For the No. 21 Wisconsin men's basketball team (2-1 Big Ten, 11-3 overall), home games seem to come at the most opportune times.
A week after their first loss in conference play last Wednesday at the hands of Purdue, and for the third time overall this season, the Badgers will look to get back to their winning ways in just the place that appears to make all of UW's troubles disappear.
Undefeated this season after the team's three losses, and 9-0 in Head Coach Bo Ryan's three seasons at UW in home games after road losses, the Badgers will look to extend their conference-best 22-game home winning streak and rebound in Big Ten play Wednesday night in the first of two meetings with Michigan (1-2, 10-4) this season.
\They are really a team that is evident by their winning streak and confidence that not many people are able to hang with them at the Kohl Center,"" Michigan Head Coach Tommy Amaker said. ""They've shot the ball well and just played with a tremendous amount of confidence and poise at their court. Unbeatable at home over the past two years, that says a lot.""
Led by junior guard Devin Harris and his team-leading 16.8 points and 5.3 assists per game, the Badgers continue to play clean, aggressive basketball as a whole ,averaging only 9.1 turnovers per game and attempting an impressive 24.6 free throws per contest.
In addition to Harris, UW's only other player averaging double-digit points per contest is junior forward Mike Wilkinson with 10.8. However, picking up the scoring slack lately has been UW's solid bench that will be called upon even more with the recent injury of senior guard Freddie Owens.
Getting his first start of the season in place of Owens will be junior forward Zach Morley, averaging 9.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per contest. His solid play, combined with the emergence of sophomore guard Ray Nixon, epitomize the work UW's Ryan and his staff have done in replacing the productivity of injured sophomore forward Alando Tucker.
""Every coach has a system and from your drills and from your video work and everything else, people are learning the system,"" Ryan said. ""Look at the job Zach's [Morley] done and he's never been in the system until this year. Ray [Nixon], having been around the system last year, he learned things so that when he gets his opportunities, he's trying to take as big an advantage as he can to help the team.""
Nixon, Morley and the rest of the Badgers will play an athletic and motivated Wolverines team, one that is now eligible for postseason play.
Unfortunately for Amaker, his team has lost two of its first three Big Ten games thus far and both have been on the road. Amidst a stretch in which Michigan play; six of their first 10 conference games on the road, the Wolverines are coming off a loss on the road at Michigan State. As they have shown during all their losses this season, Michigan continued to demonstrate a difficulty scoring on offense and playing sloppy on both sides of the ball.
Michigan senior guard Bernard Robinson Jr. lead the team in scoring, averaging 13.6 points per contest, one of four players averaging double-digits for the team. However, what makes the Michigan team successful has been its quickness, something the Badgers and their staff will be very prepared for.
""They're talented, they're long and they're quick,"" Ryan said. ""[Daniel] Horton is still one of the best point guards around. Sometimes your shooting goes up, your percentages will go up and down, but Michigan presents, with a freshman in [Dion] Harris. Believe me, every time we play somebody our players think this is the greatest team that has ever played, based on what we show them, because we show them their strengths.\
