En route to its first home victory of the season, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team overcame a strong Florida team down low to pull out a 59-53 victory.
Junior forward Frank Kaminsky saw considerable action Tuesday night at the electric Kohl Center that packed in 17, 249 fans to see the No. 20 Badgers (2-0) take on the No. 11 Gators (1-1). Kaminsky battled his way under the basket all night against a strong center in senior Patric Young and senior forward Casey Prather.
After opening the game with a crowd-pleasing dunk, a steal by Kaminsky opened sophomore forward Sam Dekker for his second-straight three-pointer thrusting the Badgers onto a 26-5 run to end the first half leading 29-26 over the Gators, a lead UW would keep until the final buzzer.
Kaminsky began the second half sinking a three-pointer and as Florida inched its way back into the game to bring the score within three, Kaminsky drained a critical shot from behind the arc to push Wisconsin up by six with 4:01 left on the clock.
“The very first play of the second half was a special that we ran and he was wide open … he had a couple of other good looks,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “But he is still working at getting to be a complete player.”
While making a splash offensively, finishing the game 3-8 on the floor and leading the team in offensive rebounds with two, Kaminski along with freshman forward Nigel Hayes worked to keep Young and Prather in check. Prather found his way to the bucket, going 5-11 on the night, but tallied a team-high five turnovers.
Young, a two-year starter for the Gators, left the court tied for most rebounds with six, but the center finished with just four points on the night.
“If your going up against a guy like Patric Young who is huge, it was good to see Frank battle him down low,” senior guard Ben Brust said. “Nigel who is a freshman coming in and stepping up and to give us big minutes is huge.”
In just his second game as a Badger, Hayes saw 18 minutes of action against, considerably more than the eight minutes he played against St. Johns to open the season. Hayes, a 6-foot-7, 250-pound freshman got going early Tuesday night, finding six of his eight points on the night coming in the first half, including back-to-back scores midway through the half to bring Wisconsin within four of the Gators.
The ability of Hayes to contribute early on in the season will be crucial to the UW post game moving forward against Big Ten opponents, and for his teammates, Hayes’ performance has earned him respect.
“I think it was a huge, huge game for Nigel especially. He is so talented and I was so encouraged by him. He came in attacking and that’s what we need for him,” sophomore guard Traevon Jackson said. “He’s got such a good skill set for his size and he uses it to our advantage and I was just proud of him tonight.”
Though aggressive, the young Badger is still adjusting to the college game. Hayes found himself in foul trouble early, accumulating two calls in the final minute and 10 seconds of the first half and with two more fouls in the second, Hayes saw just four minutes of action in the final half.
A similar situation to what happened in Sioux Falls, S.D. Friday against St. Johns, the newcomer still has adjustments to make if he wants to see more time coming off the Badgers’ bench. However, Hayes has caught the attention of Ryan.
“You have to reward the guys that are doing the good things in practice,” Ryan said, noting the improvements Hayes has made. “He likes to compete. He’s got the body to do it and he’s got the court sense that he picks up things rather quickly and that’s why he is able to get on the court as a freshman.”
Though the Badgers’ big men showed they can compete with sizeable opponents, it was the feisty set of Wisconsin guards who led the way rebounding all night. The starting trio of Brust, Jackson and redshirt junior Josh Gasser contributed a combined 18 of the team’s 31 rebounds. Brust led the way with nine — one shy of a double-double as the senior added 11 points to the Badger scorebook — followed by Jackson with eight and Gasser with two.
For Dekker, the ability of Brust and the other guards to come in and take rebounds is something he looks highly upon, given the smaller size of the Badger team this season.
“Having guards that are such good rebounders is a treat for us to have. I mean we don’t have the size but if me and Frank can go down low and clear out some of those bigs then Ben can come in and grab boards better than any guard I’ve been around,” Dekker said.
