MADISON, Wis. - Daniel Freitag was looking for any positive reaction to his statement to convince him that the University of Wisconsin was still the place for him.

The freshman point guard was midway through his end-of-the-season meeting with head coach Greg Gard and a majority of the staff that was long on negatives and short on positives. Despite being criticized for a wide range of shortcomings, Freitag was undeterred and told the staff that he was fully committed to developing and growing in the Wisconsin program.

Expecting that his statement would yield encouragement from the staff, Freitag said the group kept dumping on him

"Entering that meeting, I was zero percent of me entering the portal," Freitag said. "Halfway through that meeting of just listening and not talking much, and hearing all the things I'm not great at, something flipped in me that I 100 percent want to come back to Wisconsin and prove to myself that I can improve upon everything they said.

"I told them that. I said that you guys are going to tell me everything I am doing wrong and I am going to show you. I am going to come back, be loyal to this program, and everything you guys are saying I am going to do it to the best of my ability ... I thought me saying that would help, but the tone never changed. It took me by surprise hearing that right after I said I would improve upon all the things that it never changed how the conversation was going."

That hard-to-hear meeting set the process in motion for Freitag to enter the transfer portal with three seasons remaining, unthinkable to him a year ago when Gard told him to be ready to compete for minutes in the wake of starting point guard Chucky Hepburn's departure to Louisville.

That goal of playing early never materialized during a freshman season that had countless more downs than ups. Instead of having a role in the rotation, Freitag played 27 minutes over 14 games, registering his only two points on a late-game dunk against Iowa.

But after entering his name in the transfer portal earlier this week, his name circulating in the portal drew inquiries from more than two dozen schools, mostly from mid-major programs, those conversations shook away the initial fear of Freitag that leaving a Big Ten roster for potentially a lower-level school wouldn't feed his competitive nature.

"The schools contacting me are exactly what I thought it would be coming off a season where I didn't play," Freitag said. "In the portal era, where you can pick up a 24-year-old with five years of college experience who averages 11 points, that sounds a lot better than a 19-year-old kid who averaged zero. It's everything I thought it would be with the programs contacting me, but it's been way more than I expected. I thought mid-major programs would contact me now and then, but I only ate once yesterday and left my room once because I was on the phone constantly."

After word of Freitag's decision became public knowledge, one popular social media opinion was that the guard took the easy way out, displaying an unwillingness to put in the work during the offseason to fight for playing time.

Freitag was adamant that he was ready to dedicate himself to his craft in the offseason to make the Wisconsin coaching staff eat their words and opinions. However, the more he reflected, the less he felt confident that his work wouldn't be acknowledged.

Right after meeting with the staff, Freitag made the three-plus-hour drive home to Minneapolis. With spring break on the horizon and wanting to clear his head, Freitag booked a solo trip to Arizona the next day. He kept his phone ringer on, expecting the staff to call him to check in with him. They never did.

"I was anticipating a phone call, maybe reflect on the things I said and go, you know, we found our guy," Freitag said. "We didn't have the year we wanted, but the first thing out of his mouth was he's committed, wants to come back and show he can do all those things. I knew that if they called me, that's all it would take for me to come back. If they didn't call me, it would be my sign that it was time to leave."

Had the tone changed in the meeting after Freitag's declaration, he would have felt Wisconsin knew his answer. By the Badgers not calling, he knew the staff probably wanted to move forward without him.

"Based on how the year went, I had an idea of where I stood with the staff, so not receiving a call wasn't a surprise," he said. "If my girlfriend had a week to enter a portal where there is a million other dudes waiting for her, I probably would check up on her within that week. I probably wouldn't let her sit in her thoughts for a whole week.

"If the meeting turned into, OK, Daniel, we'll check up after spring break. If that could have been it, I would still be here. If the tone slightly changed, I would definitely consider staying. When you tell someone your intentions and it doesn't seem to matter, you got to listen. I think loyalty is a two-way road."

Freitag contemplated staying and being a career reserve and occasional contributor (he cited recently graduated Markus Ilver as an example), but believed he would walk away from his college career "heartbroken" if the time and effort he put in to improve wouldn't be rewarded with a breakthrough.

He believes he's good enough as a basketball player and person to not gamble at a program that may never give him a chance to compete.

"I really like 99 percent of the things here at Wisconsin, so leaving was super difficult," Freitag said. "Ultimately I love competing, and you don't get that same competitive spirit and feeling in practice. I'll probably be playing in front of an eighth of the people Wisconsin plays in front of, but in practice, you play in front of 10 people. Playing in front of a smaller crowd is better than playing in front of no crowd.

"I am just eager to play basketball, even if the name on the front of the jersey is significantly lower status than the University of Wisconsin ... I'm very aware that I probably won't be a high major next year, but I get four years at this. I am going to be patient. I'm looking for somebody that wants to help me develop and help me show the skill that I have for more than two minutes a month at the end of a game."

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