Two games into the 2011-12 season, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team has averaged a 40.5-point margin of victory and features a leading scorer who was essentially unknown last year. The former is likely to fade, but the latter seems intent on sticking.

Sophomore guard Ben Brust, after averaging 0.7 points per game in 45 minutes of playing time all of last season, leads the No. 13/14 Badgers (2-0) with 15.5 points per game in 51 minutes on the floor this season as the first player off the bench. With star senior point guard Jordan Taylor building on last year’s nation-high 3.83 assist-to-turnover ratio (he has 11 assists to one turnover so far) and taking a back seat as a scorer (10 points per game), Brust has taken advantage of numerous opportunities that have allowed him to exhibit his outside shooting prowess. Against the Wofford Terriers (1-1) Saturday night at the Kohl Center, the Hawthorn Woods, Ill., native figures to have ample chances to add to his 8-for-16 three-point shooting.

“It’s a pretty good start,” Brust said. “There’s still lots of room for improvement for sure, individually and as a team. We’re working on that right now and just looking forward to Wofford.”

While most onlookers likely had not heard his name before the Nov. 12 season-opener against Kennesaw State, Taylor and the rest of the Badgers were already seeing Brust emerge as he took to the court for the scout team every day in practice last season.

“It’s one of those things where if someone asks you, ‘Who do you got coming back this year?’ You mention a guy like Ben, and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, you’re just trying to support your teammates,'” Taylor said. “That’s how it is with a lot of guys; we know what a lot of different guys can do. It’s real, and it’s just a matter of time before we take advantage of the opportunity.”

The Terriers, after winning the Southern Conference and reaching the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year (a school record), are replacing four starters. This season, Wofford’s starting lineup consists of three seniors, with point guard Brad Loesing keying the attack. Through two games, Loesing is second on the team with 11 points per game and first with 6.5 assists per game. Freshman guard Karl Cochran leads the Terriers with 11.5 points per game.

Wisconsin won both of its two meetings with Wofford, with the last coming in a 53-49 win in the first round of the 2010 NCAA tournament. Three years earlier, the Badgers trounced the Terriers 70-43 at the Kohl Center.

So as the Badgers prep for a team that once again hails from a significantly smaller conference, improving from within becomes the main priority.

“Sometimes, these are the easiest games,” Taylor said. “You can find out a lot about guys in games like that, just seeing how guys respond to 30-point wins, if guys are still playing hard, if they’re still sticking to the things they do. That’s kind of where you gain discipline.”

Despite being tasked with replacing three senior starters in Jon Leuer, Keaton Nankivil and Tim Jarmusz, the Badgers have projected an air of confidence as the season unfolds. In place of that trio, junior forward Mike Bruesewitz, redshirt junior guard/forward Ryan Evans and redshirt junior forward/center Jared Berggren have slid into the starting lineup. Evans and Berggren are tied for second on the team with 10 points per game, while the former is tied with Bruesewitz for the team-lead with six rebounds per game.

While the losses of three four-year players – Leuer and Nankivil also finished first and third, respectively, for UW in scoring – are inherently daunting, the Badgers are leaning on the program’s proven consistency as a relatively young team continues to develop.

“This team has a lot of weapons, has a lot of potential in different areas,” associate head coach Greg Gard said. “We realize it – they’re probably not a proven or experienced group in terms of game experience. But these guys play with each other in pickup games almost 12 months a year. They’re around each other; they understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses and what they can do. They probably have as much confidence in each other as anybody, or as the coaches have.”