What looked on paper to be the No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers biggest challenge of the season against No. 23 Louisville Cardinals ended up being a blowout from buzzer to buzzer — ending 85-48 for the Badgers.
Wisconsin lit it up early from three point range — senior guard D’Mitrik Trice nailed his first three from the floor, and senior forward Micah Potter hit another to put the Badgers up 14-4 early in the first half, and they never looked back.
Wisconsin ended the game with 16 three’s made on 25 attempts, which came close to the school record 18 three pointers made against Nebraska last year. Trice, and senior guards Brad Davison and Trevor Anderson all had a trio of three’s in the game — and every other regular player for the Badgers except Tyler Wahl hit at least one on the afternoon.
“We have a lot of weapons, it would be difficult to beat us,” Davison said after the game. “We have a lot of guys who can play, and if you try to shut out our guys out down low we have a lot of shooters.”
As impressive as this win over another top 25 team looks on paper, Louisville hadn’t played a competitive game in 18 days coming into Madison, and was without one of their best players, Carlik Jones, due to COVID-19 precautions. The Cardinals instead were led by sophomore David Johnson in scoring, who put up 12 points on a fairly inefficient 5-13 shooting.
“This was one of the most complete games we’ve played all season,” head coach Greg Gard said after the game. “We have a lot of guys who can hurt you a lot of different ways, it makes opponents choose whether to shut down the paint or the three point line — you can’t do both.”
The Badgers were led by Potter, who had 20 points and seven rebounds on the day, including 2-3 from beyond the arc and 4-4 from the charity stripe. Aleem Ford (12), Trevor Anderson (11) and Brad Davison (10) joined Potter in double figures.
Freshman guard Johnny Davis had himself another good day as well, filling his stat sheet with seven points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block in 22 minutes played.
Wisconsin’s ball movement was top-tier as well, with 22 assists on 31 made field goals.
“I feel like we’ve improved and grown every game so far this season, that was the biggest thing for us” Potter said. ”We don’t want to be playing our best basketball [now], we want our best to be in March, so it’s just getting better every game.”
Wisconsin rolled, and there really isn’t much else to say about this one. The Badgers will be back in action Tuesday night against Nebraska to kick off Big Ten play. Tip off is set for 6 p.m..
“We were able to make it through all seven non-confrence games,” Davison said. “Now, we’re excited to go chase a championship.”
