The Wisconsin Badgers have had good luck with veteran college players transferring into their athletics programs and breaking out for one big year before heading to the pros.
In 2011, it was quarterback Russell Wilson coming in from North Carolina State and leading the football team to the Rose Bowl.
In 2024-25, it was guard John Tonje transferring from Missouri to carry the men’s basketball team to the Big Ten Championship games.
Tonje’s teammate John Blackwell thinks he’ll be remembered similarly to the standout quarterback.
“They’re going to call him the Russell Wilson of hoops for the Wisconsin Badgers,” Blackwell told “The SchuZ Show” on YouTube. “He did some stuff that was just crazy, like dunking on people, shooting clutch threes. He’s going to go down as one of the greatest Badgers players that have come through in recent history.”
Both Tonje and Wilson set records during their short time at Wisconsin, elevating their game to a new level for the Badgers.
Part of what cemented Wilson’s legacy was the success he went on to have in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks.
It wouldn’t be fair to put those expectations on Tonje, but he could go overlooked in the draft the way Wilson was in his own sport and make him that much easier to root for as an underdog story.
Blackwell is trying to follow in Tonje’s footsteps and lead the Badgers on another deep run of his own.
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