Wisconsin Basketball: Badgers to host Samford transfer Wyatt Walker

The Wisconsin Badgers basketball team is interested in Wyatt Walker who is transferring from Samford after playing 68 games at the University in three seasons and will have two years of eligibility.

The Wisconsin Badgers are hosting six-foot-nine forward/center transfer from Samford Wyatt Walker on April 20. He played his prep career at the prestigious Providence School in Florida.

Walker enrolled at Samford for the 2015-16 season. He earned SoCon All-Freshman honors as he averaged 10.6 points per game and six boards. The big man for the Bulldogs then had a nice breakout sophomore campaign. He almost averaged a double-double at 12.9 points per game and 9.7 boards.

Walker started all 34 games in his second season and was poised for a big junior season. He was limited to just two games after suffering a leg injury. Walker is expected to graduate this spring and will seek a transfer for the upcoming season.

The Badgers are surprisingly one of the three remaining teams who could land this transfer. Wisconsin isn’t known for landing transfer players. They got Trevor Anderson who came over from Green Bay, but he’s from the state and felt like the Badgers had a better system.

It was reported on April 11 from the Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Walker was “expected to visit.” Walker how now officially trimmed his final three schools down to Wisconsin, NC State, and Oklahoma State.

Samford grad transfer Wyatt Walker has set visits to his final three schools:
• NC State (4/13)
• Wisconsin (4/20)
• Oklahoma State (4/27)

12.9 PPG, 9.7 RPG in 2016-17. Two years of eligibility left.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) April 12, 2018

There are two factors that come to mind when the Badgers are interested in a big man. Can he stretch the defense and how well can he shoot from the line?

Walker stands at six-foot-nine, 240 pounds. He’s a rebounding machine and sounds like a big-time force in the paint. He attempted four three-pointers during his freshman season and missed them all. Walker then went two for six from downtown during his sophomore season. He didn’t attempt one in two games last season.

Lack of three-point shooting from big men was one of the biggest downfalls for the Badgers last season. Andy Van Vliet didn’t live up to the hype and only made 12. Nate Reuvers is still raw and he made 12 as well. Aleem Ford is a six-foot-eight forward who made 45, but that’s all he’s got.

Obviously, there’s a possibility this guy could end up being a shooter from deep. Nigel Hayes didn’t attempt a triple in his first season. He went on to make over 100 in his career. It would be an added plus if Walker were to be playing in Madison next season and he could knock down the occasional three-pointer.

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The next thing we want to look at is Walker’s free throw shooting capabilities. We all know that Ethan Happ can struggle quite a bit from the line. He’s a lifetime 56% in that department. It’s one of the few statistics that he doesn’t lead the Badgers in.

Good news is that Walker has shot almost 74% in his two-plus years in college. He averaged 2.3 for 3.3 from the free throw line in his freshman season. Walker improved that to 3.6 for 4.8 in his second season. He also improved his yearly percentages from 70 to 76 to 80%. The Badgers shot less than 70% from the line last year so anything is an improvement.

It doesn’t matter if his three-point shooting isn’t all that Wisconsin would normally be looking for out of a frontcourt player. Any help is needed. Especially from someone who has college ball experience.

Wisconsin lost Van Vliet to a transfer and Aaron Moesch to graduation. Reuvers is still developing and Ford isn’t an around the basket player. Khalil Iverson can be at times because he certainly doesn’t have an outside game what so ever. Charles Thomas and Alex Illikainen haven’t proved anything in three years.

The Badgers are getting two guys who go over six-foot-eight from their recruiting class. Taylor Currie and Joe Hedstrom are both three-stars. They absolutely have a chance at being in the rotation next season.

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There’s no doubt that Walker would find himself in the mix of guys coming off the bench for frontcourt minutes. Happ and Reuvers should be starters. Ford will certainly be in the rotation. From there it’s anyone’s guess.

This is all hypothetical of course. Walker still has two other schools to choose from. The Badgers should sell him on the fact that there are really only three guys who have safe roles on the team in the backcourt. And if he’s good enough, they’ll find room for him regardless. I think the April 20 visit will go nice and there’s a good possibility Wisconsin lands a decent transfer.

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