Wisconsin women’s basketball recruiting: 2021 4-star guard Maty Wilke commits to UW

Things have been going extremely well for the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team on the recruiting trail over the past two cycles. The 2020 class was topped off by signing 4-star PG, and No. 93 player in the country, Halle Douglass (Lake Forest, Ill.) and adding grad transfer forward Estella Moschkau (Stanford) who was a 5-star prospect coming out of Madison Edgewood.

Now, the 2021 class for head coach Jonathan Tsipis is complete because 4-star guard Maty Wilke (Beaver Dam) announced on Twitter that she is staying home.

“The five year recruiting process has been an incredible journey for me. I have met so many talented people and I am a better person for having gotten to know each and every one of them. At times, the decision felt mind boggling because there are unbelievable opportunities to play basketball all over our country. With that said, I have decided to follow my heart and stay home and play at Wisconsin for Coach Tsipis. On Wisconsin!” her tweet said.

Rated a 94 by ESPN, Wilke is also their No. 76 player and No. 26 guard in the country for the 2021 class. Their last scouting report, from December 2018, notes that Wilke is an: “Agile guard with silky release on jumper to the arc; executes in half-court game, basketball IQ; reads the defense and reacts, knocks down jumpers consistently; among the elite shooters in the class of 2021.”

Wilke, who stands 5-foot-9, joins Krystyna Ellew (Chicago, Ill.), a 5-foot-10 guard, out of Taft High School and 6-foot-4 big Sacia Vanderpool (Byron, Minn.) out of Byron High School in the 2021 class.

Having been recruited since the eighth grade, Wilke held offers from North Dakota, Marquette, UW-Green Bay, Iowa, Iowa State, Indiana, Minnesota, UW-Milwaukee, Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Colorado State, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and St. Louis in addition to her Badgers offer. According to Dennis Punzel at the State Journal, she had narrowed her choices down to Wisconsin, Marquette, Minnesota, Utah and Iowa before deciding on the Badgers.

Per the Daily Citizen (Beaver Dam): “Wilke led Beaver Dam to a 23-3 overall record last season and earned first-team all-state honors. She averaged 16.6 points and 7.4 rebounds (she also averaged 4.8 assists and 3.6 steals according to Punzel) a game as a junior and led the Golden Beavers to the WIAA Division 2 state tournament before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a premature end to the season.”

Beaver Dam was the 2-seed in this year’s tournament, before it was cancelled, and looking for their fourth (!!!!) straight state title, which is something that has never been accomplished in state history. The 2019 Divison 2 title game featured a wealth of future Badgers talent as Wilke and teammate Tara Stauffacher faced off against Monroe’s Sydney Hilliard. Stauffacher played in 30 games last year as freshman at UW while Hilliard played in 27, starting 21, and was the third leading scorer on the team with 9.2 points per game.

With the recent talent infusion to the Wisconsin roster, it will hopefully not be long before the Badgers NCAA Tournament drought ends. “I always love a challenge,” Wilke told Punzel and the State Journal. “Growing up I always wanted to play the best teams and the best girls. I believe the things I value in basketball can help change the Badger program.”