Checking On Wisconsin Basketball’s 2019 Recruiting Progress

With everyone back on campus and practices beginning in less than a month, college basketball is getting ever closer to returning to the sports landscape.

Program recruiting never dies down, and the 2019 commitment and official visit season is in full swing.

For Wisconsin, the 2019 class is about establishing a future in their frontcourt. The Badgers have four big men that will graduate after this season and will look to reload with as much as five spots available for the class. Let’s take a look below at who has committed to the Badgers, and who they are targeting to fill out this important class for coach Greg Gard and his program.

Commits

Tyler Wahl

The 6-foot-7 small forward is straight out of central casting for the type of player Wisconsin has been recruiting over the last 20 years. Wahl, a three-star according to Rivals, chose Wisconsin over offers from Northwestern, Minnesota, Baylor, Iowa State, and Colorado State amongst others.

As you can see from the video highlights below, Wahl possesses a versatile ability to pass, dribble, shoot, and defend. He seemed comfortable in a spot-up shooting role and handling and directing the offense. His seems to be able to use some of his length to get after it on defense but will need to get stronger and quicker on the next level.

Wahl committed in June and seems to be a solid start to the recruiting class.

(courtesy of 247Badgers)

Other Targets

Zeke Nnaji

Wisconsin was the first to offer the lanky 6-foot-10 four-star PF/C, and that seemed to genuinely mean something to the Minnesota-native. But the Rivals top 40 player exploded on the AAU scene this summer and the big dogs have come sniffing around. Nnaji now boasts offers from Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and UCLA amongst others. He is also the AAU teammate to Wahl.

With the new offers coming Nnaji’s way, it will be interesting to see if Wisconsin earns an official visit. It seems like he does appreciate Wisconsin’s belief in him since the beginning, so it might be surprising for Wisconsin not to earn an official visit to campus.

Nnaji’s plan is to finish unofficial visits to schools that have offered him, and then start to cut down his list. We’ll keep you updated on Nnaji’s top schools when he releases them later this fall.

Check out some highlights of Nnaji below.

(courtesy of Rivals)

Nobal Days

Another one of Wisconsin’s long-standing recruiting targets is 6-foot-8 Nobal Days. The Wisconsin-native is one of the best prospect in the state and Badgers were one of his early offers in 2016.

Marquette is also a factor for the versatile power forward. Other offers include Illinois, Northwestern, Nebraska, Boston College, Cornell, and Kansas State amongst others.

Days’ timeline to potentially cut his list of suitors and take official visits is unknown right now. Look for Wisconsin to earn a spot in any final cut of schools.

Overview

Wisconsin got off to a nice start with the commitment of Wahl but has a battle on their hands with some other long-standing targets. Losing out on EJ Liddell is a tough thing to swallow too. One thing to follow is to see how many Wisconsin takes in this class. Their scholarship numbers seem to indicate that this could be a big class, but with only four other offers out to two positions, there seems to be some patience to offer more available 2019 players. Wisconsin pursued a similar strategy last season and ended up with a solid player like Tai Strickland, but it is a little risky.