Wisconsin men’s basketball: transfer portal rumblings VIII

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.

New interest in two players

• A player that Wisconsin has been linked to is Max Jones (Clearwater, Fla.) out of D-II University of Tampa. The 6-foot-5 and 205 pound shooting guard averaged 21.9 points per game last season (44.5% FG, 32.5% 3P), 4.5 rebounds per game, 2.7 assists per game and 1.2 steals per game. Two years ago he was named the Sunshine State Conference Freshman of the Year and he also earned first team All-SSC honors in both of his seasons at Tampa. Here’s a link to a highlight video that shows off his shooting prowess.

• One of the top players to enter the transfer portal this offseason is South Dakota State wing Baylor Scheierman (Aurora, Neb.). He announced that he was entering his name into the portal as well as the NBA Draft, so he has a number of big decisions to make soon. The reigning Summit League Player of the Year averaged 18.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.3 steals per game last season. The 6-foot-6 and 205 pound sophomore was the only Division I player to lead his conference in rebounding and assists. He shot 50.8% from the floor and 46.9% from three on 169 attempts. Literally every team in the country would love to have Scheierman on their team, as can be seen by the list of teams that have reached out to him, so I’d put Wisconsin’s chances here on the lower end...but you can’t win if you don’t enter the race!

Just so we’re clear...Tyrese Hunter isn’t coming to Wisconsin

• The heading of this section is pretty self-explanatory, but Racine’s Tyrese Hunter, formerly of Iowa State, is making the rounds and I haven’t seen Wisconsin mentioned even once. Hopefully he doesn’t choose Purdue because he’s a good player and I’d hate for the Badgers to have to see him twice a year.

A former target (?) is off the board

• I don’t know how truly interested Wisconsin was in bringing Patrick Cartier (Brookfield) out of D-II Hillsdale (Mich.) College, but it doesn’t matter anymore because he is heading to Colorado State.

Transfer guard visiting campus this weekend

• On Tuesday, rumors started surfacing that Wofford shooting guard Max Klesmit (Neenah) would be in Madison this weekend. Well, they turned out to be true! Evan Flood of Badger247 confirmed that Klesmit would be on campus for an official visit. This is a bit of a surprise as the Badgers weren’t included on Klesmit’s final four list of schools, but with Wisconsin losing out on a couple of other transfer options they must’ve reopened discussions with him.

Standing at 6-foot-3 and weighing 190 pounds, Klesmit was named third team All-Southern Conference last year. He averaged 14.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game last season while shooting 44.6% from the field and 34.0% from three.