Austin Rapp came to Wisconsin as one of the best forwards in the transfer portal from Portland. He won the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year. He showed all the potential in the world. Yet, as a Badger, he has been hit or miss at best, with mostly misses. Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard even took him off the starting lineup and moved him to the bench. Now, he's working to fix him, with one word: Aggression.
After the 'get right' win over Central Michigan, Austin Rapp joined the post-game press conference alongside Hayden Jones and Braeden Carrington. Rapp spoke about how he's trying to play with more aggression and how Gard and the other coaches keep speaking that over him.
"The coaches are really pushing me to be aggressive, to shoot, and to hunt shots out there. So I'm going to keep doing that and I'm doing the best I can to help out as well I can do off the bench."Austin Rapp
Villanova was an example of a "non-aggressive" mindset for Austin Rapp
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Greg Gard echoed this message that he's been speaking over Rapp. He said he's seen too much of a non-aggressive mindset from Rapp this season. He needs him to continue attacking, to play with fire, and hunt rebounds and good shots. This is what he saw from him against Central Michigan.
"Rapp got some good looks and was aggressive. He has seven rebounds, that tells me, as I told him the other day against Villanova, he had only two shots and no rebounds. That's a non-aggressive mindset. We need him to continue to be [aggressive] and grow in that aggressive mindset. "Greg Gard
For Rapp, his problems have often revolved around what fans would call "playing soft." And it seems as if both Rapp and Gard agree. He clearly has the ability to be a scoring option, and he's huge; there's no reason he can't use his big frame to play with physical toughness.
The Badgers have him listed at 6'10 and 238, he looks bigger than when he came from Portland, and now he needs to play like it.
It's hard to get excited about his play against Central Michigan, considering it's one of the worst-ranked teams in college basketball, but it is a step in the right direction. It will be important to see if it continues against Milwaukee and then on into Purdue as the calendar turns over.