Wisconsin Basketball Misses on 4-Star In-State Prospect

The hits just keep on coming for the Wisconsin basketball team. Not only did the Badgers get upset by the James Madison Dukes in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but now they missed out on an in-state recruiting target to Iowa State.

Xzavion Mitchell, a 4-star forward from Oshkosh North, committed to T. J. Otzelberger and the Iowa State Cyclones today.

First, I want to thank God for blessing me and putting me in this amazing predicament. I also wanna thank my family, for continuing to support me during this process. I also want to thank all the coaches that recruited me and believed in me. Ames here I come!🔴🟡 pic.twitter.com/Csr8SAOuoD

— Xzavion Mitchell (@XzavionMitchell) March 23, 2024

Wisconsin Basketball Misses Out on Another In-State Prospect

It’s well-known that the Badgers don’t always go after in-state prospects, especially some out of the Milwaukee area or players who are a part of certain AAU programs.

Gard and the Wisconsin basketball program have a great pipeline in the state of Minnesota and players from AAU programs in that area, so a majority of their recruiting happens there.

But it is concerning that when they do turn their attention to in-state prospects, they still miss.

The biggest example of this is the Badgers missing out on 5-star Kon Knueppel out of Wisconsin Lutheran. The Badgers threw everything that had at Knueppel but the draw of Duke was too much for the Badgers to overcome.

Xzavion Mitchell is the latest example of this. The 4-star forward played AAU ball with Team Herro, an AAU program Gard and company don’t generally recruit from. But current Wisconsin basketball commit, Zach Kinziger, also played for Team Herro with Mitchell. Gard would regularly watch Mitchell’s games.

Instead, Mitchell is following the path of Tyrese Haliburton, also an Oshkosh North alum, of going to play for T. J. Otzelberger at Iowa State. Things seem to be working pretty well for Wisconsin natives in Ames. Freshman Milan Momcilovic out of Pewaukee had a very successful first year. He’s averaging 11.2 points per game through 35 games, earning All-Big 12 honors, as the Cyclones are still alive in the tournament.

It might be the fresh loss to JMU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but things aren’t going very smoothly for Greg Gard and the Wisconsin basketball team.

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