MADISON, Wis. – This weekend offers a rare opportunity for the University of Wisconsin’s three assistant coaches.

For the first time since Big Ten play resumed for the Badgers on January 2, the team will spend a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday not playing a game, a hectic run of seven consecutive weekends on the hardwood.

With four games left in the regular season, the break provides a necessary reprieve for UW’s players and off time that the staff can use to don their favorite red pullover and go on the road recruiting.

“Our excitement level never changes,” assistant coach Sharif Chambliss said. “We want to be able to go into schools and represent this program and our university the best way we can being able to recruit those kids.”

Before this week, the Badgers haven’t had more than a six-day break between games since late December, limiting the staff's ability to travel. Chambliss watched 2025 target LaTrevion Fenderson in Mequon, while assistant Joe Krabbenhoft spent time in Minnesota before the New Year.

Assistant coach Dean Oliver went down to Illinois to watch 2025 forward Ian Miletec, who attended UW’s packed recruiting weekend at the beginning of the month, while head coach Greg Gard drove to Wauwatosa to watch 2025 four-star center Kai Rogers.

But the lack of in-person evaluation has limited the number of offers Wisconsin has extended, only recently giving one to 2026 Plymouth (MN) Wayzata shooting guard Christian Wiggins.

That will make weekends like this one and subsequent ones important as UW has a veteran-laden roster with plenty of open scholarships to fill in 2025 and 2026.

“Everybody sees that it’s been a good year,” said Krabbenhoft, referring to UW’s 12 Quad-1 and Quad-2 wins, No.21 ranking in the NET and projected top-20 seed in the NCAA Tournament. “It’s an unbelievable place for people to want to be a part of. Guys who came before us, before me, before them, and guys before them really laid the foundation. It’s about the people in this program and the people in this locker room.

“There are a lot of people who would like to be a Wisconsin Badger. We’re charged with going out and finding the guys who want to be here because it’s a special place and has been for a long time.”

UW coaches’ recruiting areas are mostly fluid but have some definitions to them. Krabbenhoft – a native of South Dakota – primarily recruits a Minnesota region that has yielded countless dividends to the program over the past two-plus decades.

Oliver – a native of Quincy, Ill., on the Missouri border – works the state of Illinois while Chambliss, a Racine native, is tasked with trying to keep the best Wisconsin high school players in the state.

He’s already had success in 2025, as Wisconsin received a verbal commitment from DePere shooting guard Zach Kinziger in August. On Thursday evening, Gard was in attendance for Josh Manchester's (Mount Horeb) game.

“I know that those (in-state kids) can help us,” Chambliss said. “They fit in great here.”

While Wisconsin’s strategy of recruiting prospects within a five-hour radius has proven successful over the years, the creation of the transfer portal in 2018 and the regulation added in 2021 allowing student-athletes to change schools using the portal once without sitting out a year after the transfer has altered the landscape.

Some schools have become overly reliant on the portal, willing to recruit from the portal to undergo massive roster changes. Other schools use the portal only when necessary to replace a gap on the roster.

UW falls somewhere in between, embracing the effectiveness of the portal as a longer band-aid to help bridge the gap. While the Badgers have success stories with the recruitment and development of players like graduate forward Tyler Wahl, guard Chucky Hepburn, and others, UW’s starting lineup is anchored by two players from the portal in guard Max Klesmit (Wofford) and wing A.J. Storr (St. John’s).

Using revisionist history, the Badgers don’t win a Big Ten title without Ohio State forward transfer Micah Potter (2020) or Cincinnati center transfer Chris Vogt (2022) joining the program.

“We’ve made some tremendous additions in the portal,” Krabbenhoft said. “The longer they can be here, the more success they’re going to have as they continue to grow. On and off the floor, you see that time and time again with guys like Tyler. We want to find the right fit at the right time with guys who can get into the program, sink their teeth in, and grow.”

An offense that struggled to score points or win close games in 2022-23 saw Wisconsin miss the NCAA Tournament for only the second time since 1998. With the addition of Storr, the Badgers have not only shown they’re on track to be back in the NCAA Tournament, but the coaching staff can show how Wisconsin can be more than a plodding, low-possession offense.

“This season clears up for some of the recruits who might not have had a clear vision for how they can fit in here,” Chambliss said. “The way we are playing shows that we have a free-flowing offense, and we can get some more athletes, more athletic guys in here. They are able to see it.”

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