MADISON, Wis. - College coaches use many methods to evaluate talent, but Fred Hill felt he found one that served him well more often than not.
For 37 years as a college assistant and head coach, Hill would go into a scouting assignment and ponder who the prospect he was there to watch reminded him of. He believed that would help him decipher if that player had the right intangibles to be successful.
It worked for him recruiting Elijah Allen at Fairleigh Dickinson, a borderline mid-major prospect out of high school Hill who developed into a 17.8 ppg player as a senior, capping his career by dropping 43 points on No.2 Connecticut in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. It worked with McDonald's All-American Andre Barrett at Seton Hall, a 5-10 guard who had a 13-year professional career, and Villanova's Mike Nardy, who had one high-major offer out of high school but thrived because of his intangibles and competitiveness after being surrounded by three future NBA players.
Hill's opinion may be slightly biased but he would put his nephew, new Wisconsin point guard Nick Boyd, in that conversation of ultimate competitors.
"Nick is like a maestro," Hill told BadgerBlitz.com. "Nick is like a quarterback. He is the straw that stirs the drink and makes everybody on the floor better. If you put great players around him, it just enhances the whole team. That is who he is, a leader, a winner, a gym rat, and an unbelievably hard worker. He's a coach on the floor with a high basketball IQ, phenomenal in pick-and-rolls, and reads that at a high level while being a great passer."
That laundry list of attributes was why Boyd's commitment to Wisconsin earlier this week was imperative to the program. Losing two senior guards and potentially seeing sophomore John Blackwell enter the NBA Draft, Wisconsin's addition of Boyd gives the Badgers a point guard who has shot at least 40 percent from the floor for four consecutive seasons and averaged 13.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and a 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio last season at San Diego State.
It's a career stat line that caused more than 30 schools to show interest in Boyd once he entered the portal, including some schools that made the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Boyd was immune to most of them because Hill acted as the middle man and his nephew's sounding board during a hectic transfer portal recruiting process.
"We talked about the next step in his journey, the last step of his journey at the collegiate level, what he was looking for, the type of program he wanted to go to, and the ability to lead a team," Hill said. "Having experienced a Final Four, he wants to win a (conference) championship, wants to get back to a Final Four, and wants to win a national championship. He was looking for a program that was bringing back key pieces, who they were targeting in the portal, who he was going to play with, and the coaches he was going to play for. Could he step in somewhere and be a leader and have those opportunities?"
When Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft phoned to inquire about Boyd and express a high-interest level, Hill's previous coaching experience was more than enough to move the Badgers toward the top of his list. An assistant coach at Marquette from 1986-88 and working at Northwestern under Bill Carmody from 2011-13, Hill thought the physicality and talent level of the Big Ten combined with the discipline and winning culture of Wisconsin's program was a win-win.
"It's one of the reasons he went to visit Washington," Hill said. "Even though they had a bad year last year, they're in the Big Ten. They are trying to build the program, but it wasn't quite what he was looking for in terms of a ready-made team. Nick did his homework. I said, Nick, you'll love the Big Ten and Wisconsin just reached out. Nick looked at their roster, got on synergy and watched game film, watched the players.
"I love the Big Ten. I thought it would be a great challenge for Nick. The tradition and history (of Wisconsin) going way back, tough, hard-nosed, well-coached, (and) kind of a little slow, grind-it-out game. They changed in the last couple of years and if you watched, offensively they can up and down the floor, open the floor, more three-point shooting and pick-and-roll actions, those types of things were very attractive for Nick."
The homework and research Boyd put into the options Hill passed on to him led to visits to Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Washington. Hill didn't go on any visits but felt Wisconsin opened numerous doors for his nephew. In addition to UW's offense being ranked 13th in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency, the Badgers had talented returning pieces in Blackwell (potentially) and center Nolan Winter, landed another experienced guard in the portal (Virginia's Andrew Rohde), and the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year in stretch forward Austin Ripp.
Hill and Boyd also liked the stability of head coach Greg Gard and the coaches and support staff who he surrounded himself with helped feed into Wisconsin's winning culture.
"He asked where should I go. I told him he can't make a bad decision," Hill said. "I said go where you are the most comfortable, follow your gut, follow your heart. There aren't many guys as lucky as him who can choose between North Carolina and Wisconsin ... He just felt very comfortable. He felt it was the right spot for him to give it one more chance to have a great, great run."
Boyd has experienced a lot in his basketball career. He suffered an avulsion fracture to his leg in high school, broke his fifth metatarsal his second year of college, and experienced the joy of helping an underdog Florida Atlantic program reach the Final Four as a nine seed and the sorrow after losing on a buzzer-beater to San Diego State in the national semifinals. Those latter two experiences made Boyd a fifth-year senior with NCAA Tournament success who could command top NIL dollars.
Hill retired from coaching in 2018, well before the explosion of the transfer portal and Name, Image, and Likeness. He imagines he'll have to learn how to navigate the dollar amounts soon since he's running a gap year program. He didn't have to talk dollars and cents with Boyd, however. His nephew only cares about playing winning basketball.
"The biggest concern was what Nick wanted to get accomplished in his last year of college basketball," Hill said. "He wants to be a pro, and I wouldn't put it past him at all that he'll get an opportunity to play in the NBA. The focus was going to a program where he could be the leader of a team he felt that could win championships. We know how hard that is, but that's his goal, and he made a phenomenal decision for his final year."
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