Wisconsin senior Bronson Koenig knows it's time to let it fly

BUFFALO — Villanova has the top overall seed. It has Big East player of the year Josh Hart. It has forever hero Kris Jenkins, who hit that fairy-tale winner in last season’s championship game. It has the gaudy 32-3 record. And it has the crown, until someone takes it away.

But Wisconsin has Bronson Koenig. And he could be a crown-stealer.

The senior point guard for the eighth-seeded Badgers is heating up amid the Buffalo cold. He hit eight of 17 three-pointers in the Badgers’ first-round win against Virginia Tech. That’s more threes than any Wisconsin player had made before and it tied the record for KeyBank Center. Oh, and he scored a career-high 28 points — double his season average — for the third-highest total in the Badgers’ long tournament history.

“I was feeling it a little bit,” Koenig understated.

His phone blew up after the game, he said, much of it from Native American supporters. (Koenig’s mother is Ho-Chunk and his father white.)

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“It was on social media everywhere, from all over,” he said with a smile. “And just looking in the stands and see Native Americans coming to support me.”

He found out how much support he has last fall when he and his brother joined the protest at Standing Rock over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“Seeing 5,000 to 10,000 Native Americans there from all over the continent, really, and the fact that they know my name and know who I am,” he said, “it just really opens my eyes and just makes me more grateful for all the supporters I have.”

He said he is disappointed that President Trump signed executive orders to revive the pipeline after the Obama administration had halted it.

“I mean, it’s not surprising,” Koenig said. “Everyone kind of knew that he was going to do that when he took office. It’s just unfortunate and all the funding that they’re pulling from climate research and environmental research and everything like that. It’s a little disheartening that you can just deny science and facts like that. It’s just a little mind-boggling.”

It is unusual for a college basketball player to address politics mid-tournament with a couple of reporters standing in an arena hallway.

“Yeah, I’ve never honestly really cared what people think about me or my political stance,” he said. “Everyone has their right to their opinion.”

He expressed an opinion after the Virginia Tech game that he hadn’t actually shot that well. (“Maybe I should be a little more grateful,” he said Friday.) It seemed every time the Hokies pulled within a point in the second half, Koenig parried with another three-pointer. He shot 5-for-9 from long distance in that half, often with a hand in his face.

“You can definitely say I was looking for my shot,” Koenig said. “It's something I take pride in, being a senior point guard, is making plays in critical moments. And I knew when they kept cutting it to one that I was going to have to make some type of play, so I was just trying to be as aggressive as possible.”

Greg Gard, his coach, pretended to be unimpressed by pointing out Koenig also had two turnovers.

“Oh, he had one?” Gard said when corrected. “OK.”

And then Gard told how he’s known Koenig since he was a freshman in high school and Wisconsin began recruiting him.

“So I've seen him do a lot of things,” Gard said. “Watched him win two state championships. I watched him four years here with us. He's a heck of a player.”

Koenig broke into the Wisconsin lineup in the middle of his sophomore season and was part of the run that took the Badgers to the title game, including an upset of 38-0 Kentucky. That Badgers team had stars Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker. Now it’s different. Koenig is often the go-to guy these days.

He’s a pure shooter — better than 90% from the free throw line and nearly 40% from three. Perhaps his best-known shot came in last season’s tournament, when he hit a fall-away three-point jumper at the buzzer to beat Xavier. That sent Wisconsin to the Sweet 16 for a third consecutive season, the only school in the country to get at least that far in each of those years.

“He’s the poster child for making spectacular plays,” Badgers forward Nigel Hayes said.

Now Koenig is on posters and billboards for the “Guard Your Tomorrow” campaign against distracted driving, sponsored by the Ho-Chunk Nation and AAA. Koenig had a good excuse for missing this week’s campaign opening in La Crosse, Wis. He is busy firing threes in Buffalo.

“I think I play best when I go out there with an I-don’t-really-care attitude and go out and just play, because when I do that I’m not thinking,” Koenig said. “And when I’m not thinking I play and I shoot the ball a lot better rather than being nervous or tight.”

He said he expects to feel loose Saturday when going out to play the defending champ and top overall seed.

“It’s my senior year,” Koenig said. “It’s March Madness. Why not go out there and have some fun, be aggressive and let it fly?”

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