Wisconsin basketball recruiting: May news roundup

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any major college athletics team, but following it closely as a fan can sometimes be difficult and can often be time consuming. We’ll try and condense all the recruiting news you can use into this bi-weekly post. It’ll include updates on current commits, including stats from their high school games, as well as news on players the Badgers are still pursuing. Let’s get down to business!

Senior highlight video

• 2020 commit 4-star Ben Carlson (Woodbury, Minn.) of East Ridge High School released his official senior year mixtape on Friday evening. The top-100 talent is the top-rated player in the Wisconsin Badgers 2020 class and brings a diverse skill set to Madison.

Carlson can score from all three levels and, despite only being 6-foot-9, is a pretty good rim protector. While the Badgers are a senior laden team next year, Carlson is one of the freshman who could steal some minutes from older players if he has a strong fall practice.

Badgers make top-10 for local 5-star prospect

• 2021 5-star wing Patrick Baldwin, Jr. (Sussex) out of Hamilton High School released his top-10 schools on Saturday evening. The home-state Badgers made the cut and, in case you can’t see the embedded tweet, so did Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, UCLA, Michigan, Georgetown, Northwestern and UW-Milwaukee.

It may be a surprise to see the Panthers make the top-10 for the No. 3 player in the country, but Baldwin Jr.’s father is the coach at UWM. The Badgers may make the final cutdown list for Baldwin Jr., since he’s an in-state kid, but no one has any strong inclination that he is seriously considering Wisconsin as his school of choice. Currently Duke is thought to be the leader with UNC, Michigan, Kentucky and Georgetown right behind the Blue Devils.