In its road loss to Illinois, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team again displayed anemic free-throw shooting against the nation’s top-ranked team. The Badgers shot a dismal 7-for-16 from the line against Illinois’ 18-of-19 shooting and that 11-point difference turned out to be the losing margin in the 70-59 Badger loss. But, UW head coach Bo Ryan maintains that his team has not had a problem with free throw shooting this season, and that they in fact have performed admirably, but inconsistently, from the charity stripe.
Another concerning statistic is the ratio of turnovers to assists for Wisconsin. In the last three games, the Badgers have had more turnovers than assists, with 39 of the former and only 25 of the latter. However, Ryan says that assist statistics are subjective, depending on the venue, and he is really only concerned with ball movement.
“First of all, an assist is tough to get in some places,” Ryan said. “There are universities that will give you an assist if the basket was made 15 seconds later after the individual made about five moves. So I gave up a long time ago even worrying about that if you’re being efficient — that one point per possession thing. The other thing is we’re getting some attacks to the basket where a guys blows by on the wing. Those are unassisted. Sometimes when a guy catches it in the post, makes a move, squares up, makes a counter move and scores, there’s not a guy getting an assist. So I’m not concerned.”
Butch getting rest: Center Brian Butch was diagnosed last Wednesday with infectious mononucleosis, “the kissing disease,” as it is sometimes so affectionately called, and will be out indefinitely. Butch has averaged 4.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game this season while coming off the bench, and UW will certainly miss the support from its big man while he is out. Mononucleosis is usually accompanied by a fever and a sore throat and can last two to four weeks. It is also characterized by severe energy loss, which makes the disease somewhat debilitating, especially for an athlete. Ryan does not yet know when Wisconsin will get Butch back, but he will be resting up while he is ill.
“We talked to him the other day on the road trip,” Ryan said. “What can you do? You need to rest. That’s the best thing, so we didn’t want to bother him too much … Today would be the first day [he went to class]. He went home last week. When the clear date would be, you’d have to wait until our SID releases his official notification … There’s been so few cases of mono lately, as far as my knowledge of players and stuff, I don’t know how long it takes. It used to be, I could remember decades ago, that if you had mono, it was a long period of time.”
Seniors rich with maturity: The Badgers have had no trouble getting production out of their senior class. Forward Mike Wilkinson is averaging 15.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game in Big Ten play. Clayton Hanson leads the Big Ten in 3-point percentage at .458 while shooting at a .519 clip from beyond the arc over the last eight games. Sharif Chambliss has posted double-figures in scoring 11 times this season and has a 2.10 assist-to-turnover ratio. Zach Morley has come through several times this season, whether knocking down six 3-pointers against Purdue or grabbing four rebounds in the last two minutes of play against Michigan State. But, Ryan thinks the area in which his seniors are most proficient is their level of maturity.
“Take a look at how everybody ended up where they are just on the senior class,” Ryan said. “You got a guy, Mike Wilkinson, who had parents that didn’t want to let him play for the AAU team I had mentioned before because they didn’t want him too far from the farm. Clayton Hanson, to see what he’s gone through just to be in the position he is now. Sharif Chambliss, what he sacrificed to be where he is right now, and what he’s coming off of, with the ACL surgery. Zach Morley, how he went the junior college rout because he felt he could end up at a bigger school and a bigger conference, or a place where he really wanted to be, and he ends up being here. So when you say maturity, I like the seniors we have. Andreas Helmigk — it’s not easy coming from another country. So when you talk about maturity, those guys have been through a heck of a lot more than most other people who are seniors at other universities, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.”
