In the world of Big Ten men’s basketball, where any given team has proven vulnerable to any of its peers, there’s no time to get caught up in the pursuit of revenge.
With the regular season nearing its end, the denizens of the crowded Big Ten only have a handful of games to better position themselves in the standings before the conference tournament tips off March 8 in Indianapolis.
And the Wisconsin men’s basketball team (20-7, 9-5) is certainly feeling protective of its current standing in the conference, currently resting in fourth place.
With four games left, the Badgers still have an outside chance of ascending to the top and taking the regular season conference title. But perhaps more importantly, Wisconsin will also want to focus on maintaining its top-four position or otherwise surrender a first-round bye in the tournament.
So don’t come to the Badgers talking about getting revenge on Iowa (14-13, 6-8) Thursday night since they fell to the Hawkeyes at home back in late December.
“I’ve been around too long; I know that [revenge] doesn’t make you play better,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “Because if you’re worrying about that part of it, you’re not worrying about what you need to take care of.
“You got 30-some games – could you imagine in the NBA if every time someone had beaten you, you talk about a revenge game? You’d go crazy. Revenge is a word that I’ve never used; it’s a negative word.”
Plenty went wrong for Wisconsin in its surprising 72-65 loss to Iowa, which was just the seventh time UW had lost at the Kohl Center in 11 years. The Hawkeyes outscored the Badgers 14-2 in transition and ran a much more efficient offense.
Iowa hit 49.2 percent of its field goals while Wisconsin went 34.8 and missed 13 of 14 attempts from the 3-point line.
“They exposed us a little bit,” guard Josh Gasser said, whose team was recently outscored 15-0 by Michigan State in transition. “Transitioning both ends, they transitioned really well on us, and we played really poorly that way.
“We obviously didn’t play our best game when they came down here. It kind of set the tone for the Big Ten that we didn’t want.”
The Hawkeyes’ depth further doomed the Badgers, whose limited options couldn’t cancel out the inefficiency of the starting lineup. Iowa was able to deploy the likes of forward Aaron White and guard Bryce Cartwright, who contributed 18 and 17 points, respectively.
Fortunately for the Badgers, though, Cartwright’s participation in Thursday’s game is still in question thanks to a sprained ankle he sustained in practice Feb. 11. He’s missed the last two games, totaling five on the year, and is listed as questionable for Wisconsin.
Cartwright hit seven of 12 field goals at the Kohl Center, grabbed two rebounds and dished out five more assists to top things off. He averages 6.4 points and 4.3 assists per game on the season.
Even with Cartwright idle, the Hawkeyes were still able to pull off a 78-66 home victory Feb. 19 against then-No. 20 Indiana. Guard Matt Gatens picked up whatever slack was left over from Cartwright’s absence by scoring 30 points and sinking four crucial 3-pointers in the second half against the Hoosiers.
Despite Cartwright’s clouded status, assistant coach Gary Close is expecting the senior reserve to make his way onto the court against the Badgers.
“My guess is Cartwright will play,” he said.
Wisconsin’s own sparkplug off the bench, guard Ben Brust, is a player of interest heading into Thursday night’s game as well. Brust initially committed to Iowa before retracting it and enrolling at Wisconsin.
Known as a good shot from behind the perimeter, Brust has struggled in that regard as of late, listing a 28.6 shooting percentage from downtown.
His marksman capabilities resurfaced in UW’s last game against Penn State, when the sophomore hit two of four 3-pointers, one of which came in a string of five-consecutive treys converted by Wisconsin in the first half.
Brust never left the bench last time Wisconsin made the trip down to Iowa City and thus didn’t experience any kind of hostility from Iowa fans. Once he enters the floor this time around, though, things could change.
“I’m excited,” he said. ” This year could be different. We’ll see.”
Wisconsin and Iowa tip off at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2 and live online at ESPN3.
