With preseason over, the Badger men's basketball team puts its 28-game home winning streak on the line as they face the University of Pennsylvania Saturday. Last year's 64-53 season-opening victory against Penn gave the then-No. 15 Badgers a positive jump into the rest of the season.
\It will be a very good first test for us as it was last year,"" Wisconsin assistant coach Greg Gard said. ""It definitely helped us as we progressed through the season.""
The Badgers competed in two preseason games, defeating in-state opponents Division II UW-Parkside 81-42 and D-III UW-Platteville 78-44. Penn will be their first formidable opponent.
Penn performed well in their one preseason NIT game, defeating Quinnipiac 74-60 Tuesday night at the Palestra in Philadelphia. With their win, they advanced to play Providence in Rhode Island Thursday night.
After failing to make the NCAA tournament last year despite a 17-10 record, Penn's streak of three straight seasons with 17 or more wins appears to be in jeopardy since graduation resulted in the loss of three of the team's top five scorers, including all-Ivy League selections guard Jeff Schiffner and center Adam Chubb. Schiffner led the team with 14.4 points per game while Chubb was third, scoring 10.5.
However, the Quakers also return nine letter-winners, including senior all-Ivy League selection guard Tim Begley. Begley finished last season as the Quakers' second highest scorer. His specialty is his behind-the-arc, as he is one of the top three-point shooters in the nation. Begley's 45.6 percent three-point field goal percentage was ninth in the country and he also ranked 23rd in three pointers made, knocking down 3.1 trifectas per game.
Against Quinnipiac, Begley swished four three-pointers, leading the team in treys, total points scored with 22 and rebounds with five.
Also back for the Quakers is the sophomore guard duo of Mark Zoller and Ibby Jaaber, who last year averaged 8.7 and 6.5 points per game, respectively. Zoller scored 11 points against Quinnipiac while Jaaber added nine.
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan knows Penn's offense is young and inexperienced but still focuses on stopping the Quaker's offensive production.
""In some drills, we do things that have the tendencies of Penn,"" Ryan said. ""(We do) pretty much what they do. Their game doesn't change very much, but there are certain actions that you can isolate in a defensive drill.""
If the Badgers, specifically senior forward Mike Wilkinson, can play as well as they did last year against Penn and these past two weeks against UW-Parkside and UW-Platteville, the Quakers will have their hands full. Last year, Wilkinson grabbed 10 total rebounds. Against UW-Parkside he collected 10 rebounds and scored 13 points. Tuesday, he led the Badgers with 15 points against UW-Platteville.
Wilkinson and his team will be well-rested coming into Saturday's game. The Quakers will not be well-rested, due to continued preseason NIT play.
Despite Wisconsin's confidence, the team will surely not overlook its Ivy League opponent. It may even be a benefit that the two teams are similar in youth and inexperience.
""We've tried to prepare for anything we're going to see basketball-wise in terms of different screening situations, different floor spacing, how we're going to handle different actions,"" Gard said. ""They'll be extremely aggressive. They'll be very scrappy. ... They've got some new guys this year, they've got a few guys back from last year.""
They're kind of like we are in terms of they're trying to fit pieces together and we're trying to fit pieces together with having some new faces on the roster,"" Gard said.
Penn has six new faces on the roster this season, including four freshmen and two upperclassmen. Sophomore forwards Ryan Pettinella and Steve Dsanley led the younger crowd with seven and 11 points, respectively on Tuesday.
Though there are doubts regarding the upcoming season, Penn was still picked to finish second in the Ivy League. The Quakers led their league last year with three-point field goal percentage (.397), three pointers per game (8.74), assists per game (16) and scoring margin (+7.9).
However, Penn is weak in turnover ratio and gave the ball away 18 times against Quinnipiac. Wisconsin, on the other hand, took away 23 balls from UW-Platteville while committing only nine turnovers.
Ryan knows his team cannot take Penn for granted and attributes Penn's steady success to its coaching and system.
""Their coach, Fran Dunphy, just does a great job because he has a system. They just figure they're going to out-execute the team that they play,"" Ryan said. ""They're very smart players who make good reads [and] play off of one another well.\
