Surprising candidate in contention for Wisconsin basketball starting point guard job

This story was updated to add new information

Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard met with the media on Tuesday after the Badgers’ open practice.

One surprising note from his comments came regarding the team’s ongoing battle for the starting point guard role. Gard said that Kamari McGee has ‘consistently separated himself’ at practice and has ‘played the best [of the point guards] over the two and a half weeks so far.’

Gard was asked to specify if the job is McGee’s to lose at this stage of the preseason. His response: “We’re still a ways away from Nov. 4. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

The comments point toward McGee possibly leading a point guard group that also includes top 2024 recruit Daniel Freitag and Central Arkansas transfer Camren Hunter.

Freitag joined the program this offseason as 247Sports’ No. 127 player in the class of 2024, No. 11 point guard and No. 2 recruit from his home state of Minnesota. Hunter did so, meanwhile, after missing all of the 2023-24 season with an injury. He previously averaged 16.9 points in 34 minutes per game as a sophomore in 2022-23. The two projected to be the team’s primary options at the position.

McGee, on the other hand, played in 25 games for the Badgers in 2023-24. He finished with per-game averages of 8.2 minutes, 2.1 points, 0.8 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 0.5 steals on 54% shooting. His six-week absence in January and February directly coincided with the Badgers’ sharp losing skid. While McGee’s numbers don’t jump off the page, Wisconsin seemed to consistently win with him in the lineup, and lose with him out of it.

This is the biggest story surrounding the Wisconsin program with less than three weeks remaining before the opener against Holy Cross.

Freitag figures to play a big role immediately as a true freshman. But his role, and Wisconsin’s entire lineup, is somewhat up in the air. The team does not lack talent or experience — but it is set to look extremely different from last year’s group after the offseason departures of Chucky Hepburn, A.J. Storr and Tyler Wahl.

Gard and his team continue their preseason preparation before opening the 2024-25 season at the Kohl Center on Nov. 4 against Holy Cross. All eyes should be focused on who is announced as the team’s starting point guard during the pregame introductions.

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