Wisconsin Basketball

[daleko]

Badgers men's basketball: Wisconsin listed as 30/1 to win 2017 NCAA tournament

The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team is listed as 30/1 to win the 2017 NCAA tournament by Las Vegas oddsmakers.

The Badgers, who lost in the Sweet 16 to Notre Dame, are expected to return all five of their starters from the 2015-16 season, pending the NBA Draft decision of junior forward Nigel Hayes, in addition to all of their key contributors off the bench.

Duke is listed as the early favorite at 9/2 while Kentucky (6/1) and 2016 national champion Villanova (8/1) follow. Michigan State (12/1) and Indiana (20/1) are the only Big Ten teams listed with better odds than the Badgers, who have the 13th-best odds. Purdue and Maryland are both listed at 40/1 while Iowa and Michigan are 100/1 longshots.

[daleko]

The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team continued its run as one of the biggest draws in the country.

The Badgers had an average of 17,287 fans per home game in the 2015-16 season, ranking second in the Big Ten and sixth in the NCAA for the year. It was also the best average attendance in program history.

Only Kentucky (23,361), Syracuse (21,592), Louisville (20,859), North Carolina (18,326) and Maryland (17,863) drew more fans per home game than UW.

UW has finished in the top seven nationally for 16 consecutive seasons and been among the top two in the Big Ten for 14 straight years. 

Thank you BO

[daleko]

After University of Wisconsin rising senior Nigel Hayes confirmed what most people predicted and returned to the Badgers for his senior season last week, ESPN's Eamonn Brennan is ranking UW among the nation's best college basketball teams for the 2016-17 season. In his updated "Way-Too-Early Top 25" that now takes into consideration late transfers and the underclassmen who are staying in the 2016 NBA Draft, Brennan ranks the Badgers at No. 8. Brennan places Duke at No. 1 and defending national champion Villanova at No. 2. Kentucky, Kansas, Virginia, North Carolina and Oregon, in order, are also ranked ahead of the Badgers.

host.madison.com/wsj/sports/college/basketball/men/badgers-men-s-basketball-wisconsin-ranked-no-in-espn-s/article_8c69f917-3c40-54ed-9171-c06753a86254.html

Team will be talented and deep. They might rotate as many as 11-12.


host.madison.com/wsj/sports/college/basketball/men/badgers-men-s-basketball-greg-gard-manages-expectations-with-loaded/article_498d2dd0-8ce2-5d6e-9828-bba389681e0e.html
Greg Gard realizes there’s a particular word he uses over and over during interviews. “I talk about the process a lot,” Gard said, “sometimes ad nauseam.”

But the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach can’t help himself, which is why the P-word came up several times during a 15-minute question-and-answer session with reporters prior to a booster club golf outing Wednesday afternoon at University Ridge Golf Course.

Gard called the process that ended a day earlier with Nigel Hayes announcing he was returning to UW for his senior year “educational” for all parties involved. Hayes, a 6-foot-7 forward who was a first-team All-Big Ten Conference selection last season, withdrew from the NBA draft entry pool after deciding he was better served returning to the Badgers for one final season.

“What he wanted in the end was a true evaluation … and (to) ultimately use it to help better himself and help better our team,” Gard said. Gard called the return of Hayes a “huge boost” to a program that will return its entire rotation from last season. “But also at the same time, we know we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Gard said. “This doesn’t guarantee anything. We’ll have to crank it up when they get back on campus mid-June and prepare as we go forward step by step.”

Hayes, who led the Badgers with 15.7 points and 3.0 assists per game, is part of a returning starting five that includes forward Vitto Brown, forward Ethan Happ, point guard Bronson Koenig and guard Zak Showalter. Happ will be a sophomore, while the others will be seniors. But the Badgers’ roster is by no means top heavy. This could be the deepest UW team in years, thanks in large part to a five-member 2015 recruiting class that fans got a glimpse of last season. Forward Alex Illikainen, forward Charlie Thomas and swingman Khalil Iverson contributed off the bench as true freshmen, gaining valuable experience while helping the Badgers go 22-13 and reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. The two players from that class who didn’t play immediately also are expected to have bright futures. Andy Van Vliet, a 6-11 forward from Belgium who sat out last season after being ruled ineligible by the NCAA because he didn’t enroll in college within one year of graduating from high school, is a skilled big man who can help spread the floor with his outside shooting. Meanwhile, guard Brevin Pritzl, who was limited to just four minutes last season because of a broken foot and is expected to receive a medical redshirt, appears to be progressing in his recovery. Gard said Pritzl was limited to non-contact drills during the spring but is “back playing and should be back, as far as I know, when we get back in mid-June.” Add in guard Jordan Hill and forward Aaron Moesch, and UW returns its top 10 players from last season in terms of minutes played.

