The Wisconsin Badgers started off their season (unofficially) with a win, beating the UW-River Falls Falcons 78-62 in an exhibition game on Wednesday, preparing themselves for the season opener next Monday against Holy Cross.
It was an intriguing game, as the Badgers started off slow before pouring in 40 points by halftime, thanks to quality three-point shooting. However, said shooting struggled in the second half, leading to a much closer contest than expected before Wisconsin ultimately pulled away for the win.
Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 78-62 win over UW-River Falls on Wednesday.
Rotations
While it was an exhibition game, it was rather interesting to see all the rotations that head coach Greg Gard put out there, beginning with his starting lineup.
Max Klesmit, John Blackwell, John Tonje, Nolan Winter, and Steven Crowl were the first five to take the court, with Gard going to a lineup with more size, rather than having a traditional point guard. Back in the preseason, this was the lineup I thought fared the best, as Klesmit and Blackwell both had the ability to initiate the offense, while this group had both more size and scoring.
Kamari McGee took the first minutes off the bench, as he and forward Markus Illver were the first subs for Wisconsin. Illver’s usage was more of a surprise, as the Badgers did bring in transfer forward Xavier Amos, but it had been an open battle during the preseason, and the decision proved to be a good one.
Illver came in and made a major impact in just three minutes of action, hitting two threes, grabbing an offensive rebound, and hitting a hook shot for a team-high eight points at the half.
Amos spelled Illver afterward at the forward spot, putting together a strong four minutes of his own with a catch-and-shoot three and a nice assist to Nolan Winter for a backdoor dunk.
Winter took all of the backup center minutes in the first half with Crowl off the court, playing 14 total minutes in the period.
At the guard spot, McGee and Daniel Freitag ran together with the twos first, while Wisconsin rolled out a variety of three-guard lineups throughout the game. Camren Hunter came into the game with eight minutes left in the half as the third guard off the bench, while Jack Janicki ended up coming in shortly after.
Wisconsin ultimately went 12 deep in the first half, but didn’t rotate in any of their backup centers, potentially suggesting their readiness level at the current moment.
Looking into the second half, the Badgers cut down their rotation a bit more, going with Carter Gilmore, Jack Janicki, and Kamari McGee as the primary backups as they slowly pulled away with the win on Wednesday.
But, this team is deep, and the exhibition showed that, with the Badgers rolling deep into both their guard and forward depth, which presents some challenges for head coach Greg Gard ahead of the season.
Transfers roles
One of the bigger questions heading into the season was what roles the three transfers would have for the Badgers.
John Tonje had been one of the team’s top scorers in the preseason, but it was unclear whether he’d earn a starting spot over Kamari McGee, who would provide the top unit with more of a true point guard.
Nonetheless, Tonje earned the start, and looked for his shot early and often against UW-River Falls, shooting 3/11 from the field and 1/7 from three. Tonje had a ton of open looks, but wasn’t connecting at his normal rate on Wednesday from deep.
Additionally, the wing looked to attack and either force fouls or get kickouts to teammates, using his physicality to get into the lane. He ended up with nine free throw attempts, hitting eight of them to end with a team-high 15 points.
Xavier Amos was the second forward off the bench behind Markus Illver, working as a stretch four with either Steven Crowl or Nolan Winter as the five. He had a productive first stint, hitting a catch-and-shoot three early in the shot clock, showing off his confidence. He also had a nice assist to a backdoor cutting Winter for a dunk on a good play design.
But, Amos only saw four minutes of action in the first half and didn’t come into the game in the second half until the 3:58 mark, suggesting that he’s a bit further down the depth chart, with Illver and Carter Gilmore getting more of the power forward minutes.
Camren Hunter was the 11th player to enter the game in the first half, subbing in with eight minutes left in the period as the third guard off the bench behind Kamari McGee and Daniel Freitag.
Hunter saw three minutes of action, working predominantly in an off-ball role, and hit a corner three on his lone shot attempt of the half. He did not play in the second half until the 1:52 mark, with McGee, Freitag, and Jack Janicki getting the backup guard minutes behind starters Max Klesmit and John Blackwell.
Tonje’s role seems pretty clear as one of Wisconsin’s primary shot-takers. But, the roles of Amos and Hunter are less defined heading into the year, and it’ll be interesting to see how they factor in when head coach Greg Gard cuts down his rotation as the year goes along.
Barrage of threes
If it wasn’t clear, Wisconsin is looking to be a three-point shooting team this year.
Despite facing a UW-River Falls team that didn’t have a single player taller than 6’8, the Badgers shot 18 threes in the first half, which accounted for 62 percent of their shots in the period.
Now, a ton of the threes were open catch-and-shoot opportunities off good passes or drives, but the Badgers were openly hunting those chances. John Tonje led the way with four attempts in the first half, while John Blackwell and Markus Illver had three each in the opening period.
Overall, the Badgers shot 7/18 from deep in the opening period, leading to 40 points in the first half.
In the second half, Wisconsin hunted the three yet again, but it came with much less success initially. The Badgers started the period really slow, shooting 2/8 from the field over the first five minutes, with seven of those attempts coming from deep. Wisconsin only made one of those shots, which allowed UW-River Falls to climb back into the game, even cutting the deficit to just three at one point.
Wisconsin did settle down more as the second half went along, looking inside during the next stretch, as only two of their next nine shots came from deep. Steven Crowl started to get going here, getting seven points over a stretch, which allowed the Badgers to begin pulling away.
Overall, the Badgers ended the night shooting 11/32 from deep, with over 50 percent of their shots coming from three-point range.
With a lot of talent coming from the guards and wings, it seems like Wisconsin is going to let it rip from deep this year and live with both the good and the bad.
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