Tag: Nigel Hayes

Celtics may look to add depth via Euroleague with reports of Zach Auguste, Nigel Hayes workouts

Boston may again look across the pond for some rotation help.

The Boston Celtics may again raid the Euroleague for some depth in their 2021-22 campaign with reports surfacing that the team is planning on working our a pair of players from across the pond this week.

Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia is reporting that the Celtics will work out Panathinaikos’ Zach Auguste and Žalgiris’ Nigel Hayes this week. Auguste is a 28-year-old center who logged 4.6 points and 2.3 rebounds per game in the Euroleague last season, while Hayes — a 26-year-old forward — shot 44.3% from deep overseas last season while putting up 9.5 points, 3.9 boards, and 1.2 assists per game.

While Auguste’s case do not immediately pop based on those numbers, it’s easy to see the potential for a shooter on the wing with the size to play 2 through 4 at 6-foot-7.

We may end up seeing one or both as part of the Celtics’ Las Vegas Summer League squad rotation on a camp deal if their workouts with Boston go well.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Opinion: Tyler Herro went to Kentucky and it was the right decision

Last week it was reported that former Wisconsin star Nigel Hayes played a hand in Milwaukee native and current Miami Heat shooting guard…

Last week it was reported that former Wisconsin star Nigel Hayes played a hand in Milwaukee native and current Miami Heat shooting guard Tyler Herro decommitting from the Wisconsin basketball program and going to Kentucky.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst’s piece had the following quote from Hayes about what he told the young star:

“This is going to make some people mad. I was one of the ones who advised him not to go to Wisconsin with the talent he has,” Hayes told ESPN. “I told him the only people who are upset with him are the ones who are selfish. Only way he can thrive is not walking around thinking he’s less than. He’s a growing seed.”

Related: Wisconsin football 2020 projected two-deep depth chart, preseason edition

I have three words to say about this whole situation since seemingly every time Herro scores in the NBA somebody brings up the fact that he decommitted from Wisconsin: Get over it.

It’s that simple. Both sides moved on long ago and Herro clearly made the best choice for his future. Get over it.

Obviously, something needs to be said about not committing to a program and then reversing course. That is probably the only slight you can have about Herro’s path.

But if you were in his shoes and had the talent to be a one-and-done player, why wouldn’t you go to a program like Kentucky that perfectly fits your needs and your future?

I don’t think it’s too much to say that had he come to Wisconsin he would not be in the position he is in today, a key player on the team that just lost the NBA Finals in six games.

The same message goes for Hayes here. The Badger great clearly had Herro’s best interests in mind, gave him sound advice and stood by him while he was crushed by Badger fans for switching to Kentucky.

The Wisconsin program moved on long ago, Herro moved on long ago and the shooting guard is in the best position he could possibly be in.

Be happy for him, be happy the Badger basketball program is a successful one and get over the fact that he didn’t stay in-state and come to Wisconsin. It’s that simple.

Where are they now: Nigel Hayes

A look at where Nigel Hayes has gone in his professional career

[lawrence-newsletter]It’s time for another edition of the BadgersWire “where are they now” series, this time looking at a former three-year starter for Badger basketball in Nigel Hayes.

As a Badger, Hayes did not miss a start during his final three years in Madison. The Westerville, Oh. (Whitmer) product played at Wisconsin from 2013-17, and was a part of two Final Four teams. During his senior season, Hayes averaged 14 points and 6.6 rebounds per contest while improving his efficiency by shooting 46% from the field.

Following his graduation from Wisconsin, Hayes entered the 2017 NBA draft and went undrafted. He joined the Knicks in the 2017 NBA Summer League and was eventually signed to a deal with New York. Hayes spent most of his time in New York with the Knicks G-League affiliate in Westchester.

The first NBA minutes for the former Badger came in January of 2018 when Hayes signed a 10-day contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, and saw action on January 21, 2018.

After bouncing around with the Lakers, Raptors, and Kings, the 6-8 forward decided to go global.

The former three-star recruit signed with Galatasaray in Turkey, where he found success in the 2018-19 season. In the Basketball Super League in Turkey, Hayes averaged 12.6 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per contest while also playing in the competitive EuroCup, a club competition for top teams around the continent.

In what was certainly a step up for Hayes in terms of European squads, the former Badger signed with BC Zalgiris, a Lithuanian powerhouse that is one of the oldest and strongest teams in Europe. Hayes played nearly 20 minutes per contest for the EuroLeague blue blood and averaged over seven points per game. Hayes helped Zalgiris win their tenth straight LKL (Lithuania’s top league) championship this season.

