When Connor Essegian took his official recruiting visit to Wisconsin, he was welcomed, made to feel at home and accompanied on campus by his host, Tyler Wahl. In the process of getting to know more about each other, the icebreaker was a hot tub in Wahl's apartment complex.
"We chilled in his hot tub and just talked,'' Essegian said.
"That's where we were able to have a one-on-one conversation,'' Wahl added.
It was an interesting pairing, the Hoosier and Gopher; Essegian, the shooting guard from Fort Wayne, Ind. and Wahl, the point forward from Lakeville, Minn. "I was with him all the time,'' Essegian remembered of his trip to Madison. "Honestly, he's a big part of why I'm here.''
From the very onset, Essegian noted, "There really was no need to break the ice with him. With society nowadays, I feel a lot of people with interactions struggle. With him, he was so easy-going and open with me, it made me feel like I had known him my whole life.''
Wahl was a sounding board. And then some. "I answered some questions honestly,'' Wahl said. "I asked him some questions and we really built a relationship off that. You could definitely tell that there was some chemistry there. It was a seamless flow. There was no awkwardness or anything.
"It was a conversation about what he wanted, what I wanted, what this program was all about.
"I really wasn't selling the program.''
But, in fact, he was. Essegian was sold, too. On Wisconsin. On Wahl. Reflecting on what stood out from their initial give-and-take, Essegian said, "It was his leadership that he showed me right away. It was wanting to be a leader for me, an older brother, a teammate … even before I had committed.
"I look up to him as a person. I feel like he plays basketball the right way. He does life the right way. If I go to him about something – life outside of basketball or if I ask him a question on the court – I always feel like he's one of the first people to help guide me through it personally.
"I just don't feel the age difference there.''
Wahl may. Especially Thursday night at the Kohl Center. Prior to the tipoff with Purdue, he will have a "senior moment'' – he will be recognized as Wisconsin's lone senior in this class. Although he will graduate in May, he has yet to make a decision on returning for another season of college eligibility.
"Right now we have to focus on winning games,'' he said, "and making the tournament.''
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Wahl was asked about being THE senior.
"It has been interesting,'' he admitted. "I feel like Wisconsin is known for having its four-year guys and it has just been crazy where I've been the only one in my class throughout the whole time. It has been a unique experience and I wouldn't want to have it any other way.
"I looked up to the leaders from the past here and kind of learned from them. I was always hanging out with the older guys since I was the youngest and I was picking up something from them whether it was Brad (Davison), Brevin (Pritzl), Meech (D'Mitrik Trice) or Micah (Potter).''
Over time, the personnel has changed. But the message hasn't. Nor has the commitment to grooming players during their orientation to the program. It applies to how Wahl, THE senior, has felt a responsibility to Essegian, the true freshman; and Max Klesmit and Kamari McGee, the transfers.
"Tyler has made my transition so much easier,'' Klesmit acknowledged, "in terms of being able to help me out with schematic things that we do offensively – and defensively the rules here on how certain things work and what you can and can't do. He's the senior you can lean on, you can trust.
"Regardless of what happens or goes on, we all know that Tyler is there for everybody.''
Klesmit went so far as to suggest Wahl is an "underrated leader'' in many unnoticed areas.
"He does a good job of getting guys to follow in his footsteps just by being about the right things every time. No matter what we're doing, whether in the classroom, on a bike ride, in the weight room, on the practice floor, everything you do has to be the same because that's how you do everything.
"I'm still learning from him, trying to be a sponge, soaking up everything,'' Klesmit continued. "It's nice that we live in the same building, too, and I can just go down the floor and hang with him if I've got a question or I just need to talk about something. He has been super good to me and Kamari, too.
"Obviously, being from Wisconsin (Neenah) and knowing a little bit about Wisconsin basketball while I was at Wofford, I knew the history that he has had with Big Ten championships and being on good teams … He's going to do whatever it takes to win.''
Winning hasn't come easy this season. In going through his own growing pains, Essegian said, "Tyler has helped me through that, too. He'll say, 'Hey, you're a freshman, it happens.' That's just the way basketball is. Up and downs. Especially being in this conference – being so young and playing.
"Even during the tough shooting stretch that I had against Rutgers, he was there by my side letting me know, 'The next shot is going in ...' He just kept telling me to be myself out there.'' Taking the words to heart, Essegian has gone out and scored 17 and 24 points in the last two games.
In this case, Wahl took a measured approach in reaching out. "You always try to give them the best advice that you can but you're letting them learn at the same time,'' he said. "You give them some advice. You give them some pointers. But as a freshman, you don't want to hear everything you're told.''
There are many knowns about Wahl, THE senior. Like how hard he competes, start to finish, healthy or not. "And that just inspires you to play as hard or try to play harder,'' Klesmit said. "You see a guy 6-9 playing that hard and you're thinking, 'He's leading by example, leading by his actions.'''
At Michigan, Wahl pulled off a behind-the-back bounce pass to Steven Crowl for a layup that nobody saw coming. "That one caught me off-guard, I'm not going to lie,'' Essegian said. "It was good to see him getting back to the comfort level that he was at earlier this year (prior to his ankle injury).''
When quizzed on the nifty assist, which he also executed in practice this week, Wahl said, "I think the last time I broke out a behind-the-back pass was my freshman year and I turned it over and I got yanked. It just kind of happened (Sunday) where I didn't think about it and it worked out.''
There are fewer knowns about Wahl, the personal finance major. "He's a lot funnier than people would think, he really is,'' Essegian volunteered. "He's got a sneaky sense of humor that you don't see on the court as much. But when we're just hanging out, he tries to show it a little bit.''
Fair or not? I would say, 'Yeah, that's fair,''' Wahl replied. "With the guys who really know me I'm a little more outspoken in front of them. Whenever I'm around people I don't know, I'm definitely the same person, I definitely have the same smile on my face, but the same jokes are not flowing.''
Anything else we don't know about Wahl? "He's really good at Mario Kart,'' Klesmit said of the Nintendo video game of racing go-karts. "He's probably one of the best players in Mario Kart that I've played and I play a lot.'' Wahl smiled and confirmed, "I am pretty good at Mario Kart.''
Was there anything Wahl was willing to share? Maybe something else that nobody knew about him? "That's a great question,'' he said. "I feel like I'm an open book. I'll think about it.'' Fair enough. But he did have an answer for what Thursday's senior introduction was going to be like for him.
"Shoot, I'm going to be thinking about a lot of things,'' said Wahl who'll be joined by his mom Kaye and dad Tim, a Hall of Fame guard at Minneapolis Southwest and MVP at Mankato State. "I'm going to be thinking about all the times they drove me to travel games and AAU tournaments.
"I'm going to be thinking about my teammates – the ones who came before me here and who came after me, and the ones currently – because they helped me get to where I am today. I wouldn't be here without any one of them. I'm also going to be thinking about the coaching staff.
"They gave me a chance when I was young, and they were all in on me from the beginning.''
Mostly, he'll be thinking about finding a way to beat Purdue. It's part of the program's standard – "All the guys want to leave the jersey in a better place than where they found it,'' he said – it's who he is. THE senior. "Winner,'' Klesmit said. "That was my first impression of Tyler. Strictly a winner.''
Original source can be found here.