The No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team is rolling. With a 95-74 win over the Illinois Fighting Illini Tuesday night at the Kohl Center, Wisconsin has now won six straight games and find themselves in position to make a late-season run at the regular season Big Ten title.
Wisconsin is no longer mid-December’s surprise team. Now 21-5 (11-4 Big Ten), the Badgers have proven they are a reckonable force in the Big Ten and beyond. Heading into Tuesday night’s game, Wisconsin expected to beat Illinois, and so did everyone at the Kohl Center. That they did, with a menacing 21-point win.
During their December match-up, Wisconsin looked overwhelmed at times, falling 86-80 in Champaign. But two months later, gunning their high-motor offense down the floor the entire night, Wisconsin left no doubt about who the better team was.
Yes, Illinois came in battered and ill. But that doesn’t diminish the progress the Badgers have made since their visit to Champaign.
“I don’t think we’re the same team we were back then, so I don’t think it really matters if they were sick or healthy,” Forward Steven Crowl said after the game. “I think we were gonna handle business — we’re a different team now, and we showed that tonight.”
Guard John Tonje, fresh off a 32-point outburst at Purdue, continued to enhance his legend, scoring a clean 31 points on 9-15 shooting to propel the Badgers. Crowl scored 18 points on 7-10 shooting and a perfect 3-3 from three, with seven rebounds. Guard John Blackwell added 16 points, shooting 7-15 with six rebounds.
Crowl, who had been quiet offensively heading into Tuesday, proved that he is capable of exploding for 20 points against anyone. And Tonje, with his fourth 30-plus point game of the season and second in a row, has proven his ability to casually score with ease.
“I think they’re one of the top offenses in the country,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said of the Badgers. “They’re just confident, they’re playing great. They’ve got great role identification.”
In the first half, Wisconsin put their lethal offense on display, finding success from a multitude of facets and blazing their way to 47 points on 54%shooting.
Crowl had the most productive first half for the Badgers. With Illinois’ big man Mortez Johnson out with a broken wrist, Crowl scored 12 first-half points, going 4-4 from the field and 2-2 from three.
For the first portion of the game, the battle remained a back-and-forth, tight affair. Nolan Winter scored a quick four points on a pair of cuts through the lane, and Carter Gilmore converted on a three and a lay-up in the first five minutes.
Blackwell then scored six straight points for the Badgers to make the score 19-13 in favor of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin didn’t go on its first run until the 8:43 mark, when a Crowl 3 and a pair of Max Klesmit jumpers stretched Wisconsin’s lead from four to 12. For the next four minutes, Wisconsin kept its lead hovering around the double-digit mark, and Tonje scored eight of the next 10 Wisconsin points.
In the final minutes of the half, Wisconsin connected on three 3-pointers to head into the locker room leading by six, 47-41.
The second half began as the first half ended, with both offenses operating at efficient paces, finding decent looks and trading baskets. But as the half continued, and Illinois failed to put any real dent in their deficit, it began to seem that the Illini were playing the role of a tired puppy-dog who couldn’t keep pace with the racehorse Badgers.
For the rest of the night, Wisconsin, with their home crowd energetic, steadily ran the score up on Illinois.
Currently sitting 1.5 games behind the Michigan Wolverines for first place in the Big Ten, Wisconsin will welcome Oregon to the Kohl Center for an 11 a.m. tip-off on Saturday, as they will look to continue to solidify their place as a top team in the nation.
