[media-credit name=’Ben Smidt’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]After getting off to a slow start in his first collegiate game, freshman Michael Flowers showed in his second game against the Pioneers of UW-Platteville that he can get the job done at point guard when called upon.

With the point guard position still up in the air, three players (Kammron Taylor, Sharif Chambliss and Flowers) have been auditioning for minutes. Taylor and Chambliss shared the majority of the minutes in the first exhibition tilt against UW-Parkside, largely because Flowers was ineffectual when he got his court time. However, things changed in the second exhibition game of the season. Flowers was more comfortable when he was out on the court and played significantly better in helping Wisconsin knock off UW-Platteville.

“The first game I was just trying not to mess up too bad, so I got the first one out of the way and I’m comfortable out there now,” Flowers said after the game. “I stayed within myself and stayed within the team strategy and just helped the team out.”

While Flowers scored only five points and picked up just one assist, he took excellent care of the ball, not turning it over once. To go along with his solid, albeit unspectacular, play on the offensive end of the court, Flowers helped shut down Platteville’s All-American guard Brad Reitzner on the other end of the court. After the game, Reitzner had high praise for the job Flowers did defensively.

“He’s a great athlete,” Reitzner said. “Both physically and quickness-wise, he’s probably the best defender I’ll go against all year.”

Flowers made his case for increased minutes, but all three point guards did what head coach Bo Ryan expected of them — kept the ball safe and the offense moving.

“What they did was take pretty good care of the ball and got other guys good looks,” Ryan said. “They did a good job, other than a couple of decisions they’d like to have back. But it’s tough to play a perfect game.”

Taylor led the way for the point guards in terms of getting his teammates involved as he dished out a team-high five assists. None of his assists were prettier than the lob pass he threw to Tucker in the waning minutes of the first half for a dunk.

Chambliss, on the other hand, led the point guards in point production as he scored eight points on 3-7 shooting. Flowers led not only the guards, but the team with six rebounds and four steals.

The group stepped up its perimeter defense, cleaning up one of the biggest trouble areas from the first exhibition game.

“I was pleased with how they played defensively. They made it tough,” Ryan said of his guards. “I just thought [the] position was better — hedges [against picks] help. I thought that was better.”