Not only will the Badgers be one of the favorites to win the Big Ten Conference title, there’s already talk of UW making a trip to the Final Four for the third time in four seasons.

Gard’s way of hitting the brake pedal on talk of such massive expectations was, of course, to use the P-word. “I’ve used the process a lot,” he said. “That won’t change in terms of how we go about our business, how we approach every day. … “We’ll worry about trying to get better through the month of June and stick to that process and understand if we skip any of those steps, we won’t get to where we want to be.”

As for his star player, Gard believes the last month was a good learning tool that will be beneficial to both Hayes and the Badgers next season. It was hammered home to Hayes by NBA personnel that he needs to improve his outside shooting and become a better ball-handler, but Gard also mentioned feedback that involved getting better at “other intangibles and ways to impact the game” that don’t necessarily involve scoring. “A lot of the same things that he can help this program with and we really need him to be good at,” Gard said, “are some of the same things we heard from people at that level.”

When he served as an assistant to Bo Ryan, one of Gard’s main duties was figuring out the program’s non-conference schedule. Gard has now delegated that responsibility to assistant coach Howard Moore. Gard said UW has one game to finalize in a 13-game non-conference slate that he referred to as “a boatload.” It was announced earlier this week that UW will host Syracuse in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 29. The Badgers also will play at Creighton in the Gavitt Tipoff Games on Nov. 15. Other highlights include a home game against Oklahoma, a game at Marquette and three games at the Maui Invitational. That field includes North Carolina, Oregon, UConn, Georgetown, Oklahoma State, Tennessee and host Chaminade. “We’re going to have our hands full,” Gard said. “We’ll be well tested.”

[daleko]

With head coach Greg Gard firmly entrenched, the recruiting questions that plagued the Wisconsin Badgers for the class of 2016 seem to have fallen by the wayside. With two potent players already verbally pledged to UW, the 2017 class gained another impressive recruit with the commitment of touted point guard Brad Davison on Monday. He announced his decision via Twitter.

After a summer of quality play for the AAU stalwart Howard Pulley, the Osseo, Minn. (Maple Grove) native began to rise up the class rankings — gaining offers from top conference basketball schools like Butler, Dayton, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina State, Northwestern and Stanford. After a whirlwind tour at the end of June, Davison ultimately ended up committing to Wisconsin.

With his play, the 6’3, 190-pound guard is ranked by the recruiting services as such:

247Sports: four-star (93 rating, No. 20 point guard, No. 90 player overall)
247Sports composite: three-star (.9168 rating, No. 25 point guard, No. 142 player overall)
Rivals: three-star (No. 119 overall)
Scout: four-star (No. 26 point guard overall)

Davison joins four-star shooting guard Kobe King and four-star power forward Nathan Reuvers. The expectation is the Badgers will bank their remaining class of 2017 scholarships to have more room for the loaded class of 2018 with prospects like Jordan McCabe, Joey Hauser and Tyler Herro.

www.buckys5thquarter.com/2016/7/11/12153720/brad-davison-commits-wisconsin-basketball-recruiting-howard-pulley

[daleko]

Badgers sports: $200,000 expense on Kohl Center metal detectors follows sports venue trend
Football venue may follow next yr.

host.madison.com/wsj/sports/college/badgers-sports-expense-on-kohl-center-metal-detectors-follows-sports/article_c1cd55eb-60f3-5e54-a442-ff3ac11c49a1.html

[daleko]

Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes named preseason Big Ten Player of the Year
Hayes, Ethan Happ and Bronson Koenig were also all named to the preseason All-Big Ten team.


The Big Ten announced its 2016-17 preseason all-conference honors on Tuesday and Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes came away with the biggest of them all, as the media named him the conference’s preseason player of the year.

Hayes, who averaged 15.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last year, returned to the Badgers for his senior season amid high expectations. He was the only unanimous player selected to the team by the Big Ten media.

