3 instant takeaways from Wisconsin's opening night victory against Denver

The Wisconsin Badgers took care of business in their season and home opener, defeating Denver 75-68. The Badgers' win was a little too close for comfort at times, but in the end, the core five of Owen Foxwell, Braeden Carrington, Nolan Winter, Austin Rapp and Eian Elmer were able to figure it out and pull out the win.

Slow starts shouldn't be too much of a concern for Wisconsin fans, but nonetheless, there was plenty to take away, both positive and negative.

Depth may be an issue

Coming into this one, there were real questions as to how well the second unit could supplement the first in Madison. One game in, those questions are far from answered, and one could argue the needle is moving in the opposite direction.

The Badgers' second unit was far from great, as Jack Janicki was the only player to truly come off the bench — Rapp played starter minutes — to play more than five minutes. Typically, early games like this are a time for teams like Wisconsin to run a deep lineup and see what they have.

Wisconsin, however, had to rely almost entirely on seven guys in the second half, which isn't exactly an encouraging glimpse of how things will go when competition ramps up.

Wisconsin has some dudes

Despite the second-half blundering, Wisconsin's first unit held it down. Foxwell was the leader of the pack, finishing with 14 points and seven assists, while Elmer and Carrington packed a scoring punch, finishing with 15 and 18, respectively.

For Winter, it wasn't exactly his best shooting night, converting on just three of his 10 shot attempts. But 14 rebounds, four assists and three stocks help make up for what he lacked as a scorer. Rapp and Onuetu played their part as well, although they were far from the best versions of themselves.

Someone has got to guard

One of the driving factors behind why Denver was able to stay in this game for as long as it did was the play of Carson Johnson. The guard finished with 27 points, two assists and three steals, consistently being an issue for Wisconsin on both ends of the floor.

Janicki and Elmer split the defensive assignment on Johnson for the most part, and neither was able to do much to limit him. The Badgers knew coming in that he was going to be a problem if they let him get hot, so seeing him assert his will the way he did was disheartening.

Nonetheless, it's a one-game sample, and much could change moving forward. It's still early, but there are already plenty of reasons for optimism and concern in Madison.

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