Coming off best game of season, Wisconsin’s Braeden Carrington returns to Williams Arena

The Wisconsin men’s basketball team under coach Greg Gard has always had a number of players from Minnesota on its roster, and this season is no different.

But when the Badgers play the Gophers at Williams Arena on Jan. 13, there figures to be a little more attention on one visiting player in particular.

Former Park Center standout Braeden Carrington will return to the Barn, where he spent the first two years of his college career. Carrington, Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball in 2022 after guiding the Pirates to a 31-1 record and a Class 4A title, was the first in-state player in his class to commit to then-Gophers coach Ben Johnson.

Carrington averaged 5.2 points per game in 51 games over two seasons with the Gophers. He started the first 10 games of the season as a sophomore in 2023-24 before taking a month off to focus on his mental health. When he returned for the bulk of Big Ten play in January, he came off the bench. After a season that ended in the second round of the NIT, he was one of several Gophers to leave the program for elsewhere.

He ended up at Tulsa, where he averaged 7.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists while playing 26.8 minutes per game in 2024-25. He entered the transfer portal again after the season, electing to return to the Big Ten with Wisconsin.

“We’ve followed his career since he was in high school where he won a state championship in Minnesota,” Gard said in a statement at the time. “He knows our program and several of our current and former players very well which made for an easy and comfortable transition for him to come back to the Big Ten.”

In his senior season, Carrington is playing about half as many minutes as he did as a junior at Tulsa. He is averaging 5.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 13 minutes per game. But he arrives at Williams Arena coming off his best game of the season.

With 33.3 seconds left, the Badgers were clinging to a two-point lead and inbounding the ball next to their own basket following a Wolverines foul. Carrington ran deep toward the basket on the opposite end, inbounder Andrew Rohde made the pass, and Carrington — looking like a wide receiver — snagged it out of the air and was fouled. He made both free throws for a four-point lead.

“I want to win,” Carrington told reporters after the game, “and I’m gonna do whatever I can do to help this team win.”

Known for being a standout defender, Carrington made plays on the defensive end all game, notching a steal and a block. He also got to the basket aggressively twice — on an offensive rebound and then on a drive late in the shot clock — and even handled the ball when Wisconsin’s lead guards were in foul trouble.

Carrington is not the only Minnesotan returning Jan. 13. Junior 7-footer Nolan Winter, a Lakeville North graduate and son of former Gophers center Trevor Winter, averages 14.3 points and a team-high 8.8 rebounds per game. Reserve guard Jack Janicki (2.6 points, 2.3 rebounds) of White Bear Lake is a former walk-on who enjoyed some big moments as a redshirt freshman last season. Forward Jack Robison is another Lakeville North product who has played in 10 games this season.

And though he’s a Wisconsin native, Rohde, a 6-6 senior, returns after spending his first college season at St. Thomas, where he averaged 17.1 points in 2022-23 and was Summit League Freshman of the Year. Rohde (6.8 points, 2.4 assists) played the past two seasons at Virginia before becoming one of four key transfers Gard brought in this season, joining Carrington, Nick Boyd (San Diego State) and Austin Rapp (Portland).

Up next are the Gophers (10-6, 3-2), who are 9-1 in Williams Arena this season with two wins over ranked teams.