Wisconsin
Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Greg Gard talks about his 2025 recruiting class
MADISON – A four-star point guard, a 7-foot center and an international recruit.
The Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s 2025 recruiting class became official Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period.
It is also the first time that Badgers coach Greg Gard was allowed to publicly discuss his new players.
Here is a closer look at the class.
Will Garlock, center
Committed: June 8.
Hometown: Middleton.
High School: Middleton.
Club team: Team Herro.
Height: 7-0.
Ratings: Rivals, 247sports, On3 and ESPN list Garlock as a three-star recruit.
The lowdown: Garlock averaged 16.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game for Middleton last season. He connected on 66.5% of his shots, including 31.2% from three-point range. He received honorable mention on the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Division 1 all-state team.
Gard said: We are happy to have Will joining our Badger family. Growing up as a hometown kid located in our backyard, wearing the Wisconsin jersey and being a part of this program means a lot to Will. He has a lot of potential and we see him fitting into our long line of successful big men here at Wisconsin.
Will has the size and the athleticism to compete at a high level, and he will fit right in with our style of play and with how the college game has evolved in recent years. Coming off an injury last season, we are excited to watch Will continue to keep trending towards his immense potential. We look forward to seeing him continuously throughout the upcoming season before he joins us in the summer months ahead. Our staff is eagerly waiting to start helping Will develop into a really good front line addition.
Hayden Jones, guard
Committed: July 25.
Hometown: Nelson, New Zealand.
Club team: Nelson Giants.
Height: 6-7.
Ratings: Unrated international prospect.
The lowdown: Jones has played for the Nelson Giants, a professional team, the past two seasons. He averaged 2.9 points and 1.3 assists per game last season. He has represented New Zealand in multiple international tournaments and last February became the fourth-youngest player (at age 17) to play for the New Zealand national team. His father, Phill, was a teammate of UW assistant Kirk Penney on the New Zealand national team.
Gard said: We are excited about the addition of Hayden to our program. He has really grown in terms of his actual size, and at 6-foot-7 he is very versatile. Hayden has developed himself into a player that can play point guard, plus the two and three positions. Defensively, he’s long and does an excellent job of guarding players and disrupting shots at the rim with his natural size and ability.
He’s also a great rebounder at his position. He has 20-plus rebound games at the guard position, which is really hard to do and shows that he has a nose for the ball. Hayden has a high basketball IQ and we are looking forward to him coming into our program and absorbing what we do here. He comes from an athletic family, which includes his father, Phill, who was an elite shooter for the New Zealand senior national team and one of the leading scorers in the 2004 Olympics. We are thrilled to have Hayden joining our program and we are eager to help him grow.
Zach Kinziger, guard
Committed: Aug. 4, 2023.
Hometown: De Pere.
High School: De Pere.
Club team: Team Herro.
Height: 6-3.
Ratings: ESPN and 247sports list Kinziger as a four-star recruit. On3 and Rivals consider him a three-star prospect.
The lowdown: ESPN ranks him as the No. 68 prospect in the 2025 class. He averaged 19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game for the Redbirds and was a first team WBCA first-team all-state selection. Last season he helped his team advance to the sectional final. De Pere won a state championship his sophomore season.
Gard said: We are very excited to have Zach joining our program. Growing up in the state of Wisconsin, playing for this program is a dream for him. While evaluating him, it did not take long for my staff and I to identify Zach for his shooting, competitive drive, basketball IQ, and the effort that he competes with on the defensive end.
Zach has been one of the best shooters in all of high school basketball, which will remind Wisconsin fans of many former Badgers that have helped our program sustain a high level of success. As the son of a coach, Zach plays the game the right way, and he has earned everything that has come his way. Just as impressive is Zach’s preparation in the classroom and the hard work that he puts into academics. We are excited for Zach to join our Badger Family and we can’t wait to begin working with him to help him reach his goals.
Wisconsin
US animal rights activists clash with police over Wisconsin dog breeder
About 1,000 animal welfare activists who tried to gain entry on Saturday to a beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin were turned back by police who fired rubber bullets and pepper spray into the crowd and arrested the group’s leader.
