BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — As the only true freshman on the roster last season, Tyler Wahl went through inevitable growing pains on his own. Not that he complained. Not in his nature. But more so than Wahl hitting a metaphoric first-year wall, there were times when he was simply physically overmatched.
Revisiting a couple of games in which Wahl felt like he had sound block-out position, only to give up offensive rebounds by getting outmuscled or out-leveraged by an older opponent, he conceded, "It was basically getting outmanned and having people stronger than me."
Wahl's season-ending critique underlined one specific discovery, not all that unusual in a young player.
"Size is not a joke. You need to be stronger and faster in the Big Ten than in a lot of other leagues. I'd say I kind of know what to expect now."
When the Badgers reported Wednesday for their first practice of the season, an abbreviated season that is scheduled to start no sooner than Nov. 25, it was a familiar-looking cast, minus Brevin Pritzl, the only senior in the rotation. Some might have done a double-take with Wahl.
Since last March when Wisconsin clinched a share of the Big Ten championship with a spirited come-from-behind victory at Indiana – the same day that Wahl celebrated his 19th birthday – there has been a reshaping of Wahl's body. He has grown an inch (to 6-7 ½) and added 15 pounds (to 220).
Asked if Wahl's tweaked physique/appearance would be noticeable to an outsider, UW assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft observed, "For sure, his shoulders are bigger, stronger. You can definitely notice, even more than the physical gains, how comfortable he is out there mentally now.
"There's so much to learn and to absorb as a freshman when you're playing and you're part of the mix and in the rotation. He has gained so much knowledge and now he's playing his game without thinking so much. Physically and mentally, he has grown a ton."
Krabbenhoft then volunteered a caveat to Wahl's physicality. Or lack thereof as a frosh.
"It wasn't like Tyler wasn't trying to go and get rebounds," he said. "Or he wasn't trying to chest-up or body guys up and box out. He's not afraid of physical contact. I'll steal coach (Greg) Gard's line here, 'He wasn't swinging a big enough hammer yet, but he was swinging.'
"That's what we love about Tyler. We knew as soon as those gains came in the weight room and with his body, the hammer was going to be big enough and he'll be doing some punishing. He's definitely got the physical tools now. But it's not where he needs to be yet, either.
"He's still a sophomore and he still has a way to go. But to watch the improvement from Year One to Year Two, it reminds me of how
Nate Reuvers made that jump, too, even though they're different people in different positions."
An apt comparison since Reuvers and Wahl are both products of Lakeville (Minn.) North High School. In fact, the Badgers uncovered Wahl while recruiting Reuvers. Krabbenhoft, in particular, began developing a relationship with Wahl when he was an undersized, but scrappy 10th grader.
Some of his earliest traits are still prominent today.
"He's a jack-of-all trades," responded Krabbenhoft to a question about Wahl's role this season. "He's probably more comfortable playing a little bit for us the same role that he did in high school: playmaker, ballhandler, distributor. He's got a great feel for the game with the ball in his hands.
"As far as the role goes, he will do whatever the team needs on a given night. Defensively, he could be one of the best on our team this year as far as his versatility and his ability to stop the quickest of the quick point guards in the league."
He also pointed out Wahl might be required to check someone like Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis, a 6-9, 245-pound power forward. "He's going to be asked to guard those guys, too; the really strong, versatile 4-man," Krabbenhoft said. "Defensively will be where he'll be able to make his mark."
Last season, Wahl averaged a little over 15 minutes of playing time.
"I think it will change a little bit as far as minutes and scoring goes," Wahl said of his anticipated role. "But I will still be that energy guy who goes in and does some dirty work and gets some offensive rebounds and steals. I feel like that's always something I've been able to do.
"It's been natural for me to go out and work hard and get our team the extra possession."
Wahl believes that he can also be more of a contributor on the offensive end.
"Getting in the gym and getting shots up is the only way you can develop a shot," said Wahl who averaged 2.6 points and 2.6 rebounds in 31 games, including three starts. "I fine-tuned some things that I needed to work on. I narrowed my base on my shot. That was pretty much it, but it feels really good."
It looks good to Krabbenhoft, too.
