Fresh off recording his second 30-point game of the regular season against Purdue Sunday, University of Wisconsin junior forward Nigel Hayes was unanimously named a first-team All-Big Ten performer by both the coaches and media Monday.
Hayes led the Badgers this season in points (16.5) and assists (3.1) per game this season. He carried the team on his back through the second half of the season, where UW managed to go 13-6 under head coach Greg Gard.
Overall, Hayes was tied for fifth in the conference in scoring and joined Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine, Indiana’s Yogi Ferrell, Purdue’s A.J. Hammons and Iowa’s Jarrod Uthoff on the All-Big Ten team.
Hayes wasn’t the only UW player to be honored Monday. Redshirt freshman Ethan Happ was named Big Ten Freshman of the year, along with being named to the third-team All-Big Ten team by the media and the conference’s all-defensive team.
Happ tied with Rutger’s Corey Sanders for the conference lead in steals, averaging 1.8 takeaways per game. The redshirt freshman also managed to finish tied for fifth with Hammons in the Big Ten in rebounds, grabbing 7.8 boards per game this season.
Happ was also third on the team in scoring this season, averaging 11.9 points per game.
Here is a rundown of the other major Big Ten awards given out Monday:
Big Ten Coach of the Year: Indiana’s Tom Crean
This was essentially a two-man race between Crean and Wisconsin’s own Greg Gard. Both were deemed worthy, but ultimately, Crean’s ability to take a team plagued with injuries and turn them into an outright Big Ten champion was too much to pass up.
Big Ten Player of the Year: Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine
Just like coach of the year, the race of player of the year was between two superstars: Valentine and Ferrell. Ferrell was the unquestioned leader of the Big Ten’s top team, averaging 17.1 points and 5.5 assists per game this season.
But Valentine proved all year to not only be the conference’s best player, but the best player in the entire country. Sparty’s senior averaged 19.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game and recorded nine double-doubles and a pair of triple-doubles on the year.
Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year: A.J. Hammons
Hammons proved all season that he was not only the best rim protector in the Big Ten, but among the best in the country. The seven-foot center’s presence around the rim instilled fear into conference opponents all season. He finished the season averaging 2.6 blocks per game and never averaged under two blocks in each of his four years at Purdue.
