Last season, Badger basketball went on an unlikely run, propelled by star transfer John Tonje, all the way to the second round of the NCAA Tournament despite being projected as conference bottom feeders. Through the success, however, the freshman made relatively little impact on the team. So will 2025 be a different story for the incoming freshman?
In 2024, the freshman class was headlined by point guard Daniel Freitag. He looked to be the future of the position for Greg Gard and the Badgers, but it was clear early on that he wasn't ready to take over the reigns. After the season, it seemed that both parties agreed it was best to move on from each other. Fellow freshman Riccardo Greppi and Jack Robison played sparingly as well, making the 2024 class largely unutilized. With a hoard of new transfers again in 2025, will there be any room for this year's freshman to play?
Which Badger freshman could get playing time in year one?
Zach Kinziger, the shooting guard out of DePere, probably has the best chance at making an impact. While he will have to compete for minutes with John Blackwell and Jack Janicki, he is an elite scorer who averaged 24.4 points per game as a senior and dropped 30 or more points seven times. He'll have some work to do from a strength perspective, but he can come off the bench and get a bucket.
Will Garlock, the 7-foot center from Middleton, also has a solid chance at earning some minutes, simply becuse the depth at center is rather thin. Transfer Austin Rapp likely starts, with Riccardo Greppi as the only other true center on the roster. Depending on the rotation, or where they lineup fellow freshman Aleksas Bieliauskas, Garlock could see the court in year one.
Hayden Jones, the New Zealand product, is a bit of a wildcard. It's hard to know how his game will translate to the college ranks. In the New Zealand Basketball League, he is currently averaging 9.2 points, 2.1 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 20 minutes per game. The 6-foot-5 guard could play at the two or three and might find some playing time behind transfer Andrew Rhode.
Lastly, Aleksas Bieliauskas from Lithunia rounds out the class. As another international prospect, his skills are a little tougher to project. But he's another big man who can shoot the three, something Gard loves, but can also work down inside. With the departures of Steven Crowl and Xavier Amos, there's certainly opportunity to play in the frontcourt, but he may need to battle it out with Garlock for freshman minutes.