Badgers Look to Storm the Court in West Lafayette

Jeremy Wodajo-

Now ranked in the top 10 in the nation, Wisconsin will look to build off of this past weekend’s colossal victory over then-No.1 Ohio State as they visit No. 11 Purdue (20-5 overall, 9-3 Big Ten) Wednesday night.

“Its been a fun couple days but we know at the same time that we’ve got to go into one of the toughest places to play in the country, Purdue, and play a team that’s playing really well,” senior forward Jon Leuer said. “We have to harness the energy we had from that crowd {Saturday} and that atmosphere and try to take it to West Lafayette.”

With Selection Sunday less than a month away, the Badgers (19-5 overall, 9-3 Big Ten) are looking to solidify their spot as one of the top teams in the field of 68 and after Saturday’s victory, a win at Purdue would do wonders to solidify UW’s regular season resume.

Though Wisconsin has split their last 12 meetings with the Boilermakers, UW has not won a road game in West Lafayette since 2005.

“They play better at home, they kind of feed off the energy just like we do,” freshman guard Josh Gasser said. “Its just a tough place to play.”

On the Badgers’ end, Senior forward Keaton Nankivil has struggled from the field over the past two games, shooting just 3/14 from three-point range and 7/20 overall in the wins over Iowa and Ohio State.

However, while Nankivil has topped the 20-point mark twice in his career, both times have come against Purdue. The most recent of those came on a 25-point night in West Lafayette that included a UW record-7 three pointers.

“You can take those memories and say ‘okay maybe it will springboard into something else’,” Nankivil said. “But at the same time it’s still the same game that we play in any arena so we need to focus on being consistent.”

After his national coming out party on Saturday, junior guard Jordan Taylor won his first Big Ten Player of the Week award. Taylor’s 21 second-half points gave him 27 for the game and were accompanied by 7 assists and 4 rebounds. Now getting some much-deserved attention, Taylor is averaging 21.5 points and 7.5 assists per game while also still owning the nation’s best assist-to-TO ratio of 4.0.

UW’s first victory over a No.1-ranked team since 1962 was a complete team effort, something they will definitely look to continue to close out the season. For the sixth time this season, the Badgers had four players score in double figures and the contributions from Gasser and from sophomore forward Mike Bruesewitz were invaluable in getting Wisconsin over the top.

But in the last match-up with Purdue, it was sophomore forward Ryan Evans who stepped up as UW’s unlikely hero. The Arizona native gave Wisconsin a much-needed boost, scoring 10 points and hitting a crucial jump-shot in the final minute of the game to give the Badgers a big conference home win.

“We know what guys like Mike, Josh, Ryan, what they’re all capable of on any given night,” Taylor said. “When they start doing that, it opens up lanes for everyone else and when you have to honor everything everyone on the floor is doing, it spreads things out…It’s a huge boost.”

With Purdue coming off a big road win against Illinois, that boost will come in handy as the Badgers look to get past Purdue and attempt to chase down the Buckeyes at the top of the conference.