BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — At the start of Thursday's season-opening practice, if Wisconsin coach Greg Gard were to line up his players on one baseline and roll a basketball to the other baseline with the understanding that the first one to corral the ball would earn playing time, what would it look like?
Gard answered the hypothetical with two words.
"Mosh pit," he said.
Competitive fire and depth are music to his ears these days.
"There are a lot of opportunities for people," he said, "and our practices are going to be extremely competitive just because of the bodies that are back and the experience that has been attained. There's only 200 minutes to hand out each game and we'll let them sort it out and fight over it."
With the proverbial chip on their shoulder after missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in two decades, the Badgers will be banking on the return of D'Mitrik Trice and Kobe King from injuries and the availability of Trevor Anderson who sat out last season after transferring from UW-Green Bay.
In concert with these additions, they will be counting on Ethan Happ's low-post presence, Brad Davison's grittiness, Khalil Iverson's defensive versatility, Brevin Pritzl's perimeter scoring, Aleem Ford's and Nate Reuvers' growth spurts and Charles Thomas' and Alex Illikainen's physicality.
There are many pieces to the puzzle.
"Once practice starts, it's going to be a dog fight every day just to get back to where Wisconsin basketball was, and that's healthy," said Anderson, who started 20 games as a Green Bay freshman before going to the sidelines for the remainder of the 2016-17 season with a back injury.
"We have a better understanding from last year. I know we were really young with a lot of guys getting thrown in the fire. We got our butts kicked a couple of times that forced a lot of people to grow up mentally, emotionally and physically. We're hungrier than ever right now."
Nobody epitomizes that hunger more than Davison, the precocious guard who won over Badger fans with his heart and hustle. When practices get under way, he will be cleared for full-contact for the first time since having off-season shoulder surgery. Davison has been counting the days.
"I just want to go out there and compete again," he said. "We're going to kind of find our identity in these next four weeks — seeing where all the pieces fall into place because we do have a lot of pieces. We have a lot of talent coming back, and it's young experience, which goes a long way.
"A lot was made of the (NCAA tourney) streak ending. It's kind of in our rearview mirror. But it's definitely another source of motivation. We have a sour taste in our mouth that no other recent Wisconsin team has had. We look at that as an opportunity — we'll use it as fuel and let it light our fire."
By the sounds of it, the competition for minutes will stoke those flames.
"One of the big things is the competitive spirit of everybody," said Trice, who started the first 10 games last season before injuring his foot and taking a medical redshirt. "There's always someone who can fill your spot, so you have to come with you're 'A' game every day."
As far as answering some questions before the Nov. 6 opener vs. Coppin State, Trice said, "I hope the toughness is there, the mentality that we ended last season with. If it carries over, if that happens, we'll get progressively better and become the team that we know that we can be."
Happ knows what he wants to see from Day One.
"First and foremost, I want to see the energy be at an extremely high level in that first practice," stressed Happ, who's on the brink of rewriting the UW record book. "This summer, I felt a lot of guys took a big leap and that confidence is going to be a key through the first month and preseason.
"The biggest change is just the confidence in those younger guys. Last year they were a little timid. It will be awhile to determine the starting lineup and who's coming off the bench. But it's important to see who's going to work the hardest, who we can count on every single day."
He then asked, "Who's going to respond best to adversity? When you don't want to get down in a stance or dive for a ball when your body is hurting, I want to see who's going to continuously do that now because that's foreshadowing who's going to do that in late February and March."
• • • •
During the off-season, Gard reviewed every facet of his program.
But he does so every year. Business as usual.
"When you don't get to where you wanted to get to, you understand that there are reasons behind it," he said. "Regardless of the result, you peel back the layers, 'Okay, where can we make improvement?'
"I also made sure that the players understand that there's a reason why your windshield is 96 times bigger than your rearview mirror. You have to concentrate on going forward. We've learned from what happened in the past. We evaluate, we adjust, and we make ourselves better from it."
Gard was encouraged by the off-season results in the weight room.
"They're bigger, they're stronger," he said. "Now we've got to use what we learned last year — use the improvements they've made physically and with their games — and we have to build on it and put ourselves in a position to be better this year."
Reuvers, a 6-11 forward from Lakeville, Minnesota, made the greatest gains. At a listed weight of 215 pounds, he was overmatched against more mature, physical opponents. Still, he battled for every inch on the floor and wound up starting 15 of the final 18 games. He's now up to 240.
"We knew physically that he wasn't swinging a big enough hammer, now he's got a bigger one; he's gotten so much bigger and he looks the part," Gard said. "The experience of getting knocked around a little bit has helped him. He can play more physically because of his added strength and size."
Although he shot only 25 percent from the 3-point arc (12-of-47), Reuvers has some range.
"He's more consistent now from the perimeter," said Gard, who has experience overseeing the development of stretch-4's. "When you have a young big guy, it's not only strength but it's stamina. The gas in your tank runs out a lot quicker than a smaller guy because you're exerting so much energy."
Ford, a 6-8 wing from Lawrenceville, Georgia, has also reshaped his body.
