Wisconsin Basketball: Keys for Badgers to beat Oregon in Round of 64

3. Wisconsin needs to push the starting five.

Since Oregon has had so many injury problems, they have had to use nine different starting lineups this season. Francis Okoro stepped into the starting lineup on February 23 and the Ducks have gone 8-1 since. But throughout the year, there’s been a lot of changes to the Oregon starting five. That’s been a big reason why Oregon was on the cusp of not making the Tournament.

Wisconsin, though, had to just use two different starting lineups. Khalil Iverson went down with a leg problem right before finals week. Kobe King stepped in and nine days later, Iverson was back out there. It was the same starting lineup in the previous 10 games as it was for the next 22 games.

There have been different variations to who wants to step up and take control each night. We saw Ethan Happ prove why he was on a lot of All-American lists this season in the first couple of months. Then he tapered off, but other guys came around. The Badgers were down a ton to Maryland (they would eventually lose the game anyway), sophomore Nate Reuvers led a charge like none other. Happ was sitting with four fouls and Reuvers dropped 18 that night with four 3-pointers. That’s against Maryland. Not Grambling.

He did it again against Illinois. Happ had four fouls, Brad Davison would end up fouling out and Reuvers scored 22 including six free throws. Later on, Brad Davison and D’Mitrik Trice came back to shooting the ball really well. They both have the ability to really light it up from deep.

Finally, before the Big Ten Tournament, Khalil Iverson really took off. We all know he can throw down some nice dunks, but he’s been doing quite a bit more lately. He did score 14 against Nebraska, but he needs at least one more teammate to go off as well as he will never lead the game in scoring.

Happ scored 20 against Michigan State, but no other starter was in double-figures. If the Badgers starting five can show that they have been starting every game together this season, then that should be a nice advantage over Oregon.