It was the second attempt in as many months by protesters to take beagles from the Ridglan Farms facility in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles (about 40 kilometres) southwest of Wisconsin’s capital, Madison.
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said in a video statement that 300 to 400 protesters were “violently trying to break into the property” and assault officers. He said protesters have ignored designated areas for peaceful protest and blocked roads to prevent emergency vehicles from entering.
“This is not a peaceful protest,” Barrett said.
The sheriff’s department said a “significant” number of people were arrested out of about 1,000 protesters at the site but did not give an exact total as they were still being processed as of the afternoon.
Protesters tried to overcome barricades that included a manure-filled trench, hay bales and a barbed-wire fence. Some protesters did get through the fence but were unable to enter the facility, where an estimated 2,000 beagles are kept, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin basketball signs Miami transfer Eian Elmer, who gives ‘scoring punch’
Wisconsin guard Andrew Rohde reflects on early March Madness exit
Wisconsin guard Andrew Rohde said the Badgers ‘thought we could do so many things’ in the NCAA Tournament before it ended abrupty with an upset loss.
Wisconsin men’s basketball has added a sharpshooting wing via the transfer portal.
Miami (Ohio) transfer Eian Elmer has signed with the Badgers, the team announced April 18. The 6-foot-7 wing will join UW with one year of eligibility remaining.
Elmer averaged a career-high 12.7 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 49.8% from the field and 42.9% from 3-point range in 2025-26. His production helped the RedHawks go 32-2 and earn an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
“We are really excited to add another excellent addition to our spring signees,” UW coach Greg Gard said in a release. “Eian brings a wealth of experience and scoring punch as a 6-7 wing. … A terrific shooter, his skillset and production fit excellently into our plan as we build out next year’s team. Throughout our evaluation process, our staff loved his size, power and skill and truly believe he will thrive in our system.”
Elmer is Wisconsin’s third transfer portal addition since the end of the 2025-26 season, joining former George Washington guard Trey Autry and former Hofstra forward Victory Onuetu. UW also added Australian guard Owen Foxwell.
The additions of Autry, Onuetu and now Elmer leave Gard’s staff with three more roster spots to fill ahead of the 2026-27 season.
The Badgers are looking to replace much of their production from a 2025-26 team that went 24-11. Nolan Winter is expected to be the team’s only returning starter after John Blackwell and Aleksas Bieliauskas entered the transfer portal and Nick Boyd and Andrew Rohde exhausted their eligibility.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin storms aftermath: Widespread damage, river flood warnings in effect
MILWAUKEE – Friday’s severe storms have passed. And with that, the threat of any severe weather has also passed for the immediate future as no storms or rain are expected for several days.
However, plenty of damage remains across southeastern Wisconsin as of Saturday morning, in addition to the ongoing flooding threat.
Several area rivers are at flood stage, and there are multiple river flood warnings in effect.
FOX6 Weekend WakeUp on Saturday begins at 6 a.m.
On the scene in the morning
What we know:
Farmstead damage in Franklin
FOX6’s Hayley Spitler is in Franklin on Saturday morning, April 18, getting a daylight look at the damage from last night’s storms.
Storm damage in Caledonia
Friday’s storms left quite the mark across southern and southeastern Wisconsin, including at L and L Farms and Greenhouse in Caledonia.
FOX6 Weather Extras
Local perspective:
Meanwhile, FOX6Now.com offers a variety of extremely useful weather tools to help you navigate the stormy season. They include the following:
FOX6 Storm Center app
FOX LOCAL Mobile app
FOX Weather app
Maps and radar
We have a host of maps and radars on the FOX6 Weather page that are updating regularly — to provide you the most accurate assessment of the weather. From a county-by-county view to the Midwest regional radar and a national view — it’s all there.
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School and business closings
When the weather gets a little dicey, schools and businesses may shut down. Monitor the latest list of closings, cancellations, and delays reported in southeast Wisconsin.
FOX6 Weather Experts in social media
The Source: Information in this post was compiled by the FOX6 Weather Experts.
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