Zach Kinziger Mulling a Redshirt Season For Wisconsin in 2025-26
MADISON, Wis. — Due to ever-changing rosters, Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard typically does not like to redshirt players these days. Zach Kinziger might be the exception to the rule.
Roughly a week ago, the true freshman approached Gard about potentially redshirting during the 2025-26 season. Should Kinziger elect to go that route, he’ll have Gard’s support.
“He wants to get his degree from Wisconsin. He wants to contribute at a high level, but he knows he’s got experienced and older guys in front of him that, quite frankly, are older and more experienced, so they have a head start,” Gard told Badger Blitz. “I’m not going to go into detail on exactly, but talked about, ‘What I need to get better at? What can I do to make sure I’m an integral part of this in the future, and he will be. And I think too, giving young men that opportunity, even though we’re in a changing landscape, it’s made us who we are.”
Wisconsin didn’t redshirt any of its three true freshmen last season, despite all three, Daniel Freitag, Jack Robison, and Riccardo Greppi, being at the end of the bench and only seeing action during mop-up duty.
A former Rivals Industry four-star recruit, Kinziger was a Mr. Basketball finalist in Wisconsin and a first-team All-State selection as a senior at De Pere. Kinziger was also the first player to commit to Gard in UW’s 2025 recruiting class, which also features Will Garlock, Aleksas Bieliauskas, and Hayden Jones. Playing behind preseason All-Big Ten guard John Blackwell, senior Nick Boyd, a San Diego State transfer, and Braeden Carrington, a Tulsa transfer, minutes are sparse for Kinziger, who can play either the point or shooting guard roles.
What makes Gard feel even better about redshirting Kinziger? He’s likely to finish his career in Madison — a rare trait in the transfer portal era.
“The fact that he said, ‘Coach, I want to get my degree from here, not leaving. I just need to get better, and I need that experience,” said Gard. “The other thing of being an in-state kid and understanding who we are and who we have been — He’s in this for the long haul. He’s a committed Badger.”
Wisconsin improved to 2-0 following Friday’s 97-72 win over Northern Illinois. The Badgers’ top two guards, Boyd and Blackwell, are now each averaging 23.0 ppg, tied for the second-best two-game start in program history. Should Kinziger spend his first year on the sidelines, he’s got a pair of upperclassmen guards who can drastically mold him as a player.
“Hopefully, knock on wood, nothing happens and nobody gets hurt. Because I think his future can be very impactful here,” Gard continued. “He’s just got two really good guards in Blackwell and Boyd that he can learn from. And that’s what I told him. Your best teacher and best experience for this year has been being eyed up, nose to nose with Nick Boyd every day, and that’s going to help him more than anything, more than he realizes it right now. Younger players see everything under a microscope, not in a telescope. So I think that day to day, hand-to-hand combat, combat with Nick will really, really help him.”
