Big Ten Basketball: Analyzing each team’s 2021-22 opening night matchup

St.Francis (BKN) at Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Badgers finished with a Big Ten record of 10-10 that landed them in sixth place but was good enough to earn them a No.9 seed which they turned into a second-round loss to Baylor in the NCAA Tournament. All of that of course was before D’Mitrik Trice, Aleem Ford, Micah Potter, and Nate Reuvers graduated. Since the graduation of those four, the Badgers return 22 percent of their scoring from last season and defeated UW-Whitewater by a 76-50  score. Their next opponent will be St. Francis (BKN) – finished 9-9 in the NEC-  to start the regular season.

Potential warning signs: In their 26 point victory over Division III UW Whitewater the Badgers scored 36 points in the paint, impressive, less so when you take into account that 7’0 Steven Crowl scored 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting and 6’9 Tyler Wahl scored 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting. It becomes even less impressive when the Warhawks ‘bigman” was 6’6 / 200 Trevon Chislom, who played just 18 minutes while 6’5 /225 Carter Capstran played 28 minutes.

The same strategy will work versus St. Francis (BKN) as their biggest frontcourt members are 6’9 /230 Jack Hemphill and 6’8 /228 Vuk Stevanic. Pounding it down to Crowl or even Chris Vogt will work against the Terriers but will not versus the Big Ten.

For continued success: This one should be easy for a Greg Gard team, they have to move the ball. Quick passes utilizing their post players, as well as the driving and passing ability of freshman Chucky Hepburn and the perimeter shooting of Brad Davison. Just as with the 14 assists on 28 field goals versus UW- Whitewater, success will follow against St. Francis and the Big Ten.

Unfortunately, the Badgers did commit 17 turnovers, a stat that hopefully can be marked down to being rusty, for if the Badgers are going to have any success this season they will have to share the ball with each other while keeping it away from their opponents.