New school Rapp: Austin the Badger a leader in Wisconsin

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Not every 20-year-old knows how to lead but few have walked the path Australian Austin Rapp has.

He’s shadowed Boomer and past-NBL veteran Mitch Creek at the South East Melbourne Phoenix as a 17-year-old, captained Victoria at national championships, and Portland head coach Shantay Legans publicly lauded his maturity, calling him a well-spirited people-person.

The new Wisconsin recruit took no time proving that at his new home, establishing himself as a vocal presence in his first few practices ahead of the 2025-26 NCAA season.

For the sophomore, it comes from a place of wanting to keep things light-hearted, with the pathway to the NBA being a difficult and arduous journey.

“I’m a pretty loud guy… I’m going to try to make the guys laugh as much as I can,” Rapp told reporters.

“If I can bring that kind of energy – say when we have a big lift session and there’s guys who are gonna be down – I’m only a sophomore but I can lead to the best of my ability, be loud, and get the guys juice - I think you need guys on your team to do that and I’m happy to do it.”

Rapp has been silently achieving, underlined by his move to Wisconsin after a standout freshman season in Portland.

Across 30 games last season, the Dandenong-born prospect averaged 14 points, with 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.5 blocks.

His 2.7 three-pointers per game at a percentage of 35% was the highest output across America for players 6'9" or taller, and his 83 threes ranked second amongst NCAA freshmen – leading to West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year honours.

“I had a really good year, it’s set me up perfectly, and I couldn’t thank Portland enough,” he said.

“Honestly, the support and love they’ve had for me even after leaving is incredible, and I’ll be forever grateful – I’ll always show love to them.”

Sibling Scrap

In a life consumed by basketball, Rapp has always had his family by his side.

His father, brother, and sister all currently attend or have been a part of an NCAA basketball program – with his father inducted into the UC San Diego Hall of Fame in 2017.

Rapp reminisced fondly about his early basketball childhood memories with his competitive siblings, having started playing basketball at age three, and calling Dandenong Basketball Stadium his home.

“We would play two-on-two basketball, I’ve got two sisters so we’d do boys versus girls, and I’m the youngest so it would get competitive out there – there’d be scraps and fights,” he told the Bounce podcast.

“But I feel like they pushed me every day to be better and watching them achieve their basketball goals drove me to achieve mine – and I really appreciate the bond I’ve had with my siblings.”

Having been surrounded by the right people with few believing in him after high school, Rapp credited his late grandfather for instilling belief when his current reality may have seemed farfetched.

“He was my biggest supporter, like he always believed in me when I was five-foot-ten and chubby and wasn’t very good at basketball – he would always say there’s no ceiling for me,” he said.

Lockdown Leap

Rapp entered the COVID-19 lockdown period as a chubby 6'2" basketball player, where he described himself as hardly remarkable, eventually growing to 6'8" over the two-year lockdown period.

“I went to my first basketball try out three weeks after lockdown and people saw me, and they were like, ‘Aussie, that’s you'," he told Matt Michaels’ YouTube show.

But only then did Rapp take basketball seriously, something he regrets putting off for so long.

“I started working out after figuring out I was gonna be good at basketball, I started working out really hard too late,” he told the Bounce.

“I think the advice I’d give myself at a younger age would be to get in the gym and work your ass off, if you really want to do something you can do it, there’s no one stopping you.”

Since, Rapp has been on an exponential rise.

After making some late-game mistakes to close out the National Under-20 Championships final in 2024 against Queensland, Rapp was handed the heavy burden of the final shot to win the game and the championship, with the game all square.

On a day he scored 32 points with 13 rebounds, Rapp was always destined to convert, and it remains one of his best basketball career moments to date.

“When I shot it, my initial thought was like ‘damn, it looks good, all right, it’s a chance’,” he said.

“Once it went down, I didn’t know what to do, it was a fluke no doubt. The adrenaline was still pumping and I ran off the side of the cameras.

“When I tell it back to people today, I kind of just shot and prayed, and it was lucky enough to go down, and it’s probably going to be one of the most memorable moments of my life.”

Turn for the Best

This moment may not have manifested had Rapp’s basketball career not taken a more serious, professional turn a year prior.

Under coach Matt Nunn, Rapp played in the ‘Heartland’ within the well-run program of the Knox Raiders for the 2023 and 2024 NBL1 seasons.

In both seasons, the Raiders were formidable, winning the NBL1 National Championship each year and beating the Sandringham Sabres to secure the NBL1 South title in 2023, a year he averaged 16 points and nine rebounds per game.

Rapp cited the 2023 National Championship as one of the more incredible victories in his time at Knox, where only seven fit players suited up against Rockingham, and Knox recovered from a slow start to win by five.

