UW aims to bring back key players
NEW YORK – Wisconsin returned to the NCAA Tournament this season by retaining the foundational pieces of the team from the previous season and then adding a trio of contributors, including transfer AJ Storr.
After seeing his team go one-andout in the tournament, thanks to a 7261 loss to James Madison on Friday night, coach Greg Gard must identify the move needed to enhance UW for the 2024-25 season.
Forward Tyler Wahl leaves after five seasons with two Big Ten title rings.
AJ Storr dreams of playing in the NBA. Does he think he is ready to make that jump?
Storr noted before facing James Madison that his dream is to play in the NBA. Does he believe he is ready to make that jump now?
“I don’t know,” Storr said. “Right now, I’m still thinking about the loss.”
Will freshmen John Blackwell and Nolan Winter and sophomore Connor Essegian develop into better players next season?
Blackwell averaged 8.0 points and 3.2 rebounds per game and shot 45.5% from three-point range (30 of 66).
However, after suffering an ankle injury early in the Big Ten quarterfinals against Northwestern, Blackwell hit just 1 of his last 18 shots.
“I know I’ve got to step up,” Blackwell said. “I need to be more of a leader and be more consistent and not have this feeling again, getting knocked out in the first round.”
Winter needs to spend quality time in the weight room.
“Everyone knows for me it is just my strength,” he said. “When I get stronger it is going to open up so much for me both defensively and offensively. Getting downhill and showing my true potential.
“I’m going to be in the weight room every day, getting on a diet plan. That is all I’m going to be doing all summer.
“We’re going to use this fuel this whole offseason. A first-round exit is never fun.
“This obviously sucks, but we’re already looking forward to next season.”
Essegian, who did not play in UW’s final three games and saw his overall playing time dip from his freshman season, was asked to articulate his offseason goals.
“I’ve just got to get bigger, faster and stronger,” he said. “I’ll just leave it at that.”
Chucky Hepburn, Max Klesmit and Steven Crowl know they will be asked to provide leadership
Guards Chucky Hepburn and Max Klesmit and center Steven Crowl were better players this season than they were in 2022-23, when UW was relegated to the NIT.
As that trio sat in a quiet locker room after the loss to James Madison, each offered the same message. They would have to lead the way. “I have to make sure everyone is getting better,” Hepburn said. “We have to get in the weight room and get stronger. We’ve got to get better, take our game to the next step.”
Crowl’s goal: “Just pushing the younger guys and pushing ourselves to know we want to get back to this position.”
Klesmit, perhaps the most in-yourface player on the roster, insisted the
veterans wouldn’t have to tax themselves in getting the younger players to follow.
“I don’t think it takes a lot to get this group motivated,” he said. “I would just say everyone needs to focus on what they need to work on in the offseason.
“I know how everybody feels in this locker room and where they stand with the program and how much this hurts and how much it means to them. I’m not really concerned with the mindset we’re going to have this offseason.”
UW signed two freshmen in November – guard Daniel Freitag and forward Jack Robison.
Freitag can play either guard spot and is probably more ready to contribute immediately than Robison. He could earn playing time as Blackwell did this season, at 18.5 minutes per game.
Can players such as Kamari McGee, Markus Ilver and Carter Gilmore become more consistent?
Storr bolstered UW’s scoring ability this season and led the team at 16.8 points per game. He was at his best attacking the rim, but he finished at just 32.0% from three-point range and 43.4% overall.
His numbers in the loss to James Madison revealed that for all the progress he made this season, which was considerable, he hasn’t come close to reaching his ceiling.
He missed all three of his threepoint attempts, hit just 5 of 14 shots overall and had four turnovers. He finished
the season with 32 assists and 57 turnovers.
If Storr sees the potential for growth with another season in college and returns to UW, he could be a first-round pick in 2025. If he leaves after this season, he could go undrafted.
The call will be his.
Greg Gard will try to retain the team’s key pieces and add talent via the transfer portal
UW’s staff is already evaluating players in the transfer portal, which opened last Monday.
“We see the world we’re in,” Gard said, referring to the ability of players to transfer whenever they choose without having to sit out at their new school. “We’ll have conversations. A lot of guys, all but Tyler, have an option to come back, and there will be other options.
“If guys want to test the waters in the draft or get feedback. We haven’t had those conversations yet. We’re so raw after the end of the game.
