Coming off one of the most successful seasons in program history, the Wisconsin Badgers are faced with a future filled with uncertainty heading into the 2015-16 season.
Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker are gone to the NBA, head coach Bo Ryan is entering what might be the final season of his storied career and just two starters from last year’s team are returning for the upcoming campaign.
Back-to-back trips to the Final Four and the emergence of Kaminsky as one of the country’s top players cemented Wisconsin’s status as an elite program at the national level and helped end the negative stereotype of the Badgers being a boring team that doesn’t know how to score.
But with Kaminsky, Dekker and three other seniors (Josh Gasser, Duje Dukan and Traevon Jackson) gone, regression seems inevitable, especially given the team’s brutal non-conference schedule and a Big Ten that’s utterly loaded this year.
However, regression from being a national championship-caliber team doesn’t mean the Badgers are plummeting toward mediocrity. With junior forward Nigel Hayes and junior guard Bronson Koenig returning and a crop of promising freshmen (five true freshmen and two of the redshirt variety) poised to have an impact, Wisconsin might be the most unpredictable team in the Big Ten.
Leading the way for the Badgers will be Hayes, a preseason first-team All-American selection by Sporting News who is expected to be among the best players in the Big Ten.
Hayes was stellar for Wisconsin last year, averaging 12.4 points and 6.2 points per game while also shooting 49.7 percent from the field. He showed a vast improvement from his freshman campaign, as he bumped up his free throw percentage from 58.5 to 74.4 percent and made 40 3-pointers after attempting exactly zero threes the year before. However, Hayes said he hasn’t worked on anything quite so specific over the offseason, but rather on his all-around game.
“I’ve definitely had to make sure I’m working hard on my game to make sure I’m the best player I can be,” Hayes said. “For us to have any amount of success like I’ve been accustomed to over the past two years, I need to make another tremendous leap.”
Joining him will be Koenig, who will start at point after filling in for an injured Traevon Jackson for much of last season. Koenig averaged 8.7 points and 2.5 assists per game while posting a 2.97 assist-to-turnover ratio.
“Obviously, not having the guys we’ve had the past couple of years, we’re having to slow things down a little bit, break everything down a little more and be a little more patient with the young and inexperienced guys,” Koenig said. “But I think we’re coming along pretty nicely.”
Outside those two, things get much murkier. Junior Vitto Brown is expected to be the starting center, a position where the Badgers don’t have much depth. Brown has exhibited solid rebounding ability during his limited playing time, but his offensive skillset is a major question mark entering the season.
Offense is also a concern for redshirt junior guard Zak Showalter, who will join Koenig in Wisconsin’s starting backcourt. Showalter replaces Gasser, who was a defensive dynamo and a solid offensive contributor for the Badgers. Showalter can fill the void left by Gasser defensively, but a sharp improvement is needed to match his production on offense.
Showalter has shot 41.5 percent from the field in his two years at UW, but has posted a paltry 16.7 shooting percentage from 3-point range. That’s a relatively small sample size at just 24 attempts, but he’ll need to be more effective from beyond the arc if he’s going to thrive in the Bo Ryan swing offense.
Though both Showalter and Brown will be new additions to the starting lineup, it’s the crop of new guys that might be the biggest factor in deciding how good the Badgers can be this season.
Among these newcomers are Brevin Pritzl, Charlie Thomas, Khalil Iverson, Alex Illikainen and Andy Van Vliet. Showalter and Hayes both noted Thomas and Iverson, who has drawn comparisons to former Badger great Alando Tucker, as standouts among these newcomers.
“A lot of talent, but they’ve got a lot to learn, so we’re trying to get them up to speed as quick as we can,” Showalter said of the new crop of players. “Some guys have responded a lot quicker than others, but that’s just how people are. It’s good to see a big group of guys come in.”
However, it’s redshirt freshman forward Ethan Happ that has the potential to be a real X factor for the Badgers moving forward. Happ is expected to start, though Thomas and Van Vliet could challenge him early on, and has been pegged by many as a potential breakout player for the Badgers.
“He’s a gym rat. He’s always in the gym getting shots up and working on his moves,” Showalter said. “It’s good to see a guy like that succeed and then hopefully get put in positions and get opportunities to succeed.”
There’s plenty of questions surrounding this year’s Wisconsin team, and fans will get their first glance at these new-look Badgers when they take on UW-River Falls Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Kohl Center.
“I think we’ve got a lot of guys who have been waiting and watching these good players ahead of us that are ready to experience some of what those guys had,” Showalter said. “We’re definitely excited.”