"Tyler has put in the work and his shot looks better, it's smoother," Krabbenhoft said. "He's tweaked a few things here and there that we helped him with. When you shoot that many shots over the summer, you mentally feel like it's going to go in, you feel like the work you put in is going to pay off.
"I think his shot has come a long way. Is he going to shoot 45 percent and be flying off screens? Probably not this year. But he has definitely taken a step where he's going to be a lot more comfortable pulling the trigger. The ball gets kicked out, you've got your feet set, you're ready to pull, no hesitation."
When the UW campus closed in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic – wiping out the Big Ten tournament and the Big Dance – Wahl returned to Lakeville and went to work on his body. "I hit the weight room hard once everything opened back up after the stay-at-home orders," he related.
That entailed performance workouts at the Englebert Training Systems (ETS) Thielen Gym in Lakeville. Minnesota Vikings receiver Adam Thielen is a co-partner with the ETS founder, Ryan Englebert who was a member of the 2001 Wisconsin football team as a gray-shirt fullback out of Sturgeon Bay.
Englebert transferred and starred at UW-Stout before getting into the fitness world.
"I'd lift four times a week – upper body twice, lower body twice," Wahl said. "We'd work out at 6:30 in the morning and do strength and speed every day. I was the only college basketball player at the gym. We had college football, volleyball, lacrosse, and soccer players. We all had individual plans."
That level of individualized off-season training was something Gard addressed Wednesday while noting, "Everybody really has their own personal trainer now. So, they're working with those people away from here anyway whether it's basketball-specific, or whether it's something with their body."
Because everything was so disjointed due to the virus and various protocols, Gard said, "You trust the fact that those older guys had been there (before) – when they did return they knew what practice was going to be like, they knew for the most part what the preseason was going to be like.
"So, they knew how their bodies needed to be, and how prepared they needed to be."
The coaching staff met several times over the summer on the plan of attack.
"And we made decisions based on what they were telling me," Gard said of the players. "They were able to do more and have access to more and felt they were accomplishing more at home versus what it would have been and how restricted we would have been here had we brought everyone back."
There were some conditioning surprises when everyone returned to Madison.
"Because we couldn't do as much basketball-specific contact things – also combined with the thought process that our schedule was probably going to get steeper faster, whenever that does come together," Gard said, "I wanted them ready mentally and physically.
"Just because of construction and other things going on here on campus, we ended up running the stadium steps at Camp Randall. The guys who had done the normal hill felt that was much harder. And then we also did some things on other days with on-court conditioning we had never done before."
Running the hill, a
Bo Ryan staple, has been a preseason tradition.
"I always felt the hill has a physical component," Gard said. "But one of the biggest benefits of that has been the mental challenges it presents and the tossing and turning the night before you have to run it as a player… and the angst.
"It creates a mental opponent that you have to overcome. The stadium steps accomplished the same and some of the things that we did on the court set that mindset. One of the things I say is 'Get better, faster.' Let's get out of the gates faster, let's be a better team quicker than we were a year ago."
The Badgers went 5-5 in their first 10 games without
Micah Potter.
"That will make a huge difference," Wahl said of having Potter from the start this season. Flashing back to Potter's presence and impact once he became eligible, he added, "We were struggling, and we needed someone to help us get over that hump. And then we started to figure things out."
Wisconsin capped the regular season with an eight-game winning streak. "We really started to click defensively," said Wahl, a point that was reinforced when the Badgers held Indiana to one basket over the final 10 minutes. "We all bought into what Coach Gard wanted us to do. Defense wins games."
Recently, the players received their Big Ten championship rings during a team-only ceremony in the practice gym. Said Krabbenhoft, "Coach Gard gave a little speech and he called up each guy, one by one, and gave them their ring. And the guys acted as if they were waving to 17,500 at the Kohl Center."
It was a light-hearted and fun moment to go along with a well-deserved and earned reward.
But Krabbenhoft detected something else in their body language and expressions.
"There's no doubt that I could tell in their minds that it wasn't enough," he said. "It's a heck of an accomplishment (a Big Ten title) and something we will always cherish and remember for so many reasons. But there's no doubt that they know that there's more to go and get."
Hence, the journey began anew Wednesday with a small step, the start of practice.
"It doesn't happen overnight," Krabbenhoft concluded. "And they know that, too."