Rapp would have 14 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, and two steals in the win.

He told The Bounce that his tenure at Knox was enriching and brought many valuable experiences which has since placed him in good stead to perform at NCAA level.

“They [Matt Nunn and Knox] believed in me at 17, there’s not many 17-year-olds running around playing in the NBL1,” he said.

“It gave me a lot of confidence. A 17-year-old kid being told to go out there and just be you, it says a lot. If a coach gives you that kind of leeway, you don’t feel pressure to stuff up, and the same thing was stressed every day.

“Everyone’s going to make mistakes but it’s how you respond, and credit to Matt Nunn, he had a lot of belief in me and still does.”

This experience supplied him with an opportunity to become a development player at the Phoenix in the 2023-24 NBL season.

He played seven games, getting a start in the twilight of the NBL season, with this exposure giving him the leg up over fellow entrants into a NCAA system down the line.

“I just turned 18, so to learn from guys like Mitch Creek, Alan Williams, Rhys Vague, and Gorjok Gak… that was a probably a crucial part in building who I am today,” he said.

“It really set me up for good habits, informed me on bad habits – and you know, a lot of college kids go there and they’re starting to build their habits from college. I feel like my habits were built before college. So it gave me a bit of a boost.”

Boomer Future

This mindset of Rapp’s has carried through college, most recently competing in some scrimmages on his return home in the American summer.

These scrimmages, done in late August at Courtside in Port Melbourne, involved Australian NBA talents Josh Giddey and Johnny Furphy.

ESPN insider Olgun Uluc commented "I can’t stress how very real Austin Rapp’s shooting is" as Australians got a glimpse of what the future of Australian basketball could look like.

Rapp said that these reps, alongside his time with the Boomers for the Trans-Tasman Throwdown in May have allowed him to hit the ground running at Wisconsin.

“I had a three-week stint with my national team back home and that really prepared me to come here and be ready for the kind of competition that’s going to be ahead of myself,” he told reporters.

“Obviously the first week or so I had to acclimatise a little bit, but I feel like I’m a smart player, where I can find opportunities to score, set screens, find opportunities for the other guys.”

Unguardable

As Rapp steps into an important sophomore season, he spoke on how his developing ability to facilitate at 6'10" and the presence of seven-footer Nolan Winter could allow Wisconsin to adopt a 2024 'Michigan-esque' style offence.

This was inspired by seven-foot duo Danny Wolf, a passing big that can shoot the three, and Vladislav Goldin, a more traditional big.

“I think I’ve taken a pretty big leap in my ball handling, coming off screens, and making plays… I feel like I can play that guard position. I think that’s a part of my game that gets overlooked a bit,” he said to Michaels.

“Me and Nolan will be matchup nightmares for a lot of teams, we can both stretch the floor, he can come off ball screens if he really wants to as well.”

Rapp’s smarts and precise passing were on display in the Badgers’ opening fixture of the season as he acclimatised quickly to Wisconsin basketball. His four assists displayed variety, surfacing from drive-and-kicks and finding his teammates in the paint.

After converting on three threes in an exhibition loss to Oklahoma, Rapp showed his range against Campbell, hitting two threes. His late game three as a part of a second half 29-2 run provided a glimpse as to how his chemistry with big man Winter could work.

Equally, Rapp has alluded to how coach Greg Gard has encouraged him to extend his game by going downhill more frequently, by being physical, and by being assertive in the post, especially if he can hunt mismatches as a taller ‘guard’.

Against Campbell, Rapp had six free throws, indicating another layer of Rapp’s game that he says in developing, will ensure the sky’s the limit.

Driving Off the Court

A career like Rapp’s which has taken major leaps already has only come about due to the grind.

Away from the game, Rapp says golf has been beneficial to him to break things up, even if he’s not nearly as gifted.

“When I played in the NBL, you would have practice in the morning, and then everyone would just go play golf – I would go and I was terrible for a while, and now I can hit the ball,” he joked to reporters.

“I love golf, it’s so fun, I’m going to get some clubs that actually fit me and start trying to get into it and hopefully get better at it.”

A Higher Place

For someone whose maturity has outweighed his years, Rapp’s talent has only taken him places with a strong head above the shoulders, something that he referenced as an 18-year-old development player in 2023.

“I’m really motivated to become a really good basketball player so if I do come home and I’ve had a bad day at training and I haven’t trained well, I think about the next play, next game, or next training,” he told the Athlete’s Mind Podcast.

“I just think about what I can do to get better every training to get me to a higher place in the next few years… when I come back tomorrow to training, I’m going to be locked in.”

With this mindset evident ahead of his sophomore season, even at six-ten, Rapp can’t quite reach the heights his potential can