David Stluka / UW Athletics
A new Badger on the move: six-foot-nine Ethan Happ, wearing number 22.
While the expectations of many Badgers basketball fans are justifiably lower than they were last year at this time — we miss you already, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker — the University of Wisconsin men’s team is pumped to tip off its 2015 nonconference schedule Nov. 13 against Western Illinois at the Kohl Center. The Badgers will do so with a trio of juniors who gained invaluable experience during Wisconsin’s thrilling back-to-back Final Four runs the past two seasons.
Heading into his 15th year as Badgers head coach, Bo Ryan will look to 6-foot-8 forward Nigel Hayes for leadership on and off the court. There was talk of him bolting to the NBA, remember? “I’m nowhere near good enough to do anything but come back,” Hayes told reporters after the devastating 68-63 loss to Duke in the NCAA Championship Game last April.
Now that’s he’s back, he needs to help fill the void left by the departures of not only Kaminsky, Dekker and Duje Dukan to the NBA but also Josh Gasser and Traevon Jackson. Hayes averages 10.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, and he scored 16 points during a 101-46 drubbing of UW-River Falls in an exhibition game at the Kohl Center last week.
Look for big things from guards Bronson Koenig and Zak Showalter, too. Koenig learned a lot when he stepped in last January after Jackson broke his right foot and started the Badgers’ final 24 games, shooting 44.2% from the three-point line during that time. Showalter shined off the bench, especially during UW’s 79-72 win over North Carolina in the Sweet 16. Even junior forward Vitto Brown, who saw hardly any postseason action, will likely play several minutes per game this season.
That leaves a slew of sophomores and, especially, freshmen. Among the newbies to watch are 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman forward Ethan Happ from Milan, Ill. He practiced against Kaminsky every day last season and is the only 2014 recruit on scholarship. He played heads-up, aggressive ball while scoring 16 points against UW-River Falls.
There also are five true freshmen — Alex Illikainen, Khalil Iverson, Brevin Pritzl, Charlie Thomas and Andy Van Vliet — who collectively and individually have shown early promise. But 6-foot-11, 20-year-old Van Vliet played for a club team in his home country of Belgium last season and is ruled ineligible by the NCAA, at least for now.
UW plans to appeal the decision, a move that inspired the Kohl Center crowd at the UW-River Falls game to chant “Free Van Vliet! Free Van Vliet!”
