MADISON, Wis. - The regular season awards have started to trickle in for senior John Tonje.
The impact transfer wing who led Wisconsin in scoring in the regular season was named a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection by the conference's coaches and voting media on Tuesday.
Tonje is the first Wisconsin player to be named first-team All-Big Ten since Johnny Davis in 2022. He's the 16th Badgers player to earn first-team honors since the conference started tiering players in 1948.
Named the Transfer of the Year by Field of 68 and a third-team All-American by Andy Katz, Tonje averaged 18.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in 31 starts. He averaged 18.5 points in conference play as the Badgers finished in a three-way tie for fourth, far surpassing their preseason predicted finish of 12th.
No.5 seed Wisconsin will begin its postseason on Thursday afternoon against Wednesday's winner of No.12 Minnesota and No.13 Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament at Indianapolis' Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Tonje has played his best against the top teams on Wisconsin's schedule. In 12 games against teams ranked in the top-50 of the NCAA's NET Rankings, Tonje is averaging 22.5 ppg and 5.0 rpg, while shooting 43.2 percent (32-74) from 3-point range and 92.0 percent (81-88) at the free throw line.
His four 30-point games this season (41 vs. No.9 Arizona, 33 vs. Pittsburgh, 32 at No.7 Purdue, 31 vs. Illinois) is more than all other major conference players.
Purdue guard Braden Smith (16.3 ppg, 4.7 rps, 8.8 aps, 2.3 spg) was named the conference's player of the year, the third straight season a Purdue player was named the conference's player of the year (Zach Edey 2023-24).
Smith and Tonje were the only unanimous first-team selections. The media and coaches selected Nebraska's Brice Williams and Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn to the first team. The coaches selected Maryland center Derik Queen as their fifth player, while the media picked Michigan's Vlad Goldin.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was named the league's coach of the year, Illinois' Will Riley was named the conference's Sixth-Man of the Year, Queen earned the Freshman of the Year honor, and Penn State's Ace Baldwin Jr. was the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year.
Wisconsin sophomore John Blackwell was named an honorable mention selection by the coaches and the media. Elevated into a starting role this season and primarily playing the point guard, Blackwell finished second on UW in scoring at 15.6 points per game and averaged 5.2 rebounds, 68 assists, 28 steals, and 66 turnovers.
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