The Wisconsin Badgers (17-3, 8-2 Big Ten) are currently tied for first place in a conference they were picked to finish tenth in before the season started.
Yes, a great deal of this team’s success can be attributed to the ascension of sophomore guard Johnny Davis. He’s gone from a dependable rotation member with obvious upside last season, to the most improved player in the country and a potential NBA lottery pick.
However, to say this team is where they are solely because of the poker-faced assassin would be disrespectful to his supporting cast. The Badgers might not contain a ton of household names, but few programs deploy players that understand their roles better than UW. Knowing your identity is half of the battle.
Poetry in motion. #Badgers pic.twitter.com/2hBP55zu1u
— Badger Notes (@Badger_Notes) January 31, 2022
Veterans Brad Davison and Tyler Wahl have elevated their games this season, and are currently playing the best ball of their respective careers.
Davison has become a reliable second scoring option, and provides UW a 3-point weapon to help promote spacing on offense. If you can watch the Minnesota native play and still fail to see all the way’s he impacts a game, I’m not sure we’re watching the same game. Davison’s decision to return for a fifth and final season has turned out to be such a blessing for the program.
Wahl has become a versatile two-way player that’s proved he’s capable of helping shoulder some of the scoring load as well. The Swiss-Army knife is the best defender on a team that prides themselves on their defense. He’s also made a living around the rim as Wisconsin’s best low post presence. This is the third-year jump everyone in the program was hoping for, and he’s become one of the most irreplaceable players on the entire roster.
Additionally, you have two underclassmen that have started every game this season.
True freshman Chucky Hepburn has been terrific manning the lead guard role for the Badgers. He’s shown tremendous poise and maturity at the position despite his inexperience. Hepburn has shown control of the offense, pushed the pace, taken care of the basketball, and been a tenacious on ball defender at times. He does a lot of thankless work that often seems to go unnoticed.
Wisconsin’s starting center Steven Crowl has shown a great deal of in-season development. The player we’ve seen over the last month or so is leaps and bounds ahead of the player we saw back in November. Crowl has been more assertive on the low block while also showing improved footwork. Defensively, he’s done a nice job defending ball screens and battles down low despite giving up a good deal of size to opposing big men.
The starters are all performing at a high level, and are playing heavy minutes as a result. The bench performance has been a bit of uneven at times, but have a bevy of players capable of spelling the starters when necessary. Pending health, I think there are enough players capable of seeing their roles expand to help prevent starter fatigue late in the season.
Greg Gard has done a terrific job coaching this young team. It’s easy to forget that this is the most inexperienced roster of Gard’s tenure, so it would be ignorant to not give him the credit he deserves for his role in molding this young group. I’d be hard pressed to think of a coach more deserving than Gard for Big Ten Coach of the Year if Wisconsin can continue playing at this level.
So, even though Johnny Davis is a contender for National Player of the Year, understand that this team is more than just one player. The sum of the Badgers is greater than it’s individual parts, and I mean that as the highest compliment.
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