Wisconsin basketball recruiting: rankings updates and other news

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 rankings

• 247Sports released new rankings for the men’s basketball class of 2022 earlier this week and a number of Wisconsin Badgers offers are on the list. First things first, here are the players the Badgers have offered that are in the top-150:

No. 47 Joe Hurlburt, center, 6-foot-10, Enderlin, N.D.
No. 54 Camden Heide, wing, 6-foot-5, Wayzata, Minn.
No. 68 Braden Huff, wing, 6-foot-8, Carol Stream, Ill.
No. 70 Tre Holloman, point guard, 6-foot-1, Minneapolis, Minn.
No. 88 Isaac Traudt, wing/power forward, 6-foot-8, Grand Island, Neb.
No. 90 Jaden Schutt, shooting guard, 6-foot-5, Yorkville, Ill.

There are also some players that the Badgers are interested in, but have not yet offered, on the list:

No. 24 AJ Casey, power forward, Chicago, Ill.
No. 49 Gradey Dick, wing, Wichita, Kan.
No. 95 JaVaughn Hannah, wing, Mount Clemens, Mich.
No. 117 Tyler Nickel, power forward, Elkton, Va.
No. 120 Eli King, point guard, Caledonia, Minn.
No. 137 Seth Trimble, point guard, Menomonee Falls
No. 146 Trey Pettigrew, combo guard, Oak Park, Ill.

It’s great to see these new rankings because almost all of the recent offers that the Badgers had thrown out were to players that were unranked on 247, but now find themselves in the top-100. It will definitely be interesting to see how their rankings fluctuate over the next two years.

Highlights!

• Here’s a nice jumper from Eli King, who plays for D1 Minnesota a grassroots program that the Badgers have a great relationship with. King is also a top football prospect, holding offers from Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Mizzou and Penn State, so we’ll have to wait and see which sport he’s going to choose.

• 2023 big man Gus Yalden (De Pere) is such a good passer for a young kid who also happens to be 6-foot-10. He also handles the ball pretty well as a point forward type player. Love watching The Bus play.

Chucky Hepburn update(s)

• 2021 3-star PG Chucky Hepburn (Bellevue, Neb.) is awesome. He’s a great point guard and seems to already really love Wisconsin and now he has been recognized as the best player in Nebraska.

I doubt that he will ever be recognized as the best golfer in Nebraska...or any state with a swing like this.

He’s still hitting the recruiting trail hard and trying to develop a Nebraska to Madison pipeline.

Oh man, what a beautiful stat line Hepburn had on Thursday. So efficient, so active...you love to see it.

Keeping it in Nebraska

• 2021 5-star CG Hunter Sallis (Omaha, Neb.) received an offer from Wisconsin in the last month and is also filling up the stat sheet with performances like this. Hepburn has been in Sallis’ ear about coming to Wisconsin, and there is hope that Greg Gard can get them on campus together this fall, but will it all be too little too late?