No. 4 Wisconsin Hosts Pacific Tonight
December 22, 2006 | Men's Basketball
At 11-1, the Wisconsin men's basketball team is off to its best start under head coach Bo Ryan. UW has won seven games in a row and is up to No. 4 in the Associated Press Poll, its highest ranking in school history. During that span of seven wins, the Badgers have trailed just 10:42 out of 285 minutes.
The Badgers have won four in a row over 2006 NCAA tournament participants and will try to make it five when they host Pacific (3-8) tonight at the Kohl Center. ESPN360 will cover the 7 p.m. tip with Jeff Friedman and Nate Ross calling the action.
Pacific has won the last three Big West Conference championships and has recorded 20 or more wins in each of the last three seasons. But the Tigers lost two all-league players from last year's squad, three starters in all, and have lost five in a row after starting 3-3.
Head Coach Bob Thomason, a former Pacific standout, is in his 19th season with his alma mater. His team has dropped two games in overtime and three others by seven points or less this season.
Pacific will start three guards, none over 6'2'. Meaning one will have to match up with UW's frontcourt of Alando Tucker (6'6'), Jason Chappell (6'10') and Brian Butch (6'11'). Anthony Brown, a 6'7' sophomore, has reached double figures in all but one game this season and leads the Tigers with 15.6 points per game.
Steffan Johnson has led the Tigers in scoring the past two games and has a team-high 46 assists to go with an 11.5 points per game average. Backcourt mate C.J. Morgan will make his seventh start of the year and is averaging 10.1 points per game.
Tucker scored a season-high 32 points against then No. 2-Pitt last weekend and is averaging 25.3 points over the last four games. He's the Big Ten's leading scorer at 21.2 points per game and is among the early whispers for national player of the year. In three nationally televised games, Tucker has scored 22, 28 and 32 points respectively against Florida State, Marquette and Pitt.
The Badgers got a career-high 27 points from Butch against Pitt and his 11 rebounds gave him his fifth career double-double. He's shooting over 50 percent from the floor this season, averaging 11.1 points and leads the team with 6.4 rebounds per game.
This is the third meeting between UW and Pacific with each team garnering a victory. It will be the first meeting since 1997. The Badgers have won 12 straight at the Kohl Center and are 81-5 in home games under Ryan.
