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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 (or more often since we are in Uncertain Times and there aren’t actual sports going on) 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!
New offer
- 2022 3-star (Rivals only) center Joe Hurlburt (Enderlin, N.D.) out of Enderlin Area High School announced on Friday morning that he had received a scholarship offer from the Wisconsin Badgers. Colorado, Iowa State North Dakota and North Dakota State have all also offered Hurlburt while Iowa, Iowa State, Oregon and Oregon State are all showing interest.
Blessed to receive an offer from The University of Wisconsin #GoBadgers/@adidasD1MN pic.twitter.com/UlgPZesWn7
— Joe Hurlburt (@JoeHurlburt23) July 10, 2020
The 6-foot-10 and 220 pound big man from North Dakota plays his grassroots basketball for D1 Minnesota, a program with whom the Badgers have an excellent relationship. Tyler Wahl, Nate Reuvers and Walt McGrory all played for D1 Minnesota recently and there are a number of other alumni that Wisconsin has recruited too. 2020 recruits Steven Crowl and Ben Carlson are also D1 alums, so yeah, there’s a bit of a pipeline there.
Being from North Dakota obviously means that Hurlburt has spoken to Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft, himself a South Dakotan, about coming to Madison. Krabbenhoft was also the lead recruiter for 2021 commit, and South Dakotan, Matthew Mors.
There are a number of highlights in his Hudl tape where he is “clearly the tallest kid on the court” which isn’t impressive, but does show that he’s not afraid to yam it on anybody, regardless of height. What is impressive is his ball handling for being 6-foot-10 and his shooting ability. He hits pull up threes and shoots it off of screens and he has a nice high release and a repeatable stroke. He kind of looks like he was built in a lab to be a Wisconsin big man.
One would think with Krabbenhoft’s Dakota connections and UW’s D1 Minnesota connections the Badgers will stick around in this recruitment for a while.