John Blackwell Is Transferring To Duke Following Playing Freshman, Sophomore, Junior Seasons At Wisconsin
John Blackwell is transferring to Duke following playing freshman, sophomore , junior seasons at Wisconsin.
As a freshman in 2023 -2024,
John Blackwell was named the Big Ten All-Freshman Team, becoming the ninth player in program history to earn the distinction ... Earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors four times (Nov. 27, Dec. 11, Jan. 23, Mar. 11), becoming the first Badger since Nigel Hayes in 2013-14 to win the award four times ... Scored a career-high 18 points in 18 minutes off the bench against Robert Morris (Nov. 17) ... Averaged 10.0 points and 6.5 rebound per game while helping lead the Badgers to the title at the 2023 Fort Myers Tip-Off ... Dropped a team-high 17 points while grabbing a team-high 7 rebounds in win against No. 1 Arizona (Dec. 9) ... Scored 17 points while grabbing 11 rebounds in a win against Rutgers (March 7) ... Provided a team-high 18 points against No, 3 Purdue (March 10) ... Scored a team-high 18 points against Maryland in the Big Ten Tournament (March 14), shooting 4-for-6 from 3.
As a sophomore at Wisconsin in 2025-2026 season ,
John Blackwell started all 37 games in a tremendous sophomore season … was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention and a member of the Big Ten All-Tournament team … Wisconsin’s second leading scorer at 15.8 points per game … led the team in points 11 times during the season, with four 25+ point performances. … scored a career-high 32 points in the Badger’s 116-85 win over Iowa (Jan. 3) … recorded first two-career double-doubles in a span of three games finishing with 24 points and 10 rebounds against Washington (Feb. 25) and 25 points and 11 rebounds at Minnesota (March 5) … Led the Badgers with 18 points against Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament Championship game (March 16)
As a junior in 2025-2026 season,
Started 33 games in an All-Big Ten Third-Team season ... was a member of the Big Ten Tournament Team ... two-time Big Ten Player of the Week (Dec. 18, Jan. 19) and won the Naismith Trophy Player of the Week (Jan. 12) ... had 15 20-plus point games ... dropped five 30-plus point performances ... had 31 points to lead UW over No. 9 Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament (March 13) ... poured in a career-high 34 points on six three-pointers against Washington (March 12), adding 10 rebounds for the double-double ... tallied a game-high 25 points at No. 15 Purdue (March 7), nailing five three-pointers on 7-of-13 overall clip ... led all players with 26 points in the upset over No. 2 Michigan (Jan. 10), going 9-of-16 from the field ... shot 6-of-12 from three-point land en route to 30 points in an I-94 rivalry win over Marquette (Dec. 3) ... Notched 30 points and 6 rebounds, posting an 11-12 clip from the free throw line verse TCU (Nov. 28) ... opened the '25-26 campaign with 31 points on six three-pointers in a win over Campbell (Nov. 3)
According to https://uwbadgers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/john-blackwell/14412
At the time of transferring to Duke John Blackwell shared his thoughts with ESPN by saying "It felt like the right situation for me. I just connected with Coach [Jon Scheyer] on a different level. We built a connection in these past weeks of just talking to him and him selling why Duke is the right spot for me. Me taking this visit was just confirmation on why I should be at Duke."
Their pitch to me was, come here, have freedom,"
"You can come here and be a draft pick, and that's always my dream. Come here and help us win a national championship. Those are just things I love to hear. I love the campus, I love the people surrounding Duke. That's why I made my choice to be a Blue Devil."
They have four PGs. I would consider myself a point guard,""We're just going to push each other everyday. [When you] have a deep backcourt like we're going to have, it's going to be a matchup nightmare for teams. I'm just so excited to play with those guys and challenge those guys. And they challenge me every single day."
Their track record with producing pros definitely played a part in itNot so much with them producing pros, but them developing pros. I don't think at any other school, there's only a few, where you can get that certain level of development. That's major for me."
According to Jeff Borzello ESPN article https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/48553673/duke-lands-john-blackwell-top-guard-transfer-portal
On Wednesday John Blackwell elaborated on why he is transferring to Duke by saying "I'm 6-4, so I'm naturally a point guard. And that's just the things I didn't do at Wisconsin. No knock to them, it's just how I want to elevate my game to go to the next level
According to Ben Kenney Badgerswire article https://badgerswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/badgers/mens-basketball/2026/04/22/wisconsin-john-blackwell-duke-comment/89730988007/