Wisconsin basketball GM explains Badgers’ roster-building, transfer portal strategy

PORTLAND, OR – To say that Marc VandeWettering has a spreadsheet would be an understatement.

“There are multiple spreadsheets that have all sorts of tabs and different models running all the different things, projections of how things are going to work and different splits for different guys,” VandeWettering said.

It is all part of the Wisconsin men’s basketball general manager’s long-designed roster retention and reconstruction strategy that now is in the spotlight following the Badgers’ March Madness loss to High Point.

VandeWettering – in his first season in the new GM role after previously working as director of operations and chief of staff – has been modeling what the 2026-27 roster could look like since the summer.

Conversations with agents representing UW’s current players were “definitely picking up steam” when VandeWettering spoke with the Journal Sentinel in late February in advance of the busy months of March and April for roster reconstruction.

When financial numbers come up depends on the agent and the athlete, but that timeline is something VandeWettering asks about early in the process.

(Knowing at least when it might happen “gives us a pretty good idea of the order of operations, if you will, of how we’re going to attack this.”)
“Some people are ready for that before others,” VandeWettering said.

“I think the big thing for us is just making sure that we’re ready as well whenever they are.

That’s part of the modeling and different things that we’ve been working on.”

How competitive is Wisconsin from a financial standpoint?

“We’ve got a good idea of what those will look like in a few different ways, shapes and forms,” VandeWettering said.

“So we feel like we’ve narrowed down our models a little bit to give us a good idea of how things should check out.”
The revenue-sharing cap for each athletic department is $20.5 million across all sports, but athletic director Chris McIntosh said the quiet part out loud when he told state lawmakers that peers are spending $10 million to $20 million “on top of that to have a successful football program.”
Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard has previously said there is “nothing that is equitable” between men’s basketball programs’ spending levels, and the Badgers “have more than some” and “don’t have as much as some.”
“You can always find somebody that’s got more money,” VandeWettering said.

“What we’ve done at Wisconsin is build really good teams with whatever resources that we have for us, and that goes back to pre-NIL.”
VandeWettering got a good laugh when asked about agents potentially inflating prices for athletes they represent.

“There’s always price inflation,” VandeWettering said.

“Agents are there, and they’re doing their job.

They’re there to try to figure out what the market is for their players, and then it’s our job to kind of figure out how that fits into the resources we have available to us as well.”

Have Wisconsin players already gotten offers elsewhere?

The transfer portal officially opens April 7, but it is quite possible that some college basketball agents have already been in communication with other schools regarding potential transfers.

“We’d be naive to think that agents aren’t trying to figure out the markets for people,” VandeWettering said in the penultimate week of the regular season, “whether that means they’re actually shopping somebody or just trying to figure out what numbers should look like.”
VandeWettering did not “want to go as far as saying that people are throwing out actual offers.”
“But agents are certainly doing what they need to do to figure out the markets for their clients,” VandeWettering said.

How does Wisconsin balance roster retention and outside needs?

Wisconsin has received acclaim in recent offseasons for its ability to adapt to the transfer portal era and add transfers who make a major impact on the Badgers.

Nick Boyd was the most recent example as he averaged 20.7 points per game and earned second-team all-Big Ten honors in a year when the conference was stacked with guard talent.

John Tonje was a second-team All-American in his one season with the Badgers in 2024-25.

For as much attention as Wisconsin’s transfer portal additions have garnered, though, roster retention remains an important component of the Badgers’ roster-building strategy.

“You got to find the right blend,” VandeWettering said.

“We’ve got obviously some really good retention pieces that we want to focus on.

We’ve got some youth as well that we’re going to continue to work to develop.

But there’s going to be a time and a need for some transfers as well.”
The roster retention process has evolved, much like everything else in college basketball.

VandeWettering saw players perhaps “going into the tournament with a foggy mind” about their future plans.

Now, he sees players who want to take care of that earlier in the calendar.

“I don’t want to do that anymore,” VandeWettering said of some players’ mindsets.

