Wisconsin played in the third game of the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis, and it appeared to learn the lessons of upsets of No. 5 North Carolina and No. 22 UCLA earlier in the day. The Badgers went for the jugular from the opening tip and never really let up, beating UAB by 39 points, 72-43.
The Badgers never trailed in the contest, and were also never tied up as the Blazers only got within two points on a few occasions. UW will take on the winner of Florida vs. Georgetown, who compete in the nightcap of the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
This was the type of win that put the rest of the college basketball world on notice, because this was as close to team perfection as one could ask for. Considering the upsets and close games that happened earlier in the day, Wisconsin’s blow out win at least put the rest of the tournament field on notice.
Leading the way in the fifth straight win for UW was a trio of players in double figures. The Badgers were led by preseason All-American Frank Kaminsky’s 16-point, 8 rebound effort. He was joined in double digits by fellow seniors Duje Dukan (11) and Josh Gasser (10).
The first half was all that was needed for the Badgers to win this one, as they took all but one Blazer out of the game. Robert Brown had 11 of UAB’s 1st half points on the way to a XX-point performance for the game. However, his team managed to do next to nothing outside of the rebounding area, where they still trailed the Badgers, but were respectable in a 17-16 disadvantage.
UW’s defense was also cooking up the pressure, forcing the Blazers to shoot 20.8 percent from the field in the first half. The Blazers also had his happen to them thanks to Wisconsin’s defensive effort:
So we’ve had a palming call, 3 shot clock violations & a 3-second violation…safe to say UAB didn’t draw it up like that.
— MadTown Badgers (@MTBadgers) November 27, 2014
The Badgers held UAB down in the second half as well, with the Blazers shooting just 17-for-50 (34 percent) from the field. Robert Brown was the only UAB player in double digits, scoring 16 points on 7-for-16 shooting.
In the second half, UAB came out trying to get back in the game but the Badgers slammed the door shut with a 13-0 run over the course of 4 minutes in the middle of the half to go up 56-28.
From there on, the Badgers were able to play many of the guys on the end of the bench, including 14 minutes from Vitto Brown and 12 minutes from Zak Showalter.
Speaking of Showalter…he put himself in contention for ESPN’s #SCTop10 of the day with a ridiculous putback dunk.
Zak Showalter put back dunk! @BadgerMBB pic.twitter.com/rx2Vj3F0DJ
— DXL (@TrendChaser102) November 27, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsPlayer of the Game: Frank Kaminsky
We all knew the big man had moves, could shoot from outside and could block shots. Kaminsky added point guard duties to his effort on Wednesday night, tallying 3 assists to go along with his 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks in the effort. It wasn’t just the stat sheet, but the effort that also helped to make him the player of the game in our mind. He was patient on defense, picking up just 2 fouls and really controlling the paint. This was a game where few individual stars were head-and-shoulders above
Difference Maker: Droughts & Runs
The game of basketball usually comes down to ebbs and flows, and that was the case in this game. It just so happened that the ebb came in the form of a 7-minute scoring drought for the Blazers and the flow came in the form of that 13-0 second half run we mentioned above. Wisconsin took advantage of the UAB drought to turn this game from a closer contest to a complete no-doubter in the first half. They also managed to weather an early second half effort from the Blazers and extended the no-doubt feel of the game for most of the second half.
(Stay tuned for our look beyond the box score for our in depth look at how this game went down & follow us on Twitter @MTBadgers)//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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