Three players who stood out in Wisconsin's trip to France

This year could be a big year for Jordan Davis. He has a good chance to replace his brother Johnny in the starting lineup. While Jordan won’t put up the offensive numbers Johnny did, he did a great job in other areas of the game. In Monday’s game against Nice, Davis led the Badgers with 14 points.

It does not appear Jahcobi Neath played much or at all on the France trip. We don’t know if it’s injury-related. Regardless, Jordan Davis got to play a lot and should be the clear favorite to start at the three spot once practice starts up again.

Connor Essegian

A lot of Badger fans are hoping Connor Essesigan can be the sharpshooter he was out of high school. It’s unknown what his role will be as a freshman this season, but he played really well the last three games. In fact, Essegian had 14 points Monday as well. He also chipped in 10 points in the 78-47 win against Lyon Towers and 11 points in the second game.

I do want to note again that the competition is nothing like what the Badgers will face this season. However, it has to be encouraging to see the stats Essegian put up, especially as a young player. He has a chance to crack the rotation as a true freshman, something that doesn’t happen often in the Wisconsin program.

Markus Ilver

Besides Chucky Hepburn, Steven Crowl and Tyler Wahl, I thought Markus Ilver was the most impressive player in France. He recorded 14 points against Lyon Towers and 10 points against the Paris Towers. The talk around Ilver when he came to Madison was that he had the potential to be a good shooter and had raw talent. He did not redshirt last season, however.

It was unknown if Ilver could be in the rotation this year. After his performance in France, I think he has a god shot to get playing time as the four behind Wahl.

Other Notables

Isaac Lindsey had a good opening game in France. He is known as a sharpshooter as well and scored 10 points in the first game. In one of the highlight videos I saw, he looked confident in the catch and release motion and shot the ball with confidence. Gard brought the walk-on in against Iowa State for offensive momentum so it’s obvious the coach sees his potential.

Transfers Kamari McGee and Max Klesmit were relatively quiet. In the highlight videos, it looked like McGee was a good distributor of the ball. Both are established players so I am not worried about their spots in the rotation. Klesmit joined Hepburn, Davis, Wahl and Crowl in the starting lineup in the opening game. While Gard had multiple starting lineups, I think right now that first starting group has the best chance to be the starters when the season opens Nov. 7.