Throughout the offseason, Wisconsin basketball dealt with injuries to its two starting forwards Nolan Winter and Austin Rapp.

Winter underwent ankle surgery after the 2025-26 campaign and was held off the court for a large portion of the offseason. Austin Rapp, meanwhile, had hand surgery in the offseason and was similarly limited for large swaths of the spring and summer.

That led to increased practice minutes and reps for Wisconsin's two bench forwards, sophomore Will Garlock and Hofstra transfer Victory Onuetu. Those two battled it out throughout offseason practices, and reportedly got much better in the process. But with Winter and Rapp back in action, Garlock is now dealing with an ailment of his own.

Wisconsin communications told reporters that Garlock suffered an injury in practice and is "day-to-day." The center didn't play in Wisconsin's 82-65 exhibition win over Oklahoma State at the Kohl Center on Tuesday.

With Wisconsin's opener against Denver slated for Nov. 2, this coming Monday night, Garlock is firmly questionable for the Badgers ahead of their 2026-27 season tip-off.

What Garlock's injury means

The big man's ailment being categorized as "day-to-day" is certainly a good sign that he isn't dealing with anything serious. The center's availability, or lack thereof, for an exhibition may also be slightly misleading, as there's no point in risking serious injury in a meaningless preseason game.

The Badgers have five days to rest before they host Denver and tip-off their season. With games against Denver, Delaware, Fairfield and Coastal Carolina on tap first, Wisconsin doesn't play a high-major team until the Nov. 19 clash with Seton Hall in The Bahamas. In many ways, those four buy games are an extension of the preseason — there's no need to rush Garlock back for any of those contests.

Still, those first four games would also provide valuable minutes for the Garlock as he continues to grow and develop as a rotational forward for Wisconsin. Getting some solid minutes early on in the season could do wonders for his continued development down the line.

If Garlock is indeed forced to miss any game action, we should see a whole lot of the Hofstra transfer Onuetu. That was likely already the case, as the athletic, bouncy, rim-protecting big man supplies a skillset Wisconsin simply hasn't had. Nonetheless, without Garlock available Onuetu would be the only other forward the Badgers can deploy aside from true freshman from Australia Isaac Riddle, who played just one minute in the exhibition win over Oklahoma State.