"When you see him walk in the room and look at him from last year to this year, you see that he's taken a very noticeable step," Gard said of Ford, a 20-game starter. "He's over 220 and he probably played in the low 200's. He has an appearance and swagger about him that he knows he belongs."
While Trice and King were going through injury rehab, they both also put on more muscle.
"I'm kind of maturing into a Big Ten point guard body," said the 6-foot, 187-pound Trice.
Gard has taken notice of his "physical transformation" and what Trice can deliver.
"You go back and look at some of the plays that he made early last year," he said. "Just that ability to have a little zip with the ball was something that helped us in situations before he got hurt. And it was something that we drastically missed when he was out. He has an extra gear with the ball."
King is trying to get back to where he was last December when Gard noted, "He was just starting to hit his stride." Before injuring his knee, and qualifying for a medical redshirt, King came off the bench in the first 10 games and averaged nearly 20 minutes.
"Every week you see him taking another step and knocking a little bit of the rust off," Gard said. "He had been bubble-wrapped for so long in the rehab process that the first time he had contact, he got knocked down and fell on his knee, and it took him a little bit to realize, 'Hey, I'm okay.'
"That was a turning point for him. Now we have to try to expedite his growth."
King can play multiple positions, a sign of the evolving times.
"I like multi-dimensional guys who can do a lot of things," Gard said. "The more multi-dimensional you are, the more versatile we become as a team.
"There are going to be lineups where we can play bigger, play a little more jumbo. There's going to be lineups for games and scenarios where we're going to have to play a little bit smaller. Part of it will be driven by competition and what is needed. Part of it will be what we see on the floor in the fall."
In this context, Iverson's value is enhanced because he can guard multiple positions.
"He's understanding his role in that we need him to be that lockdown defensive guy," Gard said. "He got more and more comfortable and embraced that at the end of last year. He has the ability to guard the 1, 2, 3 and the 4. And he can create offensively from his defense and rebounding."
Pritzl, a 21-game starter who averaged 10.9 points per game over the final eight contests, offers an outside threat, some versatility and grit on the glass.
"I like the confidence he plays with right now," said Gard. "I see him having a more consistent approach which has led to more consistent results. He has put a lot of time into his conditioning, he's tightened things up (physically), he's leaner. He has just taken steps."
Meanwhile, Anderson is one of Gard's wildcards in the backcourt.
"He's going to make life interesting, he already has," said Gard, alluding to his work on the scout team last season. "Now he's got a chance to do it when it counts. The two words I use with him are competitor and winner. He just competes every day at everything that he does, and he wins.
"He's a lot like Brad (Davison) in terms of his mindset — he's constantly coming at you. He made us better last year in practice. There's no doubt he stirred the pot. By nature, he's a point guard. He likes the ball in his hands. He's very aggressive. But he's a little different than the other guys handling it."
On whether he has envisioned using Trice, Davison and Anderson on the floor at the same time, Gard said, "We could have a combination of two of the three. I don't know about all three, but maybe. We'll see how all the pieces fit together. Some of it depends on what happens at the 4.
"Do you play big? Do you play versatile? Do you play small?"
Do you play Davison as the off-guard? Yes.
"There's probably nobody happier to have more point guards available than Brad," Gard said. "I know he likes playing more off the ball, he's naturally more comfortable. It frees him up to do a lot more things. But we can put the ball in his hands, too. I can play Trice a little bit at the 2 if I need to.
"The ability to play more ball-handlers is there."
Gard knows that Davison will do whatever is asked of him.
"His finger prints are all over the leadership component of this group," he said. "He has done a great job bridging the gap between the older and younger guys. His voice resonated in the locker room last year and he has continued to grow. He's very good at communicating."
Gard then acknowledged the obvious: Davison is one of the team's "mainstays." So is Happ.
"We'll look at some things with moving Ethan around in different situations," Gard said. "By just surrounding him with guys who are another year older, we can take some of the pressure off him. I don't want him to feel like he has to do it every possession all the time.
"But we're going to still play through him a lot. He's a huge piece in what we do. But we're in a position where other guys can carry a heavier load."
Happ — who is just 125 rebounds from becoming 10th player in Big Ten history with 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds — is ready to pull his weight in whatever capacity.
"I'm trying to come in with a more steady, positive attitude than last year; I had some ups and downs," he admitted. "Remembering how much toughness and togetherness it took to string those wins in a row at the end of the season is definitely something that we're not going to forget about."
The Badgers upset Purdue at the Kohl Center and won four of their last six games, a stretch that included a 5-point and 3-point loss to Michigan State. That momentum carried into the off-season. Looking ahead to the start of practice, Happ said, "Having all our pieces back is going to help."
Two pieces, Illikainen and Thomas, are now seniors along with Happ and Iverson.
"They both had pretty good summers, Charlie specifically," said Gard, adding that it will be up to Illikainen and Thomas to establish their roles. "A lot of it will be line-up dependent — if we're in more physical games. And we'll hit some of those teams early with how the non-conference schedule lays out.
"We're going to be tested and that's what you want. We'll have some very good measuring sticks to tell us where we are, and where we need to go."
Gard is ready to get back on the practice floor with his players and start anew. "They have a chip on their shoulder, there is an edge to them," he said. "They're ready to get started."
