Beyond the Box Score: Wisconsin 78, UW-Milwaukee 52

(Photo courtesy: Mary Langenfeld, USA Today)

With each win, it’s starting to get less and less surprising.

The Badgers rolled again last night to move to 11-0 and tie their best start ever. With another winnable game on Saturday against Eastern Kentucky, this is looking like the best start ever for a Wisconsin men’s basketball team.

While the game was a blowout, don’t discount this UW-Milwaukee team. It would not surprise me at all to see the Panthers taking on UW-Green Bay for the Horizon league championship. The state of Wisconsin is playing good basketball this year, and it’s going to help the Badgers’ RPI.

Let’s jump into the box score.

• Overall the team had 16 assists to only eight turnovers. I’ll take the 2:1 ratio every game. Individually, Dekker had six assists and Jackson had four. Both only turned the ball over twice as well.
• Bronson Koenig had a nice stats game. In 16 minutes he hit three of his four shots, collected four rebounds, and had a couple of assists. He’s coming along very nicely.
• The bench overall. The only negative about playing a tough non-conference schedule with a lot of close games is that the bench never really gets cleared. The couple times it did this year, it was for the last minute when the players are basically asked to hold the ball and do nothing. That’s something I disagree with, but it’s a rant for another day. Anyways, Bohannon had five points and Jordan Hill had his first two points as a Badger. It’s nice to see that as the bench works hard at practice every day for little recognition in the box score.
• The team shooting percentages. While 50% from the field and 38% from three-point doesn’t sound bad, hidden in there is a rough shooting second half. Good thing Wisconsin was lights out for most of the first half, as building a 20 point first half lead can cover up some inconsistencies.

Next up, Saturday at noon against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. The Colonels head into the game at 7-3, but don’t have a big win on their resume. Either way, it’s another very winnable game against a team that won’t kill the Badgers’ RPI.