Wisconsin will look for offensive consistency when the Badgers host in-state rival Green Bay in a nonconference game on Tuesday night in Madison.

Wisconsin (2-0) is coming off a 60-50 victory over Stanford on Friday in a game played at American Family Field in Milwaukee, the baseball home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Green Bay (0-2) has lost two road games by an average of 30.5 points.

The Badgers are 26-1 all-time vs. Green Bay, including 23-0 in Madison. Wisconsin won the team’s matchup last season 72-34, as the Phoenix shot just 23.5 percent.

Neither Stanford or Wisconsin shot well in the cavernous baseball stadium environment, with the Badgers finishing at 37.3 percent and Stanford at 36.2 percent. But Wisconsin also converted 12 first-half Stanford turnovers into 18 points.

In a season-opening 85-59 victory over South Dakota in Madison, the Badgers’ traditional steady defense also was evident, limiting the Coyotes to 40.4 percent shooting.

Offense has been a different story. The Badgers went almost 6 1/2 minutes without a field goal in the second half against the Cardinal and had only six players in the scoring column.

“We can depend on our ability to guard, rebound, take care of the ball. Those things are non-negotiable as what we want every night,” Gard said. “Then offensively, play free and play relaxed and try to get the best on that possession. But this group knows that our strength is in our toughness and our grittiness, and that’s embedded in the fiber of this program.”

Senior forward Tyler Wahl, one of three returning starters, scored 19 and 17 points in the first two games and is averaging a team-best 7.5 rebounds per game. Sophomore point guard Chucky Hepburn is averaging 12.5 points and four assists, and 7-foot junior forward Steven Crowl adds 10.5 points and seven rebounds.

Jordan Davis, the twin brother of last year’s leading scorer Johnny Davis — the 10th overall pick in the NBA draft by the Washington Wizards — moved into the starting role vs. Stanford and had a career-high 13 points.

Freshman guard Connor Essegian has come off the bench and hit 4 of 7 3-point attempts. Wisconsin was last in the Big Ten last season in 3-point percentage.

Green Bay, 5-25 last season, has struggled in its first two games with a revamped roster, losing 80-53 at Indiana State and then 92-58 at Georgetown on Saturday after trailing by just two at the half.

“We have a lot of new faces this year, in all, 10 new guys,” Green Bay coach Will Ryan, the son of former Badgers coach Bo Ryan, said at conference media day. “We’ve changed some things up. We’re more athletic, we’re quicker in a lot of areas.”

Junior guard Davin Zeigler leads with 13.5 points and six rebounds per game. Guard Zae Blake has come off the bench for 11 points per game.

Opponents are shooting 58.5 percent against the Phoenix, who also have been outrebounded by 11 boards per game.

–Field Level Media

The Xavier Musketeers look for their third straight win while the visiting Fairfield Stags look for their first win in three tries when the teams meet Tuesday night in Cincinnati.

Zach Freemantle and Jack Nunge combined for 33 points on 13-for-19 shooting on Friday night, leading the host Musketeers to an 86-64 win over visiting Montana.

Xavier made its first 10 shots, taking a 27-17 lead at the 12:03 mark of the first half. Montana closed within nine points twice in the half before the Musketeers widened their lead to 49-34 on two free throws by KyKy Tandy with 40 seconds left before intermission.

“The tone was set from the very beginning that we were going to have a bunch of guys that were really committed to playing hard,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said after the game. “I thought we had unselfishness, guys looking for each other in really great balance.”

Xavier shot 64 percent from the floor, the team’s highest field-goal percentage since Dec. 15, 2018. The Musketeers also finished the game 8-for-14 from 3-point range.

The Musketeers forced 16 turnovers and converted them into 19 points while dominating points in the paint, 44-20, and fastbreak scoring, 16-3. After committing 20 turnovers against Morgan State, Xavier had just nine against Montana.

Fairfield is coming off a pair of 12-point losses to open the season, 71-59 at Wake Forest on Nov. 7 and 83-71 at New Hampshire on Friday. The Stags are in the midst of eight games away from their Connecticut campus to start the season before opening their new arena on Dec. 3 vs. Saint Peter’s.

