Immediately following Alando Tucker’s return to the court Saturday against Minnesota, Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan commented the sophomore needs to get back on track finishing around the basket. The explosive swingman worked on getting back the spark lost Monday after so many weeks of practice lost to caution.

“Today I was going a lot stronger and a lot more aggressive to the rim,” Tucker said after a team scrimmage. “It gets to that point, where you sit out and try to get out on the court; it’s just a lot of things go through your mind. You try to think instead of just reacting.”

Although Tucker started for the Badgers in Saturday’s 60-50 loss to the Gophers, his excursions into the paint proved sporadic and unproductive. According to Tucker, the conservative approach stemmed more from a sense of unfamiliarity than from the injury itself.

“You lose rhythm with the team — they’re so used to practicing without you and then, all of the sudden, you jump back in the day of a game,” Tucker said. “It’s harder for us to get on the same page. And that’s why I really wanted to get out on the practice court and be able to practice with the guys days before the game, so we can have that rhythm going in.”

Tucker — who said he hasn’t felt at full strength since Wisconsin faced Indiana Jan. 8 — finally disclosed the full nature of his injury. He explained that when coming down on a teammate’s foot in practice the week after Indiana, the pressure caused an internal bruise on one of his toes. Tucker played through the pain for several crucial conference games before taking a seat against less imposing opponents Penn State and Northwestern.

“I laugh [when] I hear people talking about it. ‘It’s only one toe,’ you know, ‘you have nine other toes,'” Tucker joked. “It does affect you a lot now that I’ve experienced it.”

After finally rejoining team scrimmages Monday, Tucker described the frustration of sitting through weeks of “modified” practices.

“I couldn’t really do anything in exercise to make it better,” Tucker said. “It’s not like an ankle injury where you can do some different things with an [elastic] band. This is just time, time, you have to give it time.”

Despite being hampered physically by the injury, Tucker registered a couple of productive periods. Against Illinois, the swingman briefly returned to form, rattling off 14 points in the first eight minutes coming out of the break. Tucker left the game later in the half visibly exhausted.

With the actual injury no longer an immediate concern for him, Tucker said he wants to focus on improving his conditioning to keep up with the tempo of the game.