Badger Rewind: Future already the focus for Wisconsin
March 28, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
With continuity on its roster, team well aware of potential for next season
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
PHILADELPHIA - Wisconsin's lone senior, Jordan Smith, surveyed the locker room for a final time after Friday night's loss here to Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament.
"This is probably the most resilient group of guys that I've ever played with," Smith said. "When we started the season 9-9, I don't think anyone saw us in this position. That just speaks to the kind of guys that we have in this room. And it makes me really excited to know that I'll be able to watch them next year.
"I think they're going to be able to do some really special stuff. This is kind of like our first Final Four team. We got everyone back (the following season).
"For me, it stinks because I'm not going to get a chance to be a part of it. Like I said, I think they're going to do something really special."
Smith was not alone in that conviction.
"I'm proud of the guys," Nigel Hayes said.
Hayes could now join Smith in the work force, if he chooses.
Smith has already taken a job as a financial analyst for General Mills in Minneapolis. Hayes is weighing his future as a professional basketball player versus returning for his senior year.
Whether he returns or not, the Badgers should be in good shape for next season as far as the players who have gained so much more experience on what it takes to make a serious run in March.
"I think this mini-run showed people what we can do," said Zak Showalter, who will be one of the senior leaders. "We have a lot of guys coming back and hopefully we can take it from here."
Shooting guard Brevin Pritzl, who was injured, and 6-foot-11 forward Andy Van Vliet, who was ineligible, will be added to the mix. Both will be expected to compete for playing time in the rotation.
"They've both been working their butts off to get better and contribute to this team," Showalter said. "Hopefully, again, we'll see them helping us get some wins in the next couple of years.
"We know this summer is going to be a good summer for all of us. We've got a lot of work to do," he stressed. "But we'll be ready to work."
Khalil Iverson, Charlie Thomas and Alex Illikainen were clustered together in the cramped locker room. A few feet away was Vitto Brown, who pointed to the growth of the three freshmen.
"They were fortunate to get a lot of experience this year and that will really help going forward," he said. "We were all learning to work with each other and make each other better.
"They got more minutes than I got in my first two years. So that helps."
As a freshman and sophomore combined, Brown logged 258 minutes (5.4 per game)
Iverson had 443 minutes (13.0), Illikainen had 324 (9.8) and Thomas had 282 (9.1).
"I think they'll be ready and hungry to get back here (the NCAA tourney) and have a little more taste of this themselves," said Brown, who will take on a different role, too, as a senior.
"It was different for me being one of the junior leaders of the team this year. I think now I'll be used to it more next year. I'll probably be more vocal. It will be a good change in that sense."
Brown was one of the Big Ten's most improved players. After averaging just 1.4 points and 1.1 rebounds through his first 48 career games, he carried the offense, at times, with his outside shooting.
Starting 34 of 35 games, Brown averaged 9.7 points and five rebounds. He also shot 40 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, including making multiple triples in each of the last seven games.
"There's a lot of upside in all of our guys," said reserve guard Jordan Hill, a redshirt sophomore who averaged 15.6 minutes, the most off the bench.
"We came together as a team and a lot of people stepped up this season when others counted us out. We can really do anything that we put our minds to - when we do it the right way.
"It's time now to take a step back and enjoy what we did. And then we have to start getting ready to improve ourselves individually and as a team over the spring and summer."
Ethan Happ was of the same opinion. Self-improvement will be at the top of his to-do list.
"I need to shore up some of my ball-handling," said Happ, who put a fitting exclamation point on his redshirt freshman season with a double-double (14 points, 12 rebounds) against Notre Dame, his 10th overall.
"Obviously shooting the ball is going to be a big off-season project, too."
Happ wants to develop a face-up jumper to complement his low-post game. Even without the threat of an outside shot, he still managed to averaged 12.4 points while pulling down 7.9 rebounds.
In the process, Happ learned a lot about what it takes to be effective around the rim against bigger opponents, while also learning more about himself, and what makes him tick.
"I learned not to get down on myself as much," he said. "Even though you're not playing well, you can still help your team win in other ways."
To this end, Happ was a member of the Big Ten All-Defensive Team and had 63 steals, a school record for a first-year player. He had at least one steal in 28 consecutive games.
"Once we got more experience and more games under our belt, we started to play better defensively," Happ said. "Hopefully, we can build off that for next season."
Junior guard Bronson Koenig was still having trouble digesting how it all ended Friday night in a flurry of mistakes in the closing minutes against Notre Dame.
"This one is going to sting for awhile," he said after the Badgers were outscored 8-0 over the final 19 seconds. "We beat ourselves, for lack of a better expression or explanation."
The Badgers were guilty of 17 turnovers, the most since a Dec. 23 game against Green Bay, which was Greg Gard's first game as Wisconsin's interim coach, replacing Bo Ryan.
"We felt like we should have won this game," Koenig said. "We felt like we were the better team but we had some uncharacteristic turnovers, myself included, the last couple of minutes.
"We'll use this for motivation for the off-season and next season."
Turning his attention to the returning personnel, Koenig perked up.
"It's a good feeling that we're going to pretty much have everyone back," he said, "and we'll have guys coming off an injury and ineligibility (Pritzl and Van Vliet).
"Getting this far (Sweet 16), it speaks volumes for how far we've come and how far we've matured since the beginning of the season. We'll be ready to roll from the start next season."
