Wisconsin Badgers guard Nick Boyd should be first-team All-Big Ten, and his numbers back it up

MADISON, Wis. - With a choice between the ACC with North Carolina and the Big Ten with Wisconsin, senior Nick Boyd wanted to come to a conference where he could compete with a league that has some of the best guard play in the nation.

Don't say he's held his own over the course of 16 conference games, because it's in his nature to take each match-up personally, no matter if he's head-to-head with an elite guard or not.

"I love to compete, that's the whole reason why he came here," Boyd said. "To play against the best guys in the country. Whether it's point guard, shooting guard, center, whoever it is, that's the whole reason why I came to the Big Ten. I love to compete. That's the name of the game."

Boyd continues to thrive for Wisconsin, evidenced by delivering one of the Badgers' best all-around individual performances of the conference season in Sunday's 84-71 win over Iowa. He dazzled with scoring (27 points), he was aggressive at the rim (9 rebounds), and he set up his teammates (career-high 10 assists).

Chef Nick 👨‍🍳 pic.twitter.com/rjlNYIEP3r
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) February 23, 2026

He's only the third Division I player this season to hit all those marks in the same game, but the most important thing to him was the Badgers washed the bad taste that had sat in their mouths for nearly a week after losing at Ohio State.

"As one of the leaders, I've got to bring that juice," Boyd said.

It's the year of the point guard in the Big Ten, with the conference's top teams being led by bona fide floor generals like Purdue's Braden Smith, Michigan State's Jeremy Fears, and Iowa's Bennett Stirtz. Boyd's numbers show that he shouldn't be overlooked

Entering the final week of February, the season stats for the group:
Stirtz: 20.5 ppg on 50.7 FG%, 2.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.9 turnovers
Smith: 14.9 ppg on 47.5 FG%, 3.8 rebounds, 8.7 assists, 2.9 turnovers
Fears: 15.1 ppg on 43.3 FG%, 2.5 rebounds, 9.3 assists, 2.1 turnovers
Boyd: 20.3 ppg on 47.6 FG%, 3.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.7 turnovers

The bigger the game for Boyd, the bigger the squeeze. Wisconsin is one of seven Big Ten teams ranked in the top 30 of KenPom. Taking into account those players against only those opponents, the numbers separate themselves further.

Stirtz (six games): 18.7 ppg on 43.48 FG%, 2.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 2.5 turnovers
Smith (six games): 15.8 ppg on 47.82 FG%, 4.5 rebounds, 10.0 assists, 1.7 turnovers
Fears (five games): 19.8 ppg on 35.38 FG%, 2.0 rebounds, 9.4 assists, 2.4 turnovers
Boyd (six games): 23.7 ppg on 49.48 FG%, 4.3 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.0 turnovers

Nick Boyd two more on the board for @BadgerMBB 🤩

📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/Z3euRxKs82
— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) February 22, 2026

In games against the top conference teams in the metrics, Boyd has been the league's best point guard, which was evident when he outplayed Stritz on Sunday.

His points against the Hawkeyes were a result of attacking the paint and drawing contact, as he went 8-for-10 on layup attempts and 8-for-9 from the free-throw line. He drew six fouls, showing no fear as he repeatedly attacked and absorbed contact.

Getting downhill to the rim opened up the rest of his game. Three of his season-high nine rebounds were on the offensive glass and contributed to UW's 11 second-chance points, while his career-high 10 assists led to 26 UW points, creating timely responses to either answer Iowa's early run or bury the Hawkeyes under double digits late.

“He plays with emotion, he plays with fire, and he backs it up," head coach Greg Gard said. "He was the best player on the floor."

The transfer portal has done wonders for Wisconsin, delivering three consecutive jackpots. First, there was A.J. Storr. Next came All-American John Tonje. Now there's Boyd, whose wizardry with the ball in his hands picked apart Iowa and its 10th nationally scoring defense,

Iowa coach Ben McCollum was adamant that his team's game plan to defend Wisconsin was "real good," so much so that he refused to divulge what it was in case the Hawkeyes see the Badgers again in the conference tournament next month.

"Let Boyd get downhill to his left every single possession was not the game plan," McCollum conceded.

He's either overly confident or bluffing, but Boyd 's ability to blow up the Hawkeyes' defense was a result of Wisconsin filling the floor with shooters and allowing the senior the freedom to facilitate. His ability to read and exploit opening gaps as he moved with the ball was huge, delivering multiple split-second and no-look passes to open rollers at the rim for easy layups.

💥 29 PTS
💥 10-17 FG
💥 5-7 3FG
💥 3 REB
💥 4 AST

Nick Boyd was ELECTRIC in @BadgerMBB's AP Top-10 win over Michigan State 🙌 pic.twitter.com/nI2OHDvgqH
— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) February 14, 2026

Wisconsin forward Nolan Winter has previously played with two exceptional point guards during his tenure (Chucky Hepburn in 2024 and John Blackwell last season), but Boyd's ability to create something out of nothing is a standout.

"His speed, his ability to push the ball, he may be one-on-four or one-on-five, and he goes and somehow finds a lane and throws it up and it goes in," said Winter, as Boyd assisted on four of Winter's baskets, including three in the paint. "You just kind of stand on the three-point line (and say) I don't know how he just did that. He's just a magician with the ball.

"He'll hit you on rolls when you don't think you're open. He hit me a couple of times today where I thought there was no way, and the ball found its way to me."

Averaging 20.6 points per game, Boyd is on pace to become the first Wisconsin player since Michael Finley in 1994-95 to average 20 in a season. He's surpassed 20 points 17 times this season, six coming against those top 30 KenPom opponents.

The other three players have a combined six 20-point games against the same competition.

"I love our energy (Sunday), and we just got to keep that up moving forward," Boyd said. "We've got four more games left in the regular season, three on the road, and we've got a chance to put ourselves in a really good position."