On Nov. 18, when Nichols State came to Bloomington, Ind., to face the Hoosiers, Indiana did not have a star player. With former Indiana guard Bracey Wright recently sent to NBA's developmental league by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Hoosier fans were without a leader on the hardwood.
Enter a 6'8''' 268 pound transfer from Auburn named Marco Killingsworth.
Early in the first half, Killingsworth took off on a two-on-one fast break. The forward faked a behind the pass, which his defender proceeded to bite on and layed the ball up and in to the delight of Assembly Hall.
'That came from the playgrounds'the school yard,' Killingsworth told the Indiana Daily Student after the game.
With a No. 5 on his back, Killingsworth proceeded to score 28 points, on 12-of-18 shooting, in 33 minutes, while hauling in 13 rebounds, six assists, blocking four shots and knocking down a 3-pointer. And just like that, a Hoosier star was born.
With the Badgers entering Wednesday's matchup with the Hoosiers, having lost four out of their last five, Killingsworth is maybe the last person they want to see walking through the Kohl Center doors.
'Killingsworth is an All-American,' Badger head coach Bo Ryan said. 'He's as good a player that you'll see in the post. Not everybody is going to get 20, 25 every night, but he's somebody that can bring it and can do that.'
Having averaged just under 14 points and seven rebounds in two years at Auburn, Killingsworth decided to take his talent north. After sitting out a year due to NCAA regulations, Killingsworth is now a well-known name throughout the conference and the country.
'He's a typical Big Ten post'a lot of what we saw in the early 80s and the rest of the 90s,' said UW assistant coach Howard Moore, who's main focus is the Badger's post play. 'That typical block player that rubs against your body that looks for angles and tries to see them and get some easy opportunities inside.'
For Killingsworth, no time was needed to adjust to arguably the toughest conference inside in the NCAA'he has simply taken the Big Ten by storm. He ranks fourth in points, rebounds, field goal percentage and tenth in blocks among Big Ten players.
Wisconsin has allowed big low post games to the likes of Ohio State's Terrence Dials, Illinois' John Randle and Purdue's Marcus White and Matt Kiefer since the loss of freshman forward Marcus Landry and sophomore center Greg Stiemsma to academic ineligibility. For the Badgers, they are running low on bodies, but will still have to be aggressive to stop the big man from Montgomery, Ala.
'He touches the ball at least every time down the court,' said junior forward Alando Tucker, who has started to factor more into the Badger post defense. 'We have to try to disrupt the offense by throwing different looks at him. We're going to throw a lot of different bodies on him and try to force him outside the block.'
Freshman forward Kevin Gullikson, who has seen his playing time increase recently, playing at least 12 minutes over each of the past three games, will see a lot of time guarding Killingsworth.'
'We just have to work hard in the post, work hard to get in front of him,' Gullikson said. 'At all costs, we have to deny him the ball.'
For the Badgers, with sophomore forward Brian Butch not practicing Monday with an injured ankle, the team cannot afford their big men picking up fouls early.
'Jason [Chappell] and Brian are a bit more tentative because they don't want to get into foul trouble and at times they give up an easy basket if they lose position,' Moore said. 'But at the same time. We've got guys that we can throw in there that can play inside.'
For the Badgers to get off their slump, they must play Wisconsin basketball.
'Every Big Ten game is different, so we're going to have to control the tempo,' Tucker said. 'The ball is going to go through Killingsworth. We can't let him have a big game here.'
