Wisconsin basketball has added another player to their 2018 recruiting class. Tai Strickland will be a welcomed addition to the backcourt next season.
On March 27, Wisconsin basketball added their third player for the 2018 recruiting class. Tai Strickland, a 6’2″ guard from Florida, will be joining the team after committing to the Badgers. For now, Strickland’s commitment is verbal. His official signing date will be on April 11th, which is when the signing period for the Spring begins. Considering recruiting for Wisconsin had been relatively stagnant over the past couple of months, this commitment will be well-received by the Grateful Red.
Strickland joins Taylor Currie and Joe Hedstrom in the 2018 recruiting class for Wisconsin. As a member of this class, Strickland will join the team next season and be able to contribute right away. Although this is a valuable addition to the program, it does cause a logjam in the backcourt that head coach Greg Gard will have to sort out over the next several months.
Brad Davison and Brevin Pritzl were the leaders in minutes from the backcourt this past season but both D’Mitrik Trice and Kobe King will be returning from injury for next season as well. In addition, Trevor Anderson joins the team after sitting out last season due to transfer rules. Minutes distribution in the backcourt will not be easy for Coach Gard but that is not a bad problem to have.
Even though Wisconsin missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in forever this season, talent runs rampant on this roster for next year. As long as star big man Ethan Happ returns for his senior season, the Badgers could easily enter 2018-19 as a top-25 team in the country.
The expectation will be that Strickland will step into the rotation next season in a backup role at the point guard position, which will likely be held down by either Davison or Trice. A true point guard, it is unlikely that Strickland will spend much time playing off the ball next season with several combo guards on the roster.
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The calling card for Strickland is that he can do it all. Unlike some of the pure scoring high school guards in the country, Strickland excels in his ability to defend and sky up for rebounds. He is a true point guard in the sense that he is not afraid to control the pace of a game and make the right pass at the right time.
As stated by Land of 10, Strickland said this about his abilities: “When a guard can rebound, I can get it and go immediately. There’s no outlet and you can go from there. You can run the plays off of that. That’s big because it pushes tempo a little bit and it also helps to get other guys involved.”
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Despite being just a three-star recruit, Strickland plays better than his ranking. He has solid college size at 6’2″ and can be a plug-and-play athlete. Can he follow in the footsteps of other great guards to play at Wisconsin like Devin Harris, Jordan Taylor, and Bronson Koenig?