Wisconsin Big Man Ethan Happ Is Having a Historic Passing Season

If you lined up the 50 college basketball players with the best assist rates in the country from shortest to tallest, Wisconsin forward Ethan Happ would stick out of the lineup like a sore thumb. That’s because a player’s assist rate, which is calculated by dividing a player’s assists by the field goals made by his teammates when he’s on the floor, is basically a stat created for point guards.

It favors players like Murray State’s Ja Morant, a potential top-five pick in the 2019 NBA Draft who leads the country with a 56 percent assist rate, and Michigan State’s Cassius Winston, but not typically someone like Happ, who’s 6-10, plays the “five” on offense, is 1-of-15 from three-point range in his college career and who has taken 67.6 percent of his shots at the rim this season, per hoop-match.com.

However, Happ is having a borderline historic season as a creator in his final year of eligibility. His 36.4 percent assist rate through Sunday ranks 18th nationally among players who have played at least 40 percent of their team’s available minutes, per kenpom.com.

Siena’s Jalen Pickett, 6-4, is the second-tallest player among the top 20 players in assist rate.

Since the 2006-07 season, which is the first season on kenpom.com that lists the nation’s leaders in assist rates accompanied by their height, Happ has the fourth-best assist rate among players who are 6-7 or taller. Two of the players with a better single-season assist rate were Texas Southern’s Kevin Galloway and Ohio State’s Evan Turner, who both played point guard at 6-7.

Check out the full list below of the 15 players who are 6-7 or taller who ranked in the top 100 nationally in assist rate in a year since the 2007 season, per kenpom.com.

Assist rate is on the x-axis and turnover rate is on the y-axis.

Happ has the lowest turnover rate among this group of big creators with just a 15 percent turnover rate this season, and he also holds the second-best turnover rate among this group with his 16.2 percent turnover rate from 2018.

Here’s the information displayed in the scatter plot above, listed in chart form.

Season Player School Height Assist Rate Turnover Rate
2011 Kevin Galloway Texas Southern 6-7 38.9 31.5
2017 TJ Cline Richmond 6-9 38.2 16.9
2010 Evan Turner Ohio State 6-7 37.4 21.5
2019 Ethan Happ Wisconsin 6-10 36.4 15.0
2012 Royce White Iowa State 6-8 34.5 24.7
2014 Kyle Anderson UCLA 6-9 34.3 20.2
2018 Ethan Happ Wisconsin 6-10 33.3 16.2
2008 Travis Peterson Samford 6-10 32.1 17.5
2013 Ian Hummer Princeton 6-7 31.5 18.5
2009 Mark Payne UC Davis 6-7 30.3 22.1
2011 Greer Wright Binghamton 6-7 30.0 26.1
2019 Josh Warren Cornell 6-8 29.6 28.1
2010 Mark Payne UC Davis 6-7 29.4 19.0
2019 Justin James Wyoming 6-7 28.9 17.1
2019 Nathan Knight William & Mary 6-10 28.9 16.8

 

The redshirt senior leads Wisconsin in scoring (19.8 ppg), rebounding (10.3 rpg) and assists (4.8 apg), and it’s the latter statistical category that makes a player who can’t shoot from three or the free throw line (49.3 percent this season) so special.

Here’s a look at how Happ creates so many scoring opportunities for his teammates at 6-11.


Early in Wisconsin’s 64-54 upset win over No. 2 Michigan, Happ ran off a screen set by teammate Khalil Iverson on the right wing and he received a pass from point guard D’Mitrik Trice.

Meanwhile, on the opposite wing, Wisconsin guard Brad Davison used a back cut after Nate Reuvers approached to set a screen.

Happ used an overhead pass to feed Davison – think about that, how many teams use their center to feed a guard who has posted up on the block? – who took one dribble to get better positioning and scored off the glass against Michigan’s Jordan Poole.

Later in the first half, when Michigan’s starting center Jon Teske was out of the game, Happ caught the ball on the right block. He used his body and pivot foot to feel out Teske’s backup, Austin Davis.

Happ took two dribbles and spun towards the lane, drawing Michigan’s Ignas Brazdeikis, who left Wisconsin’s Kobe King so he could double-team Happ.

Before Brazdeikis even reached Happ, Happ had already kicked the ball out to King, who’s a 41.9 percent three-point shooter on the season. Michigan guard Eli Brooks slid over to contest King, but King pump-faked to get Brooks in the air.

King then took one dribble to his left and fired for a more open look from three. King was 2-for-2 from behind the arc in the game.

Happ averages nearly a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double and he uses the attention he draws in the post to set up open looks for Wisconsin’s three-point shooters.

At the end of the first half, Trice curled behind King’s man, while King had the ball on the right wing, and Happ followed to set a high screen for King.

Happ then rolled and called for the ball as Michigan’s Charles Matthews and Teske both pressured King.

King faked a bounce pass, then threw an overhead pass to Happ, who was picked up by Michigan’s Isaiah Livers on the right block until Teske could recover and double-team Happ.

After screening Teske, Wisconsin’s Aleem Ford popped out to the right wing and once again, Happ kicked the ball out as soon as the double team arrived. Ford knocked down the open three as Matthews was late on his close-out.

Happ forces opposing defenses to decide between playing him straight up with just one defender and hope for a miss from the Big Ten Player of the Year candidate who’s shooting 57.8 percent on twos and 62.1 percent at the rim, or they can choose to double team Happ in the post, like Michigan did in the sequences above.

The latter can be a risky decision given that Happ has four teammates who shoot at least 39 percent from three-point range, so doubling Happ leaves an open player on the perimeter who’s capable of hitting a huge shot.

Happ had seven assists against Michigan, his 10th game this season with at least five assists.

On a key sequence after the eight-minute mark in the second half, Davison stole the ball from Teske and Happ finished with a layup on the other end to put Wisconsin up 45-44.

Happ then stole the ball from Michigan’s Zavier Simpson in the midst of a 7-0 Wisconsin run.

On offense, Happ posted up Teske and received an entry pass from Davison on some high-low action in the lane.

Happ posted up Teske on the left block and he took four dribbles, drawing help-side defense from Matthews (No. 1), who left King at the top of the key.

As Matthews collapsed on Happ, King moved further along the three-point line towards the corner and Matthews had a delayed reaction in locating King, so when Happ kicked the ball back out to King, King had an open look from three.

King made the shot to put Wisconsin up by four and they never trailed again, as they picked up their biggest win of the season.

As modern basketball has trended toward three-point shooting, Happ’s shot chart resembles that of an old school big whose damage on offense almost exclusively comes at or near the rim. But Happ possesses a unique combination of patience in the post, court awareness and unselfishness that makes him Wisconsin’s best creator because of the attention he draws on his post catches.