On the recruiting trail
Data for scholarship offers for this and all ensuing sections is from the 247 Sports database and Journal Sentinel archives dating to 2003. Player rankings are according to the 247 Composite rankings, which take into account multiple scouting services.
Who has been better at getting commitments on its home turf ?
Marquette has offered scholarships to 52 players from Wisconsin since the class of 2000. Fourteen committed to the program in high school and ultimately enrolled at the school, good for a commitment rate of 26.9%.
Wisconsin has been more selective, offering only 38 scholarships over the 21-year period. Twenty-three of those 38 players, or 60.5%, ultimately enrolled at UW immediately out of high school.
These numbers don't include players who initially committed to the school, such as Tyler Herro at Wisconsin and Philip Flory at Marquette, but ultimately went elsewhere.
Recruiting sites have long used a star system in their evaluation of prospects. A five-star is the highest rating a player can receive in this system, with only a couple dozen typically being labeled a five-star recruit each class. Anywhere from the next 50 to 100 or so next-highest rated players are given four-star ratings. High-major programs like Marquette and Wisconsin rarely recruit below three-star players.
The Badgers have had their way when recruiting in-state three-star players, with eight of the nine they have offered ultimately playing for them. Some of those names have turned into incredibly solid players, including Gasser, Flowers and current freshman Jonathan Davis. The only one from that group that didn't go to UW? Scott Christopherson, who played briefly for Marquette
before transferring to Iowa State.
Wisconsin's success in the state has declined in recent years. From 2014, when five-star Kevon Looney chose UCLA over a final group of schools that included UW, to 2020, the Badgers were 40% (4 of 10) in turning in-state offers into commitments, a significant dip from their run during the majority of Ryan's career as head coach.
Over that period, though, the top-end talent in the state, which UW has been after, is about as good as any era in memory. The median national rank of in-state offers from 2004 to 2013 was 97.6; for the 10 players offered from 2014 to 2020, it was 45, as the steady stream of high-end basketball talent has flowed. The Badgers just haven't been on the receiving end of much of it while going up against tough competition.
Marquette has experienced a similar pattern, landing just four in-state players since 2015, but among those three were highly rated Henry Ellenson and Joey Hauser, both of whom for which the Golden Eagles beat out the Badgers.
MU has been slightly better than UW at recruiting elite in-state talent out of high school, turning nine of the state's four-star prospects from 2003 to 2020 into signings out of high school. The Badgers have signed eight such players.
When the two programs go head-tohead, Wisconsin has out-recruited Marquette. On in-state players who have been offered by both schools since 2003, the Badgers lead the Golden Eagles, 11-5. More recently, though, MU beat out UW for Ellenson and Hauser while losing out on Davis and Brevin Pritzl to Madison.
Seven other players who had scholarship offers from both schools have attended out-of-state programs. While there have been more elite players from Wisconsin in recent years, a high percentage of top-flight talent going to neither UW nor MU is a newer trend. Of those seven players, only one graduated high school before 2012: Jerry Smith, who went to Louisville. The others: JP Tokoto (North Carolina), Matt Thomas (Iowa State), Looney (UCLA), Diamond Stone (Maryland), Herro (Kentucky) and Jalen Johnson (Duke).
Which team fared the best?
Now that we've gone over how the programs did at getting in-state talent to their campuses, let's go over how those players performed once there.
To start, we rounded up the career minutes played, games played and points scored of every player from Wisconsin who signed with either MU or UW out of high school. This provided a general picture, albeit incomplete, of which team's recruits produced more.
Note: Wisconsin's Jordan Davis is not included since he has played sparingly with four years of eligibility left.
Marquette minutes per game: 25.0 Marquette points per game: 9.8 Wisconsin minutes per game: 22.8 Wisconsin points per game: 7.4 Marquette, a program that tends to play at a higher tempo than methodical UW and thus typically scores more points — it averaged a tick over six more points per game since 2000, has received a higher scoring and minutes average from its Wisconsinites than UW. Five of the top six players in points per game were Golden Eagles: Henry Ellenson, Travis Diener, Wesley Matthews, Sam Hauser and Steve Novak.
On a per-player basis, Marquette has had greater production. But there are various ways to measure production in basketball aside from points and minutes play.
The Badgers have gotten consistent contributions from a steady flow of players who weren't always high-end scorers: Flowers, Gasser, Bronson Koenig, Greg Stiemsma, Freddie Owens and Pritzl. UW did have some big scorers from the in-state pool, such as Mike Wilkinson, Devin Harris and Sam Dekker, but more often players became solid multi-year contributors.
UW has gotten an average of 743.1 points per in-state recruit over the course of their careers, whereas MU's mark is higher at 827.8 per player.
These per-player career numbers are despite Marquette being affected more greatly by former high school signees transferring out. Sam and Joey Hauser, Duane Wilson, Sandy Cohen, Deonte Burton, Jeronne Maymon and Christopherson all left MU at some point before their senior seasons.
In terms of accolades, the Badgers had nine combined all-conferences selections, as well as a conference player of the year and first team all-American (Harris), six all-conference defensive team picks and two Big Ten Tournament MVPs (Harris and Marcus Landry).
The Golden Eagles have had seven allconference selections, including four on the first team. Cohen (Horizon), Maymon (SEC), Burton (Big 12) and Christopherson (Big 12) all went onto earn allconference honors after transferring out. Both Hauser brothers are likely to be added to that list, as well, although Sam was also a second team honoree as a junior at MU.
Both programs have had two players from the state leave early for the NBA — Ellenson and Vander Blue for Marquette, and Harris and Dekker for Wisconsin — but MU's averages were likely more affected due to missing out on a possible three more years from Ellenson whereas Harris and Dekker left following their junior seasons.
So, which team got more out of its players?
The answer depends on which lens you view their production through.
On a per-player basis, Marquette derived more out of its recruits, but the Golden Eagles have not signed as many players as the Badgers. Because of that, the sum of Wisconsin's parts has been greater than Marquette's.
While six of the top seven in the points per game went to Marquette, the next four on the list all went to Wisconsin. The Badgers' greater success in getting a higher number of recruits from the state has led to higher raw totals in most statistical categories.
Factor in the four players from Wisconsin who transferred into Marquette and its per-game numbers don't change significantly. The minutes per game dip from 25.0 to 24.8 and points decline a bit more, from 10.7 to 10.2. UW's transfers — Sharif Chambliss and Anderson — do not shift their numbers even that much.
Starting fives
Which team's starting lineup of instate players would you choose?
Wisconsin
Guards - Devin Harris, Bronson Koenig. Forwards - Sam Dekker, Mike Wilkinson. Center - Brian Butch
Marquette
Guards - Travis Diener, Wesley Matthews, Forwards - Sam Hauser, Steve Novak, Henry Ellenson