Where the Wisconsin men’s basketball team once peered up from near the bottom of the Big Ten standings, it now finds itself looking down on most of its peers after just three weeks’ time.
The Badgers (17-5 overall) went from 1-3 in conference play to a 6-3 mark that leaves them tied for third place with Michigan and just one game outside first-place Ohio State.
No. 20 Wisconsin has had the luxury of four full days of rest after pulling off a well-played 57-50 upset over then-No. 16 Indiana at the Kohl Center last Thursday.
Mix that with a 3-1 conference road record, and don’t be surprised if you find a little spring in the step of Badger players as they prepare to meet with Penn State (10-12, 2-7) Tuesday.
“We’re sitting pretty good,” guard Josh Gasser said. “We had a couple days off after the big win to kind of reenergize ourselves, rest our bodies a little bit.
“We got a lot of time to regroup and stuff, and we know we have a big stretch coming up with traveling to Penn State and Ohio State later in the week. We just like where we’re at right now.”
The Nittany Lions may find themselves at the very bottom of the Big Ten standings, but in what may be the nation’s deepest conference, a loss can emerge from anywhere. Both of Penn State’s two victories in the league came against teams with winning records, while one of them – Illinois – has consistently been ranked.
Fans of either team may cringe at the thought of UW and PSU matching up again after the last time they met – in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament last year, the two teams battled it out in a game where the final tally read more like a halftime score.
Penn State shot 33.3 percent from the field while Wisconsin managed 29.4 in a 36-34 decision.
But much has changed for PSU’s men’s basketball team since. The Nittany Lions introduced a new head coach, Patrick Chambers, in the offseason and waved goodbye to four senior starters.
The Badgers, meanwhile, also graduated three starters themselves.
“They have pretty much a completely different team; they had a lot of seniors last year so they have a lot new faces now. We have some new faces as well,” center Jared Berggren said.
But the lone PSU starting returnee just happens to be one of the Big Ten’s most impressive guards. Junior Tim Frazier – at 6-foot-1, 170 pounds – is second in the conference with 19 points per game in league play and first with 5.1 assists.
His numbers have made quite a leap from last year, when he started 33 games and averaged 6.3 points per game.
UW guard Jordan Taylor and associate head coach Greg Gard both said one reason for Frazier’s leap in production has to do with the fact that last year he was a sophomore starting along with four seniors, and the burden of scoring was placed more heavily on his teammates.
With so much experience leaving, Gard believes that, in a way, Frazier had no choice but to step in and take charge. Either way, Gard praised Frazier’s development and nearly called him the conference’s most improved player.
“They lost a lot, so [Frazier] had to take a jump or he has to stand out because he’s one of the few returning,” Gard said. “But … I don’t know if there’s anybody in the league that’s made the jump he has in what he’s added to his game.
“He’s made himself a better shooter. Very similar to Jordan, when he came in, his shooting was not – you know, you’d like to have him shoot it from out there – and he was just a driver, just a penetrator. Now he’s added [shooting] to his game.”
In all likelihood, it will be Gasser who will be assigned to defend Frazier Tuesday, as he did last season as well.
But Gasser has already had success against some of the Big Ten’s best. More recently, against Illinois Jan. 22, he was primarily responsible for Brandon Paul, now currently the only person averaging more points per game (20) in Big Ten games than Frazier.
Paul had a forgetful game, scoring 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting.
But even last year, as a sophomore that didn’t pose much of a scoring threat, Frazier made so much of an impression on Gasser that he now calls the PSU guard one of the three toughest foes he’s ever had to defend.
“He’s up there, top three for sure,” he said.
