Badgers Cruise Past UW-Platteville 78-44
November 16, 2004 | Men's Basketball
The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team closed out its exhibition season in style at the Kohl Center Tuesday evening, cruising to a 78-44 win over Division III opponent UW-Platteville.
Senior forward Mike Wilkinson paced four Badger players in double figures with 15 points. Alando Tucker chipped in with 12 points, while Andreas Helmigk and Zach Morley added 11 points apiece. Jeff Skemp led all scorers, finishing with 16 for the Pioneers.
The Pioneers were able to stick with the Badgers early on, as the visitors held a 7-4 lead with four and a half minutes gone by.
However, Wisconsin proceeded to pull away, going on a 29-5 run over a stretch of 10 minutes and 17 seconds to surge ahead 33-12. The Badgers forced UW-Platteville into nine of their 13 first-half turnovers during the decisive run. UW turned those 13 turnovers into 13 points over the opening 20 minutes of play.
Wisconsin would eventually carry a 38-22 lead into halftime behind a balanced scoring effort. Nine different Badgers had at least two points during the opening half of play, led by seven points apiece from Wilkinson and Helmigk.
UW cruised throughout the second half, as the Pioneers were never able to cut the deficit lower than 14 just over a minute into the half. Leading 40-26, Wisconsin put the game out of reach with a 22-2 spurt to stretch its lead to 34 at 62-28 with nine minutes remaining.
The Badgers forced UW-Platteville into 23 turnovers for the game while only committing nine themselves. UW shot 51.7 percent from the field (31-of-60), while the Pioneers hit on 43.2 percent of their shots (16-of-37) but was just 1-of-10 from three-point range.
The Badgers open their regular season at home Saturday when they take on Penn. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
Game Notes
Badger head coach Bo Ryan was the head coach at UW-Platteville for 15 seasons (1984-99). Over that time he compiled a 353-76 record and led the Pioneers to four NCAA Division III national championships. Associate head coach Rob Jeter both played and coached at UW-Platteville, while assistant coach Greg Gard also was an assistant under Ryan with the Pioneers ' A pair of brothers sat on opposing benches this evening as UW assistant coach Greg Gard faced off against his younger brother, UW-Platteville's Jeff Gard ' This was the second of two exhibition games for the Badgers. UW also defeated UW-Parkside, a Division II opponent, 81-42 on Nov. 10.
Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On the play of the point guards Kammron Taylor and Michael Flowers:
"What they did was they took pretty good care of the ball, they 'sometimes it might not say an assist but it might have led to an assist for a bucket or put someone in position to score or get fouled. They did a good job, its always tough to play the perfect game but that has a lot to do with the other team and how active they are. I'm pleased with the way they effectively made it tough and Platteville has got some good shooters. I've always told my players to not get into a game of horse with a D-3 team because a lot of those guys can shoot it. A lot of times those guys end up in division three because someone doesn't think that they are athletic enough, so don't play horse with a division three team. Overall I was pleased with their poisoning and the way we hedged the screens."
On playing more guys this season:
"I don't think there has been a coach that has ever really lamented that they have some guys that they feel are prepared to play. In the past when you play six or seven guys that might be all you really have at your disposal. Certainly it doesn't mean anything when it comes to your half court defense. So you get a few more breaks and other guys get some more minutes and those years that we have used pressure I don't think it was closer because more guys got some minutes that maybe otherwise wouldn't."
On having warm and fuzzies inside about tonight's game:
"I think the only warm and fuzzies I have right now is that this Diet Coke was warm ... I looked out there and saw these uniforms, saw the name on the thing, saw some familiar faces in the crowd that you just glance at during the national anthem. Sometimes people look at the schedule and see a name of the team and decide what they want to, but the people that came were basketball fans. Maybe someone that wants to see this, that wanted to see players from the state, which wanted to see the state schools in action in a big arena. Hopefully it gets them ready for this season and maybe we can get a national champion from it."
UW-Platteville Head Coach Paul Combs
Opening Statement:
"My hat's off to UW, very well disciplined team, Remarkable how they play, a very sound fundamental team. They are very efficient on both ends of the floor. I looked up at one point and we had eight fouls to Wisconsin's one. That's a credit to how well they are positioned, and how well they play defense with their feet, really do a great job of contesting shooter. It's a great experience for our players, Brad in particular, he's not going to face a quicker guard all year as in Kammron. They really gave us some fits with their pressure. I've watched a lot of old videos in Platteville, and watching them press one and done reminds me of the 90 's and how they used to play with Coach Ryan. It's a tempo and style we would like to get to this year, and the experiences we learned this evening are invaluable for our program going into the season."
On the hardest thing about playing Wisconsin
"The hardest thing for me is that we are all fans, these young guys here grew up cheering for the Badgers. I had to fight myself to not clap during the fight song. The hardest thing is to try and simulate the speed in practice, and the strength like theses guys said, its so difficult to do, I think we have really promising freshmen. You say some glimpses tonight of Jeff Skemp, what a fabulous player he's going to be for us for four years."
On if there was any thought on was this going to be Hoosiers after getting up 7-4
"I would have perhaps harbored those thoughts, but the problem was I couldn't find the scoreboard, it's huge, it wouldn't even fit in our field house. It's a credit to these guys, they were really excited, it 's the most focused team we've had here in two years I've been at Platteville. I am going to challenge them for the rest of the season, and that is how focused they need to be. It's a credit to them they came out of the gate strong, really put solid pressure and made some shots, along with that four-point play. It really got us off to a good start."
On what a game like this say about basketball in Wisconsin
"It speaks volumes, I talked about that this morning. The game of basketball in Wisconsin doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves. When you take Wisconsin, Marquette, UW-GB and UWM are all going to be quality teams for the future with the coaching staffs they have, then you take the leagues that we have with the Lake Michigan and Midwest Conference along with the WIAC, that's great quality basketball from top to bottom."
