Every once in a while, a college basketball story surfaces that doesn’t fit the typical recruiting-to-rotation arc. It’s not linear, it’s not predictable, and it’s not something a program can plan for. It’s simply a kid showing up, navigating the unknown, and forcing his way into relevance.
And if you’re looking for that type of story on this season’s rendition of the Wisconsin men’s basketball team, it’s Aleksas Bieliauskas.
This is a player who arrived in Madison by way of Lithuania, whose first language isn’t English, who committed to Wisconsin without ever meeting a single teammate or member of the coaching staff face-to-face.