Micah Potter trying to help UW as he waits to play
MADISON, Wis. - Banners line the walls inside Wisconsin’s Nicholas-Johnson Pavilion - the basketball practice facility squeezed in between the Kohl Center and LaBahn Arena. One wall sports thin red banners noting conference championships, white ones for trips to the Final Four, and a sole black one for Wisconsin’s 1941 national championship.
Another wall has banners that feature Wisconsin’s current roster, sporting action shots and the names of each member of the team—with seniors like Ethan Happ in the middle of the room, and underclassmen spreading out to the edges.
But Micah Potter doesn’t have a banner up on the wall. Not yet, at least. That will probably have to wait until next season, when the 6-foot-9 Ohio State transfer will be eligible to play in a game for the Badgers after he transferred to UW in December of last year.
It’s going to be a long wait for Potter, who will have one and a half seasons of eligibility left after he finishes his NCAA mandated redshirt season—he’ll be eligible to play for Wisconsin starting in the second semester of UW’s 2019-20 season. But while Potter said it’s frustrating to have to sit out of games after he played in 59 games with 16 starts for the Buckeyes over his freshman and sophomore years, he also said he has embraced his new role: helping the rest of the team get ready for their rough-and-tumble Big Ten games.
“It gets frustrating,” Potter said when asked about how it felt to have to wait to play in a game for the Badgers. “As a competitor you always want to show your skills, right? But I’m getting to do that in practice, and my coaches and teammates have done a really good job of encouraging me and keeping me in the right direction from a mental standpoint.”
“As a competitor you want to go out and play all the time, but I also realize that’s not my role. My role is to get the team ready to play for Big Ten games. And with my experience in the Big Ten I think I can really help these guys with that. Right now it is frustrating that I can’t play, but at the same time I know my role and I just try to treat practices like my games and play as hard as I can every day in practice.”
Potter has been doing just that since he started practicing with the team after making the move to Madison from Columbus. The Badgers saw what Potter could do both out of high school and after he joined the Buckeyes, where he averaged 4.1 points per game as a bench hand during his 59 games, and UW assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft said Potter fit in right away with his new team.
“You could see that from day one,” Krabbenhoft said. “He’s very comfortable with the way we do things and how we prepare and get ready. He’s like a veteran. He’s a rookie per se here at Wisconsin but he doesn’t play like one. He doesn’t talk or think or act like one. It’s good to have another guy with that experience and mentality.”
Krabbenhoft said Potter also brings something special to the table as a transfer from within the Big Ten, in that Potter knows what it’s like to battle with other big men in the conference on a nightly basis and can give the starters a good look at what to expect while he’s on the scout team.
“(He’s) a big body with Big Ten experience who has been through the battles of the Big Ten,” Krabbenhoft said. “So when we’re putting together scouting reports of other teams he knows these guys. He’s guarded them. He’s been them before on the scout team before at Ohio State. There’s just a comfort level with the league and knowing what Big Ten physicality (is like). He does a great job of emulating that and competing. It’s great to have another big body.”
Potter also has a unique perspective in going from seeing the Wisconsin program from the outside to being another piece of the puzzle. And when he found out that he was a perfect fit for UW after making his decision to leave the Buckeyes, Potter said it made his decision to pick UW much easier.
“There were a bunch of schools that reached out and recruited me,” Potter said. “I only visited one other school (Vanderbilt) but really from the get-go Wisconsin was one of the first schools to reach out. They were my first visit and I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with the coaching staff and the way they coach, the system they run really plays in to my skill set as a big who can play inside and out. So that was the biggest thing was just fit, because this was my last shot. I needed to go to the best place for me from a playing standpoint and a culture standpoint. It’s the perfect fit.”
And while Potter said he does what he can to help the younger players on the scout team, his main focus at the moment is giving the first team a good look by battling them hard in practice—which he hopes will improve his own game down the road.
“The biggest things that’s really nice for me is being able to go against Ethan Happ and Nate Reuvers,” Potter said. “Because those guys, obviously Ethan is an All-American, and Nate has really been coming alive this year with they way he’s been playing harder and a lot better this year. Being able to go up against those guys and learn from them is really helpful to me. It kinda brings out my competitive nature because they are really good and I want to be able to shut them down in practice. It’s been tough because I can’t play, but having guys like Nate and Ethan in practice to go up against every day makes it a little easier.”
It’s going to be a long wait for Potter before he can finally make the transition from the practice floor to the Kohl Center court for a game. But while he said he hasn’t circled any particular day on his calendar for when he’ll be eligible once again, Potter was clear that he wants to be an asset for the Badgers from here on out—no matter what his role is on a given day.
Asked what Wisconsin fans can expect to see when the day comes for him to make his Wisconsin debut, Potter said he hopes fans can see his passion for the sport and for his new team already.
“I’m super passionate—hopefully people can see that when I’m on the bench trying to get the crowd hyped and supporting and cheering on my teammates,” Potter said. “I’m super passionate, super competitive. I’d even say I have a mean streak to me that comes out on the court. I try to be the nicest guy possible off the court but sometimes on the court I can get a little physical.
“But the biggest thing is that I’m going to play hard, I’m going to try and play the right way. Try to keep a good attitude but be super competitive and play super hard. I think I’ll be a good addition to the system.”
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.