The rising senior from Milwaukee is the son of serious Wisconsin ballers, a Badger priority and a hot commodity nationally.

By Peter Cameron, BADGER STRIPES

Yes, everybody wants Kon now, including Duke. That’s what happens when you’re a top-20 recruit in the country.

Duke coach Jon Scheyer recently offered the top recruit in Wisconsin, 6’5″ sharpshooter Kon Knueppel out of Wisconsin Lutheran High School in Milwaukee. The kid can score at all three levels, stroking it from 3 (he won the WIAA Boys Basketball Tournament 3-point shooting contest at the Kohl Center in March), pulling up for mid-range js and attacking the basket. He is an elite scorer that Greg Gard and staff have made a recruiting priority.

Usually Wisconsin high schoolers don’t stay in-state when the blue bloods come calling, with a few exceptions (Sam Okey, where art thou?). But Duke already has two commitments for the class of 2024, and multiple offers still on the table.

Knueppel has scheduled a visit to Duke in mid-September, according to Mark Miller, but that could be moot if other players accept scholarships before then. We’ll see what happens.

To make the competition for the Badgers tougher, Wisconsinites Tony Bennett, the Virginia national championship coach, and Alabama coach Nate Oates, from Watertown, are both chasing Knueppel as well. He has plans to visit both in September, according to Miller.

Knueppel has already made several visits to Madison. He was in attendance for the Purdue game in March, when UW lost to the #5 team in the country by a bucket, and has mingled with current players.

“Being the hometown hero there, that’s really intriguing,” Knueppel told reporters in June when asked about going to Wisconsin. “They have a great program, and they think I fit really well into how they play, and a lot of others also say I fit how they play.”

The family has deep roots in the state, and a major hoops pedigree. Knueppel’s mother Chari Nordgaard Knueppel is the all-time leading scorer at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (1996-99) with 1,964 points. His father, Kon Knueppel I, is the second all-time leading scorer for Wisconsin Lutheran College (1994-98) with 2,064 points.

Marquette has also offered Knueppel, as have a long list of schools including Ohio State, Notre Dame and Louisville, all of which the rising senior have visited. For what it’s worth, Marquette and Notre Dame are Catholic institutions, and Knueppel goes to a Lutheran high school.

In other men’s basketball recruiting news…

The Badgers have made the final four of another pure shooter, 6’8″ Jackson McAndrew, reports the college sports website On3. McAndrew is from Minneapolis suburb Wayzata High School. His father played college ball at North Dakota when current Creighton coach Greg McDermott was an assistant coach there, and Creighton is also in his final four. But two of McAndrew’s AAU teammates, Jack Robison and highly regarded point Guard Daniel Freitag, both from Minnesota, have each committed to play for the Badgers. Freitag tweeted “yessir” and a fingers crossed emoji in response to McAndrew announcing his final four. Is he hinting at something? McAndrew has said he is likely to make his decision by the end of the month.

Gard gets knocked for failing to secure in-state talent, but I find that criticism overblown. Stevens Point’s Joey Hauser rejected UW twice, apparently because his mother was upset the Badgers hadn’t offered older brother Sam, a mistake that was Bo Ryan’s, not Gard’s.

Oshkosh North’s Tyrese Haliburton, now an NBA All-Star with the Indiana Pacers, was not offered by Gard because they didn’t have a free scholarship. That year, Tyler Herro held one for a year before decommitting at the last minute, and the other available scholarship was held for Hauser, who eventually chose to join his brother at Marquette. Haliburton was reportedly interested in playing for Wisconsin, but wound up at Iowa State.

Seth Trimble had an offer from UW but chose North Carolina, where he will be a sophomore this year.

Ryan is a legend of a coach, but only twice in 14+ seasons did he beat the blue bloods for in-state recruits: Brian Butch and Bronson Koenig. Sam Dekker probably would have been offered by everyone, but he committed to Wisconsin as sophomore, early in the recruiting process.

Kevon Looney, a 3-time NBA champion with Golden State, was offered but chose UCLA after seeing the beaches and the bikinis.

It sounds like Gard and staff have done all they can with Knueppel, identifying him early and building the relationship.

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