Beyond the Box Score: Wisconsin 76, Northwestern 49

(Photo courtesy David Banks, USA Today Sports)

Well there’s one way to start the B1G season.

With a big home game against ranked Iowa on Sunday, all the Badgers had to do was not completely overlook the overmatched Northwestern Wildcats. Except for a short blip early, Wisconsin rolled to its 14^th straight win to start the season.

Nearly everyone looked good on the team, including the bench, as Nigel Hayes led all scorers with 19 points.

Let’s jump into the box.

• Wisconsin’s bench outscored the Wildcats’ 32-4. This was actually 22-0 at halftime as well. I don’t know if this shows more about the depth Wisconsin has or the lack of depth Northwestern has, but it’s safe to say that both those statements are true.
• The Badgers only turned the ball over four times. Against an overmatched opponent, taking care of the ball and shooting at least at an average clip is usually enough to come away with a win. Along with this, the Badgers had 16 assists. I’ll take a 4:1 assist to turnover ratio any day because that is ridiculous.
• Jordan Hill and Evan Anderson each recorded a trillion in the box score. If you are familiar with Mark Titus, former Ohio State walk-on, you won’t get this, but he’d be proud. And yeah, that’s where I had to go with a game like this.

Sunday is going to be the first real challenge since Marquette. Even with the game getting pushed back a bit, I’m still worried about a small crowd at the Kohl Center with the Packers, holiday break, and a horrible weekend weather-wise. Hopefully I’m wrong!