How it was built: Wisconsin, the model of consistency

As Wisconsin's tip-off in the 2017 NCAA Tournament draws closer, we take a look at how Greg Gard's current roster was built, a group that bumped the Badgers' consecutive tournament appearances streak to 19.

Wisconsin's five-man 2013 recruiting class certainly wasn't one of the most highly-regarded in the country, but it did produce two multi-year starters who contributed on UW's Final 4 teams, one two-year starter and a role player off the bench.

Bronson Koenig, a four-star in-state guard from La Crosse, was one of the most heavily-recruited prospects in the country. He eventually chose the Badgers over scholarships from Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Virginia, among others.

"Depending upon how Bo Ryan wants to use him in Wisconsin's offense, the 6-foot-2 Koenig can handle either point or shooting guard duties," Rivals.com analyst Eric Bossi said in 2012. "One of the nation's best transition passers, Koenig also is a dangerous jump shooter and has done a good job of adding strength and improving his defense."

Nigel Hayes, a three-star prospect coming out of high school, took official visits to Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota and Stanford. He joined another Ohio standout in UW's 2013 class, three-star forward Vitto Brown, who was also considering Iowa State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas State, among others.

Jordan Hill was lightly recruited coming out of high school but caught the attention of Bo Ryan during the AAU season. The redshirt junior has been a role player for much of his career but has given UW needed spurts of energy off the bench this season. The final member of the class was Riley Dearing, whose offer, at the time, was a bit of a head-scratcher. Wisconsin projected him to be a big-time shooter, but the Minnesota prospect ended up transferring last season.

What would this class have looked like had Wisconsin been able to keep Matt Thomas inside the state?

In the summer of 2012, Wisconsin invited Ethan Happ to its advanced camp and recognized he had the necessary tools to play in the Big Ten. Did they know he would become the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2015-16 and a first-team all-conference selection a year later? That's debatable, but Bo Ryan and Greg Gard were the first high-major coaches to extend an offer, which eventually led a commitment a few months later before any other schools could jump into Happ's recruitment.

"This is his first high-major offer," said Jamie Johnson, Happ's AAU coach with the Iowa Barnstormers at the time. "Milwaukee was his first offer about six weeks ago and Green Bay offered recently. Basically all Big 12 and Big Ten schools have been tracking him. He will have more."He (Ethan) and Seth Bonifas were at the Wisconsin elite camp and on the same team. They liked what they saw in April and again at camp and decided to offer."

This season, Happ was the nation's only player to lead his team in points (14.6 ppg), rebounds (8.6 rpg), assists (3.0 apg), blocks (1.6 bpg) and steals (2.3 spg) during conference play.

Though it happened later in their respective careers, UW was also one of the first high-major schools to seriously recruit both Khalil Iverson and D'Mitrik Trice, both of whom are key bench players this season and likely starters next winter.

Iverson's name surfaced at Wisconsin's camp in the summer of 2014. The Ohio native's recruitment began to take off after the Badgers offered, with scholarships from Penn State and Tennessee, along with strong interest from Indiana, Ohio State and Illinois. But because of UW's presence early on, assistant coach Lamont Paris earned Iverson's signature in 2015.

Trice went to IMG Academy in Florida for a post-graduate year after a successful basketball and football career in Ohio. In desperate need of a point guard late in the process, Gard offered the lead guard in April of 2016. Ohio State and Vanderbilt came in just days later, but the Badgers wrapped up his recruitment after an official visit with IMG teammate Aleem Ford, who also committed while on campus the same weekend.

Every successful program needs a glue guy, and the Badgers have that in Zak Showalter. You could even make a case that the fifth-year senior from Germantown (WI) has been Wisconsin's most consistent player this season.

During his recruitment, Showalter had offers from multiple mid-major programs, but he turned down money in order to walk on at Wisconsin. His father, Steve Showalter, played under Bo Ryan at UW-Platteville.

"I mean, it's Wisconsin basketball," Zak Showalter told BadgerBlitz.com at the time. "What else is there to say? I've grown up watching every game and I love the program.

"There is nowhere else I'd want to go. I'm so excited and it's just a dream come true."

This season, Showalter has started all 34 games for UW, is averaging 8.3 points per game and is shooting 49.5 percent from the field. Most importantly, though, the shooting guard draws the assignment each night to defend the opposing teams' top perimeter scorer.