Hayes was not the only Wisconsin player to get preseason notice. Redshirt sophomore forward Ethan Happ (12.4 points, 7.9 rebounds per game in 2015-16) and senior guard Bronson Koenig (13.1 points, 2.4 assists per game) join Hayes on the preseason All-Big Ten team. Both Koenig and Happ look to build on their strong NCAA play as the Badgers hope to make a deep run in 2016-17.

www.buckys5thquarter.com/2016/10/11/13251308/wisconsin-basketball-nigel-hayes-big-ten-bronson-koenig-ethan-happ

[daleko]

The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team is ranked 10th in the USA Today Coaches preseason poll that was released on Thursday.

UW, which advanced to the Sweet 16 last season, comes in as the second-highest Big Ten team in the poll after No. 9 Michigan State. Indiana (No. 12), Purdue (No. 15) and Maryland (No. 21) are also ranked in the top 25.

Duke received 27 of the 32 first-place votes to lead the poll. The Blue Devils are followed by Kansas, Villanova, Kentucky, Oregon, North Carolina, Virginia and Xavier.

This marks the seventh consecutive season UW has been ranked in the preseason poll. The Badgers returns their top nine scorers from last season, including Big Ten preseason player of the year Nigel Hayes.

sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/basketball-men/polls/coaches-poll/2016/1/

[daleko]

Only one ranked in the top ten in both FB & BB AP polls is ......... WISCONSIN.

host.madison.com/wsj/sports/college/basketball/men/badgers-men-s-basketball-wisconsin-ranked-no-in-ap-preseason/article_705039a5-471e-5248-8fec-4cdb25ee14a6.html
Badgers men's basketball: Wisconsin ranked No. 9 in AP preseason poll

For the fourth time in program history, the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team will begin the season ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

The preseason poll was released Monday, and the Badgers came in at No. 9.

This matches the program’s second-best preseason ranking ever. The Badgers were ranked No. 3 to start the 2014-15 season, which ended with UW falling to Duke in the NCAA tournament championship game, and also were ranked No. 9 to start the 2006-07 season.

The only other time UW was ranked in the top 10 by the AP to start the season was in 1962-63, when the Badgers came in at No. 10.

Duke was the runaway choice for No. 1 in this season's poll. The Blue Devils, who return three starters from last season's team and have what is considered one of the top recruiting classes in the nation, received 58 of the 65 first-place votes from the national media panel.

Kentucky, which had two No. 1 votes, is second, while Kansas is third. Defending national champion Villanova had four first-place votes and was fourth while Oregon, which had the other No. 1 vote, is fifth.

North Carolina, Xavier, Virginia, UW and Arizona rounded out the top 10.

UW returns all five starters and its top five reserves from a team that finished 22-13. The Badgers tied for third in the Big Ten Conference last season — extending a run of top-four finishes to 15 seasons — and advanced to the Sweet 16, where they dropped a 61-56 decision to Notre Dame.

The group of returnees is led by senior forward Nigel Hayes, the preseason player of the year in the Big Ten; senior point guard Bronson Koenig, a third-team All-Big Ten pick in 2015-16; and sophomore forward Ethan Happ, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season.

Four other Big Ten teams made the Top 25: Indiana at No. 11, Michigan State at No. 12, Purdue at No. 15 and Maryland at No. 25.

The Badgers’ non-conference schedule includes a road game at No. 22 Creighton and a home game vs. No. 19 Syracuse. UW also will play in the Maui Invitational, a field that includes No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 North Carolina and No. 18 Connecticut.

The Badgers, who beat visiting UW-Platteville 86-58 in an exhibition game on Sunday, will travel to Dubuque this weekend for a closed scrimmage against Northern Iowa. UW opens the regular season vs. Central Arkansas on Nov. 11 at the Kohl Center.

[daleko]

Homer picks for sure but certainly possible.

www.buckys5thquarter.com/2016/11/8/13559604/wisconsin-basketball-2016-predictions-non-conference-schedule

It’s here, everybody. Not only is the Wisconsin Badgers basketball season almost back, but literally almost the entire team is back.

The Badgers are returning 99.8 percent of their minutes from the 2015-16 team that reached the program’s third consecutive Sweet Sixteen. With all five starters returning, including three preseason All-Big Ten players, hopes for Wisconsin to reach its third Final Four in four years are high.

Here is a look at each of the Badgers’ non-conference games with a prediction of how each game will end. All predictions are 100 percent guaranteed, or something like that.

