• Wauwatosa West guard Jalen Brown has committed to the Wisconsin men’s basketball program.
• Brown is the first commitment for the Badgers’ 2027 recruiting class.
• The four-star recruit is ranked as a top-100 player nationally by both 247 Sports and Rivals.

MADISON – Wisconsin men’s basketball has kept one of the best in-state recruits home.

Wauwatosa West’s Jalen Brown has committed to the Badgers, he announced on June 5, giving Greg Gard his first commitment of the 2027 class.

Brown – a four-star recruit rated 66th nationally by 247 Sports and 63rd nationally by Rivals – chose Wisconsin over scholarship offers from Indiana, Iowa, Washington, California, Minnesota and others.

The 6-foot-4 guard was on the Journal Sentinel’s first-team all-area boys basketball team in 2025-26 after averaging 20.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 2.9 steals per game. He also was the Greater Metro Conference’s player of the year.

That was a year after helping Wauwatosa West win its first-ever state title in 2024-25 while earning third-team all-area recognition.

“They’re getting a really good basketball player, but probably even a better person,” Wauwatosa West coach Christopher Newbauer told the Journal Sentinel. “Super awesome guy. … They’re getting a point guard or combo guard that sees the floor extremely well. He gets his teammates involved. He’s a kid that can score at all three levels.”

Looking ahead to Brown’s senior year of high school, Newbauer wants to see Brown add more muscle and become more vocal ahead of competing in the Big Ten.

“He’s the complete package kid,” Newbauer said. “The two things things that he needs to work on, if he gets that, I think he could be a pro down the line. If he isn’t maybe playing in the NBA or something like that, he definitely will be playing overseas.”

He is the first top-100 in-state player, as ranked by 247 Sports, to join the Badgers since Brevin Pritzl in the 2015 recruiting class. Two of the other top-100 in-state players in the 2027 class, Dooney Johnson and Donovan Davis, committed to Gonzaga and Iowa State, respectively.

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MADISON — Wisconsin’s top Senate Republican says another vote on the failed budget surplus deal is possible — but only if two more senators get on board.

Senate Leader Devin LeMahieu raised the possibility of revisiting the bipartisan package, which easily passed in the Assembly.

The deal included tax cuts, property tax relief, refund checks and more money for public education.

A bipartisan deal failed in the state Senate last month.

Watch: Wisconsin Senate leader leaves door open for another budget surplus vote

Sen. Lemahieu says budget surplus deal still possible

A recent Marquette poll showed 8 out of 10 voters wanted lawmakers to pass the deal. LeMahieu pointed to that support in a statement.

“If two more Senators decide to stand with the 80% of Wisconsinites who support this compromise, the Senate will meet to send the proposal to the governor.”

On Monday, TMJ4’S Chief Political Reporter Charles Benson asked Gov. Tony Evers whether the deal needed to change to get different results in the Senate.

“I don’t know how. The Republicans that were part of the deal had some really strong feelings about bringing money back to people so that they can pay their bills, and then of course I was on the other side concerned about education, and so I don’t know what adding or subtracting would make a difference,” Evers said.

The deal fell short by 2 votes in the Senate. Three Republicans voted no, and all 15 Senate Democrats voted no.

Milwaukee Democrat Chris Larson said there is no movement and nobody is changing their vote. Republican Chris Kapenga said the votes are not there, calling the issue “dead in the Senate.”

This story was reported on-air by Charles Benson and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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