Wisconsin basketball coach Greg Gard points back to his days as a Milwaukee assistant under Bo Ryan in the late 1990s as when recruiting in Minnesota really started for him.

And now Gard can’t imagine where his program would be without Minnesota talent.

The Badgers established a recruiting pipeline across the border that’s been challenging the Gophers for two decades, well before coach Ben Johnson took over at Minnesota in 2021.

Few things have frustrated Gophers hoops fans more over the years than seeing so many top Minnesota boys basketball players head to the Badgers. It’s almost as bad as losing to them on the court.

On last Wednesday’s signing day, Breck’s Daniel Freitag and Lakeville North’s Jack Robison gave Wisconsin six players from Minnesota since 2019, the same number of in-state players the Gophers have signed in that span. Last year, Gard signed Lakeville North’s Nolan Winter, now an impact freshman.

“It’s just a natural fit,” Gard said. “It’s far enough away but not too far away. It’s a great academic school. Awesome campus and awesome city.”

Johnson has yet to sign a Minnesota player who also received a Wisconsin scholarship offer, but he says not every top prospect in the state fits his program.

The Gophers signed in-state recruits Isaac Asuma from Cherry and Grayson Grove from Alexandria. In his first three U classes, Johnson has already signed five Minnesotans, one more than predecessor Richard Pitino did in his last five years from 2017-21.

“It’s always our goal for the players who fit us and are good enough in-state to do a good job and get those guys,” Johnson said. “We targeted both [Asuma and Grove] early. And just knowing them as people, knowing their families, knowing what they’re about and watching them develop and grow basketball-wise, it’s a perfect match.”

It’s easier to spot a sure-fire Minnesota prospect who matches the Badgers. Many of them have been versatile big men, from Jon Leuer and Jared Berggren in the 2000s to Tyler Wahl, Steven Crowl and Winter on the current Wisconsin team.

A longtime Ryan assistant, Gard took over as Wisconsin’s head coach in 2015. There were a handful of players who played for the Badgers from Minnesota under Ryan. The first was Kam Taylor in 2003. Berggren and Jordan Taylor arrived in 2008, and Mike Bruesewitz in 2009.

“You’ve watched kind of the evolution,” said Gard on the rise of Minnesota into a basketball-rich state. “We’ve built great relationships. The people who have all come had great experiences — and they talk about that.”

The Minnesota-to-Madison connection really ramped up once Ryan left, starting with the 2017 recruiting class with Lakeville North’s Nate Reuvers and Maple Grove’s Brad Davison. Gard has signed four players from Lakeville North alone, including Wahl and Winter.

Even Gophers football player Nathan Boe, a former Lakeville North hooper, was tired of hearing about players from his former high school going to play for the Badgers.

“I played with some of the best [basketball] players to ever play there,” Boe said. “I’d appreciate it if more Lakeville people would go to Minnesota [he joked].”

Four of the 10 highest-ranked recruits (Reuvers, Ben Carlson, Bruesewitz and Taylor) to sign with Wisconsin in the past 20 years are from Minnesota, per 247Sports.

“There are a ton of players,” Gard said. “There are a lot of similarities between how high school basketball is played in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Things that are prioritized.”

Winter, a 6-11 forward, picked the Badgers last year over the Gophers, for whom both of his parents were former athletes. That was the clearest case in years where the Gophers were actually beat out in a border recruiting battle with rival Wisconsin.

The Badgers don’t always recruit players who are being pursued heavily by the Gophers. Freitag and Robison both had offers from the home-state program, but found out they were not the priority in the U’s 2024 class.

“It wasn’t officially, we’re done recruiting you,” said Freitag, who previously played at Jefferson. “But I think the [Gophers] calls stopped coming in about two months after I was offered.”

Will the trend continue with Wisconsin relying on Minnesota as a main recruiting base? Gard has not offered any players in the state’s 2025 and 2026 classes, while the Gophers have offered three sophomores. History says another prospect across the border will look like they belong in Badgers red and white soon enough.

…

Minnesota boys basketball players who signed with Wisconsin since 2013

2024 – Daniel Freitag (Breck), Jack Robison (Lakeville North)

2023 – Nolan Winter (Lakeville North), *Jack Janicki (White Bear Lake)

2020 – Steven Crowl (Eastview), Ben Carlson (East Ridge)

2019 – Tyler Wahl (Lakeville North)

2018 – *Joe Hedstrom (Hopkins)

2017 – Nate Reuvers (Lakeville North), Brad Davison (Maple Grove), Walt McGrory (Edina)*

2015 – Alex Illikainen (Grand Rapids)

2013 – Riley Dearring (Minnetonka)

* – Walk-ons