MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Badger players Kamari McGee, John Blackwell and John Tonje sat before the media on Sunday with the same expressions and temperament we’ve come to expect from them.
McGee smiled throughout. Tonje let out a few grins. Blackwell, not much.
You would never know that the trio had just completed an 83-55 beatdown of conference foe Nebraska, while scoring nearly as many points (52) as them.
Sunday was business as usual for the 16-4 Badgers. It was the 13th time they’ve scored 80 points this season, their sixth victory of at least 20 points and third of at least 25.
As substantial as the performance was for the team as a whole, two names rose above the rest, as has often been the case this season.
Tonje led the team with 27 points while going 5-of-11 from beyond the arc. Blackwell finished with 14, along with 4-of-7 shooting from 3.
The pair began the day by scoring 16 combined points in just over four minutes, creating a 19-2 lead that set the tone for the remainder of the day.
The pair have already established themselves as one of the best-scoring duos in recent Badger history. Heading into tonight's matchup against Maryland (16-5, 6-4 Big Ten) at the Xfinity Center, Tonje is up to 18.0 points per game on the season while Blackwell isn’t far behind with 16.7. They currently sit at seventh and 11th, respectively, among the Big Ten’s leading scorers.
While they could likely exist as dominant scorers individually, their skills and mindsets have blended in a way that’s rare at Wisconsin.
“I think we just feed off each other’s energy. We just keep talking to each other throughout the game, like, ‘Keep going.’ And I think we just have fun hooping with each other. It’s fun to go out there and play with him every night, and he just shows you something new almost every night,” Blackwell said.
“We’re just out here having fun. He makes my job a lot easier getting downhill and being at the top of that scouting report. I’m just loving being here and being able to play on the same team as him,” Tonje said.
It didn’t take long at all for Tonje to establish himself as a scoring threat. He put up 41 points against Arizona in just the fourth game of the season and quickly grabbed national attention.
His combination of long-distance shooting (39.4 percent) and ability to drive to the rim with relentless physicality has made him Wisconsin’s most reliable scorer on a game-to-game basis.
Yet, on the nights when Tonje doesn’t have it — like when he went scoreless against USC — Blackwell is often ready and waiting to take over as the focal point, without changing how the offense operates.
Blackwell peppered in some strong scoring performances early, but has taken an extra step since Big Ten play began. He’s averaging 20.3 points per game since 2025 began.
Tonje also allows Blackwell to focus more on playmaking, which has had an underrated impact on Wisconsin’s offense.
After Chucky Hepburn left via the transfer portal this past offseason, Greg Gard didn’t find much of a replacement at point guard. That responsibility largely fell on the shoulders of Blackwell, along with McGee off the bench.
If Blackwell was forced to be both the team’s primary scorer and playmaker, it would likely be too much pressure at this point in his career. But the offense has become fluid enough to where each of the superstars can essentially pick and choose their responsibilities on a night-to-night basis.
“They’re opportunistic. We don’t come into it with a predetermined mindset that player A, B or C has to get so many shots. It happens. You take what the defense gives you. You try to put players in the position of their strengths. Both Johns have done a good job of that,” Gard said Sunday.
Plenty of ink has been spilt about Wisconsin’s general offensive evolution this season
Their improvement is undeniable on paper — sixth in the Big Ten and 29th in the country in scoring (82.5 points per game) — and even more obvious on the court.
Gard has committed to, and succeeded at, modernizing his offense. But this leap didn’t magically happen overnight.
The first sign of a real offensive shift seemed to take place in the 2021-22 season, when Johnny Davis took a gargantuan leap and became an All-American. He and Brad Davison averaged a combined 33.8 points per game and Wisconsin finished the regular season tied for first in the Big Ten, with their most wins (25) since 2017. That team lost four of its five starters from the prior season and somehow managed to improve.
But when Davis and Davison left and the Badgers had no dominant scorer, they proceeded to miss the 2022-23 NCAA Tournament.
Enter A.J. Storr.
Storr has become a polarizing figure amongst Badger fans. But, whether they like it or not, he will go down as one of the most important players in the history of Wisconsin basketball.
Gard saw a freshman who was the seventh-leading scorer on a mediocre St. John’s team, and proceeded to help him nearly double his points per game average (8.8 to 16.8).
Storr became a player that Gard could use as an example of what’s capable for transfers at Wisconsin. Tonje likely wouldn’t have chosen Madison if he never saw what Storr was able to accomplish.
But as meaningful as Davis and Storr’s contributions were, they didn’t result in much postseason success. In those two seasons, the Badgers were eliminated in the second and first rounds of the NCAA Tournament, respectively.
Davis suffered an injury late in the regular season and was never the same. Storr fell off of a cliff in the middle of the year, perhaps as a result of being reportedly distracted, and the team nosedived with him.
There were several reasons for both declines, but chief among them was an over-reliance on their superstar players. Those Badger teams didn’t have any other real scoring threats to turn to after those two declined.
The presence of two top-dog scorers provides hope that they’ve escaped their over-reliance demon, if only for a year.
This duo, in a broader sense, are an example that Gard has adapted to the modern era without abandoning Wisconsin’s roots.
Tonje shows that Gard is capable of bringing in superstars via the portal, which is one of the most important skills for a coach in today’s game. Yet Blackwell shows that they ultimately don’t need to rely on the portal for superstar talent.
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