Wisconsin basketball gets pair of massive injury updates
Greg Gard is sounding optimistic about Wisconsin basketball forward Nolan Winter and guard Jack Janicki's chances on returning for March Madness
Madison, WI — After a clutch win over the Purdue Boilermakers to close the regular season, Wisconsin basketball has turned its focus to the postseason. With the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago this week and the NCAA Tournament right around the corner, the Wisconsin Badgers appear to be getting healthy at just the right time.
The Badgers earned a 97-93 victory over the Boilermakers (Wisconsin’s third win in four games inside Purdue’s Mackey Arena) without two players in UW head coach Greg Gard’s rotation. The win came on the tenth anniversary of Wisconsin officially naming Gard head coach of the Badgers. It stands as a testament to the coaching veteran’s penchant for roster construction in the new era of college basketball.
Of the eight players who checked into the game for Wisconsin on Saturday, seven were newcomers to the program this offseason. John Blackwell, whose 25 points led all scorers on the afternoon, suited up beside four transfers and three true freshmen.
After seeing UW walk into Mackey, where Wisconsin is just 7-43 all-time, and beat a projected NCAA Tournament three-seed with those eight guys, it is hard not to embrace all-Big Ten hopeful Nick Boyd’s mentality about what this team can accomplish at full strength.
“I don’t think there’s a ceiling for us,” the point guard remarked on Monday.
Nolan Winter will ‘definitely’ play in NCAA Tournament
Wisconsin beat Purdue thanks, in part, to a pair of standout performers in the frontcourt. True freshman Aleksas Bieliauskas played a career-high 36 minutes and scored 16 points (one shy of his career-high) on 4-5 shooting from beyond the arc. Portland Pilots transfer Austin Rapp also logged a season-high 32 minutes. Rapp added 16 points of his own on 4-8 shooting from deep.
These versatile forwards make the Badgers difficult to defend. If starting center Nolan Winter can soon return to the lineup, he gives UW an inside-out presence that has made it the third-most efficient offense in the country since January 1st, according to BartTorvik.
Winter suffered a lower-body injury in Wisconsin’s penultimate game of the regular season. With 7:01 remaining in an eventual victory over the Maryland Terrapins, the junior exited the court with help from the Badgers’ training staff. He did not travel with the team to West Lafayette for the regular season finale, in hopes of maximizing his injury rehab sessions.
Gard’s comments to reporters on Monday indicated that Winter’s decision not to travel is paying off.
“I think everything is going well. You know, as far as these days play out, he’s doing more every day,” said Gard when asked about Winter’s recovery process. “We’ll see how this week plays out and he’s trying to be ready for this week, and definitely will be ready by the NCAA Tournament.”
Putting any possibility of Winter playing in the conference tournament aside, the fact that the seven-footer is seemingly trending toward being available for the big dance is a boon to UW’s hopes of making it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2017.
Making 78.2% of his shots at the rim, Winter is by far Wisconsin’s most-reliable option in the post. Other than Boyd cutting to the rim with speed, Winter is UW’s greatest interior scoring threat in any capacity. Boyd and Winter are the only Badgers this season to make 100 or more shots inside the arc.
As impressive as Bieliauskas and Rapp were last Saturday. Neither of them can truly replace Winter’s role on either end of the floor.
*There is an additional note on Nolan Winter’s injury status behind the paywall for premium subscribers at the bottom of this article.
Jack Janicki could return from wrist surgery
At the other end of the floor, Wisconsin basketball has been missing a defensive specialist. Although redshirt sophomore Jack Janicki has not taken the step forward offensively he was hoping for, the guard had been contributing in other ways before an injury interrupted his season.
Janicki continues to recover after undergoing surgery to repair his broken wrist. The White Bear Lake, Minnesota native suffered the injury in UW’s 86-69 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes. He has missed each of Wisconsin’s last five games.
Perhaps, Wisconsin Badgers fans have not yet seen the last of Janicki this season.
“He had another evaluation today. It looks really good,” Gard said on Monday about the reserve guard’s status. “I think he meets with his doctor again, I think, early next week, so potentially by the NCAA Tournament would be a possibility for him too.”
Janicki’s return would help a team that, while improved defensively from the beginning of the season, knows it has room to grow on that end of the court.
Boyd noted on Monday that the Badgers are still searching for a win in which “defense carried us.”
Among all players in Gard’s rotation, senior guard Andrew Rohde leads the way with a 2.9 defensive box plus-minus. Janicki boasts UW’s second-best mark at 2.6.
Despite the 6-foot-5 former walk-on’s lackluster shooting numbers this season (making only 21 of 65 shots from the field), Gard noted earlier this season that “Janicki got on the floor a year ago because of his energy and his hustle and all those intangible things that he can do.”
“We’ve had many guys over the years that have been in that role that they don’t necessarily have to—their job is not to score a lot, but if the opportunity presents it, great,” Gard continued. “But they have to bring some of the other things. The hustle. The energy. The boost when we need it. The little spark and the rebounding.”
Wisconsin has managed without Janicki, going 4-1 with him sidelined. But his return would give Gard another option in a single-elimination tournament where a team’s ability to match personnel can determine the fate of its season.
Nolan Winter sighting?
For any fans interested in sleuthing and wild speculation, I have just the image for you.
