Badger fans, meet Trevon Hughes. You are going to be seeing a lot of the sophomore point guard for the next three years.
Hughes, who got his first start Sunday, scored a game-high 25 points and added five rebounds and five assists as Wisconsin beat Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne 83-55 in its season opener at the Kohl Center.
I just played,"" Hughes said. ""It just happens out there. We got six or seven guys that can do that and I guess tonight it was me and [Butch's] night.""
The fact that Hughes ""just played"" and put up 25 points is important for a UW team that must replace 52 percent of its scoring from a year ago. Hughes filled in half of that void with his play, and it was senior forward Brian Butch who did the rest as the big man notched his first double-double of the season with 24 points and 13 rebounds.
""Initially he wasn't finishing around the basket,"" head coach Bo Ryan said about Butch's night. ""So he was battling, and he finally got some calls and got some buckets to go and he was a different player out there.""
Butch was not the only one who saw his night turn for the better after a slow start. With eight minutes to go in the first half, Ryan was forced to call a timeout as his team trailed by 11 points. At that point, Hughes had not scored and the Badgers were only shooting 33 percent. Whatever happened in the timeout changed the night for the team and specifically Hughes, who scored 14 points before halftime as Wisconsin reeled off a 22-5 run to take a 38-32 halftime lead. Both head coaches acknowledged that it was the UW defense that sparked the run.
""Just what [senior guard Michael Flowers] brings to the team as far as on the ball pressure and his deflections [was the difference],"" Ryan said. ""It was contagious and Trevon was better defensively and from there it just spread to the other players.""
Hughes finished with a game-high six steals and Flowers added three. IPFW head coach Dane Fife was impressed with UW's defensive guard tandem as well.
""Gosh, the kid is just a sophomore. You're looking at potentially two all-Big Ten defensive players with those two guards,"" Fife said. ""The problem is, you get by those guards and you're looking at 6'11', 6'11', 6'11', 6'11', 6'11', 6'11' and 6'11'. And that was kind of a problem for us.""
The Badgers certainly used their size to their advantage scoring 56 of their 83 points in the paint. Junior forward Marcus Landry added nine and junior forward Joe Krabbenhoft had eight. Fife said the size was too much to simulate in practice.
""We tried to tell them: Let's forget the jersey and the 17,000 people that are against you and let's show up and play basketball as if we're competing in practice,"" Fife said. ""The only problem is we don't have eight seven-footers to go against in practice.
""You can't really prepare for that. The only thing you can do is get a broom with big hand on top of it and try to shoot over it, but shoot, we don't even have guys tall enough to extend the broom for Butch's reach,"" Fife said.
Jarmusz could redshirt
Freshman swingman Tim Jarmusz is contemplating redshirting this season. Ryan confirmed after Sunday's game that it has been discussed.
""We've talked about it a little bit, but no decision has been made,"" Ryan said.
