The Wisconsin men's basketball team kicked off its preseason festivities Tuesday, playing probably a tougher opponent than it will play all regular season: itself.
Participating in the annual Red-White scrimmage yesterday, UW excited a far from capacity Kohl Center crowd with a game that came down to the final shot. For the game, Wisconsin coaches separated the Badgers into two even teams and conducted a 40-minute scrimmage.
""A lot of the reasons that these young men came here was because of this kind of atmosphere in the Kohl Center and even for something like this, to just get the lights on the scoreboard on, get the noise going in there,"" head coach Bo Ryan said. ""That's what a lot of them are here to experience. They love it. And that's all part of being a competitor and enjoying the game.""
The Red team consisted of junior guards Kammron Taylor, Tanner Bronson and Michael Flowers, junior forward/center Brian Butch, senior center Jason Chappell, sophomore forwards Joe Krabbenhoft and Morris Cain and freshman forward Bret Velntyn. The team was coached by assistant coaches Howard Moore and Gary Close. On the White team was senior forward Alando Tucker, junior center Greg Stiemsma, sophomore forwards Marcus Landry and Kevin Gullikson, freshman guards Jason Bohanon, Mickey Perry and Trevon Hughes, and freshman center J.P. Gavinski. The team was coached by assistant coach Greg Gard.
Tucker led all scorers with 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting, displaying an array of dunks, jumpers and the three-point shot he has been working on all summer.
""When he was able to get his feet set he had good extension and that was important,"" Ryan said of Tucker who shot two-of-three from behind the arc. ""In order to be a great shooter, you can't shoot line drives, and he's worked on that and he looked good today.""
The game itself was a thriller. After being tied 37-37 at the half, the even play continued in the second frame. With the White team trailing by five with just under a minute left, Hughes, nicknamed Pop, took over the Kohl Center. The freshman hit a three-pointer, cutting the score to 69-67.
He then stole the inbound outlet pass and Tucker's jumper in the lane tied the game. Hughes then intercepted a second inbound pass, was fouled by Butch, and knocked down one-of-two free throws, giving White the lead.
After Landry hit two-of-four free throws, Flowers missed a potential game tying three-pointer at the buzzer and White walked off the floor with a 72-69 victory.
Aside from Tucker, the White team showed a balanced attack with Bohannon scoring 12, Perry and Landry scoring 11 a piece and Hughes pitching in with 10.
For the Red team, Chappell shined. The senior scored 18 points on seven-of-12 shooting, and hauled in 11 rebounds. Butch scored 18 as well, but on 33 percent shooting, picking up nine rebounds. Flowers chipped in with 14.
The Badgers continued their free throw shooting struggles from last season, making only a combined 62 percent of their shots from the line.
Landry, sporting new sports goggles, wowed the Kohl Center crowd with an array of blocked shots, of which he had four on the night. One, with just over nine minutes remaining in the first half, led to a fast break alley-oop from Perry to Tucker, who finished it with a backward slam.
Bohannon excited those in attendance with a alley-oop pass towards the basket intended for Stiemsma that ended up swishing through the basket for a three-pointer.
The night was capped off by a slam-dunk contest. Few shined in the contest, except for the athletic Landry, who collected a perfect score of 60.
Ryan laughed at the ineffectiveness of his players in the contest, asserting that he ""thought you had to make dunks in order for it to be a dunk contest.""
Ranked as high as No. 4 in preseason media polls, the Badgers are one of the national frontrunners. Ryan says he is excited by the attention, but makes sure his players focus on internal goals.
""Anytime you're talking basketball, it's always a good feeling when people are getting that excited and buying all the tickets,"" Ryan said. ""The expectations are never something that's affected us. We've already dealt with that. It's our own expectations that we have to make sure we keep in mind.""
