The 2024-25 Wisconsin Badgers could be a surprise team in the Big Ten and nationally if a trio of Minnesotans can perform at a high level. Nolan Winter is back for his sophomore season, Steven Crowl will undoubtedly start every game for a fourth straight season and Daniel Freitag hopes to be one of the best freshmen in the conference.

Crowl attended Eastview High School in the Twin Cities. Winter, like past Badgers stars Tyler Wahl and Nate Reuvers, attended Lakeville North High School, which is southern suburb of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Freitag went to Breck High School after open-enrolling from Bloomington Jefferson, both of course located in the Twin Cities.

But they are just a few names from Minnesota who have helped guide the Badgers to significant success over the last 20 years. The Minnesota-to-Wisconsin pipeline really took off in former head coach Bo Ryan’s third season — 2003-04 — in Madison. Since then, there are eight players from Minnesota who have left their names in Wisconsin record books.

Taylor was a tremendous point guard who as a senior helped the Badgers go 30-6 in 2006-07 and finish No. 6 in the final AP Top 25 poll. They made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament where they were upset by UNLV as a No. 2 seed.

Leuer wound up playing in the NBA for eight seasons after sensational junior and senior seasons with the Badgers. He averaged 18.3 points and 7.2 rebounds to create an elite 1-2 punch with Jordan Taylor in 2010-11.

Taylor was a beast of a point guard who wound up being voted First Team All-Big Ten twice and an All-American second team selection as a junior in 2010-11. The Badgers went to the Sweet 16 as a No. 4 seed in 2011 and 2012. Taylor is second all time in Badgers history with 464 assists.

Bruesewitz never stuffed the stat sheet but he started nearly every game for Wisconsin during his junior and senior seasons. The Badgers went to the Sweet 16 when he was a sophomore and junior and they lost in the second round of the tourney during his senior year in 2012-13.

Berggren started all 71 games he played for the Badgers in 2011-12 and 2012-13 and averaged about 10 points per game while serving as a 7-footer to control the paint on the defensive end. As a senior, his 2.1 blocks led the Big Ten.

Davison started 157 of 161 games with the Badgers and made an instant impact as a true freshman. He was leading the team to a ranking as high as No. 4 in the nation in 2020-21 only to have that team finish 18-13 and lose in the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed. In 2021-22, Davison once again led the Badgers to the second round of the tournament as a No. 3 seed before getting upset by 11th-seeded Iowa State.

Reuvers arrived in Madison and started 15 games as a true freshman and 104 in his career. No player in Wisconsin history has more blocks than Reuvers’ 184.

Wahl’s 162 games in five seasons with the Badgers is the most in program history. He scored 1,350 points and grabbed 800 rebounds in his career, though the Badgers never made it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament — even though they were a No. 3 seed in 2022 and a No. 5 seed in 2024.