“I want to engage and get this behind me and have this conversation so that I can enjoy the best time of year in college basketball – and that is March – and not have to worry about what that looks like.”
Wisconsin appears to already have a few roster retention victories.

Austin Rapp and Jack Janicki indicated without any ambiguity that they plan to return to the Badgers for the 2026-27 season.

(They both have two seasons of eligibility remaining.)
“We’re adaptable to whatever the situation is in front of us because, until pen’s to paper, you never really know exactly how things are going to shake out,” VandeWettering said in February.

How do NBA draft considerations influence roster-building?

One of the biggest potential wild cards for the offseason roster-building process can be the NBA draft.

The portal window is April 7-21.

But in 2025, for example, players who declared for the draft had until May 28 to withdraw and retain their college eligibility.

Wisconsin experienced this in 2025 with John Blackwell, who declared for the draft on April 3 before withdrawing on May 28.

(His return was far from a surprise, though.)
If a player goes through the NBA draft process (like Blackwell did last year), VandeWettering tries to “get the feedback that they’re getting and try to figure out what their headspace is.”
“You got to be actively engaged in conversations with those people and understand that things evolve,” VandeWettering said.

“And you’ve got to be nimble enough to evolve with those changes.

Somebody could go into a workout and start blowing teams away, and all of a sudden they’re on draft boards.”
Blackwell and Nolan Winter are the two players with remaining eligibility who could theoretically receive draft consideration.

ESPN rated Blackwell as the 65th-best player and Winter as the 67th-best player among players with the option of going pro.

Both players received questions about their futures after UW’s season-ending loss.

An emotional Blackwell said he did not know; Winter was trying to stay in the moment rather than sharing any decision although “I want to be back here.”
More: What Wisconsin basketball players said about future plans after NCAA Tournament loss

What does Wisconsin value in potential portal additions?

Even if Wisconsin retains all 10 players with remaining eligibility, the Badgers would have three open roster spots for 2025-26.

(UW signed a two-person recruiting class in November.)
The Badgers added mostly older players ahead of 2025-26.

Boyd, Andrew Rohde and Braeden Carrington all were in their final year of eligibility.

Temple transfer Elijah Gray also was approaching his final year of eligibility before his dismissal.

Rapp, the 2025 WCC Freshman of the Year, was Wisconsin’s only incoming transfer with multiple years of eligibility.

Wisconsin has previously expressed the desire to stay old, but having a player for multiple years also has its obvious advantages.

“I don’t think it’s good to have a complete roster full of fifth-year guys, fourth-year guys,” VandeWettering said.

“I don’t think it’s obviously beneficial to have 10 freshmen either.

… Not to say you’re not going to go for somebody that is a really good fit.

If they’ve got a good fit, and they’re going to have only one year left, great.

OK, let’s just go get that.”
The Badgers recruit in the portal with their style of play in mind – “we need players that can play out of the ball screen,” VandeWettering said – but they also “can be nimble in how we assemble those things.”
Boyd’s addition for 2025-26, for example, meant that Blackwell played off the ball more often in 2025-26 than he did in 2024-25.

Gard has valued sticking to his “core values” as he has adapted to the current era of college basketball, and that pertains to who he recruits in the portal as well.

“The other parts of your program off the court, academically — those things all start with recruiting good people,” Gard said in a visit to the Journal Sentinel newsroom before the season.

“And whether they’re going to be here for eight months or they’re going to be here for five years, you still want really good people in your program.”

First year as general manager

VandeWettering’s new role has allowed for more time to prepare for the crucial phase of the calendar for roster rebuilding.

He officially moved into the new GM role in July after previously being the team’s director of operations and chief of staff.

“Being able to spend the vast majority of my time focused on this and engaging in these conversations at the appropriate time has really set us up to be far more efficient this time around,” VandeWettering said.

Even with all the preparation and spreadsheets with various tabs, though, VandeWettering might not get an abundance of sleep in April.

“I’m hoping for May,” VandeWettering said.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin basketball GM explains Badgers’ roster-building strategy