Windback Wednesday: When Rapp became a killer Badger

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Making big shots on the big stage is nothing unusual for Wisconsin Badgers star Austin Rapp these days but the Aussie young gun revealed the moment which took his game to a new level.

Rapp had a breakout season with the Badgers in their 2025-26 campaign, including hitting six triples in the Big 10 Tournament Semifinals to almost beat eventual NCAA National Champions - the Michigan Wolverines.

It was a performance which put him on the map.

But as he enjoys time off back home in Australia before returning to Wisconsin, Rapp spoke to Baseline Hoops and reflected on hitting the championship-winning shot at the Basketball Australia Under-20 National Championships in Ballarat in 2024, where he knocked down a fadeaway over fellow college star Roman Siulepa to lead his Victorian side to victory over Queensland.

"It was a tie game with three seconds left. It was like me, Luke (Fennell) and Joel Foxwell. We all wanted the ball, like we were all confident guys. Joel and Luke were like 'nah Aussie, you got it'. They both said to me like 'you're good'.

"So Luke threw it in, Joel was kind of the decoy until I set it up, and I remember Roman was guiding me and when the inbound came, when I saw the way he was guarding me, I knew I could kind of get a bit of space. It was kind of like face guarding myself.

"I'm going to have to jump and just shoot it and as soon as I shot it, I'm like 'that's in'. I kind of knew straight away, like that was in.

"Roman was right there, like, jumping, it was basically right there and I like blacked out after I made it, ran into the stands, I didn't even know what I was doing. It was pretty crazy."

Rapp, who was with the South East Melbourne Phoenix as well as the Knox Raiders in the NBL1 South at the time, has gone on to star at the Portland Pilots before moving to division one powerhouse Wisconsin for his sophomore season.

And he believes that moment in 2024 on the courts of Ballarat, helped him reach where he is today.

"To this day, that's probably the craziest basketball story I've got in my life. To hit a game-winning shot to win your national championship. That was really cool," he told Baseline Hoops.

"That kind of tournament was kind of when I started to kind of elevate my game a little bit."