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Wisconsin hits road for Milwaukee

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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

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The UW men's basketball team will hit the road Wednesday for the second time this season when the team travels to Milwaukee to play in-state rival UW-Milwaukee at the U.S. Cellular Arena.

Though the Badgers (6-2) have played eight games so far this season, the matchup with the Panthers (3-6) is only their second away from the Kohl Center and will have a very different feel to it than Wisconsin's previous one, an 82-58 loss against Duke at famed Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"It should be a little different than our first, hopefully," freshman Jon Leuer said of playing in Milwaukee. "It's just another test for us on the road. Road wins are tough to come by, so we have to prepare."

Making this trip a little easier than the first one, though, is the Badgers' proximity to Milwaukee, as well as the quality of the opponent the team will face.

"That helps us as far as getting into a hostile environment," senior Brian Butch said of the trip being a short one, "but we get to do the things we normally do as well."

Junior Marcus Landry, a Brew City native, is one of several Badgers to have played against current Panthers in high school or AAU play.

"Playing my hometown is always great, and it's something to look forward to," Landry said. "I know a lot of the players, grew up with some of them, hung around them. I've played a lot of basketball with those guys."

Milwaukee also isn't expected to provide the same challenge No. 6 Duke did, as UWM has lost five games in a row and six of its last seven. Still, Wisconsin knows not to look over any road game, especially one of the local variety.

"They're an athletic team," Brian Butch said. "Anytime you get to play an in-state school they bring their best, and we bring our best."

Though the Panthers have struggled of late, UWM still expects the U.S. Cellular Arena to see a record crowd for a regular season game in attendance Tuesday. The rowdy atmosphere should also provide the Badgers with some additional experience playing in front of hostile crowds before Big Ten play begins.

"You look forward to a road game because you know you have to be that much more sound in what you do," Butch said. "You can't get away with some of the things because it's louder and the crowd's against you. You've got to do everything a little more fundamentally."

In addition to playing down the road in Milwaukee, UWM shares another similarity with UW — head coach Rob Jeter played for Badger coach Bo Ryan for four seasons and worked under Ryan as an assistant for another 10.

"He runs similar things to Coach Ryan," Landry said of the Badgers’ former lead recruiter.

Milwaukee is led by senior forwards Torre Johnson and Paige Paulsen, who average 18.7 points and 8.7 rebounds, and 14 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, respectively on the season.

The Panthers will be without last season's leading scorer, point guard Avery Johnson. Johnson was kicked off the team right before the season-opener after violating an unspecified team rule. The senior averaged 15.5 points per game last year and was named to the preseason All-Horizon League team.

Tuesday night's game will also give Wisconsin a chance to correct mistakes made in Saturday night's 81-76 loss against No. 10 Marquette, especially in the rebounding and turnover departments.

"We looked at the film. … We let one slip by, and you learn from it and move on," Butch said of Saturday's loss.

Wisconsin was out-rebounded for the first time all season against a smaller Marquette lineup, and the team has worked on getting back to fundamentals in practice this week.

"We got to get better at boxing out," Leuer said. "Trying to out-jump teams, sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't.

"Boxing out is just a lot more consistent. We just have to get low and get into people's legs so they can't out-jump us."

Neither of the Panthers top two rebounders, Johnson and Paulsen stand no taller than 6 feet 7 inches, so the Badgers will once again have a size advantage over their opponent.

Additionally, the Badgers turned it over a season-high 18 times against the Eagles and will hope to control the ball better against the Panthers.

"The 18 turnovers really hurt us as a team," Landry said. "It's definitely not good."

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