Ted Porath- Badgers Down In-State Rival

After two straight losses, the No. 16 Wisconsin men’s basketball team got back on track against in-state foe UW-Green Bay. The Badgers (7-2 overall) looked like a team on a mission and soundly defeated the Phoenix (4-5 overall, 2-0 Horizon), 70-42. “We felt we wanted to come in here and definitely get a win. I think we were a little bit more focused,” junior forward Ryan Evans said. After a rough afternoon against Marquette on Saturday, in which he had an uncharacteristic five turnovers, senior point guard Jordan Taylor returned to his preseason All-American form against the Phoenix, scoring a game-high fifteen points while dropping in ten assists for his first double-double of the year. In classic Taylor fashion, this was all accomplished without committing a single turnover. “Ten assists, zero turnovers, there’s not too many guys in the country that have that,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “He saw the floor well. He would get an angle and guys would help to him and he’d find the open guy, and that’s being a good point guard.” Also contributing to the Wisconsin victory were Evans and junior center Jared Berggren, who scored 14 and 13 points respectively, providing a much needed presence in the paint. The Badgers bench was also a big contributor, with a total of ten different players combining for 21 total points. “It’s always good to see when you have guys come off the bench. We know we have plenty of guys who can step in and give us some good minutes, and we were able to show it tonight,” Berggren said. After Green Bay cut the Badgers’ lead to one at 12-11, Wisconsin was able to distance themselves from the Phoenix, going on a 14-1 run to take a 26-12 lead despite rotating subs off the bench early and often. Wisconsin was able to keep the lead at double digits and went into halftime up 33-21. Wisconsin continued the shooting woes that plagued them in their first two losses, shooting only 36 percent from the field and making only two out of 11 from behind the arc in the first half. Fortunately for the Badgers, they continued to play great defense, forcing the Phoenix to shoot under 30 percent and causing nine turnovers in the first half. Wisconsin wasted no time taking control of the game in the second half, scoring eight straight points coming out of the break to boost their lead to 20 points. The Badgers continued to tack on from there and cruised to the victory. The biggest reason for the Badgers’ success in the second half was their ability to finally start making consistent shots; the Badgers shot 58 percent from the field in the second half. This was not the case for the Badgers’ three-point shooting, however, as they shot three out of 17 from behind the arc, continuing their recent long-distance shooting struggles. This lack of shooting could be seen as a silver lining, as the Badgers won a game while not shooting well from three. Wisconsin will now look forward to their final game of the three-game home stand against UNLV.

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.”