Taylor repeats as All-Big Ten First Team

Evans, Berggren and Gasser also receive accolades

Senior guard Jordan Taylor was voted by league coaches to the All-Big Ten First Team, revealed during Monday night's announcement of annual conference postseason awards. He joined Jared Sullinger, Robbie Hummel, John Shurna and conference player of the year Draymond Green of Michigan State, who were selected to the first team by both the coaches and media.

The media voted Penn State's Tim Frazier to the first team over Taylor, electing Wisconsin's eighth-leading all-time scorer to the second team instead.

Juniors Jared Berggren and Ryan Evans were honorable mention picks by both groups. In addition, Josh Gasser was named to the All-Defensive team by Big Ten coaches.

View a complete list of award winners here.

Rob Wilson was also honored by the league as Wisconsin's Sportsmanship Award winner.

Taylor earned first-team honors for the second season in a row, becoming just the sixth Badger ever to receive such recognition. He was a unanimous first-team selection by the media last season ahead of being named a second-team All-American.

Expectations were high coming into this season. Taylor struggled to find the right balance with his new supporting cast while recovering from off-season ankle surgery. However, Taylor stepped his game up during the conference slate, raising his shooting percentages and scoring average from non-conference games (12.2 ppg) to 16.3 during Big Ten play. He remains on pace to become the NCAA's all-time leader in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Like Taylor, Evans raised his scoring during league play, although he was not quite as efficient. The All-Big Ten accolades continue an epic rise from Evans, who averaged just 2.8 points and 2.3 rebounds in 11.6 minutes per game last year.

Evans finished fifth in the Big Ten in rebounding at 6.9 per game. He ended the regular season by scoring in double-digits in ten straight games, including two double-doubles.

Berggren paced the conference in blocked shots, with 33, in his first season as a starter. this year marks the fifth time in seven years that Wisconsin has had a junior named to honorable mention.

Gasser's inclusion on the five-man all-defensive squad was perhaps the most unexpected, though not altogether surprising. The sophomore guard's toughness and intelligence allowed him to check the most dangerous guards on the opposing team night-in and night-out. His effectiveness was not apparent in statistics such as steals or blocks, but in contributing mightily to the nation's top scoring defense (51.9 ppg) and the Big Ten's second-best effective field goal defense (44.4%). Gasser is the third Badger guard in a row to be named All-Defense, after Taylor and Trevon Hughes.

Ohio State sophomore Aaron Craft was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year, while Tom Izzo took home his third Coach of the Year award. Indiana's Cody Zeller (coaches) and Michigan's Trey Burke (media) justifiably split the Freshman of the Year voting.

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