MILWAUKEE—When Wisconsin’s run in the NCAA tournament comes to an end, so will Ben Brust’s career as a Badger.
But if the senior guard and the Badgers keep playing like they did Thursday, it might be a couple weeks before that happens.
No. 2 seed Wisconsin cruised to a 75-35 victory over the No. 15 seed American Eagles in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
Junior guard Traevon Jackson led all scorers with 18 points and Brust added 17 of his own.
Playing just 90 minutes from the UW-Madison campus, Wisconsin fed off the electric atmosphere and treated the pro-Badger crowd to a thoroughly dominating postseason performance.
“We’ve got such loyal fans and they do a great job. They come and fill out the Bradley Center here in Milwaukee,” sophomore forward Sam Dekker said. “It's great to have them come and support us.”
The 40-point win not only set the UW postseason record for largest margin of victory, but was also the third-largest win by a Big Ten school in NCAA tournament history.
Even though the Badgers ended up winning the game handily, it didn’t appear to be headed in that direction early in the first half.
Behind junior guard Jordan Schoof’s eight points, the Eagles jumped out to a 17-10 lead just over 10 minutes into the game.
However, Wisconsin stayed calm and came storming back, ending the half on a 22-5 run to take a 32-22 lead into the locker room.
“Against a team like that, the more you freak out, you know, try to play possessions ahead of yourself and being patient, they're going to really work you,” Dekker said. “So, we just had to stay disciplined and do what we do.”
Brust in particular was instrumental to the offense’s success during the run, scoring 11 points in the final nine minutes of the first half.
He made four shots behind the arc in the game, leaving him just three shy of the UW record for most career 3-pointers, a record currently held by Tim Locum (227).
But it was the two 3-pointers that he hit midway through the first half that were by far his biggest. Those shots helped spark the Wisconsin offense and brought the crowd to their feet.
“Once everyone sees one go down, it kind of spreads and everyone started hitting a couple,” Brust said.
UW continued that momentum, going on a 28-3 run to start the second half and essentially putting the game away.
The Badgers were firing on all cylinders on offense against the Eagles, including from the free-throw line. As a team, they went 13-for-14 from the charity stripe, setting a program record for highest free throw percentage (92.9 percent) in an NCAA tournament game.
Overall, Wisconsin outscored American 65-18 over the final 29 minutes after trailing in the early going.
“In a half, you don't get flustered, you don't get down. You just stay the task,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “We've got some really smart guys. We've got some tough guys. So I think they've handled it well when we've gotten behind.”
As impressive as the Badgers were on offense against the Eagles, they played equally well on defense.
Despite concerns from some that American’s Princeton-style offense, which focuses on backdoor cuts and 3-pointers, might pose a problem for UW, they had little trouble shutting the Eagles down.
Wisconsin held American to just 29.7 percent shooting (11-for-37) for the game, including 15.8 percent (3-for-19) in the second half.
In addition, the Badgers forced 19 turnovers to hold the Eagles to a season-low 35 points (13 in the second half).
Ryan felt that much of his team’s defensive success could be attributed to the experience they had playing against former Northwestern coach Bill Carmody’s teams.
Under Carmody, the Wildcats also ran a Princeton-style offense.
“Fortunately for us, we felt defensively we could do a decent job against the Princeton offense because of the Northwestern teams of old,” Ryan said. “So, other than Nigel [Hayes] and Bronson [Koenig] of that first group, everybody else had faced the Princeton offense.”
The Badgers will get to play one more game at the Bradley Center, facing off against Oregon Saturday.
But unlike their game against American, Wisconsin won’t have ample time to prepare for their next opponent.
“When we play this game Saturday, in no way will we have the same number of hours with our players on the court to teach them things that we can do to help us Saturday,” Ryan said. “It's going to have to be fast, and our guys are going to have to be quick learners.”
