Wisconsin Basketball: 5 keys to a successful 2018-19 campaign

Davison, King, and Trice play at full strength

Injuries played a major role in Wisconsin’s poor 2017-18 campaign. After just 10 games each, Kobe King and D’Mitrik Trice, two highly valuable members of the backcourt, went down with season-ending injuries. And, after losing these two for the year, head coach Greg Gard needed to work with an extremely thin, and inexperienced, group of guards. This proved to be extremely difficult as the team stumbled to a poor record.

However, with a completely healthy group of guards this season, the backcourt should look entirely different. Rising sophomore Brad Davison, who played throughout most of last season with a shoulder injury, should be the star guard this season and the leader in the backcourt.

Then, hopefully, Trice will realize some of the potential many saw out of him after his freshman season. A potential double-digit scorer per game this year, Trice can be a knockdown shooter from beyond the arc when allowed to play off the ball.

Additionally, King returns to add some depth to the backcourt. A former top-150 recruit in the 2017 class, King projects as a future star with the program if he stays healthy. A true bucket-getter, King could be a spark plug scorer off the bench this year.

These three players will need to all be at their best this season in order to provide perimeter scoring around Happ. Now completely healthy again with some experience under their belts, it will be interesting to see how they perform.