UW Shoots For 10 Against Former Coach
December 13, 2006 | Men's Basketball
The seventh-ranked Wisconsin men's basketball team will try to equal its best start under head coach Bo Ryan tonight against UW-Milwaukee and former assistant coach Rob Jeter. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Kohl Center. ESPN Full Court will broadcast the game live with Craig Coshun and Mike Kelley calling the action.
The Badgers are looking to sweep their three in-state Division I rivals for the second consecutive season and fourth time in Ryan's six seasons. If it's successful, UW will improve to 10-1, equaling its record after 11 games last season.
Jeter is in his second season at UW-Milwaukee, but spent nine seasons as an assistant coach under Ryan, including four at Wisconsin. The Badgers won two Big Ten championships with Jeter on staff and a Big Ten tournament title in 2004. Ryan spent two seasons as the head coach at UWM from 1999-2001.
The Panthers have won the last four Horizon League championships and have advanced to the NCAA tournament three of the last four years. UWM made a Sweet 16 appearance in 2005.
But this year's squad is 2-9 entering tonight's contest and has lost five in a row. The Panthers lost seven seniors from last year's team including all five starters. UW-Milwaukee players had the fewest Division I starts entering this season with nine. Those all came from Paige Paulsen while he was at Northern Illinois two years ago.
The Badgers, meanwhile, have won five in a row, including Saturday's 70-66 road win at No. 17 Marquette. Wisconsin had little time to celebrate with undefeated and second-ranked Pittsburgh scheduled to arrive in Madison this weekend.
UW-Milwaukee has not beat Wisconsin since 1992. UW has won 22 of the 23 meetings in the series, including 13 in a row dating back to 1992.
The Badgers won last year's meeting 74-68 at the Kohl Center in December. Alando Tucker (25) and Kammron Taylor (23) combined to score 48 points in the contest. Taylor had a career-high six assists, two steals and was 13-of-15 from the free-throw line.
Tucker was nearly unstoppable against Marquette as he scored a season-high 28 points and now leads the Big Ten in scoring at 20.2 points per game. He'll be playing in his fifth career game against UW-Milwaukee. He's averaged 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds in four previous meetings with the Panthers.
Junior guard Avery Smith has scored more points in 10 games this season for UWM (167) than he did all of last season (147). He scored a career-high 36 points against Oakland three games ago and leads the Panthers with 15.2 points per game.
Smith is an 87 percent free-throw shooter and a 44 percent 3-point shooter. He had eight 3's against Oakland.
SAAC Toy Drive Tonight: The UW Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will sponsor a toy drive at tonight's game. Fans are encouraged to bring a new, unwrapped toy for donation. Prior to the game, UW student-athletes will be collecting the toys as well as cash donations. The collected items will be donated to Toys for Tots.
