Jack Janicki turned down offers from other schools to be a walk-on at Wisconsin. This season, he has been a spark plug off the bench, playing key minutes in big victories.

Two years ago, Jack Janicki turned down offers from Wake Forest, Loyola Chicago, Colorado State, Harvard, and others to walk on at Wisconsin. He came here as a preferred walk-on with the assumption that he would be able to play for a scholarship and work his way onto the court. His freshman year resulted in a redshirt after never seeing the court last year. This year has been a different story. Starting with the Arizona game, he has been a spark plug off the bench, playing key minutes in big victories. His presence isn’t always reflected in the stat line due to his limited use as Wisconsin’s 9th man at the moment. But once you start digging into his statistics, that narrative begins to shift.

Starting right off the bat, we have to look at the per-minute stats to compare with the rest of the roster. Janicki is averaging .037 steals per minute played. For comparison, John Blackwell leads the starters with .030 steals per minute. Janicki has .020 blocks per minute, compared to Stephen Crowl’s .022. Janicki is averaging .083 assists per minute compared to Max Klesmit’s .096. Janicki’s 36% on 3-pointers is ahead of Klesmit, Blackwell, and Crowl. And probably the most impressive stat I could find, he leads the team with a 6.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. As a reference point, the team overall has a 1.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. Now, we do have to take these stats with a grain of salt as he hasn’t seen as much game time as the starters. However, with 10.7 minutes per game, it’s safe to say he is having a consistently positive output in the games he plays.

It’s no coincidence Jack Janicki’s two best games are Wisconsin’s two best wins: Purdue and Arizona. 11 points in 17 minutes against Purdue and 9 points in 19 minutes against Arizona were impressive performances, especially from a walk-on redshirt freshman. Given the opportunities given to him this year, Janicki has excelled with a non-stop effort and tenacity that makes me one of his biggest fans. With Wisconsin losing a decent chunk of our roster after this year, Janicki better get a scholarship next year. If he doesn’t, we riot.

I will end this article with a prophetic quote from Janicki after announcing his decision to walk on at Wisconsin:

“It’s a solid opportunity. Even if I’m not on scholarship next year, I’ll be a normal player. You won’t be able to tell the difference — maybe I’ll even play in games.”

Want more Walk On Fan?
Check out our Wisco Wednesday from last week where we discussed the Greg Gard Experience.
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This article was written by Jordan Longseth and edited by Hayden Breene.