Where Does Interim AD Marcus Sedberry Stand On Additional Funding for the Basketball Program?

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin and head coach Greg Gard are nearing the end of their off-season transfer portal cycle. The Badgers signed three players from the portal itself — Victory Onuetu (Hofstra), Trey Autry (George Washington), and Eian Elmer (Miami (OH)). UW also went overseas for two more additions, guard Owen Foxwell, a 22-year-old pro from Australia, and Isaac Riddle, an 18-year-old up-and-comer also from the Land Down Under.

You can often judge a portal cycle for a respective team by how quickly it moves. Prior to his departure, former athletic director Chris McIntosh committed a substantial financial investment to the football program, on the heels of a 4-8 season. The Badgers also missed a bowl game in consecutive years for the first time since 1993.

However, you could feel the impact of the NIL resources right from the start in January. UW signed a top 15 transfer portal class, bringing in 33 new scholarship players. Many of those players signed on the spot, and in the case of a few, never felt the need to visit Madison at all.

The basketball program did not get off to the same start. The transfer portal opened on April 7. Wisconsin would not sign a player until nearly 10 days later, when Autry put pen to paper in the final hours of April 16. The Badgers were one of the last power-four teams in the country to grab a commitment from a transfer portal prospect.

“All of us would acknowledge a few more resources would be nice for all of us,” Sedberry told reporters. “Our coaches are no different than any one of us in that regard. As a program, we recognize that. There’s a desire to be able to continue to grow our resources to be able to support all our programs.

“I think men’s basketball is in a good position. If I were sitting here with Greg, he would acknowledge it would be great if he had a few more resources. But, I also believe we’re in a position to be competitive. What helps is having a clear plan, a clear strategy of how you want to execute roster management, roster building process. That, I feel really confident in and know that we were able to deliver on that.

“I’m excited about the opportunity folks are going to get to see the guys we have on the basketball squad. They brought in some guys that are going to help us continue forward.”

Wisconsin is coming off a 24-10 season, including a fifth-place finish in the Big Ten Conference. The Badgers also defeated five top 15 ranked opponents after Jan. 9. However, once again, UW was sent home early in the NCAA Tournament, upset by 12-seed High Point in the Round of 64, marking eight-straight tournaments that the Badgers have failed to reach the second weekend.

In the previous portal cycle, Wisconsin appeared to be in a strong position. Gard was quickly able to sign three top-of-the-board targets, including eventual All-Big Ten guard Nick Boyd.

However, prior to the opening of the portal, rumors began to swirl about UW being underfunded this time around, as other budgets across the country were increasing by large margins, leading to massive inflation in the market. UW also lost star guard John Blackwell, who is expected to get somewhere around $5 million from Duke, and starting forward Aleksas Bieliauskas to South Carolina, which was one of those teams whose athletic department committed a bigger financial investment to after a 13-19 season.

While meeting with local reporters, Sedberry said he hasn’t been instructed by outgoing Chancellor Jenifer Mnookin to only make minor tweaks within the athletic department, but also wanted a thorough view before putting forward any wholesale changes. It’s also unknown how long Sedberry will be in an interim role or when a search committee will be assembled to find the next athletic director.

At the end of last season, reports suggested that it would take at least $12 million to build a competitive basketball roster in 2026-27. Whether or not he’s still AD by this time next year is still TBD, but Sedberry didn’t give the impression that basketball will be getting some more firepower in the foreseeable future.

“We have to continue to monitor what the market looks like, because right now, there isn’t much transparency,” Sedberry continued. “There’s a lot of hearsay on what it takes to build a roster. I’m a firm believer we have to do the best we can do with what we have.

“I feel like we put ourselves in a position to be able to do that.”