1. LAST TIME OUT

Wisconsin earned an 83-74 win against Butler last Saturday, playing in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis as a part of the Indy Classic double-header showcase. The Badgers never trailed in the game and scored 80 points for the eighth time this season. The team is now 3-0 in neutral site games.

Five Badgers scored in double figures during the game. Nolan Winter led the team with 20 points and eight rebounds. Steven Crowl went 7-for-10 from the field for 18 points. John Tonje pitched in 11 points, reaching double figures for the 12th time in as many games this season. Max Klesmit scored 11 points, hitting a half-court buzzer beater to put Wisconsin up 14 at the end of the first half. John Blackwell rounded out the scoring with 10 points, while dishing out five assists.

2. BIG MAN BATTALION

Leading the scoring for Wisconsin was its two tallest players, Nolan Winter and Steven Crowl. After matching his previous career high of 15 points against Illinois, Winter one-upped himself by scoring 20 points against Butler and collecting a team-high eight rebounds. Winter has led the Badgers in rebounds in five games this season.

Equally as dominant was Steven Crowl, whose 18 points were a season high. He accomplished this in just 17 minutes played, one of four Big Ten players this year to score 18+ points while playing under 17 minutes. Crowl’s 70.0% shooting from the field during the game is the highest of any Badger in a game this season with at least 10 attempts.

Winter and Crowl were a big part of UW’s overall dominance in the paint. Wisconsin outscored Butler, 40-to-24, in the paint, its third highest total for the season and the second highest paint-scoring differential.

3. TAKING NOTE OF THE TITANS

Wisconsin’s opponent this Sunday will be Detroit Mercy, who currently sits at 5-7. Most recently, the Titans lost to Davidson, 81-56. 

Detroit Mercy is coached by Mark Montgomery in his first season with the team. Montgomery previously coached Northern Illinois from 2011 to 2021, winning the Mid-American Conference in 2019-20. He spent his last three seasons as an assistant coach for Michigan State.

On the floor, junior Orlando Lovejoy leads the team in points (13.7), rebounds (4.3), assists (4.4) and steals per game (1.8). The transfer from Eastern Michigan is just one of 10 Division I players averaging those numbers. As a team, Detroit Mercy ranks in the top 50 of all Division I teams in rebounds, averaging 40.0 boards per game. The Titans sport seven players averaging over 3.5 rebounds per game - one of ten teams in the nation to do so.

4. SERIES HISTORY

Wisconsin and Detroit Mercy facing off is a rare occurrence. The three games that the programs have played against each other happened in 1939, 1992 and 2003.

All previous meetings were played in Madison, with Wisconsin leading the all-time series, 3-0. Wisconsin’s average margin of victory in those games is 18.3 points. The Badgers are 71-3 all-time against Horizon conference opponents, and 9-0 in the Greg Gard era.    

The last time the two teams faced each other was on December 6, 2003, when the Badgers won 68-42. Devin Harris led the charge for Wisconsin, scoring 13 points with nine assists.

5. PASS THE ROCK

Wisconsin had one of its best passing games of the season against Butler, totaling 19 assists to just three turnovers. It's the second-most assists the Badgers have collected in a game this season. The only other time in the last twenty years that the Badgers had 19 or more assists and less than three turnovers was during a 78-46 win at Northwestern in January of 2011, when the team put up 22 assists to just three turnovers.

John Blackwell led the way with a career-high five assists with no turnovers. Blackwell’s previous career-high in assists was three, which he surpassed in the first half alone with four assists. In total, four players collected three or more assists for the game, the third time the Badgers have accomplished that feat this season. There was only one such game last season. 

For the season, Wisconsin is averaging 15.2 assists per game to just 9.6 turnovers per game. The last time the Badgers averaged that many assists was during the 1993-94 season. Additionally, Wisconsin has never had a season in program history averaging over 15.0 assists per game while staying below 10.0 turnovers per game. Overall, the Badgers currently have their third best assist-to-turnover ratio in a season, just behind the 2014-15 team (12.6 assists-to-7.4 turnovers per game) and the 2010-11 team (13.0-to-7.6 turnovers per game).