NCAA Basketball: Luke Maye vs. Ethan Happ as the better forward for 2018-19

The verdict

There is a reason I chose Maye and Happ as the first two candidates for our series. They play the same position and are coming off third-team All-America and first-team all conference campaigns, but still impact the game in very different ways.

Maye is a legitimate college star with his eye-popping stat lines, clutch tournament shots, and status as the best player on a blue blood title contender. But he gets exposed with a little more digging, at least in comparison to the do-it-all Happ.

Maye struggled down the stretch last season (just 12.3 points on 38.9 percent shooting over his last nine games), his defense isn’t quite on Happ’s level, and he is nowhere near the same playmaker for his teammates. The large gap in three-point effectiveness is real (Happ is just 1-11 for his career and defenders sag comically far off him), but Happ is still a centerpiece offensive player if the proper players are around him.

The Badgers didn’t have the right mix of talent in 2017-18, and it remains to be seen if Gard has pieced together a roster that fully weaponizes Happ’s strengths this season. But if we are building a college program from scratch, Happ has to be the guy over Maye.