Badgers set to honor Frank Kaminsky

MADISON, Wis. - As the Wisconsin Badgers prepare to honor Frank Kaminsky by retiring his jersey on Thursday night before their game against Purdue, BadgerBlitz.com takes a look back at the former UW forward's college career - which saw the 7-foot big man from Lisle, Ill., go from being an unheralded back-up to the National College Player of the Year in 2015 after Wisconsin's second trip to the Final Four in as many years.

A late-bloomer if there ever was one, Kaminsky had just six scholarship offers coming out of high school at Benet Academy in Lisle, Ill. Wisconsin was the only team from outside the state of Illinois to offer Kaminsky a scholarship - Bradely, DePaul, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, and Southern Illinois were the only other programs to offer the then 6-foot-10 prospect.

But Kaminsky found his fit with the Badgers and committed during the summer before his senior season, telling Rivals.com at the time that he had found the right place for him.

"They want me to play like more like a power forward more than a center because I can shoot well," Kaminsky said to Rivals.com after his commitment. "The way the offense works, I'll have the opportunity to go inside and outside."

Kaminsky elected not to redshirt during his first season at UW, and he did work his way in to a role as a bench player for the Badgers - he played in 35 of their 36 games, and got on the court as a back-up for junior center Jared Berggren. Kaminsky logged 7.7 minutes per game, and scored a then-career high nine points for the Badgers against Missouri-Kansas City in November.

It wasn't the start Kaminsky - or the Badgers - wanted him to have in his first year on campus. The Badgers were lacking in front court depth, and could have used more production from Berggren's primary backup. Current UW head coach Greg Gard was Bo Ryan's associate head coach and top assistant at the time, and didn't hold back when asked about the steps forward Kaminsky had to take between his first years on campus and his senior season:

"He wasn’t very good as a freshman," Gard said Tuesday after Wisconsin's practice. "I didn’t know if he could play for us. And then he committed himself to a lot of work and a lot of time on his own, changed his body, changed I think some of his habits, and then also figured some things out. Grew into his body a little bit too, and appreciated being a big guy."

Kaminsky took a small step forward during his sophomore season and saw the floor a little more often, but there was still plenty of room for growth. He got his first two college starts against Southeastern Louisiana and Florida while senior forward Mike Bruesewitz's minutes were limited while he recovered from a pre-season leg injury, but other than those first two games Kaminsky was limited to short stints on the court to spell Berggren in his final season with the team.

After the season, Gard said that Kaminsky realized it was sink-or-swim for him as he prepared to take over for Berggren as Wisconsin's man in the middle, and Kaminsky decided that he needed to overhaul himself in order to take advantage of the opportunity.

"He got tired of not being good enough," Gard said. "He made a commitment to being great ... It was his time. He had to prove he was ready for that. That commitment, especially between his sophomore and junior year, he changed his body, attacked the weight room, really worked on his game on his own, came back a different person and had a different mentality."

Kaminsky's extra time in the weight room and on the court during the offseason paid off in a big way for the Badgers during his junior season almost at once, as Kaminsky scored a UW record 43 points in Wisconsin's win over North Dakota in their fourth regular season game of the year. Kaminsky would go on to average almost 14 points per game and develop into one of college basketball's most versatile players, building off of his previous experience as a high school point guard. Kaminsky already knew how to shoot well on the perimeter, and after putting in extra time over the summer time learning how to be a great post player he became Wisconsin's leading scorer.

"I think he kinda wanted to play on the perimeter when he first came to college and didn’t understand the importance of playing inside and how effective he could be," Gard said. "He gained that appreciation and that knowledge and those skills developed. Then he took his perimeter skills and applied them to what he could do in the post, and obviously you saw what a complete player he became."

Kaminsky helped the Badgers make a run in to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, with "Frank The Tank" scoring 19 points in games against Oregon and Baylor, and 28 points in Wisconsin's overtime win over 1-seed Arizona in the Elite Eight. The Badgers lost to Kentucky 74-73 in the semifinals, but Kaminsky decided to return to Wisconsin for his senior season despite generating some NBA Draft buzz with his breakout junior season.

Kaminsky was named the Big Ten's Preseason Player of the Year heading in to his senior season, and he lived up to the hype. He remained the focal point of Wisconsin's offense, and the Badgers rode Kaminsky's strong performance to a regular season Big Ten title and a Big Ten Tournament championship. The Badgers earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and met up with Kentucky again in the Final Four - but this time the Badgers got the upper hand, ending the Wildcats' perfect season at 38-1.

The Badgers played Duke for the national championship, and were leading with seven minutes left in the game before the Blue Devils - with help from now-senior Grayson Allen - charged back to seal up a 68-63 win. It was the closest the Badgers had come to winning a national title in the modern era, and it's hard to believe Badgers would have made back-to-back trips to the Final Four if Kaminsky hadn't dedicated himself to becoming one of the best players in the history of Wisconsin basketball.

But to say Kaminsky' transformation happened overnight is to short-change the hard work that he put in to changing his game, according to Gard.

"It takes a lot of work," Gard said Tuesday. "Everyone thinks we have a secret potion or a magic wand that … we sprinkle our pixie dust over guys and all of a sudden - bang - they become (great). The guys that have blossomed and developed like that have been guys who if we were clocking hours in the gym and work they put in on their own, they’d be doing overtime."

"He’s a kid that didn’t make his AAU team when he was in high school. They would practice and then leave him home. He wasn’t good enough to travel. He didn’t like not being good enough - that started when he was in high school and then obviously he got a little taste of that when he got here, and that motivated him to really commit himself and put in the time and the effort."

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.