The former Badger star had quite the journey in late March when attempting to get back to the United States. Per his social media, he found himself stuck in a Frankfurt airport shutdown before finally being able to safely return home.

Hayes has made it home safe with Badger nation supporting him from afar.

 

Former Wisconsin basketball player Suzanne Gilreath has a new podcast that all Badger fans should listen to

Check out Gilreath’s new interview podcast with Badger athletes past and present

[lawrence-newsletter]As Suzanne Gilreath sees her Wisconsin career come to an end on the floor, she has already begun her career off of the hardwood. Gilreath has aspirations to take that on-court experience and translate it to the world of sports media. The Wisconsin guard, who just finished up her senior season with the Badgers, recently started a podcast called “Beneath it All” that features in-depth interviews with Badger athletes past and present. Her podcast guests include Nigel Hayes, Rashard Griffith, and Madison Cone among others. BadgersWire caught up with Gilreath to talk about her podcast and her best memories as a Badger basketball player.

BadgersWire: What was your favorite part about being a Wisconsin student-athlete?

Gilreath: My favorite part about being a student-athlete at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was making an impact on the bigger community such as fans and outreach on campus. I loved that every game I would be making a child’s dream come true by showing them they can be a women’s basketball player one day.

BadgersWire: What is your best on-court memory from your time at Wisconsin?

Gilreath: The best memory I had on the Kohl Center court was Kelly Karlis’ game-winning 3 pointer against Nebraska with .7 seconds left on the clock. The Kohl Center was sold out that game too, so it was an amazing atmosphere to play in.

BadgersWire: What inspired you to start your podcast?

Gilreath: The inspiration behind my podcast was Oprah Winfrey, and my passion for storytelling and want to always ask questions. In the summer of 2018, I would listen to her podcast episodes every day and I realized then that I need to start my own podcast. I begin to understand that I love the aspect of knowing who an athlete is because we often define a student-athlete by what they are producing in their respected sport, but I want to highlight the aspect that athletes have stories to tell that have shaped who they are today. The name was inspired because I want to understand the athlete beyond their sports and focus on the non-obvious things about them.

BadgersWire: What has been your favorite moment from the podcast so far or a great memory from episodes you’ve done?

Gilreath: A great memory I’ve had so far with the podcast is with Montee Ball because his story was intriguing to me and he came into the interview with such great energy about inspiring those who are going through problems of addiction. But to be truthful, every podcast episode I’ve done is my favorite because I love the fact that I am able to provide a platform for these current and former athletes to tell stories or experiences that have shaped who they are today.

BadgersWire: What are your future goals?

Gilreath: My goal is to continue playing basketball overseas post-graduation and receive my masters while playing too.

A link to Gilreath’s podcast: Beneath it All 

The fifth anniversary of the (missed) call that sunk the Badgers

Five years ago today I was a sophomore in high school sitting on my uncle’s couch watching the Wisconsin Badgers play for the National Championship against the Duke Blue Devils. Though I had no affiliation with the Badgers at the time, something …

Five years ago today I was a sophomore in high school sitting on my uncle’s couch watching the Wisconsin Badgers play for the National Championship against the Duke Blue Devils. Though I had no affiliation with the Badgers at the time, something about their team, how they played and the way they were going toe-to-toe with the blue blood programs of college basketball was intriguing to me and, as a result, was quickly winning my fandom.

 

The majority of the country not located in Durham, N.C. wanted Duke to lose that game. Wisconsin’s story was too perfect: a team who fell short in the closing seconds during the previous year’s Final Four to the Kentucky Wildcats, returned the core of their team, got back to the Final Four, beat the then-undefeated Wildcats–ending their bid at a 40-0 season–and now found themselves going head-to-head with the least likeable program in college basketball, the Duke Blue Devils.

 

Badger fans also knew that the end to Bo Ryan’s legendary tenure as head coach was nearing its end, and this might be the best shot they’d ever get at winning a title.

 

Well, fast forward 36 minutes of basketball and the Badgers trail by one with 3:20 left on the clock. Yes, I’m skipping over how Ryan’s unit got out to a nine-point lead in the second half only to see it get erased almost single-handedly by Grayson Allen. And no, this isn’t the missed call you thought I was talking about.

 

The play in question developed when Justise Winslow caught an inbound pass and immediately drove baseline on Nigel Hayes with Hayes doing a tremendous job at cutting off his angle to the rim. During the drive, clear as day, Winslow stepped on the baseline with his right foot before picking up his dribble, turning and finding Jahlil Okafor under the basket who scored while getting fouled by Frank Kaminsky.

 

The baseline referee during all of this seemed to be staring right at Winslow, though wasn’t able to see that his foot touched the black line on the baseline before giving up the ball.

