MADISON, Wis. - One of the lasting high school memories of Andrew Rohde was the senior doing all he could offensively to try to win a second state championship with Brookfield Central. A first-team all-state selection and one of the more dynamic scorers in the state that season, Rohde was the engineer for one of the WIAA State Tournament's most impressive comebacks and did everything in his scoring arsenal to come close to delivering a second state championship the following night.

For head coach Dan Wandrey, what stands out more than Rohde's final curtain call as a high school player happened three years earlier when the Lancers turned to him after the program lost their leading scorer and two-time all-state point guard with two weeks remaining in the 2019 regular season.

"He's a scrawny little freshman who gets thrust into our varsity lineup and he comes in and plays 25 minutes a game in the playoffs and fills all those little gaps," Wandrey told BadgerBlitz.com of a season that ended with the school's first state basketball championship. "If it's handling the ball, making open shots, making free throws, or defending, he evolves as a player."

That development will continue for Rohde at Wisconsin, as the 6-6 guard officially signed with the Badgers on April 6 for his final season of eligibility. He joins sophomore forward Austin Rapp and senior point guard Nick Boyd as transfers who have helped rebuild head coach Greg Gard's roster. With UW looking for its first Big Ten title since 2022 and its first sustained postseason run since 2017, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Badgers added two guards in Boyd (2023 Final Four) and Rohde who know what it takes to win.

In 2020, Central had two players who got Division-2 scholarships and two juniors who eventually received Division-1 scholarships. Rohde was the sophomore starter who improved the group by facilitating, rebounding, and defending. With the team considerably younger his senior season, Rohde became a scorer who averaged 28.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 2.2 steals.

"He's a win above everything else guy," Wandrey said. "It's about making the next right play and doing the right thing to put his team in position to be successful."

That mindset was displayed throughout Rohde's final run through the state high school playoffs.

Down by 10 with less than four minutes left in the state semifinals, Brookfield Central scored the game's final 11 points, including a 9-0 run in the final 1 minute, 9 seconds in a 51-50 victory. In the final 3:30, Rohde had a hand in all four Lancers baskets, scoring four points, assisting on the other two while drawing three fouls and grabbing three rebounds. He scored 21 points, 10 more than North Carolina commit Seth Trimble, and broke a double team on the Lancers' final possession, making the correct pass that eventually led to the game-winning free throws.

A week earlier, Brookfield Central was preparing to play Middleton in the sectional semifinals, a team Rohde delivered 40 points, eight steals, and seven rebounds against the previous month. Knowing Middleton would smother him whenever he touched the ball, Rohde spent the game setting up his teammates and playing defense in a 55-39 victory, achieving a triple-double only after breaking the press for uncontested dunks in the closing minutes.

"What I think about that season specifically, he developed his teammates around him throughout the year where he empowered them to make the plays and do the things we were doing in the playoffs," Wandrey said of Rohde, whose 34 points (13-for-27) weren't enough to beat Neenah in the state finals in his final high school game. "He knew from the first day of the season for us to be ultimately successful, he was going to need the guys around him to expand who they were and what they did. He did that throughout the year.

"If you are on a team with a really good guy who doesn't pass the ball, you end up standing around a lot because he's just going to shoot it anyway. That never happened because he never became that guy."

Rohde's unselfishness early in high school, playing on a loaded AAU team that included Trimble, and COVID wiping out the 2020 high school postseason and large swaths of the evaluation period prevented high major schools from showing much interest.

Choosing not to wait until after his senior season to sign with a school, he committed early to a St. Thomas program with a history of winning at the Division-3 level that had a spot for him to contribute immediately. He responded by starting all 31 games and averaging 17.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.7 steals. He was a first-team all-conference selection and the Summit League's Freshman of the Year.

That opened a transfer opportunity to play two seasons at Virginia and now Wisconsin, two programs that covet the glue guys.

"He might be at his best when he's got some other really good guys around him, where his stat line looks like 13 points, six assists, five rebounds, and three steals," Wandrey said. "He's a great teammate who wants to win. In his mind, that's the ultimate. For my team to be successful, what do I have to do for that to happen?"

The future of John Blackwell will likely impact Rohde's role this fall, as UW's junior-to-be guard declared for the NBA Draft but has maintained his college eligibility. If Blackwell returns, the Badgers will have three point guards on their roster and only Jack Janicki projected in the two spot. Rohde initially struggled as the off-ball guard in his first season at Virginia, only starting to flourish when he was moved back to point guard.

Starting 26 of 30 games last season at the point, Rohde averaged 9.3 points. 4.3 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. He shot 43.2 percent from the field, 41.3 percent from beyond the arc, and had a six-game stretch in ACC play where he had 42 assists to three turnovers. While playing the center position is out of the question, Wandrey doesn't put it past Rohde to thrive in the other four positions on the court in Wisconsin's offense.

"Him in the pick and roll, he's got such a great instinct of when to pass and who to pass to," Wandrey said. "What he can do really well is adapt to what his teammates around him are really good at. He's really good at getting them in those positions to be successful. When you look at the last couple of teams Greg has had, that's what they do. Sometimes you look at player-x and wonder why he's out on the court, but then all of a sudden he makes three threes, gets a key block or rebound or whatever. As a group, they are really good at finding what everybody's strengths are and playing to that."

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