Non-Conference Games
Nov. 11 vs. Central Arkansas
Last season, I predicted a 24-point Badgers win over Western Illinois in the season opener.

Oops.

As we learned last year, nothing is a guarantee... but Central Arkansas is the 332nd-ranked team, according to KenPom.com. Its only non-conference win last season came against UTSA, though the team should be improved this season after returning most of its minutes. The Bears are a high-possession team that can put some points up, but also give them up at a high-rate.

Prediction: Badgers 90, Bears 62

Nov. 15 at Creighton
Playing at Creighton in the second game of the season? There are easier things to do in the world. Guards Maurice Watson Jr. and Marcus Foster, a transfer from Kansas State, can score, but the frontcourt possesses the most efficient players on the team. It will be an early challenge for the Badgers, but the sound defense is enough to eke out a road win against a NCAA tournament team.

Prediction: Badgers 65, Bluejays 60

Nov. 17 vs. Chicago State
Chicago State is ranked No. 339 on KenPom. It does, however, have a Brown Deer (Wis.) alum in Trayvon Palmer (Go Falcons). This should be a game where lots of Badgers see plenty of minutes.

Prediction: Badgers 82, Cougars 52

Nov. 21 vs. Tennessee (Maui Invitational)
With nine newcomers to the roster, the Volunteers are projected to finish at the bottom of the SEC. While they aren’t Rutgers (or even close to that level), Tennessee returns only one player that saw the floor more than 50 percent of the time last season. Early in the season, I’ll take Wisconsin in paradise.

Prediction: Badgers 76, Volunteers 66

Nov. 22 vs. Oregon
This could be the semifinal (!!!) matchup at Maui if the Ducks defeat Georgetown in the first round. Oregon brings Dillon Brooks to the table, as well as 6’10 matchup nightmare Chris Boucher. The Ducks are a legitimate Final Four threat after returning much of last year’s Elite Eight team. This game would be a fun one, and it’s honestly a toss-up at this point. The winner gets a nice resume-padder, while the loser isn’t really hurt all that much.

Prediction: Ducks 73, Badgers 71

Nov. 23 vs. Connecticut
This game could be against UConn, Chaminade, North Carolina or Oklahoma State. The way I see it playing out, UNC makes the championship game by beating the Huskies, which would pit the Badgers against UConn.

Rodney Purvis, man. UConn lost Daniel Hamilton, Shonn Miller and Sterling Gibbs, but Purvis is part of a dynamic backcourt that also features Jalen Adams. That duo will need to have a big game to take down Wisconsin. The Huskies open the season ranked in the top 20 and could likely jump even higher by this game. A win for the Badgers should be in the cards here, and it may be over an eventual NCAA tournament team.

Prediction: Badgers 67, Huskies 60

Nov. 27 vs. Prairie View A&M
Vaunted SWAC opponent Prairie View A&M will probably not win this game. Offensively, it is one of the worst teams in the nation. Defensively, it’s only a little bit better.

Prediction: Badgers 88, Panthers 54

Nov. 29 vs. Syracuse
For the second consecutive season, the Badgers drew the Orange in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Last year, it was an overtime win for Wisconsin at the Carrier Dome. This year’s installment will be at the Kohl Center against a very good Syracuse team. Andrew White III didn’t have great games against the Badgers last season with Nebraska, so the senior transfer decided he wanted one more crack at it with a better team. Between he, Tyler Lyons and the Orange 2-3 zone, shooters could determine this game. I’ll take Wisconsin’s ability to step outside without relying too much on that part of the game.

Prediction: Badgers 65, Orange 63

Dec. 3 vs. Oklahoma
Back-to-back games against teams from last year’s Final Four are on the slate for the Badgers, but the Sooners project to be less daunting than Syracuse. Gone are Buddy Hield (though Nigel Hayes held him relatively in check last season in Norman), Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler. This year’s Sooners team will be led by high-efficiency players in Jordan Woodard and Khadeem Lattin, with some returning players from the bench and a couple of recruits that could contribute right away. At the Kohl Center, it would take an exceptional performance from Oklahoma to come away with a win.

Prediction: Badgers 72, Sooners 64

Dec. 7 vs. Idaho State
Guard Ethan Telfair averaged over 20 points per game last season for the Bengals. He also added eight steals in a game.

Idaho State lost that game 83-49.

