Wisconsin Basketball Forward to Miss "Some Time" With Injury
The Wisconsin basketball frontcourt lost some depth due to an injury suffered in practice
Madison, WI - Although Wisconsin basketball enters 2025 on an 11-day break, it does not do so unscathed from the time off. With 18 Big Ten games ahead of his team, head coach Greg Gard lost a piece of his frontcourt during the hiatus.
After dropping three consecutive games to begin December, the Badgers bounced back with wins against Butler and Detroit Mercy. However, the losses may prove more consequential than the wins. UW fell to 0-2 in Big Ten play for the first time in over two decades as part of its three-game skid.
Unfortunately for Gard, he will have to climb out of that hole without his team at full strength. After an injury suffered in practice, his team lost some depth at center.
Riccardo Greppi to Miss "Some Time" With Injury
After the Badgers men's basketball team practiced on Thursday, Riccardo Greppi was seen walking with a crutch. Gard said the freshman big man was injured in practice, but the prognosis was better than the staff initially expected.
The two-time Big Ten coach of the year said the injury occurred when "In a four-on-four transition drill, [Greppi] got caught up or got hit on a rebound." Gard continued, relieved, saying, "Fortunately, it's not as serious as we initially thought when it happened. He's gonna be out for some time, but it's not going to require any type of surgery or anything like that.
"He got hit pretty hard from the front, went down hard, but like I said, we're fortunate that it's not serious. He's gonna be out for a little while as he heals up a little bit, but it's better in terms of the information that we got from our doctors than what we initially watched happen. "
Wisconsin Basketball: Impact of Riccardo Greppi's Injury
Greppi was a late addition to the Badgers' 2024 recruiting class after "paperwork issues" prevented former Wisconsin commit Andrija Vuković from enrolling in Madison. Since arriving on campus, Greppi has appeared in five games for the Badgers. Most recently, he played five minutes against Detroit Mercy, tallying one point, two rebounds, an assist, and a block.
Although the loss of Greppi does not change Gard's ability to run practices, it does take away from the time the Lecco, Italy native, could spend improving his game. "That's a long road to develop. That ain't gonna happen in a short amount of time," Gard said on Greppi's progress since joining the Badgers.
"Part of that is the body composition continuing to change, get stronger. He's stronger than what he was when he got here; I don't know if he had seen a weight room before he came here. [Strength and conditioning] Coach [Jim] Snider’s got a big project there as he goes forward to get him really strong. And functional strength, that's the biggest thing he needs to continue to acquire."