a nice chip that can be added to the other moments and times the Badgers have been disrespected. Ahead of next year, it seems like it's the most common theme.
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