Elsewhere in the B1G: No. 21 Wisconsin 86, St. John's 75

As the Wolverines took on UMass-Lowell in what was destined to be a blowout from the moment it was scheduled, the Wisconsin Badgers took the floor against St. John's at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls for what would be, on paper, the first interesting matchup for a Big Ten squad.

The Badgers jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, which included Ben Brust's first trey of the year. Shortly thereafter, Josh Gasser hit his first trey in two years, boding well for the Badgers' perimeter shooting for the night. The Badgers started 4-for-8 from beyond the arc; when UW shoots it like that, they can be very difficult to beat.

The biggest development for Bo Ryan's squad has been its ability to push the pace more frequently than has usually been the case. UW found some success early on tonight, grabbing St. John's long rebounds and pushing it for a high-percentage shot of some sort, whether around the rim or a three after an extra pass or two.

Wisconsin raced to a 24-10 lead 10 minutes in, paced by six points apiece from Sam Dekker and Ben Brust and seven from Traevon Jackson.

Frustration began to set in for the Red Storm when Orlando Sanchez got called for an offensive foul 15 feet away from the basket, his third foul of the game. On the other end, Gasser buried his second three to give the Badgers a 31-13 lead that seemed insurmountable given the lack of pep in the Red Storm's step.

In the first half, the Badgers managed a mark of 1.13 points per possession, with the Red Storm going for 0.77 PPP. The Red Storm turned it over 10 times in the first half--paired with a 39.1% from the field, that is not exactly a recipe for success against the Badgers, let alone any team.

As it to say "I'm back," Gasser hit another three early in the second half to put the Badgers up 40-25. Despite the loss in frontcourt production, Gasser's return from injury is a key addition for this swifter version of Badgers basketball.

However, the Red Storm began to show life. A putback slam from Chris Obekpa put the Red Storm down 10 3:30 into the second half.

The Red Storm dunkfest continued, with Sanchez hitting JaKarr Sampson in transition for an authoritative slam. On the ensuing offensive possession, a Sampson putback cut the Wisconsin lead to 49-42.

After a sloppy first half for the Red Storm, they battled back admirably, cutting the deficit to five with nine minutes to go. It will be interesting to see how this St. John's team performs the rest of the way; Steve Lavin's squad definitely has talent, particularly Sanchez and Sampson.

Foul trouble became an issue for the Badgers, with freshman forward Nigel Hayes and Traevon Jackson both carrying four with over nine minutes to play.

Luckily for Wisconsin, following another thunderous Red Storm dunk, Sam Dekker and Ben Brust buried triples on consecutive possessions, completely taking the wind out of the Red Storm's sails.

Shortly thereafter, Duje Dukan, a 6'9'' RS junior from Deerfield, Ill., nailed two straight threes to increase the the UW lead even further. On that note, Dukan is an intriguing option for the Badgers and perhaps the heir apparent to UW's long line of three-point shooting forward types.

From there, the Badgers cruised to a 86-75 victory, an impressive start to the season for a UW squad that will present Big Ten foes with a much different look than it has in recent years. Despite the Red Storm's dazzling play above the rim, they weren't able to get a whole lot in half court situations.

Perhaps the most notable takeaway from this one is Wisconsin's scoring output; in 2012-13, the Badgers scored 80+ just four times.

On the other hand, the Badgers bombared St. John's with three after three, finishing 11-for-23 (47.5%) from beyond the arc tonight. Half court defense plus the three-point shot will continue to be the UW formula for victory.

Wisconsin returns to the Kohl Center on Tuesday, where they will look to avenge last year's loss against Florida (9:00 ET, ESPN2).

Elsewhere in the B1G: No. 21 Wisconsin 80, UW-Platteville 51

File photo (Fouad Egbaria)

The Wolverines opened up their season against a vastly overmatched Concordia squad last night, eventually leaving the floor with a 117-44 victory. Although much of the preseason focus has been on the Wolverines and Spartans this season, this is the Big Ten; several other teams will be in the mix for title contention this season.

As usual, one of those teams will be the Badgers, who began their season tonight against UW-Platteville in the Kohl Center for an exhibition tune-up before taking on St. John's next Friday in Sioux Falls.

Bo Ryan is faced with the task of replacing multiple key pieces seemingly every year, and yet the Badgers always seem to turn out all right. The 2012-13 UW squad went from a mediocre 6-4 start to a 4-seed (and a first round bye). This season, the Badgers have to replace Jared Berggren, Mike Brusewitz and Ryan Evans in the frontcourt.

However, UW returns rising star Sam Dekker, Ben Brust and Traevon Jackson at the point, not to mention Josh Gasser from injury.

Dekker, Gasser, Jackson, Brust and Frank Kaminsky got the start for the Badgers tonight; given the aforementioned departures, the Badgers will need big minutes from Kaminsky this season. In any case, this will certainly be a backcourt-oriented squad this season.

Due to technical difficulties, I missed the first 4:30 or so. Platteville gained a 12-11 lead early.

RS Jr. Duje Dukan came in for Dekker at the first break. Naturally, Jackson pushed it in transition and hit Dukan in the corner, who nailed the open trey. I say "naturally" because Dukan is, of course, 6'9'', continuing the UW tradition of big guy three-point shooters.

The 6'7'' freshman forward Nigel Hayes also entered the game early; he took a bad jumper from the left side and then failed to convert on a second chance opportunity around the rim. The same competition caveats brought up re: Michigan's exhibition yesterday apply here; it's difficult to tell what to expect from certain guys after a game like this. With that said, given the lack of much proven frontcourt production, the Badgers will have to rely on the freshman Hayes and fellow freshman (and fellow Ohioan) Vitto Brown.

