Wisconsin lookahead: New look, likely lower expectations
INDIANAPOLIS — Part of what made Wisconsin's postseason run this season so special is that it essentially came from the same group of players who fell just short of the title game a year before.
This team was full of juniors and seniors, including its two leading scorers and biggest stars, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker, who have been the face of the program these last two years.
Wisconsin will look a lot different next season. The Badgers will likely have to replace four key rotation players. Kaminsky, Josh Gasser and Traevon Jackson will graduate, and Dekker is expected to declare for the NBA draft after a sensational NCAA tournament run boosted his stock.
Considering that Wisconsin is losing nearly 66% of its scoring — and that these Badgers were the most efficient team in the nation offensively this year — it makes sense to lower expectations for next season. A back-to-back-to-back trip to the Final Four might not be in the cards.
But Wisconsin will still be coached by future Hall of Fame coach Bo Ryan, who consistently keeps the Badgers among the Big Ten's best and, lately, the nation's best, too. He'll just have a new look to his squad.
Next year's team will be led by Nigel Hayes, who will need to step up as much on the court as he does in news conferences. Hayes averaged 12.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game this season as a sophomore.
Point guard Bronson Koenig will be another leader for next year's Wisconsin team, building off a strong sophomore season in which he emerged as a both an important scoring threat and also an effective floor general.
But with somewhat unproven talent surrounding Hayes and Koenig, the Badgers won't necessarily be expected to win another Big Ten title. The favorites to win it entering next season will be Maryland and Indiana, with Michigan State and Michigan knocking on the door.
Still, it's never smart to discount a coach as accomplished as Ryan, someone who's known for his system and his player development. A major storyline all Final Four was that Wisconsin had no McDonald's All-Americans, yet both of its opponents — Kentucky and Duke — had at least eight. But incoming talent isn't the be-all, end-all, as evidenced by both the games' outcomes and also, generally speaking, by players like Kaminsky, who grew from a reserve who averaged 1.8 points in 7.7 minutes per game as a freshman into the national player of the year.
Ryan's program can do that, take a raw Midwesterner and turn him into something special. Wisconsin will surely do it once again next year as the cycle continues. Still, it may take more than one year to get back to the levels reached by this veteran squad.? But the Badgers will be up for the challenge.