Lucas: Crowl embraces each Big Ten battle

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. — Twenty-four hours before his rematch with Iowa's Filip Rebraca, a 25-year-old Serbian with deceptive strength, Wisconsin's Steven Crowl was contemplating the array of playing styles and body types that make up the Big Ten's diverse collection of low post ballers.

"There's a variety of every kind of big guy in this conference,'' he pointed out Tuesday.

From drawing Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis or Rutgers' Clifford Omoruyi in one game to Purdue's Zach Edey or Maryland's Julian Reece in the next, he was underscoring the fraternity's depth. "This league has the best big men in the country,'' he said. "Every night you're playing a guy like that.''

On Wednesday night, it was Rebraca. Crowl had gotten the better of their statistical matchup in his previous starts against him. He had 12 points in a UW victory last season in Madison, and 12 in an overtime win earlier this season in Iowa City. Rebraca had 12 in the two games combined.

"He's not the tallest and he doesn't look like one of the strongest,'' he said of the 6-9, 230-pound Rebraca, a North Dakota transfer. "But he has been one of the strongest bigs that I've played against in the Big Ten. What is a little different … he kind of moves around the perimeter a little bit.

"He can drive you from the free throw line, so you have to be ready for that. He's not just backing you down all game. He's a little versatile even though he doesn't shoot as much. Just by the way he crashes, along with some of those other things, he uses his strength in a good way.''

That was especially true Wednesday when Rebraca drew two early fouls on Crowl, who was on the floor for less than five minutes in the first half. "It's hard to sit that long,'' he said. "I was trying to stay loose over there (the UW sidelines), whether it was getting on the bike or just stretching.

"The big thing is trying to stay engaged in the huddles. You can't let your mind start floating.''

His didn't. After intermission, Crowl quickly asserted himself by scoring the UW's first three baskets on a hook and two dunks. It was just the jump-start the offense needed to sustain its 52 percent shooting efficiency over the course of the game, a 64-52 win. "I just wanted to be aggressive,'' he said.

But after logging just 12:40 against the Hawkeyes – well under his season average (31.1) and the first time that he has dipped below 23 minutes in 27 games – Crowl must balance his aggressiveness and availability in another rematch: this one against Michigan and Hunter Dickinson in Ann Arbor.

On Valentine's Day in Madison, the Badgers rallied for a 64-59 victory over the Wolverines. The "bigs'' fought to a draw in the paint and around the rim. Crowl had 11 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists in 30:43. Dickinson had 12 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks in 35:10. It was a classic Big Ten duel.

On what makes the 7-1, 260-pound Dickinson so distinctive and challenging at the post – he's also left-handed dominant like Jackson-Davis – Crowl observed, "He takes up space and he's hard to guard down there once he gets into the paint … he's a handful, for sure.''

Dickinson can also stretch a defense by posing a threat from the 3-point line, a facet of his game that he has developed since his freshman year. This season, he's shooting 40 percent on 3's (18-45). "He doesn't shoot a lot of them,'' Crowl said. "But when he does, he tends to knock them down.''

Dickinson has made one triple in each of the last five games (5-10). For Crowl, the contrast has been stark between home and road/neutral splits. At the Kohl Center, he's 15-of-34 (.441) on 3's. Everywhere else, he's 5-of-38 (.132). "I like our basketballs here a little better,'' he quipped.

Turning serious, he knows that his percentages are down from last season, not only from beyond the arc but at the free throw line, and he's hard-pressed to explain why. "It just goes back to staying after practice and shooting a little bit more,'' he said. "And staying confident.''

Dickinson is a blend of confidence/arrogance. There were a few times during stoppages in the Feb. 14 meeting when Dickinson and Crowl stood side by side and chatted. "I don't really talk much,'' Crowl said. "But if the other guy is talking to me, we'll talk a little bit. Hunter liked to talk a little.

"It wasn't trash talk. We were just having a conversation, we were talking about the game.''

In general, it's the way that Crowl likes to keep things. "There's a little bit of talk out there,'' conceded the soft-spoken junior from Eagan, Minn. "But usually it's between me and my teammates. I just communicate with them and try not to get into all the other stuff.''

