Wisconsin Badger basketball continued their down under trip as they played the New Zealand Breakers for the second time. Bucky will travel to play three games in Australia starting on Friday night.
The Wisconsin Badger basketball team concluded the second game on its five-game trip. Multiple players got minutes in a 87-53 win over the Breakers.
Wisconsin Badger basketball coach Greg Gard switched up the lineup. Brevin Pritzil was the only carry over from game one’s starting lineup. Pritzl was joined by freshman guard Brad Davison, junior forward Andy Van Vliet, redshirt forward Aleem Ford and junior forward Charles Thomas IV.
According to the Badgers athletic page, Gard was going to experiment with the lineup using different personnel combinations. That is what these trips are for. It gives the coaching staff a chance to see how certain guys play with each other.
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Starting Pritzil again signal that Gard wants him to keep shooting. Wisconsin knows how well Pritzil can shoot the ball. They need to get that from the redshirt sophomore this year.
Davison joined Pritzil this time around in the backcourt as he had a nice 13 points off the bench in the first game. It wouldn’t be surprising to see those two on the floor at the same time during the 2017-18 season.
Van Vliet made the most out of his start as he knocked down all three of his triples and led all scorers with 14 points.
Speaking of knocking down three-pointers, the Badgers did connect on 15 of them as many players contributed to that total. Obviously that’s a big number and if this were a game against Michigan State or Maryland, that would be the topic of discussion.
Box score stats
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) August 17, 2017
FG Pct:
UW .493
NZ .297
3FGs:
UW 15-27 (.556)
NZ 3-21 (.143)
This was an exhibition game being played in August so the biggest takeaway has to be the rotation. Of note, it’s nice to see a new big man connecting from long range for the Badgers.
The key to most Badger victories during the season is when the teams comes out relaxed. Gard certainly touched on that fact as the team raced out to an early 11-0 run to start the game.
"I thought we could make some monumental jumps from game one to game two. That was really the challenge to the players, that we’ve got to be better tonight than we were two days ago. For the most part we were."
Despite not starting, D’Mitrik Trice still found himself in double digit scoring as he totaled 12 points while knocking down two from behind-the-arc.
Once again I understand that these are exhibition games being played in August. But if there’s anything to draw from, it would certainly be that Trice is on his way to becoming a consistent leader for this Badger team.
https://twitter.com/BadgerMBB/status/898227577751568389
Wisconsin saw production from two freshmen. Kobe King and Nate Reuvers both dropped nine points. King has been the biggest talk from this recruiting class. It was good to see him among the leading scorers in a blowout win.
Reuvers has the higher overall grade on espn.com. From the sounds of it, could create match up problem for opponents.
15 of the 17 Badgers that played all recorded points which is a big time stat when it comes to having these guys get a feel for game-like action.
Some of the players seeing playing time on this trip most likely wont see a whole lot or even none at all after the first of the year, but at least they’re getting a good feel to what it’s like being a Badger basketball player.
King was one of the guys who was interviewed for the story on the athletic web page. It’s good to see a freshman, with as much hype as King, being talked to and having good things to say. He also talked highly of playing with his new teammates::
"We all trust each other and we all trust our talent, so if you have an open shot, we’re all confident to knock it down and let it fly"
A few players saw some garbage time minutes and one was Trevor Anderson, the sophomore transfer guard from UW-Green Bay who will have to sit out this season, but still has three years of eligibility left.
I had to find a way to get a plugin for Anderson. We’re both Stevens Point natives and graduates of the same high school.
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Joining Anderson was redshirt freshman guard Michael Ballard, junior guard Matt Ferris and freshman guard Walt McGrory. Anderson and Ballard both knocked down two three-pointers. Ferris and McGrory both tallied one.