Wisconsin Basketball: Why can’t the Badgers win with Ethan Happ?

The Wisconsin basketball team has really struggled this season even though the team is led by one of the better big men in the country, Ethan Happ.

Ethan Happ entered his junior season as a preseason Honorable Mention All-American. Happ averaged 14 points per game, nine boards, and almost three assists during the 2016-17 campaign.

The forward from Milan, IL is certainly living up to that status this year. He is averaging 16.8 points per game, 8.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists on 1.3 steals. Happ shoots 56% from the field, but the free throw percentage is at 52% and he’s yet to drop a triple.

Outside of Happ, though, there is only one true contributor. Brad Davison is a true freshman grinding guard. Out of Maple Grove, MN, he is averaging 12.1 points per game and almost two 3-pointers per game on 37% shooting from out there. The problem is that the team is lost outside of Davison in the 3-point shooting category.

But back to Happ. You can’t say the star center is one-dimensional. Ethan Happ can score despite not hitting a 3-pointer. He is able to go coast-to-coast. Ethan Happ can also work the post and score on the dribble-drive.

The best way for this offense to work through Ethan Happ is to have open shooters who can knock down shots, specifically the 3-pointer, like a normal Badger basketball team.

Ethan Happ draws way too many double and triple teams. He needs shooters around him in-order for an offense built around him to succeed. You can’t do anything with the fact that Kobe King and D’Mitrik Trice are hurt and missing extended periods of time, though. The freshman King knocked down seven triples in 10 games this season at 33%. After a slow start, the true freshman from La Crosse, WI was just about to come on.

As for Trice, we saw the 3-point shooting ability that he can bring to the table last season as a true freshman. In 37 games with two starts, the guard from Huber Heights, OH knocked down 38 triples equaling to 41% a year ago. Now that we know the capabilities of Davison running the backcourt, the combination of he and Trice would be fantastic.

When Trice and King went down, Brevin Pritzl entered the lineup. That left Walt McGrory and T.J. Schlundt as the next two guards on the depth chart. Schlundt is in his third year with the Badgers. He had played in a total of 12 games before this season. Regular minutes came in dumpster-fire defeats against Ohio State and Marquette. McGrory is a walk-on redshirt freshman. He received regular minutes against Green Bay, Chicago State, and UMass-Lowell. From there, McGrory has only seen 10 minutes.

Schlundt, though, is capable of hitting a 3-pointer. The guard from Oconomowoc, WI is 5-for-17 from downtown (37%) and should shoot more. Greg Gard should also give him more than the six combined minutes he played against Rutgers and Nebraska.

While we’re talking about the lack of three-point shooting ability from these Badgers, Andy Van Vliet fits in the discussion. The 6-11 forward was advertised as a guy who can stretch the defense. In the first two contests this season, Van Vliet knocked down six shots from behind-the-arc. That did wonders as it opened the offense more because Ethan Happ draws so much attention.

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Van Vliet then failed to record a 3-pointer against Xavier and Baylor. By the next game, he found himself out of the rotation all together.

In short, the Badgers have lost two 3-point shooters to injury and another to the lack of playing against high-level competition.

Brevin Pritzl came to Madison for his ability to knock down the shot from long range. The redshirt sophomore shoots a solid 34% from behind-the-arc. In key losses to Ohio State, Temple, Marquette, Rutgers, and Nebraska, though, Pritzl was just 5-for-20 (25%).

Redshirt freshman Aleem Ford has really turned some heads this year at least. He can stroke it from downtown, but that’s it. Ford is 11-for-27 (41%) inside the arc and 25-for-55 (46%) from three this season. That’s twice as many 3-point attempts as compared to two-point attempts.

The 6-8 forward from Lawrenceville, Georgia is so one-dimensional that’s it hard for him to be a reliable 3-point shooter. When Ethan Happ draws a crowd, Ford is either all or nothing from behind the arc. He’s not going to beat anyone off the dribble and his release is often too slow to get his shot off.

Ethan Happ doesn’t have anyone consistent enough to play alongside with in the frontcourt to make teams second-guess sending help defenders.

Even though we talked about Andy Van Vliet earlier in regards to the 3-point shooting, he falls into another category. Van Vliet started the campaign as the counterpart to Ethan Happ. Through the first two games against cupcake non-conference opponents, the big man from Belgium looked great. He was really ready to make the next step. Then actual competition came and he flopped.

He was going to be the one who knocked down the 3-pointer so Happ wouldn’t feel pressured into it. The Badgers were going to have two guys at 6-10 or taller with one playing the post and the other stretching the defense. That didn’t last long.

The next option is Alex Illikainen, who was a three-star recruit in 2015. He’s a 6-9 junior who was ready to breakout. He has the ability to hit a 3-pointer. Illikainen saw 22 minutes combined in the games against Xavier, Baylor and, UCLA. He grabbed three boards and failed to score.

We knew from early on this season that Charles Thomas IV was not ready. As a junior who came in with Khalil Iverson, Thomas was poised to do something this year. He couldn’t do anything in practice to show that he deserved more playing which translated to the lack of minutes, though. He was able to bring in five rebounds against Virginia, but during an eight-game stretch, Charlie failed to score.

Aaron Moesch and Ford aren’t capable of playing consistent post offense so there’s no need to elaborate on why they have not been able to play alongside Ethan Happ. So, let’s talk about the experiment that has been Nate Reuvers.

The freshman was a four-star recruit as the highest-rated incoming Wisconsin Badger for the 2017 class. The expectations were high until early reports came out about being raw and not ready. The Lakeville, MN native did not play in the first five games. Then, the program took his redshirt tag off and he began to play.

Reuvers recorded double-digit point performances in his first two Big Ten games. He knocked down two triples against Ohio State. The 6-10 forward grabbed six boards in his debut against Milwaukee, but hasn’t eclipsed more than four rebounds since. Watching the Badgers play, Ethan Happ and Nate Reuvers look great at times together. Reuvers can stretch the floor and Happ can go to work on the post. The freshman has also flashed signs of being able to play close to the basket.

It’s hard to rely consistently on a guy who was supposed to redshirt at the beginning of the season to come in and contribute alongside an All-American, though.

Next: Big Ten Basketball: Week 9 power rankings

As nice as it would be to see the Badger basketball team win games with just Ethan Happ, there’s a very slim cast around him. The second best player is a true freshman. Two guards went down and next in line are a pair of players who have combined for 12 NCAA games played coming into this season.

The original starter in the front court alongside Ethan Happ couldn’t play against tournament teams so that was not going to cut it. Ethan Happ is doing everything he can, but with this inexperienced and young team, there’s not much more that can happen.