Fourth-year coach Jay Young is looking to MAAC preseason first team selection Supreme Cook to make an impact. The 6-foot-9 junior forward is averaging 10 points and four rebounds over the first two games.

Fairfield’s Caleb Fields is putting up 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest.

“Going into Year 4, this is the most depth we’ve had and certainly the most talent we’ve had,” Young said. “I think this year we’ve certainly got more offensive answers than we ever had.”

James Johns Jr. scored 13 points off the Stags’ bench in the loss to New Hampshire.

–Field Level Media

Coming off a loss on their home court to an unranked team, the no-longer-ranked Oregon Ducks will look to get back on track Tuesday night in Eugene, Ore., against another big underdog, Montana State.

Both teams come in with 1-1 records.

Oregon, then ranked No. 21, led for only seven seconds of a 69-56 loss to visiting UC Irvine on Friday. After the Ducks took an 18-17 lead, UC Irvine went on an 18-4 run to grab control of the game for good.

The Ducks made just 32.7 percent of their shots (17 of 52), including 4 of 21 from 3-point range. They committed 15 turnovers in what was the largest margin of defeat in a home nonconference game for the program since a 67-54 loss to Virginia on Dec. 18, 2011.

UC Irvine had not won a game against a Pac-12 opponent since 2013.

Oregon coach Dana Altman felt he could see a rough night coming after the Ducks steamrolled Florida A&M at home in the season opener on Nov. 7.

“We got beat in every facet of the game: hustle, toughness,” Altman said following the UC Irvine game. “We’ve had a number of practices that resembled that, and I was fearful at some point in time that would come. They were the aggressor right from the start.”

Oregon’s most experienced players, guard Will Richardson and forward Quincy Guerrier, struggled to make shots, finishing a combined 1 of 11 for four points. Center N’Faly Dante led the Ducks with 20 points and nine rebounds.

Altman said Richardson and Guerrier were disappointed with their efforts.

“A poor mental effort,” Altman said. “We didn’t compete. I wish I had something positive to say, but really disappointed. The guys are disappointed. I’m disappointed. Got punched right from the start.”

Montana State opened the season on Nov. 7 with a 60-54 loss at Grand Canyon. The Bobcats didn’t play again until Sunday, when they topped Long Beach State 70-57, also on the road.

RaeQuan Battle’s career-high 24 points led the way for the Bobcats, who hit their first four 3-point attempts of the game and held off a comeback bid.

Darius Brown II, a transfer from Cal State Northridge, scored 11 points and added four rebounds and four assists.

“His motor was at another level,” Bobcats coach Danny Sprinkle said of Brown. “He’s so athletic and talented that when he plays like that, he’s so hard to guard. I’m so proud of him for taking the right shots at the right time, which is the next progression for him in order to be a tremendous player.”

The teams faced each in November 2009, with Oregon winning 89-66 in Eugene.

The Bobcats are the defending Big Sky regular-season and tournament champions and were picked to finish atop the conference in both the preseason coaches’ poll and media poll.

–Field Level Media

Freshman Keyon Menifield scored 26 points as host Washington rallied from an early nine-point deficit to defeat Utah Tech 78-67 Monday night in a nonconference game in Seattle.

Cole Bajema added 16 points and PJ Fuller II scored 10 for the Huskies (3-0), who are off to their best start in coach Mike Hopkins’ six seasons.

Utah Tech (1-2) was led by center Tanner Christensen, who scored a career-high 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting. Isaiah Pope added 13 points.

The Trailblazers’ top two scorers, Cameron Gooden and Frank Staine, who entered averaging a combined 26 points per game, totaled 12 points on 4-for-19 shooting from the field.

After trailing 58-55 with 9:51 remaining, the Huskies took the lead on a 3-pointer by Jamal Bey and 7-footer Braxton Meah followed with a dunk off a long lead pass from Menifield.

With Washington leading 61-58 with 7:44 left, the game was delayed for about 25 minutes because the clocks over the backboards malfunctioned.

Menifield hit a step-back 3-pointer, capping a 9-0 run, as the shot clock wound down when the game resumed, and the Trailblazers weren’t able to get any closer than four the rest of the way.

Utah Tech led 36-34 at the half as Christensen had 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field.

