MADISON — It might have taken a while to get things going, but the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team thinks it is back on track.
The Badgers (6-1) shook off a slow start Monday night and put a whipping on the Terriers (3-2), winning 70-43. With the win, Wisconsin extends its home court winning streak to 28 straight games.
Wisconsin struggled at the beginning of the game, allowing Wofford to jump out to a 5-0 lead. The Badgers may have been bothered by the smaller line-up the Terriers presented so UW head coach Bo Ryan quickly went with a small line-up himself, substituting guards Jason Bohannon and Michael Flowers for big men Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma less than one minute in.
"I just figured, OK, let's go small early and then we'll sub and do some things with the bigs and I think that helped," Ryan said. "It's not like it was the bigs' fault at all, it was just let's do some thing here.
"It worked out OK."
Down early, the Badgers stormed right back, scoring 13-straight unanswered points and went into halftime with a comfortable 38-20 lead.
Sophomore guard Jason Bohannon led UW with 14 points off the bench while Joe Krabbenhoft added 12 and Marcus Landry chipped in with 11.
After losing their top two scorers from a year ago in Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor, the Badgers realized a well-balanced offense was just the way this team was going to be. And so far, they've embraced it.
"I think that's the way this team is structured this year," said Krabbenhoft, who also had six rebounds and four assists. "We go into every game thinking that's the way it's going to be and if somebody steps up big ... that's what happens."
And Wisconsin's well-balanced offense trickled all the way down the line-up. The Badgers outscored the Terriers in points off the bench by a margin of 28-4.
"This is the type of team where everyone can contribute," said Landry, who added nine rebounds. "Guys are able to come off the bench and we don't lose anything."
Wisconsin's well-balanced offense showed in their ball movement, too. The Badgers were able to find scorers with the ball—handing out 17 assists as opposed to the Terriers' nine. And they did so efficiently, only turning the ball over seven times.
It helped Bohannon out. He was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field, including two 3-pointers—both of which came off of kick-out passes.
"We worked all week in practice after the Duke game of taking care of the ball, making sure we make the right reads and backdoor cuts," Bohannon said. "Joe does a great job of it and we have some big guys who find them, too with Marcus and Greg has some great passes also."
For Wofford head coach Mike Young, the task of defeating Wisconsin's balanced offense was nearly impossible.
"You could've taken a Wofford all-star team from the last 20 years and had a tough time in here tonight, (the Badgers) were ready to go," Young said.
"They whipped us."