Wisconsin Badgers lost their first game of the year last Friday falling to Marquette. It was a rough loss considering they were beaten on a buzzer-beater. Wisconsin thought they would be playing Louisville yesterday as part of the ACC/Big 10 Challenge, but due to COVID, Wisconsin moved to play Rhode Island. The badgers seemed more than ready to play the Rams. They jumped out to a 17-point halftime lead and never looked back. Rams did come back yet it wasn’t anything to make a Badger fan nervous.

Player of the Game: Brad Davison – Buzzcut must have been reading my tweets or listening to the podcast. I talked about how he should be replaced in the lineup for Johnny Davis, and Davison responded with a huge first half. He outscored Rhode Island himself with 17 points to the Rams’ 16. He finished the game with 23 points. Wisconsin got to the free throw line 36 times in this one, and Davison made all 12 of his attempts from the stripe.

Honorable Mention: Aleem Ford – As mentioned, it got a little nervy in the second half but Ford helped calm down the noise. He hit a couple of big threes down the stretch to push the lead back out for Wisconsin. Ford finished the game with 11 points.

What went right for Wisconsin: Doing it from the charity stripe – This game sucked from a game flow perspective. The refs called everything in the fucking book. 49 fouls in total. Way too many for a 40 minute basketball. Still, Wisconsin did their best to make it count at the line going 76% from the stripe with 36 attempts. Wisconsin is a better team when they’re at the free throw line.

What went wrong for Wisconsin: Reuvers and Trice both struggle – Wisconsin didn’t need two of their top players yesterday. But both Nate Reuvers and D’Mitirk Trice were not good in this basketball game. Reuvers had an offensive rating of 58 and only scored five points Trice scored eight with an offensive rating of 77. It didn’t matter in this one, but Wisconsin is going to need these guys.

Next up: Wisconsin gets ready to play Northern Iowa on Wednesday, December 16th. This should not be too much of a challenge for the Badgers. Northern Iowa is a good mid-major program, but they seem to be 10 points worse than the better teams they’ve been facing. No word on if Wisconsin will play Louisville on Sunday.

Charlie.