Christensen, a 6-foot-10 center from Spokane Valley, Wash., proved a handful inside, with the short-handed Huskies’ Meah being charged with three first-half fouls and Franck Kepnang picked up two while trying to guard him.

The Trailblazers had a 13-0 run before the intermission and led by as many as nine on two occasions.

The Huskies played without starters Noah Williams and Keion Brooks Jr., both sidelined by leg injuries.

Washington shot 55.1 percent from the field (27 of 49), including 12 of 20 from 3-point range, while Utah Tech shot 40.6 percent (26 of 64). The Trailblazers had a 38-25 edge on the boards, including 15-4 on the offensive end. The Huskies helped make up for that with eight blocked shots.

–Field Level Media

Southern California continues its season-opening, four-game homestand on Tuesday when it welcomes to Los Angeles a Vermont team closing out a tough, three-game California road swing.

The Trojans (1-1) rebounded from a stunning, 74-61 loss in the Nov. 7 season opener to Florida Gulf Coast with a 96-58 romp against Alabama State on Thursday.

“We were very disappointed in the second half and the way we played offensively (against Florida Gulf Coast) and we let that affect our defense,” USC coach Andy Enfield said. “We as a staff and as a team tried to work very hard on some of the things we were deficient at.”

The Trojans saw a marked game-to-game improvement on offense, most notably with veteran guard Drew Peterson putting up 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor and adding six assists and six rebounds in the Thursday win.

Vermont (1-2) comes in looking to salvage the finale of its trip. USC is the Catamounts’ third straight opponent on the West Coast tour that qualified for last season’s NCAA Tournament.

Vermont lost the opener of the trip at Saint Mary’s, 79-53, then dropped to a 94-85 double-overtime decision to reigning Big West Conference champion Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.

“We had our chances — both teams had their chances,” Catamounts coach John Becker said following the latest loss. “We got off to a slow start in the first half defensively. We’re a work in progress and we had a lot of foul trouble tonight and we have to keep our best guys on the floor.”

Bellarmine transfer Dylan Penn scored 27 points for Vermont at Cal State Fullerton, but he was one of six Catamounts to accrue at least four personal fouls. Four Vermont players fouled out.

Penn and backcourt mate Aaron Deloney have paced Vermont’s scoring through the season’s early going with averages of 16 and 18 points, respectively.

USC counters with Peterson (14 points per game) and perimeter stopper Boogie Ellis, who is producing 17 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 4.5 steals per contest. Ellis has hit half of his 10 3-point attempts.

–Field Level Media

A Cal team that was picked second to last in the Pac-12 preseason media poll will try a third time to secure its first win of the season in a trip south Tuesday night to face UC San Diego.

The Golden Bears (0-2) took both of their opening losses at home by a combined 19 total points to begin coach Mark Fox’s fourth season in charge.

On Friday against Kansas State, Cal closed a 15-point halftime deficit to 47-46 with 5:37 to play before ultimately succumbing 63-54.

Junior guard Devin Askew scored 17 points and senior forward Kuany Kuany had 13 in a game Fox believed might have been different if Cal had simply matched the opponents’ first-half intensity.

“I thought today’s game was really hard-fought, conference-like,” Fox said. “We didn’t respond well to it in the first half, but once we found our competitive fight, we were able to really play pretty solid. We just dug too big of a hole in the first half.”

Cal finished in 10th place in Pac-12 last season, and both of last year’s leading scorers, Jordan Shepherd and Andre Kelly, aren’t back.

The Bears visit UC San Diego for the first time ever, with the Tuesday hosts having won the previous meeting 80-67 last November in Berkeley.

Like Cal, UC San Diego (0-2) was picked second to last in the preseason poll in its conference, the Big West. The Tritons are also winless in two home games to open the season.

Bryce Pope led UC San Diego with 17 points on Saturday in a 65-55 defeat to Sacramento State but went just 1 of 7 from 3-point range. As a team, the Tritons shot only 2 of 16 from beyond the arc.

“I also thought we had some looks that I think we would make a pretty high percentage of the time,” UC San Diego coach Eric Olen said. “I know our guys would like some of those shots back. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. We had a hard time getting the ball to go in the basket for different periods of the game.”

–Field Level Media