Coming off an emotionally exhausting win against Duke last Wednesday, the biggest obstacle the Wisconsin basketball team had to overcome was the chance of complacency in a Saturday afternoon contest with Grambling State.
Pouring in a quick 12 points in the crucial first five minutes, the Badgers alleviated any hangover concerns pretty quickly on their way to a dominating 79-46 victory.
Predictably, UW head coach Bo Ryan made sure Thursday morning the Duke game was far from everyone’s mind.
“I think it’s always hard to come back and practice the next day after a win like that,” UW sophomore guard Jordan Taylor said about the Duke game. “But we have a coach who puts a lot of emphasis on what’s next. So that is what we are used to doing at this point.”
Going up against a guard-heavy Tiger team, UW’s backcourt provided the majority of the scoring with Trevon Hughes tallying a game-high 20 points and Jason Bohannon and Jordan Taylor each finishing with 11 points.
Besides lighting up the scoreboard, Wisconsin’s guards took care of the ball and distributed well for the second straight game.
“We just have to make plays and get in the lane. Jordan (Taylor) did a good job again getting in the paint and making plays today. He finished well. He was 5-for-6 and his turnover ratio was great and so was Jason Bohannon.”
Getting the ball in the paint seemingly at will in the first half, Wisconsin finished the game shooting 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc — marking the third straight game the Badgers shot over 40 percent from 3-point land.
Bohannon in particular lit up the nets from the perimeter knocking down three of four 3-pointers including two in the first six minutes of the game. After struggling with his deep shot against the Blue Devils, the quick turnaround for Bohannon was a welcome sight for Badger fans.
“It feels good,” Bohannon said. “You just have to have confidence in your shot. The shots were there against Duke and the shots were there again today and the happened to fall today. If my shots aren’t falling, I’m trying to contribute in some other way and that’s how any other person on the team is.”
Entering the second half with a 14-point lead, UW quickly stretched the difference to 22 points in less than three minutes of play.
The barrage included two three pointers and a dunk to completely demoralize Grambling State.
“It was like the first three minutes, the first four minutes; we didn’t come out to compete,” Grambling State head coach Bobby Washington said. “We just didn’t hit shots and of course Wisconsin’s big bodies. After a while those big bodies lay on you and we have small bodies and it wears you down.”
And wear down they did.
For the game, Wisconsin scored 34 points in the paint and got to the free throw line 28 times, making 19.
The swing offense was in full effect with 10 different players putting up points for Wisconsin.
“Well, there will be teams that will be bigger, stronger. Everybody knows that,” Ryan said. “But again, we always coach the game of basketball, not the opposition. They key is that for us, we are respecting the game of basketball and playing it like it should be played. So, I would say 80 percent of the time we did that.”
After avoiding any emotional letdown, the Badgers will likely be ranked in the top 25 for the upcoming week.
Sticking to the company line, this of course matters little to any of the players.
“It really doesn’t mean a lot to us,” Bohannon said. “We like to stay focused on one game at a time. We have to get to where we want to be in March and get to where we want to be come the Big Ten season.”
