Freshman Send Badgers Into Finals With a Win

After a poor effort Saturday against Marquette, Wisconsin was looking for a bounce-back performance in their final game before finals Wednesday against Green Bay. Though the Badgers once again struggled at the starting gates, they were able to erase a 7-point first half deficit and cruise to a 65-54 win over the Phoenix.

Perhaps the most important contribution for UW was the six points from freshman guard George Marshall. After the Badgers started 1-for-10 from the field, Marshall replaced fellow guard Traevon Jackson and provided a much-needed spark with back-to-back three-point buckets to trim the Green Bay (3-6) lead to just three.

While Marshall’s spark wasn’t enough to immediately give UW the lead, the run that began with senior forward Ryan Evans’ first two made free throws was ultimately enough to put Wisconsin (7-4) ahead for good. Having watched Evans miss 8-of-9 free throws Saturday, it looked as if the early success at the line was enough to give the Badgers a confidence boost as they finished the half on an 18-2 run.

Making his second consecutive start, freshman Sam Dekker had another solid effort, finishing with 10 points and 6 rebounds on 3-of-7 shooting. But the surprise of the night had to be the performance of freshman guard Zak Showalter. The former walk-on had his most extended opportunity on the floor and made the most of it, finishing with a career-high 8 points to go along with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

All told, the three freshman were responsible for 24 of Wisconsin’s 65 points, especially important with junior guard Ben Brust only able to muster 6 points on 2-of-7 shooting. The 22 points Wisconsin got from its bench was another reason it was able to overcome an inconsistent effort to get the comfortable win.

Even with the quick start, Wisconsin managed to keep Green Bay in check most of the night. The UW front line held Green Bay junior forward Alec Brown, a 7-footer with NBA potential, to just 8 points on 3-of-11 shooting before he fouled out in the final minute.

One area the Badgers are still struggling to take care of is rebounding. Wisconsin was outrebounded 35-32 Wednesday night as the Phoenix were able to grab 11 offensive rebounds and convert them into 11 second-chance points. The Badgers have now been out-rebounded 5 times this season and are now 1-4 when that occurs.

Wisconsin now has 10 days before its next game as the Badgers break for finals starting this weekend. Milwaukee will visit the Kohl Center on December 22 in UW’s penultimate non-conference matchup. The Big Ten season lies just 22 days away and with just two more games to prepare, UW looks far from ready to compete. Though Wednesday’s win certainly rights the ship, the Badgers are still squarely on the proverbial bubble as they wrap up non-conference play. 

Badgers Begin To Begin New Streak Against In-State Rival

After seeing their 23-game home win streak brought to an end Saturday with a 61-54 defeat at the hands of #11 Marquette, #14 Wisconsin (6-2, 0-0) will quickly have the opportunity to begin a new streak as Green Bay visits the Kohl Center Wednesday night. The Phoenix (4-4, 2-0) have never won in 14 games played against the Badgers in Madison and are 0-4 on the road thus far this season. However, head coach Brian Wardle’s team is riding high after winning back-to-back games this past weekend to start Horizon League play. With many of the Phoenix players having grown up in the shadow of Wisconsin basketball, the annual matchup with the Badgers is something that Green Bay always has circled on the calendar. “Having been on both ends of it, its pretty exciting…” UW head coach Bo Ryan said of the intra-state rivalry. “Having coached at UW-Milwaukee, I knew what it was like getting ready for this. You know what the players are thinking. Its just natural.” While this is certainly one of the bigger games of the year for Green Bay, it remains an important test for Wisconsin as well. UW heads into Wednesday night having lost its past two games and clearly in need of a quick turnaround. With another ranked opponent in UNLV scheduled to come to Madison this weekend, the Badgers must shake off the cobwebs and do more than just squeak away with a victory. “Obviously first of all we want to get the win anyway possible,” sophomore guard Josh Gasser said Monday. “But at the same time we just want to get into the flow of our offense together. I guess we need to get our mojo, our swagger back that we had at the beginning of the year when we were just so confident and in a flow.” At least on paper, it seems that goal number one for the Badgers has to be to shoot at a higher percentage. After shooting nearly 50% from the field in the first six games, Wisconsin has struggled mightily in two losses over the past week, shooting just 36% from the field against North Carolina and just 32% in the loss to Marquette. But for UW to really turn the offense around, there is plenty they can do in order to get the shots falling once again. “We just need to do a better job of moving the ball as a team…” senior guard Jordan Taylor said. “We’ve gotten stagnant at times, a lot of the time. So its just a matter of getting back to our stuff and keeping the ball moving.” One thing that Wisconsin must improve upon is the scoring spread. After having six different players post games with double-digit scoring over the six-game winning streak at the start of the year, only three players have hit the mark since. Against Marquette, only Taylor managed to cross the ten-point threshold, finishing with 13 points on 4 of 10 shooting. But first and foremost, the Badgers have to take care of the ball. During their three-point loss in Chapel Hill, Wisconsin only turned the ball over four times, the lowest any team has been forced into against North Carolina since Duke only had three in a neutral site game back in 2002. But while that performance left many people impressed with the Badgers even in defeat, a 12-turnover game at home against the Golden Eagles gave plenty of cause for concern. “On Saturday we kind of laid an egg,” junior forward Jared Berggren said. “I felt like we didn’t put our best foot forward and for whatever reason Marquette just got the best of us.” Just five games remain before Wisconsin opens up Big Ten play at Nebraska on December 27th and having suffering tough losses in their two toughest non-conference matchups, the Badgers know that they need to right the ship and head into conference play on a good note. “Anytime you lose its critical to come back and win the next time…” Taylor said. “Its just a matter of getting back on track. Making shots, playing basketball.”