Bucky’s Fan Favorite Tournament: round one (West Region)

With actual basketball out of grasp, we at B5Q have put together a tournament challenge to determine the player that is the biggest fan favorite from the past 20 years of Wisconsin basketball.

For the first round, we split the voting into regions. We at B5Q will breakdown each matchup, and it is up to you the fans to vote and ultimately decide who moves on, and who is eliminated.

To kick things off, we turn our attention to the West Region. Check out each pairing below, and vote for your favorite.

The voting window closes at 11:59 p.m. CT, Tuesday, March 24, so get those votes in quick.

See the full bracket here with the updated results from the Midwest region —> Bucky's Fan Favorite Tournament Bracket.pdf

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(1) Alando Tucker vs. (16) Evan Anderson

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Pretty much all you have to say about Tucker is that he is the all-time leading scorer for the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball program. He scored 2,217 points over his career and was a consensus first-team All-American in 2007. Tucker also earned 2007 Big Ten Player of the Year and was a finalist for every national player of the year award, winning the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. A two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection, Tucker finished his career ranked ninth in Big Ten history in career points and led the Badgers to a career record of 99-35, including a then-school record 30 wins in 2006-07.

He was drafted in the first round by the Phoenix Suns and played professionally both in the NBA and overseas for a decade. More recently, as in this past season, Tucker stepped up and filled in as an interim assistant coach with Howard Moore on medical leave. The Lockport, Ill. native is, no questions asked one of the top Badgers of all-time.

The center from Stanley appeared in 40 career games and lettered in his final three seasons. He had 20 career points, 12 career rebounds, six career assists and...29 career fouls.

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(8) Greg Stiemsma vs. (9) Vitto Brown

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Stiemsma played in 95 career games for the Badgers between 2004 and 2008. For his career he totaled 96 blocks, 23 steals and 215 rebounds. His senior season he swatted 40 shots, which was ninth best in the B1G.

He appeared in 203 games over an NBA career that saw him have stints with the Boston Celtics, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans and Toronto Raptors.

Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images

If this were a bracket of best singers in Wisconsin basketball history or most likely to be shouted at by Drew during a game in Wisconsin basketball history, Brown would be a Final Four shoo-in.

Brown was a member of the 2014 and 2015 Final Four teams and played in 120 career games for the Badgers, earning academic all-conference honors twice. Between his sophomore and junior seasons enjoyed the third-largest scoring increase in the Big Ten after averaging just 1.8 ppg as a sophomore and improving that to 9.7 ppg as a junior. Shot 35.2% from deep for his career while averaging 5.5 ppg an 3.1 rpg.

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(5) Josh Gasser vs. (12) Brevin Pritzl

Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images

I have a friend who once told me he’d rather have Josh Gasser on his team than Russell Westbrook. That’s how highly Gasser is thought of among Wisconsin fans. Nicknamed Captain America, the Port Washington native did just about everything right every time he stepped on the floor.

He played on two Final Four teams, recorded the Badgers first ever triple-double (10 points, 12 boards, 10 assists against Northwestern on Jan. 23, 2011) and was the first freshman to do it in the B1G since Magic Freaking Johnson. He made the conference’s all-defensive team twice, he is fourth in school history in free throw percentage, tenth in school history in three point percentage and third in school history in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Gasser could go very, very far in this tournament.

Photo by Lawrence Iles/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Pritzl, a native of De Pere, is one of the most lethal three point shooters in Wisconsin history. He played in 122 career games and capped off his career by winning the B1G Title this past season.

He was a better defender than given credit for and a tenacious rebounder for a player of his size and skill set. A killer contributor off the bench, Pritzl was dealt a brutal first found matchup here.

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(4) Andy Kowske vs. (13) Aaron Moesch

Kowske averaged 6.9 ppg (nice), 5.1 rpg and shot 55.7% from the floor over his 128 games as a Badger. During the Badgers Final Four run in 2000 he averaged a shade under 10 points and eight rebounds per game during the NCAA Tournament. An excellent defender, Kowske was a key piece to the early 2000s Wisconsin teams.

Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Moesch, out of Green Bay, was a three time academic all-B1G honoree and scored a career high four points against his home-city team, UWGB in 2017. While never a key contributor, Moesch was always useful for a few minutes in every game he played, which was a surprising 74 total.

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(6) Mike Wilkinson vs. (11) D’Mitrik Trice

Photo by Travis Lindquist/Getty Images

I will never forget how well Wilkinson, a native of Blue Mound, played in the regional semifinal game against UNC, pictured above. His stats weren’t even that amazing, he only had 11 points and seven boards, but he added five assists and two steals and valiantly did battle with Sean May (who had a monster game, sadly) the entire night while only missing one minute of game time.

Anyways, Wilkinsn averaged 11.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg and 1.7 apg for his career and was one of the top players in the conference during his junior and senior seasons.

Photo by Lawrence Iles/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Ohio native Trice has been a lightning rod for “Hot Wisconsin Basketball Takes” over his four year career, but in his past two seasons he has been named third team all-B1G and honorable mention all-B1G and he just became the 44th Badger to score 1,000 career points.

He ranks ninth in school history in made three pointers and fifth in school history in assist-to-turnover ratio. He also has one more season left in his career to move on up the record books.

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(3) Marcus Landry vs. (14) Charles Thomas IV

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

My last girlfriend in college, who is currently my wife, always liked Marcus Landry. That bumps him up at least one seed for me, but that’s neither here nor there. During his Wisconsin career, the Milwaukee native averaged 9.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg and 1.2 apg. He also shot threes at a 36.1% clip and averaged 12.7 ppg in his senior season. He was named the B1G Tournament MVP in 2008 after leading the Badgers to the tournament title.

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Thomas played 109 career games as a Badger and was, unfortunately, never more than a big body/role player. For his career he averaged 1.8 ppg and 1.6 rpg. The native of Maryland was maddeningly inconsistent and I’m probably not doing a great job of presenting this matchup without bias, huh?

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(7) Ben Brust vs. (10) Nate Reuvers

Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images

Ben Brust finished his UW career as the most prolific long-range shooter in UW history. Brust exited Madison with a school-record 235 3-pointers and finished 27th in Badgers history with 1,048 career points. During his senior season, Brust also broke his own school record by knocking down 96 triples. Made seven 3-pointers in a game on two occasions, equaling the Wisconsin record. His 7-for-7 performance from 3-point range vs. UNLV (Dec. 10, 2011) tied a UW and Big Ten record.

Brust was also a tenacious rebounder and helped guide the Badgers to the Final Four in 2014 by shooting 15-of-30 from beyond the arc throughout the Tournament.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Reuvers, a native of Lakeville, Minn., was recently named third team all-B1G for the 2019-2020 season. He has played in 93 career games and is already fourth on the all-time blocks list with 144. Twice in his career he has recorded nine blocks in a game. He still has one more season to play. This past year he led the Badgers in scoring with 13.1 ppg and was second on the team in rebounding with 4.6 rpg.

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(2) Jon Leuer vs. (15) Brett Valentyn

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Leuer was an honorable mention AP All-American in 2011 while also being named first-team all-B1G by the coaches and second-team by the media. He was also honorable mention all-B1G in 2010. The native of Orono, Minn. finished twelfth in school history with 1,376 career points and is one of just eight players in UW history with 1,300 points and 500 rebounds. He scored 621 points in his senior season (18.3 ppg), the third-highest single-season total in school annals.

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

From Verona, Valentyn was an academic all-B1G honoree for four straight seasons! He appeared in 51 career games and made 34.8% (8-of-23) of his threes during his senior season. Those were the only shots he took that season!