Before the two do battle on the hardwood, old friends will reunite and memories will rekindle when Virginia arrives at the Kohl Center Wednesday night.
Pacing the sidelines for the Cavaliers will be head coach Tony Bennett, a former assistant at Wisconsin under both his father Dick Bennett and current UW head coach Bo Ryan in his four years with the team. A graduate of Green Bay Preble High School, the retired point guard went on to become one of the best players in UW-Green Bay history under his father’s tutelage.
Bennett’s familiarity with Wisconsin basketball shows in Virginia’s methodical offensive approach and pack line defense. The Cavaliers currently average only 65.3 points per game this season on clock-eating possessions reminiscent of Ryan’s swing offense.
“Obviously Tony has taken some things that he’s learned form his dad; I think I see some things that we’ve done here from an offensive standpoint,” said associate head coach Greg Gard, who spent his first two years in Madison as an assistant alongside Bennett.
“You steal from everybody.” Garg said. “We’ve done it too; we’ve seen some things we like on tape from other teams on both ends of the floor and kind of implemented it into what we do if it fits the personnel.”
The Badgers enter their matchup of the 2012 ACC/Big Ten Challenge – a tournament the Big Ten has won for three consecutive years – coming off a comeback win over Arkansas Saturday in Las Vegas. After falling to No. 11 Creighton 84-74 Friday night, freshman point guard George Marshall said limiting defensive lapses allowed Wisconsin to overcome the 11-point lead Arkansas held at the half.
And the Badgers will need all the defensive integrity they can muster to slow down Joe Harris, the Cavaliers’ leading scorer. The junior guard posts 15 points per contest and has sunk better than 50 percent of his tries from beyond the three-point arc, but Gard said he can score from almost anywhere on the floor.
“They’ve had him with the ball in his hands, they’ve had him off the ball, so we’re going to have our work cut out for us,” Gard said. “… We definitely got to find him when he walks in the building because I don’t think there’s a limit on his range or the green light he has from Tony (Bennett).”
Gard went on to compare UVA’s dynamic guard to a notable Wisconsin alum – Kirk Penney, who suited up for the Badgers from 1999-2003. Much like UW did for Penney, Virginia runs specific plays designed to create shots – whether from long-range or driving through the paint – for Harris, according to Gard.
Helping out Harris in the post is 6-foot-8 forward Akil Mitchell, a junior who is inches away from averaging a double-double with 11.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per contest.
But the name that jumps off the roster for Wisconsin high school basketball fans is that of sophomore guard and Merrill native Paul Jesperson. Though Jesperson – who UW pursued but decided not to offer a scholarship – adds only 4.5 points per game, he averages more than 25 minutes on the floor and has shown he has no problems scoring in transition.
Riding a three-game winning streak, the rhythmic Virginia attack will test a Wisconsin defense that has been surprisingly inconsistent through the first six games of the season. And defense may be exactly what decides how Bennett’s homecoming ends.
“That’s what we pride our defense on: not allowing three-point shots and easy buckets at the basket,” Marshall said. “So if we just stick to our game plan, play hard and do what we do defensively, then it shouldn’t be a problem.”
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