Five members of the Wisconsin men’s basketball team received season-ending awards from the Big Ten Conference on Monday, led by Ethan Happ, who earned first-team All-Big Ten recognition.
Happ joins Michael Finley (1993) as the only Wisconsin players to earn first-team honors in their sophomore season.
Happ, who was a first-team All-Big Ten pick by both the coaches and the media, was also named to the league’s all-defensive team for the second straight season. He led the Big Ten in steals during conference play (2.3 per game) and leads UW with 38 blocks on the year.
Bronson Koenig earned second-team All-Big Ten praise from the coaches and third-team All-Big Ten selection from the media. Nigel Hayes was tabbed with third-team All-Big Ten honors.
Zak Showalter was named to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team for the first time in his career, joining his teammate Ethan Happ.
For the second-straight season, Vitto Brown was recognized with the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
Joining Happ on the All-Big Ten first team are Iowa’s Peter Jok, Maryland’s Melo Trimble, Minnesota’s Nate Mason and Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan.
Purdue’s Swanigan is the Big Ten Player of the Year and Minnesota coach Richard Pitino has been named the coach of the year.
Badgers start tournament play Friday
Wisconsin begins postseason play this week as the number-two seed at the 2017 Big Ten Tournament. The Badgers will face the winner of Thursday’s matchup between 7th seeded Iowa and 10th seeded Indiana. Tip time on Friday is set for 5:30 p.m. (CT).
Badgers fall in AP Top 25 poll
With a win and a loss last week, the Badgers dropped two spots from number-22 to number-24 in this week’s A.P. Top 25 College Basketball poll.