Longtime Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball head coach Greg Gard could be in for a rude awakening without star guard John Blackwell.
After transferring to Duke after the season, Jon Scheyer has a new toy to play with before Blackwell declares for the NBA Draft.
Advertisement
CBS Sports‘ Isaac Trotter recently compiled 101 of his thoughts before the 2026-27 season, and a few of those were related to the former Badgers guard.
Overall, Trotter believes Duke will have a top-five offense in the nation. The only teams he believes will have the Blue Devils beat are Illinois, Alabama, Florida, and BYU.
“There’s a good chance that Wisconsin transfer lead guard John Blackwell is the fulcrum of this offense,” he wrote.
While Scheyer has a tendency to build his offense around “a generational 4-man”, Trotter doesn’t believe he’ll be able to do so with 17-year-old Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje.
Advertisement
Instead, that’s what Blackwell is there for, “Duke uses non-shooters as spacers in excellent ways to clear driving lanes, and the quartet of Blackwell, Cayden Boozer, Caleb Foster and five-star freshman Deron Rippey Jr. gives Scheyer four guards who can boogie to the rim at will.”
Wisconsin did a great job rebuilding by bringing in new international names along with a few studs in the portal, but Badgers fans can’t help but wonder what this team would look like if Blackwell were still around.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Jordon Lawrenz on X @jordonlaw_pxp.
This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Former Wisconsin guard expected to be the ‘fulcrum’ of Duke’s offense
