The men's basketball team began its season in St. Thomas of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Why then, would the Badgers be thrilled to be back in Madison, Wis.? Why would they rather be stuck in the cold Madison winter instead of the sunny beaches of the Caribbean? Well, the answer is the friendly confines of the Kohl Center.
The Badgers have developed quite a home-court advantage at the Kohl Center. They are 58-3 in home games under head coach Bo Ryan and 31-1 over the past two seasons. That includes a 38-game winning streak that was only snapped when the No. 1 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini came and downed Wisconsin 75-65 last January. The Wisconsin faithful, affectionately named 'The Grateful Red,' play a big role in the advantage. The crowd noise makes for a hostile environment, making the Kohl Center one of the toughest places to play in the nation.
The Badgers will open their home schedule this season by welcoming Coastal Carolina to the Kohl Center Saturday. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are coming off a rough 10-19 season. They will welcome former Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson to help rebuild a program that dominated their conference in the '80s and early '90s.
The team has 10 players that are either freshmen or sophomores. The Chants are young, but luckily for Petersen, the cupboard is not bare. They return the reigning Big South Player of the Year Pele Paelay. Paelay is a 6'4' senior guard who led the conference by scoring 16.8 points per game and finished ninth in rebounding with six boards per game. Six rebounds is an impressive number for a guard. Starting opposite Paelay is the 6'3' sophomore guard Jack Leasure. Leasure averaged 14.5 points per game as a freshman while shooting nearly 43 percent from the three point line. Peterson will need some of his younger players to step up and fill in around his two big guards. Junior forward Adrain Gross, 6'7'. was second on the team with 5.5 boards per game and he will be asked to play a bigger role this season for the Chants.
Fortunately for the Badgers, they match up well with Coastal Carolina's two big guards. The Badgers have gone big so far this season, starting four big men alongside junior guard Kammron Taylor. Junior guard/forward Alando Tucker, 6'5', possesses a unique combination of size, strength and athleticism, which allows him to match up with just about anyone. Tucker comes into the season being named to the All-Big Ten preseason team, averaging 15.2 points and 6.1 boards on 49 percent shooting a year ago.
The junior forward has already started hot. Tucker came up big with a career-high 38 points in the Badgers' 95-89 double overtime victory over Eastern Kentucky in the Virgin Islands.
Wisconsin must replace four starters and five players who played significant minutes for last year's 25-win squad. The biggest lost is probably former captain, Mike Wilkinson. 'Wilk' averaged 14.3 points and 7.4 rebounds last season. His interior toughness and leadership will be sorely missed. The Badgers will look to Tucker and their lone starting guard, Kammron Taylor, for some leadership. Taylor was third on the team in scoring, with 8.4 points per game, but he played especially well toward the end of the season. Taylor has been criticized in the past for his shot selection. He had 69 turnovers to just 56 assists a year ago. He will have to do a good job running the offense if the Badgers are to be successful. The Badger coaching staff has showed tons of confidence in Taylor's ability to run the team by starting him along with four other big men, and he looks to be up to the challenge.
Coach Ryan is looking for sophomore center Brian Butch to make up for the loss of Wilkinson's interior toughness. Butch came to Madison highly touted after being named a McDonald's All-American in high school. He decided to delay the start of his collegiate career by redshirting during the 2003-2004 season. Last year, Butch started strong, providing interior toughness and intensity off the bench. He caught mono in the middle of the season, and his minutes and production were limited for the rest of the season. Everyone is expecting big things out of Butch this season. The Appleton native started strong, scoring 24 points, grabbing seven boards and dishing out four assists as the Badgers rolled over Norfolk State on Friday.
Gone from Madison are the slow, methodical teams of Dick Bennett. This team is young, but they are proably the most athletic team UW has ever seen. These Badgers can fly. The task for Ryan will be to teach his young squad to play within his conservative but efficient system. If past success is indicative of the future, the Badgers are in good hands with Bo. He has won 77 percent of his games throughout his 21-year career and in just four seasons, he has turned Wisconsin into a Big Ten power that has begun to make noise on the national scene.
