[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]Wisconsin senior guard Michael Flowers is taking a temporary leave of absence from the basketball program for medical reasons, the UW Athletic Department announced late Thursday afternoon.

"The important thing is that Michael knows he has the support of his coaches and teammates," UW head coach Bo Ryan said in the release. "We hope that everyone will respect Michael’s privacy."

Contacted shortly after the statement was released, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications Brian Lucas declined further comment.

Flowers, one of three seniors on the 2007 roster, started all 36 games for the Badgers in the 2006-07 season.

With the team already needing to replace nearly 50 percent of its scoring from last season because of the graduation of Kammron Taylor and Alando Tucker, the Badgers will also now need to pick up Flowers’ 7.2 points per game average from last year while he is out. Flowers also led the team in assists with 105.

Coming into this season, Flowers was expected to be one of several players looked to for increased scoring and leadership.

"I think that there’s no question that Brian Butch, Michael Flowers, Marcus Landry, the experience they’ve been able to pick up will prove very, very valuable to us," Ryan said in an Oct. 10 interview with The Badger Herald.

A tenacious defender named to the Big Ten All-Defensive team last season, Flowers has routinely drawn the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top offensive weapon for most of the last two seasons.

At the outset of the season, Ryan was impressed by Flowers’ physical condition.

"Michael Flowers, he just killed the hill," Ryan said, referring to the team’s annual conditioning sprints up the Elver Park hill.

At the season-opening "Night of the Grateful Red" event last Friday, Flowers finished second to junior Marcus Landry in the slam dunk contest.

As long as Flowers is out, the backcourt will be in the hands of sophomores Jason Bohannon and Trevon Hughes.

"Trevon and Jason, as freshmen, to get into some of the tough games they did at times, gave us some good work and I think they can turn that into really pushing for a lot more minutes," Ryan said.

Flowers is the second Wisconsin basketball player to take a medical leave of absence in the last three years. In 2005, forward Greg Stiemsma took a leave of absence to deal with a case of depression. Stiemsma has since returned and averaged nearly 10 minutes and 2.2 points per game in 34 contests last season.

Neither Flowers nor his family wished to comment at the time of the release.

Wisconsin begins regular practice Saturday and opens its season Nov. 4 with a 7 p.m. exhibition game against Edgewood College at the Kohl Center.