Column: Scouting the Badgers

Scouting Wisconsin

Head coach
Bo Ryan, 11th season

Leading scorer
Senior guard Jordan Taylor, 14.1 ppg

Leading rebounder
Junior guard/forward Ryan Evans, 6.6 rpg

Best win
Home against No. 15 UNLV, 62-51

Worst loss
Home against Iowa, 72-65

What they do well
Defense. The Badgers are giving up the least amount of points in all of Division I.
Opponents are averaging just 49.6 points against Wisconsin.

What needs work
Scoring. Bo Ryan’s squad is averaging 65.6 points per game, 10th in the Big Ten.

Projected starters

Indiana
G Jordan Hulls 12.4 points per game
G Verdell Jones III 7.7
G Victor Oladipo 10.5
F Christian Watford 12.6
F Cody Zeller 15.1

Nebraska
G Jordan Taylor 14.1 points per game
G Josh Gasser 7.7
G/F Ryan Evans 9.7
F Mike Bruesewitz 6.5
F Jared Berggren 11.0

My take
Just because Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan sticks to the same philosophy every year doesn’t mean it has become any easier to stop or any less effective.

Ryan’s brand of slow, defense-heavy basketball has beaten the Hoosiers eight straight times and rendered IU winless in Madison. IU hasn’t won in Kohl Center since Jan. 25, 1998.
T
onight, the Big Ten’s highest-scoring offense takes on the country’s best defense.
There are two keys to a Hoosier victory: First, IU cannot get bogged down in the down-tempo style in which the Badgers thrive. The Hoosiers’ offense needs to be drawn from easy transition buckets, as opposed to drawn-out half court possessions.

On defense, IU Coach Tom Crean’s team cannot allow Wisconsin senior guard Jordan Taylor to have a game like he did last season in Bloomington, when he scored 39 points in a Badger victory. Taylor is the catalyst to the Badgers’ offense, as he has scored at least 12 points in every game since December.

If the Hoosiers carry the same high level of play they displayed in the second half of the Penn State win into the Kohl Center, this could be a very close game.
However, I think IU will drop its third straight road game, losing to the Badgers in Madison.