MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Wisconsin didn't respond well at first to the retirement of coach Bo Ryan.
These days, the Badgers are playing like he never left.
Bronson Koenig had 14 points and six assists, Ethan Happ added 12 points and 10 rebounds and Wisconsin won for the 11th time in 12 games with a 62-49 victory over undermanned Minnesota on Wednesday night.
"Coach Ryan built a legacy here. We were in danger early in the season of not living up to that," Happ said.
Vitto Brown pitched in 12 points and six rebounds for Wisconsin (20-10, 12-5 Big Ten), which moved into a tie for second place with No. 2 Michigan State.
"This is an expectation for us, to always be a title contender," Brown said.
Stephon Sharp scored 16 points and Jordan Murphy added 15 for the Gophers (8-21, 2-15), who went 3 for 17 from 3-point range against a Badgers team that's last in the league in 3-point defense.
"You've got your rival in town, you want to have everybody juiced up, and you just didn't have that feel. It's hard when you don't have all the options," said Gophers coach Richard Pitino, who recently suspended guards Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer for the remainder of the season.
Zak Showalter's contested 3-pointer from the corner early in the second half put the Badgers up 47-28, but they coasted a bit against their overmatched rival. Khalil Iverson tried to finish an unabated fast break with a windmill dunk, but the ball slipped out of his hand and went backward like a slingshot to the amusement of everyone but coach Greg Gard, who immediately summoned Jordan Hill to sub for Iverson.
"It showed us what we need to do better, which is close out games and not get complacent when we have a lead like that," Brown said.
Iverson made up for it a little later with a double-pump slam from the baseline that brought a standing roar of approval from the Badgers bench and gave Wisconsin a 51-30 lead.
Murphy guided the Gophers closer down the stretch, but even after a whopping stretch of 8:57 without a field goal for the Badgers, the Minnesota deficit was never smaller than 11 points.
Gard, the interim replacement for his long-time boss Ryan, has coached his way into serious consideration for the job while the Badgers left those ugly nonconference losses behind them. They reached the 12-win mark in Big Ten play for the sixth straight season.
"For those guys to be able to rally and grow and mature as they have is a huge credit to them. We're not in this position without those guys," Gard said.
