Wisconsin men’s basketball: transfer portal rumblings VII

We threw out a bunch of names that the Badgers might be interested in from the transfer portal over the last few weeks and since then more names have only been added to the portal. Wisconsin has added backup point guard Kamari McGee from Green Bay but has missed on other top targets. Let’s take a look at where things stand currently.

Badgers miss on, arguably, top target

• Ohio forward Ben Vander Plas (Ripon) is heading to play for Tony Bennett and Virginia. Vander Plas took a visit to Madison and there were positive rumors on message boards that he liked his trip and would be committing to Wisconsin. Well, that obviously didn’t happen and the versatile forward is going to the ACC. His fit at UVa seems...interesting, to put it politely as the Cavaliers have a ton of returning production as well as a stacked incoming recruiting class. Our pals over at Streaking The Lawn don’t even think Vander Plas will start which seems like the opposite of what a grad transfer with only one year left to play would want. Vander Plas has a strong connection to the Virginia head coach as his father player for Bennett’s father at UW-Green Bay, which certainly played a part in this decision.

Another top target bypassing Wisconsin?

• Big man Grant Basile (Pewaukee) from Wright State has reportedly cut down his list to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. While nothing is official, Mark Miller is pretty plugged in to Wisconsin high school basketball and surely has some sources that would know Basile’s thinking. Basile took an official visit to Wisconsin and was also considering Iowa State.

A new Wisconsin native in the portal

• Iowa State point guard Tyrese Hunter (Racine) entered the transfer portal last week. He had an excellent freshman season in Ames and, you may remember, helped the Cyclones beat Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament to head to the Sweet 16. He is one of the top-five transfers in the portal right now, and while I’m sure Wisconsin at least reached out to Hunter, it doesn’t seem like they are on his radar at all.

If you are someone who likes storylines, Hunter ending up at Kansas, one of Iowa State’s most hated rivals, would be pretty sweet.

Random player I’d never heard of didn’t choose Wisconsin either

• Apparently Wisconsin reached out to Saint Joe’s transfer forward Taylor Funk (Lancaster, Pa.) before he ended up at Utah State. The 6-foot-8 grad transfer shot 37.3% from deep on 204 attempts last year while averaging 13.2 points per game.