Badgers ready to put Final Four behind them, excited to start new season
MADISON, Wis. -- Just before 7:40 p.m. CT Friday night, the Kohl Center lights will dim, a spotlight will shine atop the rafters and the banner representing Wisconsin's first Final Four appearance in 14 years will drop to a raucous ovation from Badgers fans.
And then, Wisconsin's entire basketball team can finally move forward. At 8 p.m., No. 3 Wisconsin will tip off against Northern Kentucky in the regular-season opener. An entire season is ahead -- one with promise and optimism that the Badgers can make a return trip to the Final Four and earn another banner.
As much as players have reveled in their successes, they also acknowledge wanting to achieve something new.
"This whole offseason, just people are congratulating you, talking about the Final Four run and all that," Badgers guard Josh Gasser said. "You just want to try to move on from that almost, get ready for a new year. I think once this Friday hits, it's going to be a great celebration. I can't wait for it. It's going to be really exciting. Friends and family are coming for it and everything. But then after that we can finally move on to a new season and hopefully accomplish some really good things this year."
Added Badgers center Frank Kaminsky: "Right now, my mission is not to look back at what we did last year. It's looking forward to what we will do this year. It'll be nice to be honored for that in front of all the fans. But at the end of the day, we have a mission this year that we want to accomplish."
Friday will mark Wisconsin's first meaningful game since the Badgers' season ended with a heartbreaking 74-73 Final Four loss to Kentucky on April 5, 2014. Two-hundred twenty-three days have passed, and Badgers players have had plenty of time to relive the most significant game of their careers. Given that seven of the team's top eight rotation players return this season, they've also had plenty of time to listen to all the accolades and hype surround them.
Kaminsky is the Big Ten's preseason player of the year, and ESPN.com recently named him as the No. 1 player in college basketball. Forward Sam Dekker is a preseason first-team all-conference player, and ESPN ranked him as the sixth-best player. Wisconsin, the unanimous pick to win the Big Ten, also earned its highest Associated Press preseason top-25 ranking in the history of the program.
Gasser said this time of year generally brings talk on campus of the football team. But for the first time in his five-year career in Madison, that talk has shifted as anticipation for this basketball season continues to build.
"You can't ignore it," Gasser said. "You open your Twitter and you see it. Or you have messages. Friends from home talk about it. You're not going to avoid it. It's just a matter of how you handle it. I think we've done a good job of just knowing what we have to do.
"All the outside stuff, all that doesn't matter. In the past, it's been the opposite. We haven't gotten much attention and we end up doing really well. It just shows that it doesn't matter at all. It's just the same thing, just reversed this year. It's all about our veterans and our coaches keeping us focused on one game at a time, one practice at a time, and that's what we've been doing."
Northern Kentucky finished 9-21 last season, but the Norse return even more than Wisconsin -- 13 of 14 players off last year's team, including the top six scorers. Jordan Jackson is the team's leading scorer from a year ago (13.9 points per game), followed by Tyler White (10.8), Jalen Billups (9.6), Todd Johnson (8.7), Daniel Camps (6.1) and Cole Murray (5.7).
Wisconsin, meanwhile, returns 81.7 percent of its scoring, 85.8 percent of its rebounding and 88.9 percent of its assists off a team that finished 30-8 and came within one Aaron Harrison missed 3-pointer from appearing in the national championship game. Kaminsky (13.9 points), Dekker (12.4) and point guard Traevon Jackson (10.7) all averaged in double figures in scoring. Gasser (8.8 points) is the team's defensive stopper, and forward Nigel Hayes will move into the starting lineup after being named the Big Ten's sixth man of the year as a freshman.
With so much returning talent, expectations for the program have never been higher. And players can't wait to get started.
"It's cool to have good expectations because we worked real hard to get to this point, and we feel like we have a team that can contend with the best of them," Dekker said. "It's cool to see hard work paying off. But the season hasn't even started yet. We have a lot of things to prove to ourselves and to other people. Rankings are cool. Being up there is fun. It's where you want to be. If you're not in there, you're doing something wrong.
"Right now, we've got the pieces to do something. Now, we've just got to go do it."
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