The raising of Wisconsin’s second straight Final Four banner Friday night at the Kohl Center will be both a bittersweet and symbolic moment for fans, players and coaches alike.
The ceremony will give everyone one last chance to celebrate and reflect on the most memorable two-year stretch in the history of Wisconsin basketball. But once the banner is raised into the rafters and the fanfare subsides, a new chapter will officially begin for the program, one filled with uncertainty and unclear expectations.
With juniors Bronson Koenig and Nigel Hayes being the only returning starters, the No. 17 Badgers will rely heavily on former bench-role players, such as redshirt junior guard Zak Showalter, junior forward Vitto Brown and a crop of young freshmen.
Chief among these new contributors will be redshirt freshman forward Ethan Happ, who will be expected to pick up some of the slack left in the frontcourt by the departure of Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker.
In UW’s 101-46 exhibition win last Wednesday, Happ recorded a double-double, finishing the night with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Though he redshirted last season, Happ still had the opportunity to go up against Kaminsky in practice many times throughout the year, something he feels has helped his development as a player.
“It’s helped a lot. Frank was the best player in the nation last year,” Happ said. “So for me to be able to practice against him and get exposure against a player like that, I’ve learned a lot of his moves, I’ve learned a lot of his knacks around the hoop, it’s going to help a lot.”
However, Happ is far from the only new face that Wisconsin fans will be seeing in head coach Bo Ryan’s rotation. Freshman forwards Charlie Thomas and Alex Illikainen and freshman guard-forward Khalil Iverson could all make a major impact in their first season in Madison. Iverson in particular has caught the eye of Happ in the early going.
“I like the way Khalil hustles all the time. He really has a motor, and that’s something that you can always use and that will get you on the floor here at Wisconsin,” Happ said. “He can jump out of the gym and he can get some offensive rebounds for us when we really need them.”
Though there will be a strong freshman presence at the Kohl Center this weekend, the Badgers will have one notable exception—freshman forward Andy Van Vliet, who is still dealing with an eligibility issue.
The NCAA allows players a one-year window between their high-school graduation and their time of enrollment at a collegiate institution after which they cannot play as an amateur. However, Van Vliet played as an amateur outside of this one-year grace period, and Wisconsin learned last Wednesday that the eligibility waiver it filed for Van Vliet was denied by the NCAA.
The university is currently appealing the ruling and should learn the NCAA’s decision by next Tuesday. If the appeal is denied, Van Vliet will be unable to play at all this season.
“From what he’s told us, he’s very excited to play and get out here and do his best and show what he’s capable of,” Hayes said of Van Vliet. “We’re all definitely pulling for him, so hopefully that’s a good phone call that he gets.”
In the meantime, the new-look Badgers will get their first two games of the regular season under their belt this weekend at the Kohl Center. Wisconsin will take on Western Illinois Friday at 8 p.m. followed by a matchup with Siena Sunday at 7 p.m.
“It’s still new to a lot of us, including myself, so there’s a lot of things that we still need to work on as a team,” Happ said. “But especially for us new guys, us freshmen, it’s going to be a trying first couple games and then once we get the hang of it, it’ll be a lot easier.”
The Final Four banner-raising ceremony Friday night will give fans one last chance to bask in the glory of the accomplishments of last year’s team before the stage is yielded to a group of new Wisconsin players looking to leave their own indelible mark on the program.
“It’ll be a special moment. Just like last year when we saw it being raised, we wanted to get back to this moment,” Happ said of the impending ceremony. “We were able to that last year and it’s going to be the same feeling where we want to be able to raise it again next year.”