Badger Basketball Exit Meetings: Aleksas Bieliauskas was thrown into the fire, how did he respond?

Entering the 2025-26 season, frontcourt depth was a real concern for Badger fans. When Greg Gard turned to a freshman big from Lithuania in his starting five, some fans grew even more concerned. In time, Aleksas Bieliauskas ended up providing serviceable frontcourt minutes, and even became a secret weapon, providing major sparks in major wins for the Badgers.

As the modern era of college basketball goes, however, 2025-26 will end up being the only season for Bieliauskas in Madison, so here are my final thoughts on what turned out to be a short-lived Badger career.

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2025-26 stats (20.2 minutes per game)

4.9 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 0.9 APG, 0.6 BPG | 43.1% FG, 34.6% 3-pt, 63.3% FT

2025-26 High

I feel pretty confident that what I felt was Bieliauskas’ peak of the season is widely agreed upon. It was his takeover in Ann Arbor, and I don’t think it’s up for debate. The freshman big had flashed his 3-point shooting in the first few months of the season, particularly when he went 3-for-3 from deep against Marquette, but he took it to another level in the Badgers’ upset win over the Wolverines.

Early on in the contest, it didn’t seem like Wisconsin was going to hang around very long, with Michigan opening an early double-digit lead, and nothing coming easy offensively for the Badgers. That’s when Bieliauskas changed the game entirely.

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Dusty May had his bigs giving the Lithuanian center space on the perimeter in order to clog driving lanes, which accounted for some of the early struggles. He wanted Bieliauskas to beat him, not guys like Nick Boyd and John Blackwell. It wasn’t that Michigan didn’t think he could shoot, they just seemed fine living with that result, and Bieliauskas made them pay.

The big man knocked in five triples in the game, providing Wisconsin with a much needed offensive spark against an elite defensive unit. Not only did Bieliauskas hit in timely situations, but he changed the overall complexion of the game. The Michigan bigs, which overwhelmed every…

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Publish date : 2026-05-18 17:44:00

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