Game On: Big Ten season is here!
November 30, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas, Varsity Magazine
Every shot, every moment, every play is an opportunity. Big Ten season is here.
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — As true freshmen last season, ready or not, Brad Davison and Nate Reuvers got an ample taste of Big Ten basketball. While it wasn't always easy to digest the results, they felt like they profited from the experience, which should have application when the Badgers open conference play Friday at Iowa.
"Every game is a dog fight," Davison said. "People talk about rivalry games where there's a different atmosphere. Well, every game is a rivalry game in the Big Ten. Especially when you go on the road. Those are fun, but tough environments."
Ethan Happ hasn't forgotten his first road game in the Big Ten, a 2016 trip to Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. "The atmosphere was pretty crazy," he said of a 59-58 loss to the Hoosiers. "It was a different environment and different type of skill sets that I wasn't really familiar with."
That same season, impressionable freshman Khalil Iverson got confirmation of how deep the talent pool is in the Big Ten when Maryland's Melo Trimble hit a 3-point buzzer beater to steal a win at the Kohl Center. Iverson remembers thinking, "Wow, he's really good.".
"After you've gone through it though, it helps knowing what you're going to be up against," he added.
Davison's first league game — a home loss to Ohio State last December — was memorable in a similar way. The Buckeyes shot 78 percent in the first half (7-of-8 on 3s). "They came out firing on all cylinders, just gunning," he said. "I went, 'Whew, this is a little different. This is the real deal.'"
Reuvers also had a "Wow" or "Whew" moment the first time that he was matched against Purdue's Isaac Haas, a 7-foot-2, 290-pound low-post hulk. "You can't move him; he's so big and strong," he said. "You feel like you can't do anything about it, even though you're working your butt off."
During the off-season, the 6-11 Reuvers did something about it. He put on 30 pounds. Haas has graduated. But Matt Haarms is back along with Michigan State's Nick Ward, Northwestern's Dererk Pardon, Maryland's Bruno Fernando, Penn State's Mike Watkins and Iowa's Tyler Cook and Luka Garza.
"It's the physicality," Reuvers said when asked to differentiate between most non-conference teams and Big Ten opponents. "You have to work a lot harder for everything. When we were playing Houston Baptist, I could easily post-up the smaller guy and get to a jump hook and a bucket."
But since there's more resistance around the rim against league competition, it's crucial that the offensive player has developed some counters. "Details matter a lot more when you're playing against a Big Ten team," Reuvers said. "So many games we played came down to just a couple of possessions."
Feeling loose in Iowa City 🤙 #OnWisconsin // #Badgers
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) November 30, 2018
In this respect, familiarity is a factor. Familiarity to systems and personnel in the conference.
"Scouting reports get out," Davison said. "It's a chess match within the game. You try to put people in positions where they can be most successful and take advantage of the other team's weaknesses."
Happ seconded that point. "People do a really good job of knowing what you want to do or don't want to do, and they try to take away what you like," he said. "I know what teams are going to come in with a hard double (team) and what teams are not."
On the plus side, he noted, "It's nice to know the habits of what teams have done in the past."
On the other hand, he said, "I wouldn't say it favors us any more than it favors any other team."
UW assistant Howard Moore agreed, "They know us, we know them."
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Wisconsin coach Greg Gard is banking on his team's early schedule paying Big Ten dividends.
"I feel much more comfortable having gone through what we've gone through as we head into conference play," confided Gard, listing the challenge of playing Xavier (on the road), Stanford, Oklahoma, Virginia (in the Bahamas) and North Carolina State (at home) in the first seven games.
Tuesday, the Badgers overcame a 12-point second-half deficit to beat the previously undefeated Wolfpack, 79-75, in a Big Ten/ACC Challenge contest. Happ had 19 points and 11 rebounds, D'Mitrik Trice went 4-of-5 from beyond the 3-point arc, Aleem Ford hit four 3s and Davison drew five charges.
