The bad news: The Badgers lost their leader in points, rebounds, assists and steals from last season.
The good news: All of that production came from Ethan Happ, who now plays for Euro League side Olympiacos.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team, which opens its season Tuesday night against No. 20 St. Mary’s in Sioux Falls, S.D., returns six of its top eight scorers to a squad that has failed to win a NCAA tournament game in back-to-back seasons, the first time that has happened since 1995-1999. In order to fill the void left by Happ, and end that drought, the Badgers will be looking for a more balanced offensive approach this season.
“I feel like a lot of times you heard it was Ethan Happ and the Badgers last year,” graduate guard Brevin Pritzl said after practice Wednesday. “That’s great. Ethan was a fantastic player, but now you’re looking at the Badgers, looking at us as the Badgers. I think that’s what you’re going to see – more of a team effort instead of us force feeding Ethan, more of a collective offensive attack.”
Wisconsin’s offense struggled to offer Happ reliable support last year – UW’s 69.1 points per game ranked 12th in the Big Ten. Junior guard D’Mitrik Trice shot over 50 percent from behind the arc through his first 13 games, but went cold as the Badgers struggled near the end of the season, finishing the season with a 39 percent mark from three. Junior guard Brad Davison shot just 21 percent from three over UW’s last 10 games, including 0-12 in the Badgers’ Big Ten tournament and NCAA tournaments exits to Michigan State and Oregon, respectively. As Wisconsin’s shooting woes worsened, the double and triple teams on Happ only increased.
Without Happ as the focal point of the offense, UW will be looking to return to a more balanced, fluid offense the Badgers patented under Bo Ryan – full of ball movement, off-ball screens and spacing and less dependent on one player.
To do that, however, coach Greg Gard will be relying on multiple role players from last year to take a larger responsibility within the offense – last season, sophomore guard Kobe King scored 4.2 points per game, junior forward Aleem Ford averaged 3.1 points while junior forward Nate Reuvers recorded 7.9 points per game. Both Ford and King will likely find themselves in the starting lineups in place of Happ and fellow graduate Khalil Iverson, while Reuvers has been pegged by many around the team to make a third-year jump a la former big men Happ and Frank Kaminsky.
“Obviously we have new roles,” Gard said on Behind the Badgers podcast. “Guys in new roles that are now the alpha dog who maybe weren’t before, or in that type of role… Those are three guys specifically that could jump into that role because you have Happ and Iverson specifically – with Reuvers being on the front line and Kobe and Aleem being on the wing, those guys [Happ and Iverson] are no longer here, so there’s more opportunity for Kobe and Aleem. And obviously there’s more now, the piece of pie that Nate gets is bigger.”
Reuvers is the only one of that group who has served as a regular starter. The six-foot-eleven Lakeville, Minn. native improved across the board during his second season in Madison – he saw a jump in his points, rebounds, steals, blocks, field goal percentage and three-point percentage compared to his freshman year. Now looking to make an even bigger jump as a junior, UW’s lack of depth at big man places an even bigger emphasis on Reuvers’ development – redshirt freshman Joe Hedstrom and true freshman Tyler Wahl will likely be the top-two big men off the bench until Ohio State transfer Micah Potter, who is ineligible for the first 10 games, returns.
Used more around the perimeter during his first two seasons, Reuvers will be counted on to score more in the low post after Happ and Iverson’s departures. Wherever he finds himself on the court, however, UW will be looking to Reuvers to be a focal point of their new-look attack.
“Going up against him every day, he’s a lot more physical, a lot more aggressive,” King said. “He’s kind of got that swagger, that confidence. I thought he came a long way last year, and I think he’s gonna come a long way this year. I hope he has a big year for us.”
The Badgers enter the season unranked, failing to receive a single top-25 vote in the preseason AP Poll while teams like Vermont, Liberty, Dayton and Colgate each received at least one vote. It’s an eye-opening indictment of outside expectations for the team in Year 1 without Happ. It’s also a sentiment that’s not shared within UW’s locker room, however.
“Rankings don’t matter,” Pritzl said. “Just go beat the team that’s in front of you every day. That’s all you gotta do.”
Wisconsin gets it first crack at that Tuesday night.
