Nigel Hayes earns Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year honors

The 2016-17 season for Wisconsin Badgers basketball has an eerily familiar tone to it. Maybe it is the three-headed monster in the starting lineup or the nearly 99 percent of points returning?

But, expectations for a national championship-level season have never been higher in Madison. A large part of that equation is senior forward Nigel Hayes.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Big Ten named him the Preseason Player of the Year for 2016-17 based on a vote of the league’s media. He is just the fourth player to ever earn that honor, all of them coming in the last 14 years of the program’s history too.

Hayes joins Frank Kaminsky (2014-15), Alando Tucker (2006-07) and Devin Harris (2003-04) as the only ones to be named Preseason B1G Player of the Year. 

This honor was taken in stride by Hayes, but he doesn’t care about the preseason accolades as much as cutting down the nets come March.

“While I appreciate the sign of respect this shows, preseason honors don’t really mean much,” Hayes said. “I’m much more concerned with postseason player of the year awards, because that would likely mean our team did something special this season. Seven of the last 12 postseason Big Ten Players of the Year have come from the conference champion and that’s one of our goals. 

“If we win championships, everything individually will fall into place. Really, I just want to be Frank Kaminsky.”

It was also a nice day for the rest of the Badgers starting lineup, as redshirt sophomore center Ethan Happ and senior guard Bronson Koenig were also named to the Preseason All-Big Ten team.

There were a total of 10 players named to the list, with the Badgers trio leading the way for the most from a single team.

Here is the full list of Preseason All-Big Ten honorees:

Malcolm Hill, G, Illinois

James Blackmon Jr., G, Indiana

Thomas Bryant, C, Indiana

Peter Jok, G, Iowa

Melo Trimble, G, Maryland

Derrick Walton Jr., G, Michigan

Caleb Swanigan, F, Purdue

Ethan Happ, F, Wisconsin

Nigel Hayes, F, Wisconsin

Bronson Koenig, F, Wisconsin