Photo: Wisconsin Badgers
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — During Saturday morning's shootaround here at Williams Arena, less than seven hours from the tipoff between Wisconsin and Minnesota, Big Ten Network analyst Shon Morris offered a critique of 6-foot-10 Ethan Happ and foreshadowed the type of game that he might have.
It was not surprising that his words turned out to be prophetic since the 6-10 Morris knows his way around a microphone and the low post. During his Northwestern playing days, he accounted for 1,407 career points while leading the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding three straight years.
"He's so difficult to defend and he has gotten better, as hard as it is to believe as good as he was last year," Morris said of Happ, the consensus Big Ten Freshman of the Year (2015-16). "He has gotten better in anticipating and his footwork is still outstanding. He just continues to improve.
"The play he had the other night (Jan. 17) against Michigan on the defensive end — where he blocks it (the shot), gets the ball in the middle of the floor and then makes the next smart play and kicks it ahead for the layup — there aren't guys half his size that can make that play.
"It's just the way he runs and understands angles. A lot of big guys don't understand running with a purpose, getting to a spot where you can do something rather than just running and getting in the way. He runs to a spot and understands spacing."
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