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Wisconsin wins with ‘throwback’ style

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Also by Ben Voelkel:

Beckum shut down by Vols defense (January 21, 2008)
Football Report Card (January 21, 2008)
Wisconsin wins with 'throwback' style (January 21, 2008)
To fans, Badger season feels like roller coaster ride (January 21, 2008)
Ikegwuonu jumps to NFL; Chryst not leaving UW (January 21, 2008)

by Ben Voelkel

Monday, January 21, 2008

To honor their history, some teams don throwback uniforms or welcome back former players for an old timers’ game.

On Saturday night, the Wisconsin basketball team celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Kohl Center with a throwback game of sorts.

With former head coach Dick Bennett and building namesake and financier Herb Kohl in attendance, Wisconsin faced off against Big Ten foe Northwestern — the same team that helped open the building with a 56-33 loss to Bennett’s UW squad — and ground out a 62-50 victory in an ugly contest.

“They were resilient and stayed true to the task at hand,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “They didn’t get frazzled and pull apart. … You either have to be the dentist or be the patient. Either you’re pulling the teeth, or you’re the patient getting them yanked.”

A more fitting analogy might not have been possible, as it certainly seemed like pulling teeth for either team to score in the first half.

Northwestern mucked up the action for the Wisconsin offense in the first half with a 1-3-1 zone and patiently executed their Princeton back-cut offense to dictate a very Bennett-esque 22-20 halftime score.

“I thought our 1-3-1 zone was effective,” Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said. “I thought they took as much time (offensively) as we did. … I think the way they approached the zone shortened the game also.”

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but that’s the way Carmody wanted it.

“We’ve been trying to work on that, have teams play us a little longer, because I thought we’d been shooting the ball a little too quickly,” Carmody said. “I thought that here would be a good game to move the ball and cut and see if we could come up with some good looks.

“But I think that’s the way we play if we’re going to beat these guys.”

The zone seemed to frustrate the Badgers at times throughout the first half, as forced entry passes to the post sailed over the target and out of bounds or off the rim or backboard multiple times.

Showing some of the same dry wit as his coach, forward Joe Krabbenhoft tried to explain away some of the errant passes.

“Those were shots,” Krabbenhoft joked before leveling with reporters. “At times we were (frustrated), throwing the ball out of bounds, throwing it off the rim. You know that’s not good, but at least we were looking to be aggressive.”

Four days after pouring 80 points on a helpless Penn State team, Wisconsin further showcased its ability to score points and win games Saturday, an attribute that will serve the team well in postseason play.

Despite scoring only 62 points, the Badgers connected on 48.6 percent of their shots and averaged 1.03 points per possession (1.37 in the second half) — both very respectable figures.

“We did a good job,” Krabbenhoft said. “I don’t know the exact number, but (with) points per possession we were above 1. That’s something we always strive for, so I thought we did a decent job.”

Stiemsma sits

One game after connecting on all four of his shots from the field and registering 10 points in Wisconsin’s win at Penn State, senior center Greg Stiemsma didn’t play at all Saturday.

While part of the reason may have been based on the matchup, Ryan said Stiemsma got nicked up during practice. Ryan then feigned ignorance as to the actual injury.

“I never know, they don’t tell me,” Ryan said, later admitting it was “below the waist.”

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