The Wisconsin men’s basketball tipped off its 2024-25 season Wednesday night with a 78-62 exhibition win over Wis.-River Falls at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis. The Falcons might compete at the Division-III level, but there was plenty to take away from the game before the Badgers’ regular season begins next on Monday against Holy Cross.
Wisconsin’s starting lineup included John Blackwell, Max Klesmit, John Tonje, Nolan Winter and Steven Crowl. Out of that entire group, Klesmit has averaged the most assists per game throughout a season at 1.9. Blackwell, Tonje and Klesmit all seemingly play the same two guard position, but none are a true point guard.
Kamari McGee, Daniel Freitag and Camren Hunter are all much closer to true point guards, but they all came off the bench in this game. It’s worth monitoring to see if this is an approach Greg Gard takes in the regular season.
Senior forward Markus Ilver started Wednesday’s game on fire. He and McGee were the first two Badgers players off the bench, and Ilver scored eight points within his first two minutes of being on the floor. He played only nine minutes in the whole game, but he did not score the rest of the night. He has not averaged more than seven minutes per game in his three college seasons, but it looks like that could change this season.
Redshirt freshman guard Jack Janicki joined Wisconsin as a preferred walk-on, but he has been turning heads all offseason. He played 10 minutes on Wednesday night, adding five points, two rebounds and one assist on 2-of-3 shooting from the field. The Badgers have a deep roster, but there’s a good chance that he finds himself somewhere in the rotation this season.
Hailing from Northern Illinois, forward Xavier Amos was one of Wisconsin’s marquee additions from the transfer portal this offseason. He played only seven minutes in the exhibition and scored five points. He seemingly is behind Winter and Tonje for big-time minutes at the forward position. He averaged 13.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season for the Huskies, but it looks like he needs to still earn his spot in the Badgers’ main rotation.
Sophomore forward Nolan Winter could be the latest Wisconsin star to come from Lakeville North High School in Lakeville, Minn. It looks like he has earned a spot in the Badgers’ starting lineup, and he had eight points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes of play against Wis.-River Falls. If he can perform at a near double-double level routinely, the ceiling of this Wisconsin team will rise dramatically.
