Wisconsin Basketball Shares Injury Update on Key Badgers Starter

Greg Gard and the Wisconsin basketball team lost Badgers starting shooting guard Max Klesmit to a “lower body” injury just four minutes into the second half in the 78-66 win against Rutgers. 

Following the game, Coach Gard was asked about Klesmit’s status. 

“He’s a little sore,” Gard told reporters. “Says he’s gonna gonna be ok. We’ll see. I was given multiple messages on the bench.. he was ready, he was on the bike, he wasn’t ready, he was back with the trainer, he was back on the bike.”

Wisconsin Basketball Needs a Healthy Max Klesmit Down the Stretch 

Fortunately for the Wisconsin basketball team, the Badgers got reserve point guard Kamari McGee back from injury last night.

He provided a nice spark, scoring 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field in 10 minutes off the bench, alleviating UW’s need to try and get Klesmit back on the court.

“As long as we were ok, I felt the guys that were out there were giving us a pretty good spark and that we were just going to roll with that crew,” Gard said following the win over Rutgers.

True freshman John Blackwell also stepped up, scoring 17 points and grabbing eight rebounds while shooting 9-of-10 from the charity stripe. He continued to be a revelation for this team and was a massive hit on the recruiting trail.

At full strength, the Wisconsin Badgers have plenty of situational backcourt depth between the players mentioned, along with Connor Essegian and Issac Lindsey, who can give you a few minutes when needed. However, a lingering injury for Klesmit would be problematic for a team working through its share of struggles on the defensive end.

Wisconsin basketball plays its final regular season game on Sunday at Mackey Arena against the Purdue Boilermakers. We’ll see if that’s enough time for Klesmit to heal and return to the lineup, because his value to this Badgers team cannot be easily replaced.