After losing four straight games for the first time since 1998, the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team is looking to get back on the right foot against Purdue tonight at the Kohl Center.
The Boilermakers are 4-2 in the Big Ten (15-4 overall) and are coming off a big 70-62 win over the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis. Purdue is currently on a four-game winning streak with the last loss coming against Penn State in College Park Jan. 6.
“Obviously, right now, they are back healthy again. Hummel and Kramer are back and played very well,” Wisconsin assistant coach Greg Gard said. “They took it to Minnesota. I think they are starting to hit that groove that everyone expected them to hit earlier in the year. But, they are definitely improving at a rapid rate. ”
On the other hand, the Badgers began their current losing streak as the Boilermakers were beginning theirs. Since losing to Purdue on Jan.11, the Badgers have fallen into a funk and have dropped to eighth in the conference with a record of 12-7 overall and 3-4 in conference.
The Badgers have lost their last three to Purdue, which seemed to have UW’s number the last game, when Wisconsin gave up eight turnovers and was out-rebounded 65-52.
“People were saying the same thing about us and Illinois,” Wisconsin senior forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. “Supposedly we had their number, and supposedly Purdue has our number. So, maybe we can do what Illinois did to us.”
While the Badgers have lost four games in a row, there have been some bright spots. Freshman guard Jordan Taylor has become a key contributor, including three assists, a steal and no turnovers in 27 minutes against Illinois last weekend in Champaign. He also was part of a key streak in the second half, which brought the Badgers to within six points of the Illini late in the game.
“We have played good stretches in the last four games,” Wisconsin junior guard Jason Bohannon said. “We’ve had leads and we’ve let them get away from us, or we have come back from leads to make it a close game. This time we need to put a whole game together and be the aggressor for the entire 40 minutes.”
Against the Boilermakers, the Badgers will have to deal with a healthy Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer, who are averaging 13.2 points per game and 4.5 points per game, respectively. Also, JaJuan Johnson has come up big for the Boilermakers this season, averaging 12.8 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game.
“They put you in a lot of difficult situations, with how they spread the floor and how they run their motion [offense],” Gard said. “They have bigs that can step out and shoot it and spread the floor out.”
For the Badgers, the key is to get back into their normal game of keeping turnovers down and out-rebounding the opponent. Before the Illinois game, in which they only had seven turnovers, the Badgers had 10 against Iowa and 18 against Minnesota.?
“We need to get back to those pillars on which this program was built, with discipline, with taking care of the ball, with being physical and defensively having a mindset we aren’t going to give anybody anything,” Gard said.
Even with a 3-4 conference record, a win against the Boilermakers could make a difference for their standings in the Big Ten race. Wisconsin is just three games behind conference-leading Michigan State, who they visit on Feb. 21.
“We don’t have anything to lose right now,” Bohannon said. “We have to get back in, get back to how we were playing and get back to Wisconsin basketball. We have to get right back into that Big Ten race regardless of it. You know, every game is a must win in the Big Ten, and game in and game out, you have to be ready to play.”
Regardless of what both teams have been doing going into tonight’s match, both teams are taking it one game at a time in a competitive, hard-fighting Big Ten conference.
“We never look at streaks, whether they be winning streaks or losing streaks,” Gard said. “Whether they are ones that we have had or ones opponents have had. You just approach it one game at a time, and they are coming in here playing extremely well.”
