Wisconsin took down the UW-Green Bay Phoenix 88-70 on Thursday night. Here are the top three takeaways from the victory.
Wisconsin picked up its fourth victory in a row on Thursday night, taking down UW-Green Bay 88-70 at the Kohl Center. Here are our top three takeaways from the game for the Badgers.
1. Wisconsin stayed hot offensively.
The Badgers have looked extremely impressive on offense dating back to the victory over McNeese State, and the trend continued last night.
Wisconsin was once against lights-out from long-range, going 15-31 (48.4%) from beyond the arc. Despite a fairly impressive offensive showing of its own, Green Bay simply could not keep up with the Badgers’ onslaught of threes.
It was another incredibly balanced performance from Wisconsin, who saw the same six players that hit double figures against Marquette do the same against the Phoenix. Nate Reuvers led all scorers with 17 points despite playing just 20 minutes while dealing with foul trouble, while Brad Davison (15), Kobe King (12), Aleem Ford (12), D’Mitrik Trice (11) and Brevin Pritzl (10) also had productive days.
There may not be one obvious star on this year’s team who you know will go out and get you close to 20 points every game, but Wisconsin does have six players who look capable of stepping up and being that guy on any given night. In addition, you can probably lump Micah Potter into that group as well once he’s eligible on Dec. 21.
That’s an exciting level of balance that we have not seen from the Badgers in a while, and it should make upcoming opponents very nervous.
2. Foul trouble was an issue yet again.
As mentioned, Reuvers was only on the floor for 20 minutes against the Phoenix due to foul trouble, something he has struggled with on multiple occasions already this season. While his absence wasn’t a crippling blow to Wisconsin this time considering the caliber of opponent and the production it received from the rest of the rotation, his inability to stay on the court was concerning considering the difficulty of the Badgers’ upcoming schedule.
Simply put, Greg Gard is probably going to need his star big man- and really the only true post player in the rotation at the moment- to stay on the court for a minimum of 30 minutes in at least a couple of the four games Wisconsin’s has left until Potter enters the frontcourt rotation, and possibly all of them. The Badgers’ matchups with NC State and Indiana seem certain to be very challenging, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Richmond and Rutgers give Wisconsin all it can handle, either.
The Badgers aren’t going to get the type of balanced production we saw last night every game, and there will come a time when they are desperate for a scoring punch or are getting dominated in the post by an opposing big man. Arguably the team’s best scorer and a critical presence as a shot-blocker in the post, Reuvers simply must be smarter with his fouls.
3. Tyler Wahl continues to impress.
Wahl has been an important piece off the bench for the Badgers so far this season as a true freshman, and he continued his strong play against Green Bay with a career-high five points to go along with three rebounds, three assists, and a steal in 15 minutes of action.
Wahl came to Madison with a reputation as an incredibly versatile player who will stuff the box score and make an impact in a variety of ways, and he has certainly lived up to those expectations so far. However, what has most excited me about the Minnesota native has been his three-point shooting, which was the one major deficiency in Wahl’s game coming out of high school.
He hit a huge three against Marquette and drilled another last night against the Phoenix, and while it’s a pretty small sample size (he’s only attempted six), I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how pure his shot looks from long range. If Wahl can add reliable three-point shooting to a skill set that is proficient in just about every other aspect of the game, his upside could be considerably higher than we anticipated.
