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Big Ten Basketball Notes

>>Denzel Valentine Named Big Ten Player of the Year

 

Denzel Valentine of Michigan State is Big Ten player of the year in voting by the coaches and a unanimous pick to their all-conference first team along with Indiana's Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell and Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff.

 

The coaches also have Purdue's A.J. Hammons and Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes on their first team announced Monday.

 

The second team: Illinois' Malcolm Hill, Iowa's Peter Jok, Maryland's Melo Trimble, Michigan State's Bryn Forbes and Nebraska's Shavon Shields.

 

Indiana's Tom Crean is coach of the year, Indiana's Max Bielfeldt sixth man of the year and Wisconsin's Ethan Happ freshman of the year.

 

The all-freshman team: Indiana's Thomas Bryant, Maryland's Diamond Stone, Minnesota's Jordan Murphy, Purdue's Caleb Swanigan and Wisconsin's Happ.

 

The all-defensive team: Indiana's Ferrell, Iowa's Uthoff, Purdue's Rapheal Davis and Hammons and Wisconsin's Happ.

 

>>Greg Gard To Be Wisconsin's Next Head Coach

 

Wisconsin has removed the interim tag from Greg Gard and made him the Badgers' full-time men's basketball coach, a source confirmed to CBS Sports on Monday.

 

The school subsequently confirmed the development.

 

A press conference is scheduled for Tuesday.

 

Gard, 45, was an assistant under Bo Ryan for parts of 23 seasons before he was promoted when Ryan abruptly retired in December, after a victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Badgers were 7-5 at the time with losses to Western Illinois and Milwaukee, and they lost four of the six subsequent games to drop to 9-9. But Gard is 11-2 -- with wins over Michigan State, Indiana, Maryland, Iowa and Michigan -- since a loss at Northwestern, and his Badgers are currently 26th in the CBS Sports Top 25 (and one).

 

Wisconsin is 25th in the new coaches poll and safely in the Field of 68.

 

The Badgers' next game is Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament.

 

They'll play either Nebraska or Rutgers.

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