As far as backcourt reserves go, freshman Bronson Koenig is an interesting prospect. At 6'3'' 190 pounds, the freshman offers up some solid size at the guard spot. Also at the guard spot, 6'3'' freshman Jordan Hill joins the fray.

Platteville hung tough for about the first 10 minutes, but after Hayes reeled in a rebound off a missed Kaminsky three and put it in, the Badgers boasted a 29-18 lead.

Given the guard-heavy nature of this squad, some wondered if this iteration of UW basketball would like to push the pace more than it has in the past. The commentators mentioned this, but even though this was just an exhibition, the Badgers found quite a bit of success in transition, running the floor with nice spacing and hitting the open man at the right time.

Now, I don't expect the Badgers to play like Louisville or anything this Big Ten season, but don't be surprised if they do attempt to get some mine some easy buckets in transition.

Dukan had a bit of a rough sequence in which he was slow to help after Platteville executed a nice backdoor pass; on the ensuing offensive possession, Dukan threw up a rough shot on the block. It seemed like he expected a foul, but there didn't seem to be much contact.

The Badgers went into the half up just 37-30. UW's three-point shot would not fall in the first 20 minutes, as the Badgers shot just 1-for-11 from beyond the arc, including a pair of misses at the end of the half when Platteville switched to a zone.

Wisconsin shot just 33% as a team last season, good for 7th in the Big Ten and 225th nationally, so it's not as if they shot the three well last season either. Gasser shot a tremendous 45% from three back in 2011-12, and Brust has shot exactly 38.9% each of the last two seasons. If those two can fill it up from downtown, whatever contributions the Badgers can get from bigs like Kaminsky and Dukan will be gravy.

As with yesterday's post, I'll skip the second half narrative and jump to miscellaneous observations via bullet.

One Vote For Wisconsin Basketball Not Being "Boring"

Kohl Center--Feb. 9, 2013 (Fouad Egbaria)

Continuing with this year's theme of "just posting whatever, whenever I want" rather than doing things like building a coherent BRAND, I wanted to drop this Andy Glockner article here before we get to t-minus one week to Michigan football.

As excited as I was for the 2012-13 basketball season--an excitement that rivaled its football counterpart for the first time ever--it's hard not to get excited about this season, too. Yes, Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. are gone, and I won't get to use the "Trey Burke is not human" and "adventures in THJ's shooting" tags here anymore. Nonetheless, the Wolverines will once again be in the thick of things in the Big Ten; and, as we saw in March, anything can happen in the Big Dance.

I'm also excited for Big Ten basketball in general, in a way that's somewhat more difficult to feel about Big Ten football because of the respective quality of the two leagues. Big Ten football has seen better days, but the basketball league is perhaps as strong as ever.

Anyway, after visiting Madison a couple of times this year (one time for, yes, that game in February) and another just to see the town, I've developed a little thing for that Ann Arbor-esque town situated between two lakes in southern Wisconsin. With that thing has come an increased following of Badger sports. The Glockner article above is worth a read if you're looking for a basketball fix before we plunge into the black hole that is football season.

Glockner attempts to make a case for some vague sort of aesthetic value to be found in UW's Gradgrindian efficiency, which, like he says, is "very much in the eye of the beholder." Whether or not you agree with him is irrelevant (no, UW basketball is not as fun to watch as, say, Louisville, Kentucky, and yes, Michigan at the height of its powers), but there are some interesting bits in there, including this, regarding when UW takes its shots:

Wisconsin is well known for making defenses defend late into the shot clock, but even that reputation isn’t entirely accurate. Two coaches at league rivals said more or less the same thing: The Badgers are the most bimodal team they face, with the vast majority of shots coming either in the first seven seconds of the shot clock — yes, the first — or the last seven. 

Popular opinion of the Badger offense claims that they simply swing it for 30 seconds before Jordan Taylor/some 6'8'' lumberjack/whoever throws up a trey, but that doesn't always seem to be the case. That will definitely be something to keep an eye on this season, as I've generally been of the aforementioned popular opinion.

Also, there's this:

Last season the Badgers struggled with very poor outside shooting from the frontcourt but still won 23 games and earned a 5-seed in the NCAAs (where they lost to Ole Miss in the Round of 64). Ryan believes last year was a bit of a fluke in terms of the shooting, with point guard Josh Gasser missing the season due to injury and forward Jared Berggren, who made over 37 percent of his threes in 2012, connecting on just 25 percent last season.

Remember when UW got thumped at Florida, 74-56, early in the season? And how the Badgers finished 13th in the nation in three-point attempts but 225th in three-point percentage? Not that you didn't know this already, but, like him or not (and for everyone not wearing Badger red, that would probably be "not"), Bo Ryan is a sorcerer. After that Florida game, I figured there was no way the Badgers would finish the way they did, with a first-round Big Ten Tournament bye and a 5-seed in the Big Dance. Of course, they did, and no one was all that surprised.

Ryan does get guard Josh Gasser back, Brust will likely continue to give fans of other Big Ten teams night terrors and Sam Dekker is a rising star. On the other hand, the Badgers have a lot of production to replace, this time in the frontcourt, with the graduation of Mike Brusewitz, Jared Berggren and Ryan Evans.

However, as 2012-13 showed once again, the Badgers are institutionally conditioned to weather these sorts of things, and I'd imagine they will be in or near the top third of the Big Ten standings this season.

Fortunately for Michigan, they will get a crack at the Badgers at home this season. That said, a trip to the Kohl Center is also on the docket, and the Wolverines will once again look to come away from that place with a win for the first time since 1999.