SPORTS
No. 7 Blue Devils, ‘Crazies’ await Badgers
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Also by Ben Voelkel:
- Rocky trip Outback for UW (January 1, 2008)
Related Stories:
- Badgers learn from exposure to West Coast basketball (November 30, 2004)
- Wisconsin readies for in-state battle (December 14, 2004)
- Practice remains normal for men's basketball team (February 21, 2006)
- Fate of title entirely in Badgers' hands (February 25, 2003)
- Both sides benefit from new format (November 16, 2004)
by Ben Voelkel
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Through the first five games of the 2007 season, the
Wisconsin basketball team has been in somewhat of a comfort zone.
It's comforting that the team played all five games in the
friendly confines of the Kohl Center, where opposing teams rarely win. Since Bo
Ryan took over as head coach for the Badgers seven years ago, his teams have
won 96 of 101 home games.
But those first five wins came against competition that no
one would mistake for mid- to upper-echelon caliber. The most fight No. 20
Wisconsin has been given in a game this season was from Georgia, which was
missing three of its top returning offensive options.
But Tuesday, Wisconsin will step out of that comfort zone
when it travels to Durham, N.C. to face Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
"Playing on the road is tough, anywhere you go," junior Joe
Krabbenhoft said. "I'd probably rather play at the Kohl Center, but it is fun.
We take the challenge head on, and we try to go out there and do the same
things we do here."
Seventh-ranked Duke enters Tuesday's matchup on a roll,
having won its first six games of the season, including winning the Maui
Invitational with victories over Illinois and No. 13 Marquette.
Most recently, Duke beat Eastern Kentucky 78-43 and held the
Colonels to only 12 points in the first half.
The early season success is nothing new to the Blue Devils,
who emerged in the '90s as one of the nation's preeminent college basketball
powers thanks in large part to winning three national championships and making
the NCAA tournament 23 of the last 24 seasons.
"Everybody wants to knock off a team like Duke, and I'd be
lying if I didn't say I didn't want to knock them off a little bit more because
they're Duke," Krabbenhoft said. "But it really doesn't matter to us, and I
hope you guys put that in there because we just want to go out there and play
and get better as a team."
More than just playing a difficult opponent on the court,
playing a game at Cameron Indoor Stadium also means having to deal with Duke's
raucous student section — the Cameron Crazies.
"I don't know what it is about this team … we never really
talk about it," Krabbenhoft said of playing in hostile environments. "We talk
about how fun it is to just play there, but we never say anything back (at
fans) or make faces or anything like that.
"We just play, and I think it comes from our head coach."
UW head coach Bo Ryan first learned that stoic approach to
road games as a youngster playing quasi-road games at other playgrounds in
Philadelphia.
"We'd get all jacked up on the drive up there. Problem was,
I thought we were too jacked up at times," Ryan said.
One Badger who has previous experience at Duke's venue is
forward Jon Leuer.
While the freshman will be playing his first road game for
Wisconsin, he holds the advantage of having already been in the building,
seeing the championship banners and getting acquainted with the shooting
background.
"Any advantage you can get will be helpful," forward Jon
Leuer said. "Even if it might be a slight advantage, it might help."
While Wisconsin will have to do a better job taking care of
the ball against Duke's tenacious pressure defense — the Badgers turned the
ball over 13 times in Saturday's win over Georgia — UW will have a marked
advantage in height on the front line.
Duke has just three players as tall as 6 feet 8, only one of
whom — 7-foot-1 sophomore Brian Zoubek — exceeds that height.
"They're very athletic and very quick to the ball," Ryan
said. "And they have the other parts. They have good 3-point shooters, good
posts."
All told, fairly similar to the types of teams the Badgers
will be facing for most of the rest of the season.
"We realize it's a good team, a good opponent that's very
well-coached, that has great athletes, but for us, that's just like another Big
Ten school," senior Brian Butch said.
Anonymous (November 27, 2007 @ 7:09am):
They're not nearly as crazy since the whole lacrosse scandal. They're the Duke "PC Police" now. Go to heck Carolina, go to heck please.
Anonymous (November 27, 2007 @ 1:06pm):
Duke is bad and i hate them
Anonymous (November 27, 2007 @ 1:07pm):
The badgers are better than people think and they will give duke a run for their money.
Anonymous (November 28, 2007 @ 5:08am):
Good game Wisconsin, maybe better luck against a lower caliber team like unc..
Vote for your fave ACC team to win the 2008 ACC tourney at http://bradley2008.blogspot.com
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