The Badger men's basketball team (1-0 overall) cruised to a 77-44 victory against the visiting Penn Quakers in their season opener Saturday night at the Kohl Center. Wisconsin started slowly but eventually extended the nation's third-best home winning streak with ease, winning their 29th consecutive contest in Madison.
UW won with balanced scoring on offense-ten different Badgers scored-and a solid effort on the defensive end. Wisconsin pressed for much of the game, setting a tempo that would keep Penn off balance the whole night. The Badgers covered the Quakers like the ivy covers walls, holding Penn to 31.9 percent shooting and forcing 18 turnovers.
\I thought our guys covered well in transition, finding people,"" said Head Coach Bo Ryan. ""[We were] trying to take them out of any comfort zones that they like to get in because when they are running their stuff it is pretty as you can possibly want to see-and we didn't want to see it.""
Senior forward Mike Wilkinson carried the load on offense with 19 points-all of which he scored in a second-half flurry-and grabbed 11 rebounds. The only other Badger in double digits was promising freshman center Brian Butch who scored 10 points in his first career game.
""My teammates did a wonderful job of getting me the ball in places where I could score,"" Butch said about his debut. ""And that is one thing that makes this team unique is that we all try to get the ball to places where our strengths are.""
UW dominated off the bench, outscoring Penn 31-9, with an eight-point effort from junior forward Ray Nixon and seven more from senior forward Zach Morley. The Badgers also shot 57.1 percent from three-point range draining eight in all-Nixon and Wilkinson a perfect 5-5-and holding the Quakers to just 5-20 from deep.
In an otherwise strong performance, the Badgers strayed from vintage Wisconsin basketball in the turnover department. UW turned the ball over 16 times and had to rely on their defense to hold the Quakers to just five points off those miscues.
""As I've said before, but I guess nobody listens, people talk about depth that we have or the experience that we have, but really there's not that much experience that was out there on the floor,"" Ryan said.
All 11 Badgers in uniform saw minutes, and nine had at least 10 minutes on the floor. With the new full-court press implemented into the Badgers' defensive scheme, players were being substituted at will to keep fresh bodies on the floor. With this revolving door of Badger reserves, players were unable to get comfortable early and find a rhythm on offense as they failed to reach double digits until after the second TV timeout. Despite the early offensive struggle, players insist there are only some first-game jitters and a quality opponent to blame.
""I think maybe a little bit is [that it was] the first game, but Penn is a good team,"" Wilkinson said. ""They do a lot of good things and they make it tough to get open looks and make cuts. That is the reason we love playing teams like that because they really make you work for everything you get.""
