The Badger men’s basketball team will be looking to rebound with a victory against the Ohio Bobcats Saturday afternoon in Ohio just five days after suffering a heartbreaking loss at the Kohl Center Monday night against the Temple Owls
Ohio, under the tutelage of first-year head coach Tim O’Shea, is off to a solid 3-0 start this season, including a 77-75 victory over DePaul on Wednesday night. Their top-returning scorer, junior forward Brandon Hunter, once again led the Bobcats in scoring Wednesday.
Hunter finished Wednesday’s contest with 25 points. However, Hunter will by no means be the one-man wrecking crew the Badgers saw Monday in Lynn Greer. Their attack is more balanced, as the Bobcats had five players in double figures against DePaul.
With tough games against Xavier and Marquette on the horizon, it might be easy for a casual observer to look past Ohio, but the Badgers know they are going to be facing a quality opponent Saturday.
“They’re very explosive; they are a very hyped-up team, and they just come out of a game. They will be very revved up,” Charlie Wills said. “We have to match that and go beyond it. Especially being on the road, we have to keep that intensity the full 40 minutes or longer. They have some good players, but we just have to play hard.”
After Monday’s loss the Badgers have to play hard in their next games in order to get their confidence back before heading into conference play.
“I think these games are big; if we can get these next three and turn everything back around, we would be ready for the Big Ten and be even going in,” Wills said. “I don’t think you can think anything else; you just have to go after it and get those wins.”
The Badgers have history on their side going into Ohio; they are 6-2 all time against Ohio. Their most recent game was a 65-46 win in Madison last year. The victory marked a renewal of a series that had not been played since 1974, and the Badges are 1-1 at Athens, Ohio.
Despite losing Monday’s game, the Badgers showed some good signs and will hope to continue the good play on Saturday. Key performers for the Badgers were Devin Harris and Freddie Owens, who scored 21 and 23 points, respectively, against Temple. This marked the first time two Badger players have scored more than 20 points in the same game since Darnell Hoskins and Sean Dougherty performed the feat on Dec. 5, 1995. Harris also secured his first career double-double on Monday and will be pivotal to the Badgers’ hopes Saturday.
The Badgers were pleased with their play Monday, but by no means were they satisfied with the result — they recognize that they need to finish the close games that eluded them all season. The Badgers’ average margin of loss is just 3.2 points.
“At first, a loss is a loss, and it’s in double overtime, and that is the hardest loss,” Wills said. “But there were a lot of good things we took away; we played good defense all game. I mean what do you do when Greer does those kind of things? We did good things on offense, we really spread the court and got good shots, and I think if we can do that down the stretch in every game, we’ll be all right.”
The Badgers have proven that they can play good offense and good defense in stretches, but they are hoping that they will be able to get more consistent and build from what they hope will be a road victory on Saturday.]
