Last year, a hobbled Badger team walked into Florida’s O’Connell Center and were promptly run out of the gym. This year, the tables could be turned.
The Wisconsin men’s basketball team (1-0) will seek redemption against No. 10 Florida tonight at the Kohl Center. The Badgers were physically dominated last season in their visit to Gainesville, losing 74-56 while never threatening to take the lead.
A major reason for last year’s mismatch were the injury problems the Badgers faced, losing junior guard Josh Gasser for the season to a preseason ACL tear and now-graduated forward Mike Bruesewitz to a freak lower leg laceration in practice, knocking him out of action until the season opener.
“Going into that game we had lost Josh a week before, Mike Bruesewitz hadn’t practiced in so long and that was on the road against a very good opponent,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “(Gasser’s) something that we needed. He brings a lot to the arena, to a competitive environment.”
With Wisconsin now at full strength, it is the Gators who will walk into a hostile environment playing less than 100 percent.
Florida senior guard Scottie Wilbekin, junior center Damontre Harris and sophomore forward Dorian Finney-Smith have all been suspended for violating team rules. Additionally, junior guard Eli Carter and senior forward Will Yeguete have seen limited time with leg injuries sustained last season.
All of those players figure to be key cogs for Florida later in the season, and not having them all eligible could create major depth problems.
With that said, it would be foolish to count the Gators out.
Head coach Billy Donovan still figures to be a future Hall of Famer, senior center Patric Young is a very real threat given the Badgers’ interior defense problems exposed at the St. Johns’ game, and Gator freshman guard Kasey Hill is a five-star recruit who will lead a lineup still stocked with other top recruits.
“They always have a lot of good players, so if they’re missing one or two or whatever, it’s not as big a factor as it might be what I’ve seen in other programs,” Ryan said. “(Donovan’s) got a lot of guys who had unbelievable credentials coming out of high school, so they’re always loaded that way.”
The Badgers hope to attack the Gators’ consistency, looking for ways to learn Florida’s strategy from the last game and adjust.
“Last year, we let them do a lot of things that we shouldn’t have let them do,” junior center Frank Kaminsky said. “They run pretty much the same offense so we’ve been looking at film from last year, trying to learn from that.”
The Badgers will be defending a 15-game home opening win streak against Florida, and will do it against a quality opponent, the type of which is rarely seen in today’s early season cupcake scheduling.
“Not very many teams do this. Not many teams open up at home against a top ten opponent. It’s hard in scheduling to do that,” Ryan said. “This isn’t your normal.”