Prediction: Badgers 78, Bengals 51

Dec. 10 at Marquette
Despite losing Henry Ellenson to the NBA, Marquette could very well be a better team than the one that beat the Badgers last season. Transfer Andrew Rowsey can light it up and adds to a team with seven players that could very well shoot over 35 percent from deep. Playing at the Bradley Center will be a tall task in the latest installment of this rivalry.

Prediction: Golden Eagles 71, Badgers 69 (OT)

Dec. 14 vs. UW-Green Bay
Basketball is a weird sport. The Phoenix never made the Big Dance with Keifer Sykes, then averaged about 5,000 possessions per game without him last season and made a run in the Horizon League tournament to end up as a No. 14 NCAA tournament seed. UWGB will be a veteran-heavy team this season and can test a team with its tempo and pressure. We saw the Phoenix almost steal Greg Gard’s head coaching debut last season. This game will be the Badgers’ final contest before finals begin, which can always be a bit of a challenge. The Phoenix will keep it close until the very end in a high-scoring game.

Prediction: Badgers 85, Phoenix 73

Dec. 23 vs. Florida A&M
Florida A&M is ranked as the No. 351 team in college basketball on KenPom. There are 351 teams in Division-I college basketball.

Prediction: Badgers 85, Rattlers 50

[daleko]

host.madison.com/ct/news/local/city-life/bronson-koenig-shares-his-thoughts-on-role-models-standing-rock/article_3f24185e-d221-57d8-b8de-46189cd0cdec.html

Even after two Final Four runs, Wisconsin basketball star Bronson Koenig said he didn't think of himself as a role model when he took a September trip to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota.

The realization hit him after a basketball clinic at Standing Rock High School when kids asked him if he had any Native American role models growing up.

"It’s not that they didn’t exist, but just that they weren’t on my radar," he wrote in an essay published Thursday. "They weren’t celebrated in popular culture."

It was a transformational moment.

"I knew that if I could be someone who even one kid from Standing Rock looked up to, I’d be prouder of that than of anything I had ever done — or might ever do — on the basketball court," he wrote.

Koenig shared his thoughts on the protests at Standing Rock, in which he took part last summer, in a lengthy piece in The Players' Tribune. www.theplayerstribune.com/bronson-koenig-wisconsin-basketball-standing-rock/

According to Koenig, he's one of about 60 Native American students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and one of only about 40 Native American Division I men’s college basketball players in the country.

And he's spent a lot of time lately thinking about his heritage.

Koenig spent two days at the North Dakota protest site in September with thousands of Native Americans from across the nation and numerous environmental activists who oppose the project: a 1,172-mile oil pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois. Energy Transfer Partners, a Texas-based pipeline company, has met fierce resistance to its plan to run the line underneath the Missouri River — a half-mile from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation — which protesters say threatens drinking water and tribal lands.

Koenig, whose father is white and whose mother is Ho Chunk, traveled to the protest site with his brother Miles and trainer Clint Park to run a basketball clinic.

"As a college basketball player, I felt that it was the best way I could show my support for the protests," Koenig writes. "One of the greatest things about the game is that wherever you go, you can ball. On reservations, there’s almost always a game of 'rez ball' happening."

And it was happening at Standing Rock, on a dirt field with a well-used rim. Koenig held an unofficial clinic there with about 50 kids.

"I thought I’d seen every type of basketball court, but this dirt court was unlike anything I’d ever experienced," he writes. "In basketball, you strive to anticipate what’s going to happen next. Running through drills out there on the dirt and the prairie grass, my eyes kept wandering to the horizon — to the hills just a mile north where the bulldozers were. I’d never played basketball surrounded by police and blockades."

He held a second clinic indoors at Standing Rock High School, where the gym was filled to capacity.

Becoming serious about his heritage in recent years, he's an opponent of the pipeline and critical of the strong-arm police tactics used on the protesters, which include spraying them with water cannons.

"As we head toward the middle of our season, I can’t help but think about the cruel irony that water is being used as a weapon against Native Americans who are trying to protect their own water supply."

His memoir came with a message.

"Clean water is a precious resource. It belongs to all of us, whatever our heritage. We must all protect it," he writes. "Will you stand with Standing Rock?"

[daleko]

[bamorin]

'Nova's new motto.....................We don't want no steeenkin badgers!!!!!!!!


congrats.........