“And like I said, you just look at the landscape, that’s the environment we are in. So, you have to deal with it and prepare. It could go 100 different ways. But this core is really good. They are really tight.
“That locker room, it’s pretty emotional right now and that tells me – it’s not the first time I’ve seen an emotional locker room – that tells me they are here for the right reasons.”
ORLANDO — There will be no pushback in 2024.
The NFL’s Competition Committee has decided that the tush push, aka Philadelphia Eagles’ brotherly shove, will be legal again next season. The committee discussed the play after the Super Bowl and, when push came to shove, decided it’s not particularly dangerous and there isn’t a compelling reason to ban the fourth-down, short-yardage play, which Eagles opponents (including the Dolphins) found impossible to stop in 2023.
“It was best to say, ‘ Leave it alone. The Eagles do it well,’ ” said Rich McKay, a member of the committee.
That will come as disappointing news to critics who had pinned hopes of kissing the play goodbye when the NFL holds its annual meeting Sunday through Tuesday in Orlando.
While the tush push isn’t on the agenda, plenty is. These are meetings when owners, coaches and executives discuss and vote on critical business and competitive topics ranging from the ever-expanding list of international games to TV coverage to health and safety.
How much of an effect will it have on what you see in 2024? Plenty.
XFL-inspired kickoffs may be coming soon
The most striking rule change in the works will drastically change the way kickoffs are designed. If you’ve seen kickoffs in the XFL, the NFL’s new product probably will look familiar to you. The committee’s goal is to reintroduce the kickoff into the game in a controlled way to avoid sacrificing safety. The proposal will require 24 votes to be enacted on a one-year trial basis.
Although there are many nuances to the revised kickoff, the most striking differences are that while the ball continues to be kicked off from the 35-yard line, the rest of the coverage team will line up on the opposing team’s 40-yard line, with at least seven members of the return team lined up between their 35and 30-yard lines. With far less of a head of steam, collisions won’t have the same impact as traditional kickoffs.
The return team can position one or two players in the “landing zone” between the goal line and the 20. Kickoffs landing there must be returned. Touchbacks will give the receiving team the ball on its 35 (not 25), while kickoffs that fail to reach the landing zone put the ball on the 40. A team attempting an onside kick would have to announce its intentions.
The objectives are a safer play that should encourage scoring. McKay said in 2010, kickoffs produced 416 touchbacks and 45,000 return yards. But last season, there were 917 touchbacks and 13,000 return yards. The play had become as meaningless as the old extra points.
“We’ve taken too much out of the game,” McKay said. “It’s too exciting of a play.”
There were an average of 43.5 points scored per game in 2023, down from 49 during the COVID season. The committee expects the new kickoff would give receiving teams an extra 3 to 5 yards.
“You will see a change in scoring,” McKay said.
Banning hip-drop tackle has league, players’ union at odds
The league hopes you’ll also see a change in tackling, although the NFL Players Association isn’t happy about that.
A proposal is on the table to ban the hip-drop tackle, an issue that the league has wrestled with the past few years because it can be difficult to define and harder to officiate and coach. The key act is when a tackler drops his hips or lower body and traps the runner’s legs or below the knee.
“The players oppose any attempt by the NFL to implement a rule prohibiting a ‘swivel hip-drop’ tackle,” the union wrote in a statement. “While the NFLPA remains committed to improvements to our game with health and safety in mind, we cannot support a rule change that causes confusion for us as players, for coaches, for officials and especially, for fans.”
Troy Vincent, a former Dolphins first-round pick and current NFL vice president, compared this to players’ resistance to rules banning the horse-collar tackle or crackback blocks. In his view, players will find a way to adjust.
“I respect their position,” Vincent said. “… This is something that we have to remove.”
A total of 10 rule changes have been proposed, some not for the first time. Detroit would like to see a team receive a third challenge if it succeeds with one of its first two. Indianapolis suggested that a coach or replay official inside of two minutes could challenge any foul that was called. The Dolphins did not put any suggestions on the table.
Commissioner Roger Goodell traditionally concludes this meeting with a news conference, which would be Tuesday afternoon. Also, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and the rest of the AFC coaches will meet for 30 minutes with reporters on Monday morning, followed by NFC coaches on Tuesday morning.
Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com . Follow him on social media @gunnerhal.