Unselfish Taylor Nurtures Young Wisconsin Badgers

By both design and circumstance, Jordan Taylor took a backseat this season.

Taylor's willingness to get others more involved hurt his offensive numbers and likely cost him a shot at a second straight All-America honor but it also helped the Wisconsin Badgers grow up quickly.

After replacing three senior starters at forward, Wisconsin made another run to the upper echelon of the Big Ten and earned a 14th straight trip to the NCAA tournament, where the fourth-seeded Badgers (24-9) will open against 13th-seeded Montana (25-6) at the Pit on Thursday.

Taylor gets a ton of credit, going from a prolific scorer to a proud passer who nurtured three new starting forwards by becoming more of a distributor and facilitator and less of a rim rattler.