One of the keys to the first game against the Wolverines was points off turnovers (13-2). Another was on the glass. The Badgers pulled down 15 offensive rebounds, matching a season-high. Michigan, though, was playing without Terrance Williams who returned at Rutgers and had nine boards.

Compounding things down low for Crowl is the presence of another big. A wide big. Tarris Reed, a fairly mobile 6-10, 260-pound freshman, has not only been spelling Dickinson off the bench but teaming up alongside of him on the floor. Reed had 6 points and 7 rebounds in Madison.

"He's already huge as a freshman,'' said Crowl, agreeing that it's difficult to get around Reed because of the space that he takes up in the paint. "It's just how much he weighs and how strong he is down there. It's hard to move him out of his position without fouling.''

During the off-season, Crowl got bigger and stronger. He got his weight up to 245. "Now it's probably in the high 230s range,'' he said this week. "I don't really check every day. I'm just out there playing. But you obviously lose weight as you go through the season with how much running you do.

"This off-season, I'll try to get stronger, bigger and add more weight. It's made a difference whether it's boxing out or grabbing more rebounds or holding my own in the post against all these big guys. Another area is probably just moving people in the post, being able to get my spots a little better.''

The X-factor in the Big Ten this season has been the hard double-team or trap – popularized largely by Northwestern's tenacious half-court defense. "I can't really remember if I got doubled too much last year,'' Crowl said. "But this year, I've seen a pretty steady diet of it.''

In retrospect, he added, "I can do a better job of sealing a little bit lower so I can get into my move a little bit quicker and into scoring before the double does come. But it has made me a better passer to find the guys out of that double and my teammates do a great job of cutting.''

Through 27 games, Crowl has 72 assists (2.7) – 24 more than he had all last season, and just 7 fewer than the team leader Chucky Hepburn. The last Badger Big (7-footer) to average above 2.5 was Frank Kaminsky (2.6). And there are some common threads with their development in the program.

As a junior, Kaminsky averaged 13.9 points, 6.3 rebounds. Crowl is averaging 11.5, and 7.2.

"I'm a willing passer – sometimes I like passing even a little more than scoring,'' said Crowl whose season and career high in assists is 7. "I don't care how many points I score, I just want to win the game by finding my open teammates and having the trust in them to make the open shots.

"Me and Tyler have confidence in kicking it out to them.''

Tyler is Tyler Wahl, who's coming off a double-double against Iowa (11 points, 14 rebounds). He also helped limit Kris Murray to just 5 points. "As we can all see his ankle is starting to get fully healthy and back to what we saw earlier this season,'' Crowl said. "We're starting to see the old Tyler …''

Late in the game, the Badgers won all the hustle plays or the 50-50s with the Hawkeyes, including one extended possession in which Wahl made a baseline save followed by a Carter Gilmore save on the side court where he blindly backhanded the ball into play before falling out of bounds.

"He just has a knack,'' UW coach Greg Gard said of Gilmore's timely contributions, big or small. "I know things on the stat sheet don't pop out. But he's such a smart player in terms of positioning, understanding angles … how to help a team … how to plug a gap.

"He does things within his role that maybe don't get headlines. But they're really important things and intangible things that teams need because not everybody can be a star. And he has accepted and embraced that role. Because of his evolution in that regard we're better because of it.''

After the Rutgers loss, the Badgers got much better at finishing on two-point shots against Iowa. They were 13-of-14 at the rim. "Personally, I can finish a little better in the paint down low,'' Crowl said. "My base sometimes gets too narrow. I've got to get a wider base and stay on balance.''

Staying even-keeled from game to game is another necessity for any Big Ten low post player. Crowl has already gone through a league gauntlet of bigs. And yet, he still hasn't drawn Edey, the 7-4, 305-pound man mountain. That matchup won't materialize until Thursday night at the Kohl Center.

For now, his focus and the challenge are one in the same. Michigan.

Crowl and his teammates have to be the hunter. On Hunter's turf.

University of Wisconsin Athletics

Lucas: Crowl embraces each Big Ten battle

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