Senior Frank Kaminsky was one of four Badgers to earn All-Big Ten honors, while head coach Bo Ryan was recognized by conference coaches as the Coach of the Year.
Kaminsky was named 2015 Big Ten Player of the Year by both the media and coaches, including unanimous selection from the media. Kaminsky was also a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection.
Ryan was recognized with Big Ten Coach of the Year, as voted on by the coaches. The fourth Big Ten Coach of the Year honor for Ryan, only Purdue’s Gene Keady (7) and Indiana’s Bob Knight (5) have earned the distinction more times than Ryan.
Junior Sam Dekker was voted second-team All-Big Ten and sophomore Nigel Hayes was named to third-team All-Big Ten.
Josh Gasser was named to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team. Gasser becomes UW’s first three-time All-Defensive Team honoree, joining OSU’s Aaron Craft (4), MSU’s Travis Walton, Purdue’s Chris Kramer and JuJuan Johnson as the only players in Big Ten history to earn the distinction three times.
Kaminsky is Wisconsin’s third Big Ten Player of the Year, joining Devin Harris in 2004 and Alando Tucker in 2007. All three POYs have come in the Bo Ryan era.
After winning the outright Big Ten championship for the first time since 2008 with a 16-2 conference record, Wisconsin begins the postseason as the top seed at the 2015 Big Ten Tournament. The Badgers open play in Friday’s quarterfinals at 11 a.m. against either No. 8 Illinois or No. 9 Michigan.