Wisconsin Badgers Basketball: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Game Recap



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After winning their first game of the 2020-2021 season against eastern Illinois on Wednesday, the Wisconsin Badgers (2-0 overall, 0-0 B1G) were back in action Friday night against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. .

Entering the game as the big favorites, the Badgers took care of the Golden Lions with relative ease and took a 92-58 victory.

Wisconsin opened the game with a tear, taking a 14-0 advantage in the first media timeout thanks to nice transition buckets from D’Mitrik Trice, and early scores from Micah Potter and Aleem Ford.

The bleeding didn’t stop there though, as the Badgers continued to pour it into the second media timeout. With 11:19 to go in the first half, Wisconsin held a 25-0 lead and had six different players with a bucket.

In the final 10 minutes of the first half, Greg Gard and his team didn’t give in and entered the intermission with a 34-point lead thanks to stellar ball movement (zero turnovers) and shots. hot.

In the second half. Arkansas-Pine Bluff kept him competitive in the opening minutes by trading baskets with the Badgers. However, halfway through the second stanza, Wisconsin still had a 35-point advantage despite sloppier play on both sides of the court.

With such a head start after a formidable first half, Wisconsin was able to secure the victory in the dying minutes of the game with Jonathan Davis, Ben Carlson, Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl.

In the end, the Badgers would end Arkansas-Pine Bluff with a 34-point victory.

  • Micah Potter -> 19 points (6 of 9 shots), five rebounds, three assists
  • D’Mitrik Trice -> 15 points (6 of 9 shots), three rebounds, three assists
  • Nate Reuvers -> 14 points (5 of 7 shot), two rebounds, one block
  • Shaun Doss -> 16 points (6 of 17 shots), four rebounds, two assists

# 1: Zone Destroyers

Arkansas-Pine Bluff used a 3-2 zone for most of the first half, and Wisconsin absolutely torched them with a swing of the ball. The Badgers did a phenomenal job putting the ball in the high post and then spinning it. As a result, the team was able to connect deep to a 58.3% clip, with six different players hitting a three.

In the opening moments of the second half, Arkansas-Pine-Bluff moved away from zone defense and went man to man. The change definitely slowed Wisconsin down a bit, as the hot shots in the first half cooled in the second.

With so many capable shooters on the roster, the Badgers are well equipped to beat a zone defense this season. The struggles in the second half to maintain their dominance are notable, but the game was nonetheless a solid game from which the film draws in order to improve with a much more difficult schedule on the bridge in B1G.

# 2: Bench experience

With a big advantage from the start of the game, Greg Gard was able to turn early and often to his bench. 10 players were rotated in the first half as Gard tinkered with various lineout combinations. This roster shuffle is especially valuable for the three time-saving freshmen – Jonathan Davis, Ben Carlson and Steven Crowl – who look set to contribute significant minutes this season off the bench.

In the last minutes of the game, Greg Gard let go of his bench to close the game. These young players are unlikely to gain much playing time this season, but giving them time to brush their teeth in a low-stress environment like garbage time should pay dividends later in the season and into the future.

N ° 3: Talent differential

Freshly beaten by Marquette, Arkansas-Pine Bluff entered the game against Wisconsin as one of the lower-ranked teams in the KenPom table (No.353) after a miserable 2019-2020 in which they failed to win. only four games.

Against the Badgers, the Golden Lions weren’t even lucky from the start, as Wisconsin completely dominated them in every facet of the game.

Wisconsin was clearly on a different level than Arkansas Pine-Bluff, and this game was a great tune-up for the remainder of the season for the Badgers.

Next: The Badgers return to action at the Kohl Center on Tuesday, the first day of December, when they host UW-Green Bay at 4 p.m. CST on BTN.



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