Three takeaways from Big Ten Media Day

Wisconsin Badgers coach Greg Gard and players Steven Crowl, Max Klesmit and John Blackwell were in attendance at this year’s Big Ten Media Day in Rosemont, Illinois, where they discussed their expectations for the upcoming season, views on the expanded conference and more.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Media Day.

Despite the attention toward Wisconsin’s departing players, and the transfers they acquired as a result, Gard kept the greatest emphasis on his returning core.

When asked what can be expected from the team this year, the very first thing Gard said was, “we have some returners who have helped stabilize our core, so to speak, with Max Klesmit, Steven Crowl and John Blackwell.”

Crowl, now a fifth-year graduate student, enters the season with more time spent in Madison than any other player on the roster, having started all 104 games he’s played over the last three seasons.

Yet the 2023-24 season was the first of his career in which he didn’t see a significant statistical improvement, having declined in average points, assists and defensive rebounds compared to his 2022-23 season.

Gard still expressed an abundance of confidence for his veteran seven-footer, who will now have to step into a greater role without his old frontcourt partner in Tyler Wahl.

“We’ve had a lot of good big guys roll through the program over the past 20 years, and he’s as good as any of them when he really performs at a high level. So for Steven, it’s really a matter of being consistent night-in and night-out. If he does what he’s been doing in practice the first couple weeks here, we’re gonna be in good shape,” Gard told the Big Ten Network.

However, the player who’s perhaps most primed to make the greatest year-to-year leap is Blackwell, who burst onto the scene as a freshman last year but struggled with consistency.

“I played him about 20-25 minutes a game. I should’ve played him about 28-30. We might’ve won more games. That was my fault. But for him, as a freshman to get the experience he did, I’ve seen the results of what that can do and what that’s done for him in terms of his confidence. He’s come back with a confidence and aura about him that makes him a dominant player. I think he can be one of the better players in our league and obviously he’s got a great backcourt mate in Klesmit next to him,” Gard said.

The departure of guard Chucky Hepburn via the transfer portal this past offseason has created the need for a dominant presence in a backcourt that is otherwise full of new faces.

Fellow returning sophomore Nolan Winter also earned some praise from Gard, who he brought up when asked about the player most likely to surprise people this season.

“Just watching freshmen go from freshmen to sophomores and the experience they can take from that handful of minutes they got as a freshman and how they use that in the offseason to improve their body, improve their game,” Gard said.

“I’m able to play two seven-footers together in Steve Crowl and Nolan Winter. And for Nolan to take the jump he has, he still has a ways to go, but we really like what we see from him so far.”

The biggest questions for the upcoming season are all related to filling the void left by the departed veterans and contributors, and the incoming transfer portal additions who were brought in as a result.

Guard Connor Essegian expectedly left after seeing a major decline in production in usage compared to his freshman season. Scoring leader (16.8 ppg) A.J. Storr left for Kansas after one of the best individual seasons from any Badger in years.

Yet, the most crushing and unexpected departure was that of Hepburn, who had started since his freshman season and became one of the most important players on the team, both on and off the court.

But, as he did the year before, Gard took to the portal to try and replenish some missing talent. And with the new players came a new perspective on the game.

“We increased the pace of play a bit. We’ve become more efficient. We’ve tweaked some things to evolve with how the game has changed and we’ve recruited specifically to that change,” Gard said.

The coaching staff first brought in junior guard Camren Hunter from Central Arkansas. He didn’t play last season due to a foot injury but most recently averaged 16.9 points and 5.0 rebounds (at 6-foot-2) per game as a sophomore in 2022-23.

Just a day later, former Northern Illinois forward Xavier Amos announced he’d be joining the Badgers as well. His 6-foot-8, 215-pound frame should help replace the size and athleticism of Wahl.

Rounding out the transfer pick-ups was fifth-year forward John Tonje, who played for four years at Colorado State before transferring to Louisville and suffering a season-ending foot injury in January. Still, he was one of the best scorers and rebounders during his time as a Ram and should offer similar benefits with the Badgers.

“We had to recruit, positionally, very specifically. We did that with Xavier Amos, a stretch four, John Tonje is a big, attacking wing, and Camren Hunter is in the backcourt with these guys (Blackwell and Klesmit). We approached that very intentionally about who we wanted to go after and the type of player we needed to have. And all three have been terrific in terms of their fit and their blend to what we’re doing,” Gard said.

“We’ve got a lot of size, a lot of depth, we’re really skilled. We shoot it better than we have in the last couple years, from all positions.”

Just like essentially every coach and player at Big Ten media day, Gard and the players were asked about the expanded conference and tougher schedule.

Gard made sure to make his age apparent and point out, more than once, that there were only 11 Big Ten teams when he first joined back in 2001 as an assistant under Bo Ryan.

“I’ve kinda coined the term, ‘There are no get-well games.’ So no matter who you play … you better lace them tight,” Gard said.

“The parity across the league has grown immensely and there’s been great battles whether you’re at home or on the road. There used to be places you could show up and make a couple layups and you’re gonna get out okay. But now, every single night’s a battle.”

Their first Big Ten matchup will come on December 3 against Michigan, before the full conference season kicks off exactly a month later against Iowa. Their first look at the new faces in the conference comes two weeks later, when they’ll travel to Los Angeles to play USC and UCLA on January 18 and 21, respectively.

“We start conference games December [3rd] this year. So, that’s something that starts really early and you have to have everybody on the same page a little bit sooner than you might expect,” Klesmit said.

Yet the real tests for the Badgers begin much earlier in the season, as their pre-conference schedule features the likes of Arizona, rival Marquette and Butler in the Indy Classic.

“Our non-conference schedule prepares us for the league. We have Arizona, we have Marquette, we have Butler. So we’ll have a lot of exposure to really good teams before we hit the first league game,” Gard said.

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