Badgers Pounce Panthers

The in-state games that Wisconsin plays are perhaps one of a kind when you look at the schedules of other schools around the country. Every year the Badgers take on all three of the division one teams in the state, and this year that series started against UW-Milwaukee.

To say that the Panthers and Badgers are familiar with each other would be an understatement. At one time Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan was the head man at Milwaukee. Now it is a former assistant and player of Ryan heading up the Panther program.

Prior to Wednesday night's game against the Panthers Bo Ryan detailed in an interview with Matt Lepay how close he is to Miwaukee head coach Rob Jeter. Saying that there are not many people that know Jeter as well as he does...outside of his family that is.

The familiarity between the two coaches was evident on Wednesday night when the two matched up. A defensive game between two teams that know each other very well, but unfortunately for the Jeter this time the student had not become the teacher.

Early in the game it looked as if Milwaukee was going to run their standard offense of handing the ball of at the top of the key, but Bo Ryan knew they would do that. The Badgers stopped it, and took the Panthers out of their rhythm. Holding Milwaukee to just 15 points in the first half, and limiting them to just 30% from the field for the night.

Although the Badgers were able to slow the Panther offensive attack it was Milwaukee that slowed the Badgers as well. Forcing the Badgers to turn the ball over a season high of 13 times and keeping the Badgers from completely running away from the game.

While the Panthers were able to slow down the Badgers for the most part,they didn't shut down Badgers star John Leuer completely. Quietly the Badger forward racked up a game high 20 points, and seven rebounds against the Panthers, but he wasn't the only Badger big man to have a good night.

Senior forward Keaton Nankivil also had a solid night against the Panthers. Just a few days after just playing seven minutes against South Dakota, Nankivil was on the floor for 26 minutes, and racked up 10 points. Not the stellar night many Badger fans have seen the Madison Memorial alum have, but an improvement in what has been a slow start to the season.

Wednesday's match-up against Milwaukee may have just been the first of the Wisconsin series for the Badgers, but it could be a big step in the right direction after a 61-40 win.

Before the game started Bo Ryan acknowledged how well these teams know each other. Then pointed out that will happened a lot in the coming months. With the Big Ten season just around the corner, and a match-up against in-state rival Marquette on Saturday.