LOS ANGELES – Ethan Happ capped his brilliant Wisconsin basketball career on Friday by winning the 2019 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, the Basketball Hall of Fame positional award given to the nation's best center.

Happ was presented the award by Abdul-Jabbar himself at the College Basketball Awards show in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. 

Happ becomes the fifth Abdul-Jabbar winner since its inception in 2015. Former Badger Frank Kaminsky was the inaugural winner of the Abdul-Jabbar Award in 2015.

2015    Frank Kaminsky    Wisconsin
2016    Jakob Poeltl    Utah
2017    Przemek Karnowski    Gonzaga
2018    Angel Delgado    Seton Hall
2019    Ethan Happ    Wisconsin

Wisconsin's leader in points, rebounds, assists and steals, Happ earned consensus second-team All-America honors as well as the 2019 NABC Pete Newell Big Man of the Year Award. Happ became the first Wisconsin player to average a double-double since 1995, finishing the season with 17.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game on the season. 

Happ ranked eighth in the NCAA with 21 double-doubles, matching the Wisconsin school record that has stood for 50 years (Joe Franklin in 1967-68). Happ ranked fifth in the Big Ten in scoring, third in rebounding, third in assists, ninth in blocks, 14th in steals, 11th in field goal percentage and eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio.

With 2,130 points, 1,217 rebounds and 423 assists, Happ is one of six players in NCAA history to accumulate at least 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 400 assists. He joins Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, Danny Ferry, Stacey Augmon and John Konchar.

The Milan, Illinois, native finished his career 18th in Big Ten history with 2,118 points and third with 1,209 boards. Happ owns the Wisconsin school record for rebounds and blocks and ranks among UW's all-time top three in each of the five major statistically categories: points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.