[daleko]

Mar 18, 2017 16:20:46 GMT -5 bamorin said:

'Nova's new motto.....................We don't want no steeenkin badgers!!!!!!!!


congrats.........

Thanks, in your honor.

[daleko]

host.madison.com/wsj/sports/college/basketball/men/badgers-men-s-basketball-wisconsin-s-trip-to-new-zealand/article_4058b069-309e-5170-9706-754f01cc8a07.html

Wisconsin's trip to New Zealand, Australia set for Aug. 12-24

Back in 2013, an offseason trip to Canada proved to be an extremely valuable experience for a University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team in a state of transition.

The Badgers are hoping for similar rewards four years later from a trip to New Zealand and Australia.

UW on Monday announced the details of that trip, which will run from Aug. 12-24 and include five exhibition games.

The Badgers’ first game will be Aug. 15 against the New Zealand Breakers. The Breakers’ roster includes former UW standout Kirk Penney, who has spent the past five seasons of his 15-year professional career playing for his hometown team.

UW will play another game in New Zealand — against Tauranga City Basketball on Aug. 17 — before traveling to Australia. There, the Badgers will play games in Melbourne against Hawthorne on Aug. 19 and Melbourne United a day later. The team’s last game of the trip will be in Sydney on Aug. 22 against the Sydney Kings.

“Being together for so long is just going to be another step in our bonding process,” UW junior center Ethan Happ said last week.

When the Badgers went to Canada for five games in 2013, they were in the midst of replacing three frontcourt starters. The trip gave new starters Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker a chance for valuable reps; it gave Josh Gasser, who was returning from a knee injury that sidelined him the previous season, a chance to work off some rust; and it gave the members of UW’s incoming freshman class, a group that included Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig, the opportunity to get their feet wet.

UW players and coaches raved about what the trip to Canada meant for the team’s ability to quickly build chemistry. The Badgers got off to a school-record 16-0 start that season and finished the season with 30 wins and a trip to the Final Four.

Four years later, the Badgers are in the midst of another crucial offseason. UW has to replace four starters from a team that went 27-10.

International trips are allowed every four years by the NCAA, and this one comes at a perfect time as coach Greg Gard and his staff try to figure out roles on a roster filled with inexperience.

UW is allowed 10 extra practices over the summer to get ready for the trip. That extra time is important for returning players stepping into bigger roles as well as UW’s incoming freshman class, which includes guards Kobe King and Brad Davison and forward Nathan Reuvers.

“This experience is going to be so big for so many people, not only the newcomers but also all those guys that now have some daylight in front of them in terms of earning minutes,” Gard said.

“I think every day is just a huge opportunity for all of them.”

[daleko]

Hot-shooting Pritzl leads Badgers to victory in opener of five-game tour Down Under

The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team opened its five-game exhibition tour Down Under with an 85-75 victory over the New Zealand Breakers on Tuesday night in Auckland, New Zealand.

Brevin Pritzl, who will be a redshirt sophomore this year, hit 7 of 9 three-pointers and finished with 28 points to lead four Badgers in double-figure scoring.

"It was good to finally be back on our feet playing basketball again," Pritzl said. "Today was just about doing the things that we do in practice and executing them.

"When shots are open you have to take them and we just had a really good team flow to find shots."

In front of fellow sharpshooter and UW Hall of Famer Kirk Penney, Pritzl kept the Breakers off-balance all night, hitting triples in the half-court set, off double-teams and even in transition. Penney, an Auckland native and member of the Breakers, did not participate in the game but came away impressed with Pritzl.

All-American Ethan Happ added a double-double for the Badgers with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Brad Davison had a solid debut for UW with 13 points, four rebounds, two assists and three steals. Khalil Iverson rounded up the double-digit scorers for UW with 10 points.

"I thought we learned a lot on the fly," coach Greg Gard said. "I thought from the first quarter to second quarter and then third quarter to fourth quarter we got better with the ball. Our turnovers went down every quarter, but also defensively I think we figured some things out.

"We were much better at communicating, better in transition and then we made some shots late to pull away in the last couple minutes."

The Badgers will have a rematch with the Breakers at 1:30 a.m. Thursday (Central) in Tauranga, New Zealand.

After that, UW's tour will move to Australia with games against the Hawthorn Magic on Saturday, Melbourne United on Sunday and Sydney Kings next Tuesday.