The Wisconsin Badgers will be without one of their better defenders, a key to their top defensive lineup, going forward. Jack Janicki left the Ohio State game early when he went down with a wrist injury. It turns out that the wrist was broken and he needed surgery. Today, Greg Gard announced that Janicki will be out for the "foreseeable future" and wouldn't dive into the exact timeline.
This is big news on the defensive side of the ball which is what Gard has said is the most important way this team can win. His "defense leads to offense" strategy. Now, where do they turn?
Jack Janicki had wrist surgery and will be out for the 'foreseeable future'
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Janicki was replaced by Hayden Jones in the game, and the true freshman had plenty of run time. He made some good plays, and you can see that Gard trusts him to slide into the spot, but there may be other options. First, why is Janicki a loss?
Janicki plays the four when Greg Gard wants to go small and can help push the pace and lock down even players bigger than him. While fans sometimes are frustrated by his offensive play, there's a reason Gard goes to him. According to BartTorvik.com, he's the top Wisconsin defender (among eligible minutes) with a 2.6 defensive box plus/minus.
Hayden Jones posted a -0.5 in defensive box plus/minus against Ohio State. That's not ideal, even in a game that was clearly out of hand for Wisconsin.
The other option is that Rapp has started to really turn it on lately, and while he was sick against Ohio State, could he actually help that fast-paced lineup? The reason he was benched from the starting lineup was his defense and streaking shooting, but he's been a lot better in the last few games. Against Illinois, he had an overall 21.8 plus/minus, which led the team.
If Gard can get that out of Rapp more consistently, this loss won't be that bad; in fact, there may be some good in it. However, if Rapp goes back to being streaky, this could be a frustrating turn in the season.