Wisconsin looks to build on its best start in a decade when the 15th-ranked Badgers host winless Chicago State on Saturday afternoon in Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin (7-0) hasn’t played since Sunday’s 81-75 victory over Pittsburgh in the Greenbrier Tip-Off tournament. The Badgers are off to their best start since 2014-15, a season in which they reached the NCAA Tournament final.
Chicago State (0-8) lost to Drexel 83-71 in Tuesday’s third-place game at the Sunshine Slam in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The Badgers returned just two starters — Steven Crowl and Max Klesmit — after leading scorer AJ Storr transferred to Kansas and three-year starter Chucky Hepburn departed to Louisville.
Graduate transfer John Tonje, limited to eight games last season at Missouri due to medical issues, has come on to average a team-best 23.0 points per game, including a career-high 41 in a Nov. 15 win over Arizona. He is shooting 95.2 percent from the free-throw line, tops in the country among players with 30 or more attempts.
Tonje was named Big Ten Player of the Week on Monday for the second consecutive week. He scored 25 of his team-high 33 points in the second half in the comeback win over Pitt, finishing a perfect 10 of 10 from the line.
“It’s like he’s been here four years,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said of Tonje. “He’s fit in perfectly within the culture, because he’s a really good person. He cares about his team, he cares about winning.”
John Blackwell and Nolan Winter moved into the starting lineup this season. Blackwell is second in scoring at 16.0 per game, including a career-high 30 vs. UT-Rio Grande Valley. Winter adds 9.3 points and a team-high 5.6 boards.
Wisconsin, long known for its defensive style, has scored at least 79 points in each of its first seven games — the longest such streak in school history. The Badgers are averaging 86.9 points per game, while allowing 71.6.
Wisconsin entered the week leading the nation in free-throw percentage at 86.5 percent. The Badgers have made more free throws (147) than their opponents have attempted (131).
Chicago State, which joined the Northeast Conference this season, averages just 59.1 points per game, allowing 84.4. The Cougars’ point differential of minus-25.3 ranks 351st out of 355 teams in scoring margin.
First-year coach Scott Spinelli’s squad has struggled offensively, shooting just 34.4 percent overall and 29.7 percent from 3-point range. They are shooting 65.0 percent from the free-throw line, averaging 11.1 attempts per game to 17.4 for opponents.
Jalen Forrest averages a team-high 9.5 points, and Quincy Allen is the leading rebounder at 4.3.
Spinelli knew his team, which finished 13-19 last season, would face challenges in his first year.
“We’ve got kind of a new bunch here of players, a lot of new faces,” Spinelli said at the Northeast Conference media day before the season. “We lost 75 percent of our scoring from last year. Really kind of a work in progress.”
Wisconsin has swept the last three matchups with Chicago State, all in Madison, including an 80-53 victory last December.
–Field Level Media
