Wisconsin basketball recruiting: UW offers in-state 2024 prospect Kon Knueppel

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

• 2024 wing Kon Knueppel (Milwaukee) out of Wisconsin Lutheran High School is the latest rising sophomore to be offered by Greg Gard and the Wisconsin Badgers. Despite being early on his recruitment process, Knueppel already has offers from Marquette, Iowa, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Southern Cal and Toledo.

Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing around 180 pounds, Knueppel is listed as a shooting guard some places and a small forward other places. One would be safe in assuming that the small forward designation is being used because presumably Knueppel might not be done growing.

According to WisSports.net, he averaged 10.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Vikings and scored a career-best 23 points in a triumph over Pius XI Catholic. Knueppel II is the son of Kon Knueppel I, who scored more than 2,000 career points at Wisconsin Lutheran College from 1994-98, and Chari Nordgaard, the all-time leading scorer in UW-Green Bay history with 1,964 career points.

Also, Anonymous Eagle, the SB Nation Marquette blog, had a post after Shaka Smart offered Knueppel back in June and the Wisconsin Lutheran hoops account had a quick correction about some of the stats that WisSports.net had.

Pretty solid shooting numbers!

Knueppel shows a solid array of post moves for a freshman. He has a nice spin move that he uses to get open under the basket and he also has an advanced floater package in the lane for when he can’t get all the way to the tin. Knueppel’s first step isn’t lightning quick, but he uses his movements intelligently and can get to his spots before his defender.

His three point shooting stroke is enviable. It is repeatable, compact and he can get it off with a hand in his face and while he’s on the move. He has some very Ben Brust-like qualities already. Looking at the rest of his highlight tape, which is quite long, he seems to have a high basketball IQ and is a willing passer. I don’t know how well he’ll hold up as an individual defender on the perimeter but he does look like a useful team defender.

Knueppel is shaping up to be the top in-state prospect in 2024 and hopefully the Badgers stay in this race until the end.