Wisconsin Badgers males’s basketball: UW cruises to victory in opener vs. Saint Francis Brooklyn

Do you want to end your season with a win? Wisconsin Badgers (1-0 overall, 0-0 Big Ten) welcomed the Saint Francis Brooklyn Terrier (0-1 overall, 0-0 NEC) at the Kohl Center on Tuesday evening.

Holding a significant size and talent advantage, the Badgers did a quick job with the Terriers with an 81-58 win behind a completely revamped roster from a year ago.

And that will do it.

Wisconsin wins its opening game of the 2021-2022 season against Saint Francis Brooklyn 81-58.

Hepburn (13 points), Davis (15 points, 5 assists), Crowl (11 points, 8 rebounds) led the way.

– Bucky’s 5th quarter (@ B5Q) November 10, 2021

In the early moments of the game, the Badgers managed to break free from a two-minute goal drought and went 11-3 into their first media break when Jonathan Davis and Chucky Hepburn scored nine points together. Wisconsin would extend its lead in the next few minutes and make it 19-9 after ten and a half minutes.

After a three from Saint Francis, Wisconsin went on an 11-0 run, punctuated by a one-handed slam from Jonathan Davis to increase the lead to 18 with just over eight minutes to go in the first half.

In the final minutes of halftime, the Badgers were able to distance themselves further from the Terriers thanks to a Lorne Bowman three-pointer to bring a 21-point lead into halftime.

First half of basketball in the books, and the # Badger double saint francis 42-21.

Chucky Hepburn leads with 9 points while Brad Davison has six points and five rebounds, two assists.

– Bucky’s 5th Quarter (@ B5Q) November 10, 2021

In the second half, Saint Francis (Brooklyn) scored the first six points as Wisconsin slowly came off break. However, Jonathan Davis would take matters into his own hands and string eight points in a row to lead the Badgers to 27 points with 11 minutes to go at halftime.

Chucky Hepburn and Steven Crowl continued to impress into the second half as they were double digits with over eight minutes of play, giving Wisconsin a 30-point lead with efficient shooting.

In the final minutes, the Badgers would let go of the bank mob and end the game with a 23-point win over the Terriers.

• Chucky Hepburn -> 13 points (4 out of 7 from the floor), a rebound, an assist
• Jonathan Davis -> 15 points (6/15 from the floor), three rebounds, five assists
• Steven Crowl -> 11 points (4-out-9 from the floor), eight rebounds, one block
• Patrick Emilien (St. Francis) -> 18 points (8-out-of-11 from the floor), five rebounds

Steven Crowl leads the way for that # Badger in place +21, followed by Chucky Hepburn / Brad Davison, who were both +18.

– Bucky’s 5th Quarter (@ B5Q) November 10, 2021

No. 1: Playtime

Moments before the game it was announced that true freshman strikers Chris Hodges and Matthew Mors would make a red shirt.

Photo by Lawrence Iles / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

However, it was another freshman, point guard Chucky Hepburn, who made the story. Hepburn became the first first-year player to kick off the season opener since former Wisconsin star Devin Harris. In addition to Hepburn, it was Brad Davison, Jonathan Davis, Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl who completed the starting XI.

In terms of rotation, Chris Vogt and Ben Carlson were the first two players off the bench to replace Crowl and Wahl. Jahcobi Neath and Lorne Bowman were next in line for Hepburn and Davison.

Based on the way the minutes were distributed at the beginning, these nine appear to form Greg Gard’s core rotation, with strikers Carter Gilmore and Markus Ilver sometimes factoring in minutes as well.

Often times it can be difficult to take too much out of such games at the start of the season against inferior competition, but the way Gard spreads the minutes across these 11 players seems like a strong clue as to how rotation does at the start the season will look like.

the # Badger are now 4 out of 6 out of three and Chucky Hepburn leads the team with 9 points.

Oh, and this team is in transition …

– Bucky’s 5th quarter (@ B5Q) November 10, 2021

No. 2: transition period

Wisconsin has traditionally been one of the slowest teams in the country in terms of pace and adapted pace. While I don’t necessarily see this team looking to get into track meetings this season, they seemed more willing to push the ball against an albeit poor Saint Francis team.

In the first half, the Badgers took advantage of multiple sales and some nice outlet passes to secure 10 quick breakpoints. Wisconsin had fewer transition opportunities in the second half, but they still finish the game with 13 points in transition and only kept Saint Francis on a quick breakpoint.

One interesting aspect of this year’s squad is that, if you look at the starting grid, they have four players (all outside of Crowl) ready and able to take the break and get the ball onto the pitch. That was already clear at the start and I wouldn’t be surprised if it continues this season.

No. 3: shooting

Wisconsin’s defense was pretty good Tuesday night, but given Saint Francis’ restrictions, that was something to be expected. One of the positive developments from the game was the way the Badgers shot the ball.

Most expected this year’s team to have some increasing pain in the shooting range, so it was encouraging to see Greg Gard’s group shoot 47% off the ground, 50% off three and 78% off the free throw line during the first half. Lorne Bowman and Brad Davison each faced a pair of threes in the first half, while Chucky Hepburn also made one of his two attempts.

Wisconsin came out a little flat in the second half, but I was still very impressed with the way the team moved the ball. In terms of shooting, they finished the game 44% as a team and 45% out of three, and a big reason for that was the way the team dealt the ball to the open man.

Badgers @ChuckyHepburn became only the fifth UW newcomer to score double-digit points at the season opener since 2000.

▪️Devin Harris (20 in 2001)
▪️Brian Butch (10 in 2004)
▪️Josh Gasser (21 in 2010)
▪️Ben Carlson (13 in 2020)
▪️Chucky Hepburn (13 in 2021) pic.twitter.com/sVeW7SaYid

– Patrick Herb (@PatrickHerb) November 10, 2021

One final note: It was comforting to see Jonathan Davis score consecutive threesomes even in the middle of the second half. This is an area he wanted to improve in and while his total shot numbers weren’t too impressive, several threesomes were nice to see.

Next: The Badgers will be back at the Kohl Center against UW-Green Bay on Friday, November 12th. The tip time is set at 7:00 p.m. CT and is broadcast on BTN +.