The Badgers are Big Ten regular season champions. It feels really good to be able to say that.
A season that began with a 1-4 start had many Badger fans on the edge of their seats in late November, wondering whether first-year coach Bo Ryan was the right man for the job.
Ryan, who led the Badgers to their first Big Ten regular-season title since 1947, became the first UW coach to earn Coach of the Year honors, effectively answering all questions and erasing any shadow of doubt that he wasn’t the best candidate for the job.
The Badgers won 11 conference games for the fourth time since 1916, finishing the regular season 18-11, 11-5.
Bo-ball is getting it done. And Ryan will continue to get it done. In one year, Ryan took a team that lost three starting seniors to graduation, put in a new offense and came away with a share of the conference championship. Ryan drastically changed Wisconsin offensive sets from the ball-control offense from a year ago to his bread and butter — a swing offense that gives more players a look at the goal.
Bucky posted a 7-3 mark in the final 10 games of a season that included “quality” wins against Illinois, Ohio State, Tennessee and at Indiana, Michigan State and Marquette — making the Badgers deserving of a national tournament seed.
With help from a few friendly tiebreakers, the Badgers were given a No. 1 seed going into the conference tournament and things pleasantly looked in place.
Winning two games could have meant a five or six seed in the national tournament. Then Iowa’s Luke Recker hit a jump shot with 1.4 seconds remaining in Friday’s Badger-Hawkeye matchup, giving Iowa a 58-56 win and proving that Wisconsin is only as good as the team that lost to Hawaii.
Regardless, Wisconsin’s standout season brought individual player awards.
Junior Kirk Penney became the fifth UW player since 1948 to earn first-team all Big Ten honors from both the media and the coaches. Michael Finley, who was a consensus selection in 1993, was the last Badger to do so. The New Zealander leads the Badgers in scoring with 15 points per game, sixth-best in the league.
Freshman Devin Harris averages more than 12 points per game and freshman Mike Wilkinson proved to be another reliable contributor with his 10 points and five rebounds per contest. At times, Harris wowed Kohl Center crowds with a raw athleticism that hasn’t been seen in a Wisconsin uniform (dare I say) since Finley.
In his farewell season, senior Chuck Wills was named an honorable mention selection by the coaches. A worthy nod to a player who worked for everything he earned in his college career. Wills averaged 11.2 points and 5.1 rebounds during conference play this season. Even more impressing, Wills never missed a game in his UW career (126 straight).
Topping off a career that includes a trip to the Final Four, Wills and fellow senior Travon Davis now have a conference championship to call their own — sort of. The Badgers share the trophy with No. 15 Illinois, No. 17 Ohio State and No. 22 Indiana — all of which will further their claim in this year’s field of 65.
All records, statistics and opinions aside, it’s March and Bucky has his dancing shoes on. March can be the month of madness, mayhem and sometimes magic. The latter would suit this year’s Wisconsin squad the best. Go Big Red.
