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This is not a Wisconsin men’s basketball team like the grind-it-out Badgers you’ve known for so long.
The Badgers, who host Iowa tonight at Kohl Center, are averaging 81.5 points per game. That’s nine points per game more than the Wisconsin team of 10 years ago that reached the national title game. Heck, it’s 16.2 points per game more than Greg Gard’s UW team of two seasons back.
Granted, the Badgers’ current average is likely to decrease as Big Ten games pile up. Still, they’re on a current pace to be the highest-scoring Wisconsin team since the 1967-68 season.
This is a high-scoring Iowa men’s basketball team like the ones you’ve known for quite some time now.
The Hawkeyes are second in the nation in scoring at 89.6 points per game. It’s been an efficient 89.6, since the Hawkeyes were seventh in the country in field goal shooting through Wednesday at 51.1 percent.
Wisconsin’s shooting is a mere 44.9 percent, but the Badgers make up for it at the foul line where they’re averaging a nation-best 85.1 percent. No Division I team has made over 85 percent in the last 20 years.
In five games this season, the Badgers have missed two or fewer free throws, with at least 16 attempts in all of those outings.
Turnover-wise, Wisconsin is the Wisconsin of the last quarter-century. Which is to say, very good. The Badgers have made just 9.6 of them per game. Iowa is no slouch itself at 10.2, and the Hawkeyes are ahead of Wisconsin in turnover margin with their +5.7 per game.
Which brings us to tonight’s matchup of 10-3 teams, with Iowa 1-1 in Big Ten play and Wisconsin 0-2.
Iowa has good news, the apparent return of 6-foot-10 center Owen Freeman after a one-game absence with an ankle issue. Freeman is Iowa’s leading scorer and rebounder (17.1 points, 6.5 boards per game).
“It feels good now,” Freeman said Thursday. “I’m ready to go.”
He is especially needed tonight since Wisconsin starts a pair of 7-footers in senior Steven Crowl and sophomore Nolan Winter, who combine to average 20 points and 11.2 rebounds.
“They both can shoot 3s and play in the post,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said.
The Badger who has asserted himself the most is 6-5 guard John Tonje. He played eight games at Missouri last season after four years at Colorado State, then transferred to Wisconsin. He scored 41 points in a win over Arizona last Nov. 15.
Tonje is third in the Big Ten in scoring at 19.1 points. He has made 94 of 100 free throws, a percentage no Big Ten player has topped in the last 20 years.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
