John Tonje cemented himself as one of the greatest Wisconsin Badgers of all time, and he did it all in one season. A transfer from Missouri who didn't really get to play for the Tigers due to injury, he came in basically unheralded and not expected much from. He then went on a tear. He is now the leader of multiple Wisconsin record book stats and among the top in other categories.
The 5 stats that John Tonje is at the top or near the top in Wisconsin's Record Book
1. Season: Free Throws Made
John Tonje blew the door off this record by making 231 free throws on the season. The next closest is Nigel Hayes, who has 190 in a season. Since Tonje made so many free throws, a lot of his impressive stats in this list are in this category.
He is actually the NCAA leader in free throws made in a season, and the player behind him in the NCAA record books is PJ Haggerty, with 224. That's how impressive Tonje was at the line.
2. Season: Free Throw Percentage
To complement the previous category, Tonje is also the leader in Wisconsin history for free throw percentage with .909. This is almost automatic. He is 8th all-time in the NCAA record books. He truly was game-changing at the line.
3. Season: Points
This one had a lot of attention for Tonje as he was chasing down Frank Kaminsky's record of 732 points in a season. Tonje almost did it by scoring 724 points. That cements him with room to breathe in second place in the Wisconsin record books. Alando Tucker is next with 716 points. Those three are the only 700-point scorers in a season for the Badgers in history.
4. Game: Points
It's hard to be one of the best point scorers in a season without a few huge games. While Tonje averaged 19.6 points a game on the season, he had six games over 30 points. He also found himself in second place behind Kaminsky on this list. Kaminsky is at 43 points in a single game, while Tonje had 41 against Arizona last season.
5. Game: Free Throws Made
While Tonje finds himself in various top-5 season categories in the Wisconsin record books, these five are the most impressive. Therefore, we will end with the most free throws made in a game in Wisconsin history. He made 21 free throws in that Arizona game, where he scored 41. Nigel Hayes is the next closest in the record books at 17.