Thursday night could be the home finale of a lifelong dream for Tyler Wahl
MADISON, Wis. -- There was an unusually loose energy in Greg Gard's office while he was presenting a slideshow designed for recruits.
With Tyler Wahl's parents in the room, Gard went over how similar players have had success in Madison and how he'd fit in with the program. It was a normal rundown for a visit. With a pause in the room, Wahl stopped Gard before he got the presentation rolling and said, "coach, it's fine. I'm going to be Badger. I'm going to come here."
"I was able to watch it with a clear mind after that," Wahl said when reflecting on the moment.
His decision was an easy one after growing up around the program with his sister, Lindsay, having played basketball at UW-La Crosse. Truly getting into the sport as a teenager, Wahl followed the program's two Final Four runs in 2014 and 2015 closely with his family.
"From a young age it was Badgers, Badgers, Badgers," Wahl said.
When Wahl walks across the Kohl Center floor on Thursday evening with his parents by his side and accepts a framed No. 5 jersey, it could be the final time he suits up in a white Wisconsin uniform.
If the bout with No. 5 Purdue turns out to be his last game in Madison, it will mark the end of a chapter for what had been a childhood dream of Wahl's.
"It’s been great," Wahl said this past Tuesday. "I couldn’t ask for a better place to be. It was my dream school growing up and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The way these last four years have gone, I met a lot of my best friends and had a great time being here."
When assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft was recruiting Wahl back in 2018, his vision for the forward out of Minnesota wasn't far from what he's been for the Badgers. Just a guy who makes winning plays.
"We thought he would be what he was. A Swiss army knife, can do a little bit of everything, impact the game in ways that don’t show up in the box score and continue to grow in areas that do show up in the box score," Krabbenhoft said.
"He’s won us games and helped us have success in just about every facet of the game. Sometimes every facet during a single night. But throughout his career and throughout the seasons, he’ll win games for us on a hustle play, he’ll win games on a game winning shot, he’ll win games on a steal or a charge or a help that no one really saw, but it changed the game. He just impacts the game in so many ways. That’s what we thought he could do - just impact winning and be a guy you want on the floor."
Across his four-year career, Wahl has appeared in 118 games with 77 starts. He's averaging 7.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists through roughly 25 minutes per contest. Each of those numbers ticked up each season with a stat line of 11.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in a year that was riddled with an ankle injury.
"More growth in every aspect of his game," Krabbenhoft added. "Just tremendous growth with his post game. His ability to score around the rim is phenomenal. It’s kind of been up and down this year but over the course of the last two, three years his ability to be a real threat around the block and be a real playmaker in the paint has been a weapon we’ve used to win two titles in four years."
Junior forward Carter Gilmore, who also grew up with the dream of donning a Wisconsin uniform, has grown from working on scout team to becoming a consistent part of the rotation. He's looked to the senior forward, who had a much more linear path to playing time, for an example of what it takes to be successful at the college level.
"With Tyler here we need to keep representing that Badger way and I think that’s something Tyler did with great pride," Gilmore said. "No one was going to work harder than Tyler and that’s what you look for in a leader, and that’s what you want. He just showed up with that mindset every day.
"Watching Tyler has been a great example of what it takes to get on the court, and just as I’ve watched Tyler grow, I know his shots when he was younger didn’t go in and he wasn’t the player he was today. So just seeing how he grew up and all he had to go through and who it’s turned him into as a person has inspired me to work harder and follow in his footsteps. The way he leads by example has helped show me what it takes to be a Badger and play at this level and it has helped me grow. I’m sure it’s spread to a lot of our teammates, but for me it was an example of a leader and person to look up to."
Clouding over the ceremony Thursday night is the extra year of eligibility Wahl has left if he chooses to do so. When in similar positions, student athletes often say they're living in the moment and will reflect after the season. That is especially true for Wahl, whose team is trying to scrap together a resume worthy of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"We still have work left to do and a lot left to play for, hopefully, so I’m going to take it game by game. But my focus right now is on Thursday," Wahl said when asked about next year.
"There’s a whole lot (of factors). I haven’t really thought about it too much. My focus has been on Thursday and coming in here and giving my best everyday at practice, be a good teammate, be a good basketball player. So that’s what I’m going to do going forward until the end of the season."
If the contest against the top five Boilermakers does turn out to be his final home game, his work on the defensive end against Zach Edey could play a massive role in a Wisconsin victory. It would be a fitting send off for someone who carved out a role as the ultimate "glue guy."
"He’s been a glue guy," Gard said. "He got on the floor as a freshman because of how hard he played and he brought so many intangibles in terms of unselfishness and the rebounding, the defense.
"He helped that team to a conference championship and I think his game has grown as he’s gotten stronger and added parts of his game... so I think he epitomizes just blue collar, tough, hard nosed, he’s a Swiss army knife defensively in terms of his ability to guard multiple positions."
Krabbenhoft, who had a four-year career at Wisconsin before he joined the staff in 2016 as an assistant coach, has been part of a number of successful and talented teams.
"I’ve been a part of this program a long time and he’s been an integral part of some of the best years we’ve ever had," he said.
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