Hayes was one of the most inconsistent players in the country last season. He could look like an NBA combo-forward one night and a guy that doesn’t belong in the Big Ten the next. He could score 32 points against Milwaukee and follow it up with a 4-for-18 performance in a home loss to Marquette. He could score 30 at Purdue and then shoot 2-for-15 in a Big Ten tournament loss to Nebraska. On the season, he shot a dismal 36.8 percent from the floor and 29.3 percent from three, which is not a good sign for a team’s highest-usage player.
He’s not the only inefficient star on the Badgers, either. Koenig hit one of the best shots of the season, drilling a fade-away, step-back three at the buzzer as he disappeared into the bench in a second round win over Xavier, but on the season his shot just 39.2 percent from the floor and, as a point guard, finished the year averaging 2.4 assists in 34 minutes.
The end result for the Badgers was terrific, but individually, both players left plenty of room for improvement in their first post-Frank Kaminsky season.
Part of the reason the inefficiency of Koenig and Hayes is a concern is that Happ has a chance to be special. He averaged 12.4 points and 7.9 boards as a redshirt freshman, and there’s no reason to think that he won’t improve at the same rate as every good Wisconsin big man has in the last decade. Putting a big that good on the floor with a pair of inefficient, shoot-first stars is not generally ideal.