 

This missed call, made with Duke leading by one, would’ve given the Badgers the basketball back with a shot at taking the lead and having the momentum with three minutes to play. Instead, Duke scored on the play as part of a 7-0 run that put them pretty much out-of-reach given how much time was left in the game.

 

Many people look back at this game and think of the controversial call a minute later when, with Duke leading by five, Bronson Koenig drove to the rim, missed, and hands went flying for the ball before it eventually landed out-of-bounds. In real-time it appeared that Koenig was the last to touch the ball, though on instant replay it was clear that Winslow’s finger grazed the ball as it was flying out of his reach. The referees obviously stuck with their initial ruling that Wisconsin touched it last and the rest is history.

 

There are obviously a lot of what-ifs when you re-watch old sporting events and think about what could have been if a single moment went the other way. In this case, though, these queries are warranted, and it’s hard to think about how history would’ve been different had the baseline referee seen Winslow step out-of-bounds.

Hoops Mount Rushmore: Who Are the Greatest Badgers in the Last 20 Years?

Sports are on pause and, although it’s only April 3, it feels like the dog days of summer are in full swing. So, what better to do while we go back and re-watch every notable Badger sport game from the last 20 years? How about a Mount Rushmore. …

Sports are on pause and, although it’s only April 3, it feels like the dog days of summer are in full swing. 

So, what better to do while we go back and re-watch every notable Badger sport game from the last 20 years? How about a Mount Rushmore.

Here, in no particular order, are the four greatest Badger basketball players since 2000.

 

Frank Kaminsky (2011-2015)

This one was an easy one. Although Kaminsky began his career playing sparingly, only starting two games in his first two seasons, his junior and senior seasons vaulted him into Badger basketball lure as he helped lead the team to two consecutive Final Four appearances including a National Championship defeat in 2015 at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils. What Kaminsky brought to the floor was a unique blend of size, inside skill and outside shooting, a combination which led him to be drafted ninth overall by the Charlotte Hornets in 2015. Kaminsky finished his career with the greatest single-season scoring performance in school history with 732 points as a senior in 2014-2015, No. 12 on the Badgers all-time scoring list, 1458 total points, the only Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award, Oscar Robertson Trophy AND AP Player of the Year award winner in a single season and, again, helped lead the Badgers on their best two-year run in school history. Was he a much better player than guys like Jon Leuer and Sam Dekker? No. But his final two seasons vaulted him to one of the greatest Badgers since 2000 and into Badger lure.

 

Ethan Happ (2015-2019)

Ethan Happ finished his career in 2019 as Wisconsin’s all-time leader in rebounds, blocks and triple doubles and No. 3 on the school’s all-time scoring list. Happ was the model of consistency throughout his four years, averaging 12.4 points and 7.9 rebounds as a freshman, 14 and 9 as a sophomore, 17.9 and 8 as a junior and 17.3 and 10.1 as a senior, and finished his career with a final tally of 2130 points, 1217 rebounds and 154 blocks. While he was unable to lead the Badgers back to the Final Four after their consecutive appearances in 2013-14 and 2014-15, he was a pivotal cog in the team’s two Sweet Sixteen runs his freshman and sophomore year and he would’ve had the team in the Elite Eight in 2016-17 were it not for a miraculous three pointer by Florida’s Chris Chiozza at the overtime buzzer.

 

Nigel Hayes (2013-2017)

Like Kaminsky, Nigel Hayes gets a boost due to the team’s run of success during his time in Madison. Unlike Kaminsky, though, Hayes finished his Badger career near the top of seemingly every leaderboard. He is the only player in school history to finish inside the top-10 in all-time points, assists and rebounds, finished with the fourth-most points in school history (third but has since been passed by Happ), played in the most games in school history (150), was the second player in Big Ten History to top 1800 points, 700 rebounds and 300 assists and, again, was one of the main catalysts for the best four-year run of success in school history. He may have been overshadowed a bit by Sam Dekker and Kaminsky on the two Final Four teams, but his consistent production for four years, versatility and team success make it necessary to put him on this list.

 

Alando Tucker (2002-2007)

Finally, and no I did not forget about him, the school’s all-time leading scorer Alando Tucker. Tucker finished his Badger career with 2217 points, 769 rebounds and an impressive 134 games played. He was also the school’s first consensus 1st-team All-American since 1942, the Big Ten Player of the Year as a senior, helped lead Wisconsin to the Elite Eight in 2004-2005 and really ushered in the Bo Ryan era of Badger basketball, arguably the best run of success the school has had in its history. He came years before current students like myself even followed college sports but his greatness and impact on the program is undeniable.

Stats and accolades via UWBadgers.com.