Wisconsin's Freshman Frolic
One year ago, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team made a trip to the Sweet 16 before losing to eventual national runner-up Butler by seven points. This November, prepare to meet a new group of Wisconsin players, some of whom aren’t much older than 16.
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan has five freshmen on his roster, if you don’t count 6-10 redshirt freshman Evan Anderson. Five true first-year players on a roster of 17 means Wisconsin’s 2011-12 roster is almost one-third newcomers. That’s not as disastrous as it might sound. Wisconsin is picked to be among the Big Ten Conference title contenders this season, along with Ohio State, and the freshmen are just one reason why. There are three guards and two forwards in Ryan’s incoming class. Let’s take a brief look at each player.
Jordan Smith, a 6-1 guard, led Orono (Minn.) High School with 2,518 career points to rank 12th in Minnesota boys basketball high school history for scoring. He averaged 21.5 points per game to go with four rebounds and three assists as Orono went 28-4 and won the Class AAA state championship last winter. He was also named 3A Player of the Year.
George Marshall, a 5-11 guard from Chicago, averaged 17.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game to lead his Chicago Brooks College Prep team to the Public League championship. He did all this despite missing six weeks of the season with a hand injury. Nice recovery.
Traevon Jackson, a 6-2 guard from Westerville, Ohio, averaged 18.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and was the all-time leading scorer at South High School. He also has a strong pedigree. His father is Jimmy Jackson, the former fourth pick of the 1992 NBA draft who went on to a 14-season pro career after a successful college career at Ohio State.
Jarrod Uthoff, a 6-8 forward from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was the state’s Mr. Basketball and the Gatorade Player of the Year in Iowa. His double-double of 26.2 points and 11.2 rebounds per game at Cedar Rapids Jefferson was simply amazing. He was also a 1,000-point scorer in his career.
Frank Kaminsky, a 6-11 forward from Lisle, Ill., was a first-team all-state selection at Benet Academy and averaged 14.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game as a senior. He was also named Player of the Year in the East Suburban Catholic Conference.
This is a fairly formidable freshman field. It is hard to tell whether any of these five will break through in their first year, but if even one does Wisconsin could be a basketball beast.
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