Wisconsin men’s basketball recruiting: former Gophers guard Gabe Kalscheur on UW’s radar

The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team have a couple of roster spots to fill before next season and the transfer portal is, presumably, the way they will be addressing these needs. They could use veteran help at just about every position so a wide net has been cast by Greg Gard and Co.

A new name that has popped up on the radar is former Minnesota Golden Gophers shooting guard Gabe Kalscheur. A native of Edina, Minn., Kalscheur has played three seasons at Minnesota, starting in 88 straight games (before a season ending finger injury in Februrary) and averaging over 30 minutes of playing time each year. Including the game when he suffered the injury, the Gophers went 1-8 without him in the lineup.

Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing 200 pounds, Kalscheur would most likely slot in as a shooting guard type/potential Brad Davison replacement. This past season was Kalscheur’s worst in terms of shooting (24.5% from three) and scoring (9.2 ppg), which are, uh, two things that the Badgers would want him to do well, but for his career he is a 34.5% shooter from deep. He also shot a career-high 86% from the free throw line which shows that his shooting stroke is still sound and he might just need a change of scenery to get his three point shooting back up.

Kalscheur was considered one of the top perimeter defenders for the Gophers so he would probably fit right in with the Badgers. Per an article in the Pioneer Press, he’s still going to consider returning to Minnesota, which makes a lot of sense because new head coach Ben Johnson was one of Kalscheur’s primary recruiters when Johnson was an assistant under former head coach Richard Pitino.

According to Matthew Bain of the Des Moines Register, Kalscheur is also considering Iowa State, Georgia and Louisiana Tech. The Badgers did show interest in Kalscheur when he was in high school but never offered.