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Badgers batter Blugolds

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Also by Mike Ackerstein:

Wisconsin hits road for Milwaukee (December 12, 2007)
Heisman pressures could tackle Tebow (December 10, 2007)
Wisconsin's home streak dead at 28 (December 10, 2007)
Poor ball control haunts Badgers (December 10, 2007)
Badgers put on show against Terriers (December 4, 2007)

by Mike Ackerstein

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Bo Ryan still may have lost to UW-Eau Claire more times than he's won, but Tuesday night the UW-Madison head coach had no difficulty guiding the Badgers to a 74-35 victory against the Blugolds to close out the exhibition season.

While previously coaching at UW-Platteville, Ryan had trouble with WIAC conference rival UW-Eau Claire, finishing his career with a mark of 14-19 against the Blugolds. As the head coach for the Badgers, though, Ryan now stands at 1-0 against the opponent he used to face, and the last to beat him while coaching in Division III.

"I didn't even know that," Ryan said upon hearing Eau-Claire was the last school to beat him in Division III play, before Ryan's Platteville team won the national championship in 1999. "I wasn't going to show [Eau Claire coach Terry Gibbons] the net that we cut down."

Old rivalries aside, it was Joe Krabbenhoft and Trevon Hughes leading the way for UW Tuesday, each scoring 13 points in a game that saw the Badgers trail only once briefly in the first half at 3-2.

"Overall, I thought everybody did a great job of playing Wisconsin basketball tonight," Krabbenhoft said.

Playing in their second and final exhibition game, Wisconsin's defense was too tough for the visitors to overcome. The Badgers allowed only one Blugold to score in double figures while holding their opponents to 26 percent shooting for the game and just 12 second half points.

After leading 38-23 at the half, Wisconsin took over the game in the second half, at one point going more than nine minutes without allowing an Eau Claire basket and extending its lead to 33 points by the end of the stretch.

"Sometimes the other team will press a little bit if they aren't scoring," Ryan said of what keyed the defensive effort. "It isn't anything we did differently defensively. We just used all our roles."

Size also may have been a factor as Eau Claire's roster was significantly smaller than Wisconsin's. UW was able to out rebound UW-Eau Claire 47-21 for the game and brought down eight offensive rebounds, which helped the Badgers dominate the paint on both ends of the floor for the second consecutive game.

"You could definitely tell that they were a bigger team, more physical," Eau Claire forward Dan Beyer said. "They were more used to that style of Big Ten basketball."

UW-Eau Claire's tallest player stands 6-foot-9, a height shared or eclipsed by five UW players. Bluegold coach Terry Gibbons also cited size as a deciding factor for the contest.

"A rebound is a rebound," Gibbons said. "But when you are 6-11 or 7-foot, that ball comes to you a little faster."

Playing a smaller and weaker opponent didn't stop the Badgers from giving the majority of playing time to those expected to see more action over the course of the regular season, though. After distributing playing time fairly evenly across the board against Edgewood, Wisconsin went with a more traditional rotation in their final tune-up before the season opener, waiting until the second half before emptying the bench and limiting the minutes of players deeper on the depth chart.

"I feel confident in all these guys," Ryan said of his roster. "It's just that some are further ahead than others right now."

Freshmen Jon Leuer, Keaton Nankivil and Tim Jarmusz all had playing time against the Blugolds and showed potential. Leuer, however, was unable to reproduce his performance on Sunday when the forward scored 15 points in his Kohl Center debut.

"Some nights one might look better than the other," Ryan said of the freshmen. "The three have done a great job.

"Some things were taken away from [Leuer], that doesn't mean Jon isn't going to come out the next time and do some good things."

Leuer and the rest of the Badgers should feel confident about that next time, the regular season opener, after winning with 29 and 39 point margins in their two exhibition wins.

"At the end of the game as the clock was winding, we all looked at each other and said, 'Now we're ready to go,'" Krabbenhoft said. "We're ready to go out there."

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