2000 for Nigel

Now that Nigel is back, it's time to start looking at his potential for Badgers history in 2016-17. Nigel has a chance to become the 3rd leading scorer in Badgers history with a good season.
He currently has scored 292+497+551= 1340 points. Badger record is Alando's 2217, Finley is 2nd with 2147, and 3rd is Danny Jones 1854.

The Badgers will play 13 non-conference games, 18 conference games plus at least one game in the Big Ten Tourney for 32, and likely additional post season games. I will be realistic and say that the Badgers will play about 35 games which is the same as they played last season.
In order to catch those guys with 35 games Nigel would need to average:

Alando- 2217-1340=877/35=25.1 ppg
Finley- 2147-1340=807/35=23.1 ppg
Jones- 1854-1340=514/35=14.69 ppg

Since he averaged 15.7 last season, it would seem reasonable that he ends up in 3rd by the end of 2016-17 barring injury. Seems highly unlikely that he can catch either Finley or Alando. For some perspective, the greatest season in Badgers history (by my very limited research) was Clarence Sherrod in 1970-71 when he averaged 23.8 ppg. Alando's best season was 19.9 ppg, and Finley's was 22.1 ppg.

So what about 2000 points?
2000-1340=660/35=18.86 ppg.

This seems like a stretch, but possible. Nigel may carry less of the scoring load with the young players developing and since Vitto and Showalter played so much better down the stretch last year. However, the Badgers weren't a very good scoring team last year, so maybe they score more and the rising tide lifts Nigel's boat enough to get there.

If Bucky makes some deep tourney runs his odds of getting there look much better. If they were to make the Big Ten Championship game, and make an elite 8 run that gets them to 38 games.
660/38=17.37 ppg.

I'm glad he came back so we will get to track this all season long.