Omaha Central grad John Tonje ‘loving every moment’ of big season at Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis.

John Tonje walked off the floor, his afternoon over after a sterling performance in Wisconsins domination of Nebraska.

The 16,838 fans at Kohl Center crowd roared.

Scattered fans behind the Badger bench stood as the Omaha Central graduate took his seat for the remaining three minutes of the Badgers' 83-55 win .

Eleven people in the crowd were friends and family who had made the trip up from Omaha.

Tonje, who scored a game-high 27 points, knew plenty of others were back home, watching on TV.

Some of them are actually Huskers fans, he said, but today they were cheering for Wisconsin, so its all good.

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It meant more for Tonje, playing against the flagship school of his home state.

Five years of college led to his ongoing revitalization at UW.

Sunday was a major step in the journey, a personal victory to go with that of the surging Badgers.

People had been asking, Is this a big game for you? and Id be lying if I said it wasnt, Tonje said.

Its a familiar logo.

I grew up in Nebraska, so it was a huge game coming in here.

I had a lot of excitement, and Im just glad we came out here and got a win.

Tonje had spent the previous two hours doing just about everything on the basketball court.

He knocked down 3-pointers from all along the perimeter, hitting five on 11 attempts.

He got to the rim and finished in traffic.

There was the pump fake to get Andrew Morgan followed by a poster dunk over Connor Essegian and the twitchy deflection to prevent a pass from getting to Juwan Gary for what would have been an easy baseline layup.

His final line was 27 points and five rebounds.

Wisconsin guard John Tonje (9) handles the ball against Nebraska guard Gavin Griffiths (front right) on in Madison, Wis.

A year ago, Tonje was in basketball purgatory at Missouri, dealing with a foot injury before being shut down in January to preserve his eligibility.

He spent the season watching film of himself, getting better acquainted with his own tendencies and trying to get better while unable to set foot on the court.

There were things that revealed themselves from a birds eye view.

Just defensively, offensively, just the whole thing, he said.

Things I did well, things I need to get better at and just things I wasnt seeing, passes I wasnt seeing, plays.

Really overall just building my basketball IQ.

Its paid off in his first and only season at Madison, his third college after he began his career at Colorado State.

Hes leading the Badgers with 18 points per game, the primary option for a team with ambitions of a lengthy tournament run.

Sunday, his performance played off of itself.

His 3-pointers in the first half forced Nebraska to anticipate his jump shot.

It led to his pump fake creating a lane to the basket on a dunk that delivered one of the biggest Kohl Center pops of the day.

Tonje looked at the Wisconsin bench for a moment after his second-half dunk, taking a brief pause before running back on defense.

He wanted to share the moment with his teammates the kind of moment thats become a common occurrence since he came to Wisconsin.

I love it here, Tonje said.

I feel like this is an underrated gem of a city.

I remember the first time, driving up here, I was just so surprised (by) the skyline and the energy and the vibe that the whole city had.

Its been awesome.

Theyve embraced me, and Ive been loving every moment Ive had here.

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