Wisconsin players showed their age and experience while dismantling a young Northwestern team 81-58 Sunday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“In a game like this, we have to have a lot of things go right to have a chance,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said.
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Collins noted that Wisconsin is the 11th-most experienced team in the country while Northwestern is ranked 320th out of 351.
“They are not playing a single freshman and I’m playing five,” Collins said. “So it’s a process and you’ve got to play in games like this to learn what it takes.”
The No. 4 Badgers (14-1, 2-0 Big Ten) led from start to finish as they dominated in all phases.
Collins and the Wildcats (10-5, 1-1) got the great home-crowd atmosphere they anticipated, though a good number of fans were wearing Wisconsin red.
Collins also figured the Wildcats would have to work together to contain Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky, who wound up with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
“What makes him so good is that he has great teammates,” Collins said of the 7-foot center from Benet. “So sometimes a really good post player like that, you can send two or three guys at him and take him out of the game, but you can’t with them because he passes the ball so well. And he is playing with (Traevon) Jackson and (Josh) Gasser and (Sam) Dekker and (Nigel) Hayes.”
While Kaminsky had a quiet first half, the Badgers connected on 8 of 15 3-point shots, led by Dekker’s 4 of 6 from long range, to build a 43-21 halftime lead. Duje Dukan hit 2 of 3 from long range and wound up with 14 points as the Badgers shot 53 percent from the field.
“What makes them so good is that there are no weak links,” Collins said. “So then a guy like Frank … he gets more room to operate and he is so talented and so skilled at his size. It just makes it a nightmare matchup for any team. What you have to try to do is try to make it as difficult as possible. You have to get him off his sweet spots on the floor.”
Kaminsky, who had many friends and family members in attendance, said he and his teammates have been able to handle the great expectations for a team that made it to the Final Four last year.
“We kind of do a good job of keeping it together,” Kaminsky said. “We have great leadership on this team. We kind of manage that amongst ourselves.”
Northwestern, which had a four-game winning streak snapped, received a game-high 17 points from Tre Demps and 13 from freshman Bryant McIntosh. But the Badgers shot 12-for-25 (48 percent) from 3-point range while the Wildcats were 4-for-14 (28.6 percent).
“If a team is going to play off and jam up the middle and swarm to the ball with any dribble attack, then you have to be able to retreat out, and I thought we did a real good job of that,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said.
The Wildcats had looked forward to facing one of the nation’s top teams.
“As soon as the schedule came out and we saw we were going to play Wisconsin in the second game, I was so excited to play against such a good team,” NU center Alex Olah said. “Especially against such a good player like Kaminsky.”
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