Wisconsin basketball recruiting: a new offer goes out to sweet shooting guard

The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team have one spot left in their 2021 recruiting class. After losing out on 3-star SG Julian Roper to Northwestern, Greg Gard took his time in making his next move. On Wednesday evening, 2021 4-star (247 Sports standalone) SG Louis Lesmond (Niles, Ill.) out of Notre Dame College Prep announced via Twitter that the Badgers had made an offer.

Lesmond has long been on the Badgers’ radar and the trigger was finally pulled this week by Gard and co. The sharp shooting guard stands at 6-foot-5 and weighs 190 pounds and also represents France on the international level. He’s already played in a FIBA tournament where he averaged 6.3 ppg and shot 34.5% from deep.

Lesmond has offers from Marquette, Illinois, Nebraska, Xavier, Dayton, Oklahoma, Loyola (Ill.), Harvard and Santa Clara. It is also worth noting that Lesmond plays on the same AAU team (Illinois Wolves) as current Wisconsin commit, 2021 4-star PF Chris Hodges.

Lesmond has a smooth, repeatable stroke from deep and is proficient off of catch and shoot opportunities, something the Badgers always need more of. He has the prototypical length for a 3-and-D wing which, again, the Badgers always need more of. While his “3” may be ahead of his “D” he flashes some nice defensive plays in the below highlight video.

With the summer AAU season still in question, who knows when Lesmond will want to commit, but if the right offer comes along he may not want to wait long. Evan Flood of 247 Sports notes: “Due to the NCAA’s decision to extend the dead period through July 31 and perhaps the continued absence of AAU throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Lesmond may push up that timeline.”