Predictably, Wednesday night’s exhibition game didn’t answer many of the questions the Wisconsin men’s basketball team will need to answer in the 2004-05 season. Anytime a team doesn’t put a single player on the court for more than 20 minutes, it’s going to be tough to take much away from the game in terms of malleable solutions.

But, while the answers may still be elusive, the questions that need to be asked became much clearer against the Rangers of Parkside. Three large issues loom over the Badgers heading into next Tuesday’s game against the UW-Platteville Pioneers.

Turtle or Hare?

With true freshman point guard Michael Flowers failing to score a point on three shots and looking tentative running the offense for most of the 14 minutes that he played Wednesday, a hypothetical three-way race to become the primary UW point guard appears to have been narrowed to two players: Shariff Chambliss or Kammron Taylor.

Both guards saw significant time against Parkside and both made cases for his respective side of the argument.

Taylor looked to be a clear choice in the early going. He ran the point for just more than three minutes, nailing two from downtown to lead the Badgers to a four-point lead. Taylor’s game lost steam from there, though, as he failed to match his three-minute point production throughout the final 38 minutes of the game.

“The fact that he hit two 3s — some people that are impatient type people, they get really excited and think, ‘Oh man, this is the greatest thing ever,'” head coach Bo Ryan said after the game. “[But] there were 39 minutes after that — 38 minutes. I’d rather have him be the turtle and make sure he gets it done than sometimes the hare, who gets off really fast and then you wonder where he got off to.”

Taylor finished with just one additional 3-point attempt (which he missed) on the game, scored 11 points, brought down one board and tallied one assist on the game (to match his one turnover).

With Taylor filling the role of the hare, Chambliss took up the role of the turtle for the Badgers. Though he scored a mere seven points and didn’t attempt a single field goal from inside the 3-point arc, Chambliss ran the Badger offense with a bit more ease than Taylor.

A testament to this fact can be seen in UW’s scoring differential between the two guards — though he played five fewer minutes, the Badgers out-scored the Rangers by more points (21, or 29 to 8) with Chambliss on the floor than they did with Taylor on the floor (14, or 36 to 22).

Chambliss certainly has room for improvement, though, moving to a new position. Ryan described Chambliss’ performance in the game as “average.”

“I’m not writing any postcards to anybody,” Ryan said. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Tall, taller or tallest?

The Badgers established Wednesday what most were already taking for granted: the frontcourt is going to be as deep as it is tall.

Assuming that Alando Tucker and Mike Wilkinson are going to be on the floor for the majority of the Badgers’ games, UW has six viable options to fill in minutes at forward and center.

In the 6-foot-8 height class, Ray Nixon (20 minutes, 3 boards, 4 points) and Zach Morley (15 minutes, 5 assists, 4 points) re-established themselves. In the 6-foot-9.5ish height class, Andreas Helmigk (14 minutes, 2 boards, 4 points) and Jason Chappell (11 minutes, 5 boards, 4 points) showed they can provide quality minutes. And, in the 6-foot-11 height class, Brian Butch (15 minutes, 4 boards, 13 points) and Greg Stiemsma (16 minutes, 7 boards, 4 points) showed they can dominate.

“[Ryan] has so many guys that can come in and give him quality minutes,” Parkside head coach Luke Reigel said. “With that size and that strength, he’s just going to rotate bodies in … their depth is going to be a big factor.”

Will DeAaron redshirt?

Before the game, it was unclear whether Williams, Stiemsma and/or Flowers would save a season of eligibility by taking a redshirt. With Flowers and Stiemsma both becoming ineligible (sans injury), that question now applies only to DeAaron Williams, who left the option open by not dressing for the game.

“[Williams] brings some tools there; it’s just the refining and — with five seniors — there are some things that always goes into [the decision],” Ryan said after the game. “We’re fighting for the legislation for a first-year player to be able to [play] in [exhibition games] without losing a year of eligibility.”