Ethan Happ has earned a reputation as a nuisance in practice during his first season with the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team.
Don’t take that the wrong way: It’s a good thing Happ is constantly getting on teammates’ nerves with his non-stop motor and willingness to scrap as a member of the scout team that helps senior center Frank Kaminsky and the Badgers’ other regulars get ready for the next opponent.
“Sometimes, I’d like to take a shot at him in practice just to get him to calm down a little bit,” Kaminsky said earlier this week. “But it’s good, because we need that kind of intensity.”
Effort has helped the 6-foot-9, 230-pound Happ, a freshman who is redshirting this season, hold his own against Kaminsky despite the fact he’s playing out of position. As the tallest player on the scout team, Happ typically draws the assignment of mimicking the opposing team’s center.
Happ’s latest job was to play the role of Purdue 7-footers Isaac Haas and A.J. Hammons to help Kaminsky and the No. 4 Badgers (14-1, 2-0 Big Ten) prepare for their game against the Boilermakers (10-5, 2-0) tonight at the Kohl Center.
“One of the things we worried about when Evan (Anderson) didn’t come back was if we’d have anybody to guard Frank and give him some competition,” UW assistant coach Gary Close said. “And Ethan has done that and more.”
In fact, Happ has made a favorable impression on his coaches and teammates without playing a single minute this season.
UW coach Bo Ryan gushed about Happ on his weekly radio show recently.
“He’s going to be one of the better players ever to wear the Badger uniform,” Ryan said. “He has accepted his role of being the big man for the other team in every practice. He’s non-stop, he’s improved in so many areas, and he loves to compete.”UW’s frontcourt includes Kaminsky, a preseason All-American; junior forward Sam Dekker, who joined Kaminsky on the preseason All-Big Ten team; and sophomore forward Nigel Hayes, the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year last season.
NBA scouts are keeping a close eye on all three of those Badgers, yet
senior guard Josh Gasser says this of Happ: “Best player on the court sometimes.”UW student-managers chart statistics in practices, and Close said Happ is the Badgers’ leading rebounder. Some of that production is due to a high volume of reps — Happ spends more time on the court than the starters because the coaches don’t have to worry about saving his energy for games — but the freshman also has displayed a knack for coming up with 50/50 balls in traffic.
Happ has several tools that help him in that area: long arms, good instincts and a toughness not often seen in players seven months removed from high school.
“Ethan understands the game,” Kaminsky said. “He’s really learning everything pretty quickly.”
Kaminsky is quick to dispense advice — and Happ is a willing listener. He’s eager to get the most out of this season, even if it’s been difficult to watch from the bench on game days.
Happ looks around and sees a bunch of his classmates making an impact as freshmen. Northwestern played five true freshmen during an 81-58 loss to visiting UW on Sunday night. Purdue has two freshmen in the starting lineup and two others in its regular rotation.
While Happ knows he could be contributing to the Badgers this season — he was neck-and-neck with sophomore forward Vitto Brown, UW’s second frontcourt player off the bench, during the preseason — he’s trying not to dwell on his decision to redshirt.
“It is hard, but at the same time, you can see how well this team is playing, and I’m just going to keep doing my part on the scout team,” Happ said. “I try not to think about it, just because once you make a decision, you don’t want to look back on it. But there are times when I think, ‘Man, I could definitely do something out there, at least for a couple minutes.’ But I made the decision, and I’m not going to look back.”
One of Happ’s biggest priorities during his redshirt season is improving his shot. He’s constantly working with Close after practice to fix some bad habits, and both say significant progress has been made since the start of the season.
As for getting under his teammates’ skin in practice, Happ says it’s not by design.
“I really don’t like it,” Happ said. “My nature is to fight for the call or dive on the ball. The starters get mad at me … then I feel bad.
“But I guess if it’s going to make them get better, I’ll keep it up.”
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