Despite upping its record to 5-1 and seeing all five starters score in double figures in its 91-74 victory over UNLV Saturday, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team saw a disturbing trend continue: lack of production from the bench.

In the three games leading up to Saturday’s game, the Badgers got 9, 12 and 15 points off the bench against UW-Milwaukee, UW-Green Bay and Wake Forest, respectively. But in those three games, freshman guard Alando Tucker accounted for 75 percent of those bench points.

Against UNLV Saturday, head coach Bo Ryan decided to award Tucker the start at forward, sitting junior center Dave Mader and going with a three-forward lineup.

While the move did result in a superb 24-point, 18-rebound game for Tucker, it also eliminated virtually all of UW’s bench production. This forced three starters — Kirk Penney, Mike Wilkinson and Tucker — to play for more than 30 minutes.

Ryan did send four players into the game from the bench, but only one, freshman guard Boo Wade, saw significant playing time. Mader saw only seven minutes, while freshman forward Ray Nixon saw just four. Sophomore guard Clayton Hanson only came in for the final possession of the first half in hopes of getting off a last-second three-pointer. The end result was a paltry zero points, two rebounds and three assists from the bench brigade.

Nonetheless, Ryan felt that the lack of production from the bench was offset by the performance of the starters.

“Sometimes you get it from the bench, and it’s nice to have it, but when you get five guys in double [figures] and you take care of the ball against pressure, that’s okay (to not get points off the bench),” he said. “There’s 10 timeouts in the second half, at minimum, so [with] depth and foul trouble, we were okay. Fatigue was never a factor for us.”

Despite Ryan’s comments, it’s clear that the Badgers have looked a little tired down the stretch in their last several games. They allowed Milwaukee, Green Bay and UNLV to cut into large leads in the second half before hanging on for the win, and their inability to chase down rebounds late in the game perhaps cost them a win against Wake Forest.

On the other hand, their ability to get to the line to close out games, which they did effectively against Milwaukee and UNLV, shows that the starters have been able to stay focused and energized during the most crucial minutes of a game.

“Even when [UNLV] brought the lead down, it was kind of like the situation against UWM,” said Ryan. “Here’s a run, here’s some momentum. They’re going. We have to answer it, we have to stay lively enough to play through it.”

During early practices, it appeared that the Badgers would get more contributions off the bench. The addition of five true freshmen and the return of freshman forward Andreas Helmigk who was red-shirted last season due to injury, figured to make UW a much deeper team than last year.

Other than Tucker, however, none of the freshmen have shown a scoring touch, something that will certainly take time to develop. In the frontcourt, Helmigk, who has more experience than the other young players, has seen his minutes drop since the preseason and early season games.

With Tucker starting against UNLV, Mader seemed ready to make significant contributions off the bench, but when he entered the game he showed a lack of confidence on both sides of the ball and was relegated to little play. Whether his minutes will continue to drop remains to be seen.

On the bright side, despite offering little scoring, Wade has provided valuable ball handling and a keen sense of how to play the game. With starting point guard Devin Harris in foul trouble, Wade played 29 minutes against UNLV.

While the starters are certainly capable of scoring enough points to win a game, the larger question remains whether they can continue to do so if they’re forced to play 30-35 minutes every single game. This is an especially large concern during rugged Big Ten play, when foul trouble becomes a larger factor. But for now, they seem more than ready to tackle the additional minutes of playing time.

“I’m just ready to play the next game,” said Wilkinson. “Who cares [about] later down the road — you just have to look at next week.”

Certainly, if the starters can continue to post the same kind of production they did against UNLV, the lack of bench scoring won’t make a difference.

“It doesn’t matter to me where the points come from,” said Ryan.