Badgers Beat UW-River Falls 79-52 in Exhibition Opener
November 05, 2005 | Men's Basketball
The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team opened up the 2005-06 season with a 79-52 exhibition win over UW-River Falls at the Kohl Center, Saturday night.
Junior Alando Tucker (Lockport, Ill.) led all scorers with 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Sophomore Brian Butch (Appelton, Wis.) also tallied 12 points and four rebounds. In his first game as a Badger, freshman Marcus Landry (Milwaukee, Wis.) scored 11 points and had six rebounds in 16 minutes.
The Badgers opened the game with an 8-0 run before Falcon sophomore Ryan Zylstra scored with 15:52 left in the first half. Wisconsin outscored River Falls 24-4 in the first 10 minutes of the game and held the Falcons to 21.4 (6-28) field goal percentage in the first half. The Badgers went into halftime with a 41-17 advantage.
Tucker, a preseason All-Big Ten choice, scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds in the first half. Senior Ray Nixon (Milwaukee, Wis.) recorded four of his five assists in the first half.
In the second half, River Falls pulled within 21 twice, with 12:09 and 10:03 remaining, but would not get any closer the rest of the game. Falcon junior Hans Hoeg lead the Falcons with nine points while Zylstra contributed eight points and had a game-high 12 rebounds.
River Falls shot 42.4 percent from the field in the second half and finished the game with a 32.8 field goal percentage (20-61). The Badgers shot 50.8 percent from the field in the game (30-59).
In the exhibition opener, head coach Bo Ryan experimented with multiple lineups and debuted seven new Badgers. Besides Landry, freshmen Joe Krabbenhoft (Sioux Falls, S.D.), Mickey Perry (Maywood, Ill.), Devin Barry (Janesville, Wis.), Morris Cain (Milwaukee, Wis.), Kevin Gullikson (Stillwater, Minn.) and redshrit freshman DeAaron Williams (Peoria, Ill.) all played. Krabbenhoft played the most of the new players and tallied two points, two assists and six rebounds in 17 minutes.
The Badgers close out the exhibition season with a 7 p.m. match-up against Lawrence, Nov. 14 at the Kohl Center.
Wisconsin vs. UW-River Falls
Nov. 5, 2005 ' Kohl Center, Madison, Wis.
Post-Game Quotes
UW-River Falls Head Coach Rick Bowen
On the play of his team: 'I think the kids were a bit intimidated to start the game, but in the second half they came around. We've been picked to finish eighth in our league. I don't think we will, but I'm proud of our guys. You have to understand the difference in athletic ability. It can take things away from the game in so many ways. I thought that was very evident in tonight 's game
On the younger Wisconsin players: 'Well I'd die to have them. (laugh) No, I think this was a good thing both ways. (Wisconsin head coach) Bo (Ryan) got a chance to get the kids that have been working really hard in practice early in the season a chance to play. I still think that if you play a team like us, a D-III team, it's a whole heck of a lot better than a team like EA Sports simply because we set screens, we run an offense, and we'll do different things. As always I am very impressed with the Badgers and the way they do things. That certainly didn't change after tonight.'
On his offense in the second half: 'It showed me something, I was not happy with they way we were playing, I was upset with our veterans. We have a couple of unknowns and if they come around we will be a respectable team. The first half, 41-17, that with a little flurry in the end, I was just hoping we would get into second digits.'
On the Badger guards: 'I cannot evaluate them. It's like comparing apples and oranges ' comparing the Badger guards against our guards. I'm not capable of doing that. Maybe I'll watch them on TV a couple of times against Michigan State or something and then evaluate them as a fan, but I can't compare them to our guys.'
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On the opening 11 minutes of the game: 'We did (have focus), you just said it. But, can you do that for 40 (minutes)' There are teams we 'll play this year where we're going to have to do it for 40 if we expect to be on the left-hand side. But, you know, substitution patterns, things like that, we don 't have those. (UW-River Falls Head Coach) Rick (Bowen) was working on those too, but that's a good start because, fundamentally, we did our reads defensively, chased well, helped well, made them take tougher shots. They had easier shots later. They were running their offense better, getting spacing to at least get open shots later on, and it just takes one guy to break down. It's like, against our offense, if one guy breaks down, somebody's going to have an open shot. So, a start is good. I like to finish it. I like to play the whole thing, but that's not going to happen. That 's why we play these kinds of teams. You know, they run offense. It's not EA Sports.'
On the play of the front court: '(They showed me that) the potential was there. But, again, we weren't playing against the size that we 'll see later, but we were playing against the tenacity that you might not see later either. River Falls didn't care who they were playing. They just played hard, got after it, and were very aggressive. And again, they set more screens in the first possession than, I keep picking on EA Sports, but they set more screens than the last couple foreign teams we had in here. That's why we play. If you're going to play an exhibition team, let's play these kinds of teams.'
On the play of the guards: 'You know, I don't criticize guys, so if you think that I'm happy with the point guard play, I 'll let you decide that. I expect certain things. We demand certain things from everybody. There are a lot of things that we can learn from this where we can get better. '
