Wisconsin men’s basketball: Johnny Davis named first team All-Big Ten and consensus Big Ten Player of the Year

On Tuesday morning, the Big Ten Conference coaches and media announced their all-conference selections. In a surprise to no one, Wisconsin Badgers star sophomore wing Johnny Davis was named to the first team All-Big Ten by both the coaches and media. Davis was a unanimous selection by the coaches however he was left off the first team by at least one media member.

Davis was also picked as the consensus player of the year by both the coaches and the media. Davis is the fourth Wisconsin Badgers player to win this award and the first since Frank Kaminsky did it in 2015. It should also be noted that the Associated Press released their Big Ten awards on Tuesday as well and selected Davis as the player of the year and Greg Gard as coach of the year. Davis was a unanimous first team selection by the AP too.

Super senior guard Brad Davison was named to the second team by the coaches, which is why there are six members on that team as he was tied with another player, and the third team by the media. I thought I put this in originally (judging by the comments I did not), but Tyler Wahl was named honorable mention All-Big Ten by the coaches and the media.

Head coach Greg Gard was named the top coach in the Big Ten as well, his second time winning the award in three seasons by the way. The Badgers were picked to finish tenth in the conference in the preseason and finished the regular season ranked No. 12 in the whole country. Gard led the team to a ridiculous amount of Quad 1+2 victories and also had the Badgers winning games on the road at a high clip. Well deserved honor for Gard.

Lastly, in a fantastic day for the men’s basketball team, Chucky Hepburn was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team.

Here are the full all-conference teams:

First Team

Johnny Davis, Wisconsin
Keegan Murray, Iowa
Kofi Cockburn, Illinois
Jaden Ivey, Purdue
E.J. Liddell, Ohio State

Second Team

Trent Frazier, Illinois
Zach Edey, Purdue
Hunter Dickinson, Michigan
Ron Harper, Jr., Rutgers
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
Brad Davison, Wisconsin (coaches only)

Third Team

Trevion Williams, Purdue (Sixth Man of the Year)
Bryce McGowens, Nebraska
Alfonso Plummer, Illinois
Malaki Branham, Ohio State
Geo Baker, Rutgers (coaches only)
Gabe Brown, Michigan State (coaches only)
Brad Davison, Wisconsin (media)

All-Defense Team

Caleb McConnell, Rutgers (Defensive Player of the Year)
Trent Frazier, Illinois
Eric Hunter, Jr., Purdue
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
E.J. Liddell, Ohio State

All-Freshman Team

Malaki Branham, Ohio State (Freshman of the Year)
Bryce McGowens, Nebraska
Chucky Hepburn, Wisconsin
Moussa Diabate, Michigan
Max Christie, Michigan State