Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Ryan expects team to maintain energy

In their first official road game of the season on Saturday, the Wisconsin men's basketball team downed their in-state rival Marquette for the second year in a row. This win played no small part in propelling the Badgers up to No. 7 in both major polls.

UW head coach Bo Ryan was asked Monday at a news conference whether or not he expected his team to be more energetic this week in practice in response to this weekend's results.

"I hope I'm coaching guys that every game, every practice, every time they come out, it isn't any different as far as their approach to what they've got to do," Ryan said. "I'm hoping they're ready to come to work today, because with me it won't be different. I've already forgotten about Saturday.

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"Monday's [game] is still a faint memory [only] because we get so many calls from the NBA people about the guard from Winthrop," Ryan continued, referring to scouts' inquiries about Torrell Martin's 31-point performance at the Kohl Center Dec. 4.

In the game at Marquette, freshman guard Trevon Hughes, who didn't play a single minute in the Badgers' win against Winthrop, logged a career-high 18 minutes. Conversely, freshman guard Jason Bohannon, who is averaging nearly 18 minutes per game, never took off his warm-ups against Marquette.

Ryan denies that this fluctuation in playing time is due to poor performances by either of these players, but rather it is a result of the circumstances surrounding each game.

"It wasn't a shock to any of the guys on our team if one guy gets a bunch of minutes in one game that maybe he didn't get in another. It's the environment, the elements, the type of game, the size, the speed, the 'this,' the 'that.' There are a lot of factors that go into who's on the floor and who isn't."

"Send it in, Jerome!"
One Badger who was on the floor for nearly the entire game was senior Alando Tucker. He scored a game-high 28 points, an effort that included three slam dunks.

Without question, Tucker has looked to finish with a crowd-pleasing dunk more this season than in years past, when he seemed content to lay the ball in.

"It depends on if there's a help player there, or on his take-off," Ryan said of Tucker's decisions near the rim. "He doesn't try to dunk every time. A lot of times, if you try to dunk, it takes a little longer to gather yourself and to get the ball in position, and the help defense can get over there and get a piece of it."

Unlike the NBA, dunks are not an official stat kept in college basketball. Nonetheless, Tucker was unofficially credited with only two dunks all of last season. Through 10 games so far this season, he has already slammed 12 times.

"Sometimes he'll dunk if he feels there's a reason, maybe some contact, or the position that he's in, or his take-off ability, how he was planted," Ryan said. "Other times, you just want to quickly get it to the backboard."

Division-I athletes are students, too
Wisconsin is in the middle of a stretch of five straight games against opponents that made last year's NCAA Tournament. This includes the wins against Winthrop and Marquette, as well as the upcoming match-ups with UW-Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Pacific at the Kohl Center.

To make this stretch even more difficult, finals begin for the players this weekend, as they do for all UW-Madison students. Ryan has made it clear that academics are of first priority, particularly following the ineligibilities of two players last year.

"If they have a tutorial session, if there's a study group, guys have left practice," said Ryan, who had to deal with the academic ineligibilities of Marcus Landry and Greg Stiemsma in the 2005-06 season. "We've been down to 12 guys at a couple of practices at the end because of what time study groups started."

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