The Wisconsin Badgers have made several notable splashes in the transfer portal thus far this offseason and both fans and the media are taking note.
One addition especially leads the headlines: former San Diego State guard Nick Boyd. As updated on April 11, he sits at No. 61 in ESPN’s Jeff Borzello’s top 100 transfer ranking.
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“Boyd has now been a producer on NCAA Tournament teams at two separate schools,” Borzello writes. “Helping lead Florida Atlantic to the 2023 Final Four and then putting up career-best scoring and assist numbers this season at San Diego State. He averaged 13.4 points and is a career 37% 3-point shooter.”
The combination of Nick Boyd’s high-major conference and NCAA Tournament experience will be key for the Badgers entering 2025-26. The team lost significant experience and production off a stellar 2024-25 team, including star guard John Tonje, Max Klesmit and Steven Crowl. Boyd checks the box as a terrific basketball player, but also a leader and seasoned veteran. That combination should do wonders for head coach Greg Gard and his Wisconsin program.
The veteran guard will also fill the true point guard role, one that felt like the Badgers’ Achilles heel at times last season. After Chucky Hepburn left after 2023-24, Greg Gard opted to start both Max Klesmit and John Blackwell, neither of whom had played minutes as the leading point guard. Klesmit slowly became the de-facto “point guard,” but Wisconsin struggled to facilitate when he was either off the floor or out with injury. Boyd’s addition to the team will help fix that issue.
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So far, Greg Gard and his staff have hit it out of the park with their transfer portal commitments. Unsurprisingly, many portal rankings reflect this, including On3 listing the team’s class at No. 1 in the country. It will be intriguing to see how Gard and his staff continue to build their transfer class.
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This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Wisconsin basketball transfer portal Nick Boyd ESPN class ranking
