Facing its first real test of the young season, No. 22 Wisconsin came out slow and never gained much speed, turning a quick 9-0 deficit into a 74-56 loss to No. 10 Florida in Gainesville, Fla., Wednesday.
While the Badgers (1-1 overall) did eventually pull within two points midway through the first half, the Gators (2-0) never slowed down, putting up 43 points in the first half on an astounding 18-of-24 shooting. Florida senior forward Erik Murphy led the charge, making all 10 of his shots en route to a career-high 24 points to go along with 8 rebounds.
Having to play their first ranked opponent since the season-ending injury to projected starting junior guard Josh Gasser, the Badgers seemed unable to stop penetration by the Gator guards. Though star senior guard Kenny Boynton had an up-and-down night, redshirt senior guard Mike Rosario seemed to be getting to the basket every possession. The Jersey City, N.J., native finished with 15 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds while playing point guard most of the night.
Despite returning all three starters in the frontcourt, Wisconsin was manhandled on the rebounding front as well. While the raw numbers were impacted somewhat by the disparity in shooting, Wisconsin consistently allowed the Gators to get second-chance looks, ultimately getting outrebounded 40-21 and allowing Florida to capitalize with 12 second-chance points off nine offensive rebounds.
For a team that led the nation last year in scoring defense (53.2 points per game), Wisconsin’s effort on the defensive end was uncharacteristic to say the least. Though many have focused on replacing Gasser’s scoring, the real impact of the injury is already being felt on the defensive end. Without arguably the best perimeter defender in the country (sorry, Aaron Craft is too handsy), the Badgers are forced to slide either redshirt freshman George Marshall or junior Ben Brust into the top defender spot, a position that neither appears ready to take hold of at the moment.
Last season, only two teams broke the 70-point mark against the Badgers, one of those being in a Wisconsin victory over Indiana in the Big Ten tournament. The Gators broke that mark with ease Wednesday night, never allowing Wisconsin to even sniff the lead after that initial first-half run.
Although UW doesn’t figure to see much more of it, the 2-3 zone employed by Florida forced the Badgers to settle for long jumpers that just weren’t going down Wednesday. After handling a similar scheme in last season’s NCAA Tournament defeat at the hands of top-seeded Syracuse, Wisconsin took a step backward in Gainesville. The Badgers shot just over 35 percent from the field (21-of-59) and were just 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from beyond the arc. By forcing 20 Gator turnovers, UW took 17 more shots than Florida, but failed to capitalize, making five less than Florida at the end of the day.
If there was a bright spot for Wisconsin in the otherwise tough night, it was freshman forward Sam Dekker. The highly touted wing out of Sheboygan Lutheran High School gave the Badgers some much-needed offensive production off the bench, finishing with 11 points, three rebounds and three assists.
Facing his first ranked opponent, it was clear that Dekker wasn’t afraid to be aggressive on the offensive end.
Having gotten their wakeup call, the Badgers now must respond when they face Cornell at the Kohl Center Sunday, kicking off the “regional” rounds of the Las Vegas Invitational.
With just over a week until Wisconsin faces its next ranked opponent (No. 15 Creighton), the Badgers’ next two games will be crucial in getting the train back on the tracks and avoiding an early season skid.
