Joe Krabbenhoft had high praise for a freshman recently.
The Wisconsin Badgers put together a big freshman class for the 2025 cycle, landing four recruits: four-star guard Zach Kinziger, three-star center Will Garlock, New Zealand guard Hayden Jones, and Lithuanian forward Aleksas Bieliauskas.
The quartet is a part of a massive influx of talent for the Badgers this offseason, as they also added five transfers to overcome the loss of depth from their senior class.
Each of the five transfers is expected to play a role alongside the team’s top returners, but there are some minutes available on the bench for a freshman to step up. Kinziger has naturally been the name discussed, given his stature as a high school recruit, but Garlock is also a player to watch, given the team’s needs.
Well, the coaching staff has already started to take notice of the freshman center, with assistant Joe Krabbenhoft praising his unique traits displayed so far in workouts.
“I mentioned Will Garlock being something we haven’t seen around here in a long time,” Krabbenhoft said on The Swing podcast. “His size, speed, and athletic ability is as good as I’ve seen running to the rim and finishing above the rim. We use the phrase ‘he makes it look like a nerf hoop.’”
“We’ve played a lot of guys who make it look like a nerf hoop [like] Zach Edey, Kofi Cockburn. I’m not saying Will Garlock is there yet. But, in some of these workouts, it’s exciting, the potential there.”
Garlock’s athletic traits made his upside intriguing as a high school recruit, even if his game wasn’t necessarily polished at that level yet. With the Badgers adding a transfer forward, there is opportunity for a center to earn some minutes off the bench, and Garlock could very well take that role even as a freshman.
The learning curve is steep for centers going to the next level, especially in a league as physical as the Big Ten. But, standing 6’10, 240 pounds, Garlock has an advantage already with his size and will now focus on the other aspects of his game heading into the season.
Regardless, if you’re a freshman in the same sentence as Zach Edey and Kofi Cockburn when it comes to recent Big Ten centers, you’re doing something right.