BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. – During the half-court drill, center Steven Crowl was matched against 35-year-old Joe Krabbenhoft who's entering his seventh season as a Badger assistant coach, his first as associate head coach. A one-time UW power forward, the 6-7 Krabbenhoft still knows his way around the post.

"Just an old man trying to hammer home a point in a certain drill," he reasoned afterwards.

In this case, it was a fundamental teaching exercise: Crowl and the defense getting the ball out of Krabbenhoft's hands, out of the post, thereby preventing an action to the rim, while still not giving up an open 3-pointer on a Krabbenhoft kick-out to the wing. "It's a fine line," Krabbenhoft acknowledged.

But it was quickly evident that Crowl was better equipped physically to handle the contact in the paint than he was last season. It was something that Krabbenhoft later confirmed, "You can feel him – his upper body. His base has always been good. But he's finally got a little more to him."

Crowl looks thicker on top. More importantly, he feels stronger. Through better nutrition and diligent weight training, he has added 10 pounds to his 7-foot frame during the offseason. His weight has steadily increased from a listed 217 as a frosh to 235 last year to the 245 that he's carrying now.

"He's heavier in a good way," Krabbenhoft said. "He's stronger, he's more explosive. He has really focused on his eating habits and his time with Coach (Jim) Snider in the weight room. It's the normal evolution. You get a little older, you get a little more in-tune with your body and what it takes.

"He had some success. He did some good things. But he got knocked around a little bit, too. So now he knows how important that time in the weight room is and you can tell that he took it seriously. He has improved in just about every aspect of the game with his body."

Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard amplified on that theme, Crowl's development.

"It's not just the weight – strength is important – but it's the confidence that comes with being bigger," he said. "He feels good about himself physically. He can impose himself in the post. He has been hard to handle in terms of when he gets position (on the block).

"He's so skilled. Rewinding even to two years ago, when he didn't play very much during the cardboard cutout year (COVID), he was just so calm … It was hard to get him rattled. And when he was on the scout team, we'd try to trap him in a variety of ways.

"He'll be an integral part for us offensively. Maybe not resulting in the number of shots and points. But utilizing his skill set at 7-foot – how good of a passer he is, how good of a feel for the game he has. And obviously he can shoot it.

"But the confidence I've seen grow is because he's bigger, stronger. He likes my saying, 'Be the windshield. Not the bug.' He has been the bug for the last year and one-half or so. Now he's starting to control the paint on both ends of the floor."

There was nothing complicated about putting on the pounds. "Just being in there," said Crowl pointing to the Kohl Center weight room, "and just eating a lot was the key for me. But that's the thing with weight gain, it doesn't come immediately. You've got to trust that it's going to come eventually."

Crowl eliminated some things from his diet. He cut out soda and most fast food. "I've started eating healthier whether it's just having chicken or eating in my apartment," said Crowl who's living on his own this year. "I have a kitchen to myself, so I try to make different things."

As far as handling the additional weight, he said, "I'm just getting used to it a little bit. I can feel it right now just in trying to get your body in condition carrying that much more weight up and down the court. But I think it's really helped so far. I feel it mostly in the low post – being able to move guys."

Whether posting up or playing post defense or boxing out, he feels the difference. But how much of a difference will it make in the Big Ten? With the emphasis on the Big. Lindy's Sports College Basketball magazine is now on the newsstand with its all-conference teams for the 2022-23 season.

The Big Ten first team is made up of Iowa's Kris Murray (6-8, 225), Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis (6-9, 245), Purdue's Zach Edey (7-4, 290), Michigan's Hunter Dickinson (7-1, 260) and Rutgers Clifford Omoruyi (6-11, 240). Technically, there are four centers, one forward, zero guards. Big on Big.

"Doesn't it seem like it's an every year type of thing, though?" Krabbenhoft posed.

Illinois' Kofi Cockburn (7-0, 285), Purdue's Trevion Williams (6-10, 265), Michigan's Moussa Diabate (6-11, 210), Michigan State's Marcus Bingham (7-0, 230), Northwestern's Ryan Young (6-10, 240), Penn State's John Harrar (6-9, 240) and Wisconsin's Chris Vogt (7-0, 260) have moved on.

But the returning mix upfront is still impressive headed by Jackson-Davis who was selected as the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year by a league media panel. Dickinson, Edey and Omoruyi were named to the All-Conference team, along with two Badgers, Tyler Wahl and Chucky Hepburn.

