Wisconsin basketball returning player profile: Walt McGrory

While the official start date of the 2020-2021 college basketball season is still up for discussion, we here at Bucky’s 5th Quarter are champing at the bit for hoops to start and have decided to get our returning player profile series going again. Over the next two weeks we will profile all of the returning players and then the week after that we will profile all of the incoming freshmen on the team.

The next player up for the defending Big Ten champion Wisconsin Badgers is senior guard Walt McGrory.

Photo by Lawrence Iles/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Position: guard

Height: 6-foot-3

Year: senior

Hometown: Minneapolis, Minn. (Edina High School)

Recruiting info: class of 2017, preferred walk-on; unranked; offers from Brown, Drake, Furman, Maine and South Dakota State

2019-20 statistics: 14 games played, 5-of-13 (2-of-7 from three), 15 points (1.1 ppg), nine rebounds, five assists, one steal, one turnover

Career statistics: 36 games played, 7-of-23 (4-of-14 from three), 26 points (0.7 ppg), 19 rebounds, 10 assists, five steals, 10 turnovers

Player overview: I did not know that McGrory left Edina High School as the all-time leading scorer, but with 2,126 career points he is at the top of the list. He did get an extra year, as he played varsity as an eighth grader but still...very impressive. He hasn’t had the chance to show his scoring chops in Madison yet, but despite limited minutes he does have a career high scoring effort of nine points (against McNeese State last year).

Now in his fourth year with the program, McGrory is a player that Greg Gard can count on to eat up some minutes at either guard position if needed due to injuries or foul trouble. I like that even in limited action McGrory has almost as many rebounds as he does points. Love to see guards crashing the glass to help out the big fellas.

Role on 2020-21 team: If this were a video game, I’d strongly consider using a redshirt for McGrory this year. Brad Davison, Trevor Anderson and D’Mitrik Trice are all ahead of McGrory on the depth chart and seniors too. Depending on how some of the freshmen look, one of them may jump ahead of him as well and it would be nice to have McGrory’s leadership next year on what will be an extremely young team.

However, this is real life and not a video game (and Wisconsin basketball players get to choose themselves whether or not they redshirt so this is all a moot point). His role will be extremely similar to what it has been the last three years: play some mop up minutes in conference blowouts and maybe get extended run in non-conference blowouts.