• Wisconsin guard Jack Janicki is frequently compared to former teammate Carter Gilmore because of his defensive impact.
• Coaches and teammates describe Janicki as a “defensive catalyst” and a versatile Swiss Army knife on the court.
• He has also embraced a vocal leadership role similar to the one Gilmore held in the previous season.

MADISON – Ask Greg Gard or seemingly anyone else around Wisconsin men’s basketball about redshirt sophomore guard Jack Janicki, and another name almost instinctively keeps coming up.

It’s a player in a different class and at a different position – former UW forward Carter Gilmore.

As Gard recently talked about Janicki’s role, he mentioned how “Gilly was like that” last year. Associate head coach Joe Krabbenhoft has likewise said Janicki’s contributions are “similar to what Carter Gilmore was able to bring to us last year.”

Even Janicki has unpromptedly drawn the parallel between himself and the 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward who suited up for the Badgers from 2020-25.

“I think guys like Carter Gilmore sort of showed the way in terms of how you can really find minutes on the court and find value for yourself in ways that are less apparent,” Janicki said.

All the comparisons to Gilmore are fitting, though, considering the way Janicki has been instrumental in the Badgers’ efforts on the defensive side of the ball in 2025-26 in a way that extends far beyond what box scores may show.

Janicki, Gard said, has been the 2025-26 team’s “defensive catalyst.”

“He can switch a lot of things,” Gard said after the Jan. 28 win over Minnesota. “He’s very astute. He covers up mistakes at times from others. He’s always typically in the right position. … He’s kind of developing into that multi-dimensional guy like Gilmore was.”

Gard and Krabbenhoft have both compared Janicki to a Swiss Army knife with the defensive versatility that he brings to the court. He has so much versatility that he has even channeled his inner Gilmore by often playing at the four-spot when UW operates with small-ball lineups.

“He can guard bigs,” Gard said. “He can guard smalls. He can chase guys, like he did [against Ohio State]. He covers. When he’s in a help position, if we can put him on a non-shooter, his ability to recognize where to kind of back-layer or insulate the defense – his security blankets, we call them, insurance policies, whatever you want to do – that prevents something bad from happening.”

Janicki “brings so much energy to this group,” teammate Austin Rapp said.

“He will lose a tooth,” Rapp said. “He’ll cut his mouth open just for this team to win.”

Janicki really did lose a tooth for the sake of a Wisconsin win, chipping a tooth in the final minute of the Badgers’ 74-67 road win last year against rival Minnesota.

The defensive-minded Janicki’s magnum opus perhaps was Wisconsin’s Jan. 28 win this season over Minnesota.

Janicki had several key plays on defense – “a lot of little things that don’t seem big, but can be like four-point swings,” as he aptly put it – that helped the Badgers overcome a 20-point deficit and pull off a 67-63 win.

Janicki took a charge in textbook fashion in the second half on the defensive possession following Nolan Winter’s go-ahead 3-pointer, with Boyd hyping up the Kohl Center crowd afterward.

The 6-foot-5 guard was credited with a block with 45 seconds remaining in the game after getting his fingertips on an Isaac Asuma 3-point shot attempt that could have given the Gophers the lead.

His biggest play might have been less than a minute before that, as he intercepted Asuma’s pass with 1:17 remaining. His steal set up an offensive possession that ended with a pair of John Blackwell free throws that recaptured the lead one last time for the Badgers.

“That steal he had – his instincts are phenomenal,” Krabbenhoft told reporters. “The charge. And then things that don’t stand on a stat sheet that he does, covering people up that we talked about with Carter with all you guys for so many years. He’s got that in his game.”

Janicki played a major enough role in the win to be one of the players sent to the media room for the postgame press conference despite finishing with zero points, one assist and one rebound.

“Obviously you look at the stat line, and you wouldn’t think much of my performance,” Janicki said after the Minnesota win while sitting next to teammates who scored 23, 21 and seven points. “But obviously I’m out there for a reason.”

Janicki – one of three rotational players to return from 2024-25 – has attempted to fill the leadership role in 2025-26 that Gilmore had in the previous season.

“There’s some voices in the locker room that definitely ring out in times when things are going poorly, and Gilly’s was the voice that we would turn to,” Janicki said.

After this season’s Jan. 6 loss to then-No. 6 Purdue at the Kohl Center – UW’s third consecutive loss to a high-major team at the time – Janicki told his teammates, “This season can go one of two ways.”