There were eight lead changes, six ties and Wisconsin, No. 8 in the inaugural NET rankings (the NCAA Evaluation Tool that has replaced the RPI), led for only 3:42 in a fiercely contested, wildly entertaining November game at the Kohl Center that could have been staged in February or March.
The high energy, full-court pressure that the Badgers faced from NC State was quite a contrast in style and tempo from the "rock fight" that they had with Virginia in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Now, they have a short turnaround to prepare for the Hawkeyes (6-0) who own wins over Oregon, UConn and Pitt.
"You probably have to remind the fans that here we are in November and we're playing a conference game," Gard said of Friday's opener in Iowa City to be followed by Monday night's matchup against Rutgers in Madison. "And, then, we're going to take a timeout (from the Big Ten) for a month."
The next league game is Jan. 3 against Minnesota at the Kohl Center.
"I'm maybe not a fan of how it lays out, but I understand why," Gard said in reference to the Big Ten expanding from 18 to 20 games. "Everyone is in the same boat. Everything is sped up. This is where our non-conference schedule will hopefully help us because we've been in some fist fights."
That would be the best way to describe the Nov. 23 championship game at Paradise Island. Virginia won the slugfest, 53-46, but not before the Badgers put a scare into the No. 4 ranked team in college basketball. It was a good reminder of what the conference season will bring.
"It's a different level of toughness," Happ said. "That's the biggest thing."
Another 𝘮𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘳 opportunity tonight Let's keep seizing these moments #22 Wisconsin at #14 Iowa Tip is set for 7 p.m. on BTN #OnWisconsin // #Badgers
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) November 30, 2018
Trice was raised on it — the Big Ten — in Huber Heights, Ohio. His dad, Travis Trice, Sr., who was his prep coach, played two seasons for Gene Keady at Purdue before transferring to Butler. D'Mitrik's brother, Travis Jr., played four years and scored over 1,000 points for Tom Izzo at Michigan State.
"It's gritty and hardnosed; you really have to be tough to play in the Big Ten," said Trice, a redshirt sophomore. "Obviously, you have the physical aspect. But it's definitely more mental than I thought it was going to be. You have to be strong and tough, but it's a mental game as well."
Nobody knows that better than Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, who appeared in 136 games for the Badgers. At age 31, he would still qualify today as a poster boy for Big Ten toughness. Especially how it's expressed on every possession at both ends of the floor by the successful programs.
As far as transferring from non-conference to conference games, Krabbenhoft insisted, "You can't change your mentality. We try to approach every day, every game the same. At the same time, the elephant in the room is that you're playing for a Big Ten title in November-December.
"That's not something I'm even used to. But that's why we prepare the way we do. We prepare the same, so the moment is never too big. But, hey, there's something on the line here. Especially going on the road. The intensity goes up through the roof. And every possession matters even more."
UW assistant coach Dean Oliver can attest to that fact of conference life.
"Your focus has to be a lot higher, a lot better and your attention to detail has to be better than your opponents," said Oliver, a former All-Big Ten guard at Iowa. "There are so many rivalries within the conference and there are no nights off. Every game is so intense."
That transfers to the fan bases, too.
"The fans tend to show up full-throttle," Oliver said with a wry grin knowing how loud it can get in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. "There's a little more electricity in the building. As a player, you try to treat every game the same, but when the Big Ten starts, there's a little more pep in your step."
Moore knows that feeling as a former Badger player.
"The mindset is different; it's conference play," he said. "It's a little rare to have late November-early December games. At the same time, there's a little more urgency, a little more understanding that you can't let these first two slip away if you want to get off to a good start in the Big Ten."
Urgency is the operative word.
"You're trading two 'buy' games for two more conference games," Gard said of the league's new format. "The biggest thing I've noticed is you have to get the wheels spinning pretty fast here. Usually, we'd be starting a month from now. So, we have to make sure we're firing on all cylinders."
Whether you're playing in Iowa City or Madison, or any other Big Ten city, there's one constant.
"There's a lot more at stake," said Moore, whose excitement level began to rise at the thought of it all. "You're playing for something. There's no such thing as a non-conference championship. But there is a conference championship and we want to make sure that we're ready for that."
