The Badgers had a dominant win in the season opener on Monday.
The Wisconsin Badgers won its ninth straight home opener under Greg Gard, beating the Holy Cross Crusaders 85-61. While the Badgers trailed by one at halftime, they outscored the Crusaders 50-25 in the second half to easily win their first game.
Here’s what went right for Greg Gard’s squad in the 85-61 win over Holy Cross.
Twin Towers lineup
It was reported that Nolan Winter was expected to start alongside Steven Crowl this season, which surprised many college basketball fans. However, it was clear that this decision made a lot of sense.
Winter was perfect from the field, scoring 15 points and recording four rebounds and a block. It was a career-high for him, which bodes well for the rest of his season.
Winter’s improved size, aggressiveness, and confidence will be huge for the Badgers if they want to make the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.
The John’s (Tonje and Blackwell)
Both John Tonje and John Blackwell had excellent performances in Wisconsin’s season opener. When watching practices earlier this fall, I expect Tonje to be one of the Badgers’ best scorers.
That was an underestimation.
Tonje looked so confident and physical in his play style which helped the Badgers come back after going down early to Holy Cross. He had multiple offensive rebounds which kept Wisconsin’s possession alive. Wisconsin struggled at rebounding last year, so that added level of physicality makes Tonje a real asset for this team.
John Blackwell was the talk of the off-season. He had a strong freshman season, but Coach Gard joked that he should have played more. Blackwell came into this season as the Badgers’ most talented guard. He proved that last night. Blackwell scored 16 points on 50% shooting, while going a perfect 4/4 from the charity stripe.
Blackwell exudes a level of confidence that reminds the coaching staff of former Badger standout Johnny Davis, who broke out in his sophomore season and was later drafted as a lottery pick in that same year. I’m not saying that Blackwell is going to be Johnny Davis-level, but his style of play and leadership is reminiscent of Davis and could help Wisconsin make a nice, unexpected run in March.
Isaac Gard’s huge three
One of the most awesome parts of last night’s game was Isaac Gard scoring his first career points as a Badger. His three-pointer made the arena erupt with cheers and the Wisconsin bench celebrated like crazy as well.
The reason I bring this up is that Coach Gard mentioned in his post-game press conference that it’s a good sign that the entire team was excited for Gard. It shows how mature and bonded this squad is despite having tons of newcomers.
Overall, the Badgers looked solid in their opening game and had a nice bounce-back after starting off very poorly from the field. I expect them to continue this excellence into Thursday’s game against Montana State.