Halfway through the Big Ten season, the Wisconsin men's basketball team (5-3 Big Ten, 15-6 overall) is not exactly where it wants to be. The Badgers, on a two-game losing streak and having lost four out of their last five, sit in a tie for second place in the conference with Indiana, one game behind Illinois, Michigan and Iowa.
The Badgers are coming off a 66-51 loss to Illinois at home Tuesday and need to find an antidote for whatever is ailing them. And quickly.
'We can't mess around anymore,' junior center Jason Chappell said. 'We've got to start winning games. The last two weeks haven't panned out how we've wanted them to, so we know we need to start stepping up and playing better, otherwise the Big Ten is going to pass us by and we'll be sitting in the middle instead of on top.'
Looking to start the second half of their conference season strong, the Badgers will head to West Lafayette, Ind. to take on the Purdue Boilermakers (1-8, 7-13) Saturday. Purdue is coming off a 77-68 loss at home Wednesday to Iowa, in which the Hawkeyes needed 32 points from senior point guard Jeff Horner to escape with a win. Rest assured, the Badgers were watching that game.
'I know they're going to play us tough,' junior guard Kammron Taylor said. 'I watched the game against Iowa, and they played them pretty tough until the end of the game. I know they're going to try to knock us out because they see we're on a two-game losing streak, and I'm pretty sure they're confident they can beat us.'
The Badgers' recent struggles can be attributed to a lack of a third scorer. Junior forward Alando Tucker and Taylor account for more than 55 percent of the team's points in conference play and are the only scorers averaging double digits. As the lone senior on Wisconsin, forward Ray Nixon has taken it upon himself to step up into the supporting role.
'My teammates have been coming to me lately and saying, 'Ray, it's time,'' Nixon, who shot 1-for-8 in the Tuesday's loss, said. 'Half of the season is gone already, and we have another half left, and we need a third scorer. With Alando and Kammron, they account for over half of our offense, so we need a third scorer to compete in the Big Ten.'
Another concern for the Badgers has been their ability to keep opposing teams off the glass. In the loss to the Fighting Illini, Wisconsin allowed Illinois to gather 39 rebounds, 15 of which were offensive. For head coach Bo Ryan, the plan is simple.
'You just got to maneuver better and use your feet and your body,' Ryan said. 'That's what you got to do.'
With the loss of Greg Stiemsma to academic ineligibility, the Badgers are short a 6'11'' body. For Chappell, the team still has to deal with what they have.
'It's just a matter of everybody boxing out their guys,' Chappell said. 'No matter if it's the center or the point guard, everybody has got to get a body on their guy. We've just had some people have some lapses, mentally.'
Purdue is led by head coach Mark Painter. Painter's first year has been rough, let alone his team's record. Knee injuries to star player senior forward Carl Landry'brother of UW's academically ineligible freshman forward Marcus Landry'freshman guard Nate Minnoy and senior guard David Teague have ended their seasons, and the Boilermakers have suspended junior guard Tarrance Crump for an alcohol-related incident. Freshman guard Korey Spates, who was averaging over 10 points per game, has also been dismissed from the team due to conduct detrimental to the team.
Ryan refuses to assert their on and off the court problems will have an effect on their toughness come Saturday.
'They've had some turnover and they're doing the best with what they have and we're doing the same thing,' Ryan said. 'But they're playing hard, they're in a lot of games.'
Wisconsin has dropped their last two road games to Ohio State and Michigan, and the team knows that there is very little room for error.
'Especially where we're at right now, we can't afford another loss,' Chappell said. 'We definitely have to go there and take care of business.'
