The Wisconsin Badgers are set to face off against the No. 9 Tennessee Volunteers on Friday, fresh off a 105-76 win over the Arkansas State Red Hawks on Monday, looking to improve to 2-0 against a tough opponent.
Ahead of the game, the Badgers had questions regarding two of their players: Connor Essegian, who was injured in the opener, and Gus Yalden, who was away from the team to address a personal family matter.
On Wednesday, head coach Greg Gard shared that Essegian would be day-to-day, seeing limited action on Wednesday in practice, working mainly with the trainers.
Gard also provided an update on Yalden, who returned to practice for the first time on Wednesday since his leave of absence.
“Today is his first day back [since the days off],” Gard said on Wednesday. “Getting him back to practice I think is step one of what he is going through. So we’ll just continue to take that day by day too.”
“And now we’re into game prep mode so I’ve got pretty good idea of who I’m going to have on the floor. We’ll just keep walking forward with who’s going right now and catch him up to speed as we can.”
Yalden’s leave of absence was announced on November 1st, which came two days after the freshman forward was cited for possession of marijuana on October 29th.
The citation was Yalden’s second in two months, as the freshman was cited for underage drinking on September 2nd during the first football game of the season.
After returning to practice Wednesday, A UW spokesperson confirmed that Yalden would be on the bench Friday as he gets re-integrated into the team.