Sizing up the size and experience on the low block – notably how the respective teams tend to play offensively through Jackson-Davis, Edey, Dickinson and Omoruyi – Krabbenhoft said, "Throw Steven Crowl in that mix. If he's not, it's his job to put his name in there."

Krabbenhoft believes that Crowl will be more assertive by virtue of his maturity. He has already shown an upside on the offensive end. Crowl accounted for nine or more points in 13 of the last 18 regular season games. A most telling statistic: the Badgers were 12-1 when he scored in double-figures.

"Last year at times we were begging him to be aggressive," Krabbenhoft said. "We don't have to do that anymore. We're past that stage now. It's about correcting things here and there. He understands that if he's going to be required to take on a bigger load, he has to prove it every day.

"It doesn't just happen because you're older. It happens because of hard work building those habits. It's not like all of a sudden, the lights go on and I'm supposed to be more aggressive, I'm supposed to be stronger, I'm supposed to take on a bigger role.

"Do it every single day and that happens over time. It's a process. The process is on-going."

With Vogt's departure – and he was an invaluable unsung contributor – the Badgers lack seasoning and depth on the frontline. Crowl and redshirt freshman Chris Hodges (6-9, 245) make up the true bigs. During practices, they're matched against each other in most scrimmage situations.

"We're trying to go at each other every day," Crowl said. "Just push each other."

When push comes to shove, Crowl obviously has to stay out of foul trouble, too.

"Don't get silly fouls," Krabbenhoft harped. "You've got to be smarter, you've got to be wiser, you've got to act like a third-year sophomore. Opposing teams will try to take advantage of him. Go at him. Go at him. Pick up fouls on Steven. He just has to grow as a big guy. And he's done that."

Last season, Crowl led the team in fouls (84 in 33 games). But fouled out just once. He picked up four fouls on seven different occasions limiting his effectiveness. "It was a big thing for me last year just staying straight-up," he said. "Whether it was walling up or not getting those ticky-tack fouls.

"You're going to have fouls. But you don't want to pick up those cheap ones."

What Crowl wants to pick up is his offensive efficiency at the 3-point line (26-82, .317). The Badgers must replace the scoring production of Johnny Davis (19.7 points) and Brad Davison (14.1). Wahl was the only other player to score in double-figures (11.4). Crowl averaged 8.8 points.

"The biggest thing with me is just the consistency," he said. "Last year, I'd have a bad game and I'd kind of let that affect my confidence. And then, I'd have a good game and it (confidence) would be back up. You've got to stay even keeled. Consistency is the biggest thing I'm going to try and work on."

Crowl feels good about his 3-point shooting mechanics. And much better about his conditioning.

"When your legs get heavy," he said, "your shot changes a little bit."

A year ago, the Badgers shot 30.6 percent on 3's. They ranked last in the Big Ten, and 312 in the nation.

"I think it will go up," said Gard who guided the UW to a share of the Big Ten regular season title despite a dearth of triples. "I think we're different as a team. We're going to play a little bit differently. It may not look different from the outside. But how we find our offense will be a little bit different.

"Obviously you lose a Big Ten Player of the Year and a Jerry West Award winner (Davis) – he made me look really smart at times. The best play we had was get Johnny the ball and get out of the way sometimes. You adjust and adapt offensively more than you do defensively.

"Not that you make holistic changes. But I've always looked at what's going to be the strength of our team based on the individual talents that we have. And then formulate – without going way off the rails – formulate a plan how to best put those guys in position.

"That's what we've been working on: how we will best use this group. Move the ball. Move bodies. The goals are still the same. Maybe how we go about it may be a little different. This group can and will need to shoot 3's. And maybe more 3's.

"This group is going to do it more by committee than kind of a splash like Johnny made."

Besides finding new card-playing partners – Davis, Davison, Vogt and Crowl were fanatical about their card games on team buses and flights – Crowl recognizes the Badgers are in the process of developing a new identity without the aforementioned players. Davis and Davison had huge impacts.

"I know they took a lot of shots because they were great players," Crowl said. "We're all going to have to spread it out … Nothing is going to change about how we play. We'll play gritty. We'll play hard and compete. We just have to play consistently. That's not only me. That's as a team, too."

Last October, Wisconsin was tabbed to finish 10th in a preseason poll of the conference pundits, 28 in all, projecting the UW as high as seventh and as low as 12th. "They'll probably have us somewhere near the bottom again," Crowl suggested. "I don't know if they know much obviously after last year.

"So, we're not trying to prove them wrong. We're just trying to prove ourselves right." Again.