Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan may have found the missing link that has separated this season’s team from the team that took last season’s Big Ten tournament.
Sophomore guard Kammron Taylor did a Devin Harris imitation when he scored a career-high 26 points in Wednesday’s come-from-behind victory over Iowa in the Kohl Center. If Taylor plays the same way Saturday in Champaign, top-ranked Illinois could be in deep trouble.
Harris was the Big Ten’s most valuable player last season as a junior and he started all 96 of the games he played during his three seasons at Wisconsin.
If the 6-foot-3-inch guard hadn’t decided to skip his senior season and enter the NBA draft, the Badgers might have emerged as the biggest obstacle to the Illini’s national championship quest. He is the only key player missing from the team that toppled regular-season titlist Illinois in the championship game of last season’s conference tourney.
Without Harris–whose 19.5 points per game only scratched the surface of what he meant to the team–Wisconsin (16-5, 7-3 Big Ten) is going into the game in Assembly Hall in third place in the league.
While Illinois (24-0, 10-0) has been getting brilliant play from guards Luther Head, Dee Brown and Deron Williams virtually every game, their Wisconsin counterparts, Sharif Chambliss, Clayton Hanson and Taylor have been a study in inconsistency. Frontcourt players have accounted for 58.6 percent of the Badgers’ points.
Ryan went into the season hoping the team’s problem child, Boo Wade, would get his act together and help fill the void Harris’ early exit created. But Wade’s problems persisted and the junior guard left the team after playing in only one game.
The 6-2 Taylor started the first four games this season, but after he failed to score against Maryland, Ryan decided to change the Badgers’ alignment. He began using three frontcourt starters and Taylor became a sub.
When the Illini came to the Kohl Center on Jan. 25, Ryan went back to the three-guard starting format with Taylor. But the Badgers’ 38-game home-court winning streak was snapped when Illinois rallied to win 75-65.
Although Taylor had only seven points against Illinois, he started the next three games, scoring 20 and 18 points to lead the Badgers to victories over Penn State and Northwestern.
But when Taylor went back home to play against Minnesota last Saturday, he had a letdown and the Badgers were upset 60-50. He missed 11 of 13 shots from the field and his output dwindled to seven points.
Ryan decided not to start Taylor against Iowa.
“I was going to bring him off the bench and maybe take a little anxiety away from him,” the coach said. “I knew he could handle that, and he did very well.”
Taylor played 32 minutes and made 7 of 10 shots from the field–including 3 of 4 three-point tries–and 9 of 10 free throws.
Excelling in clutch situations, Taylor tied the score twice with three-pointers when the Badgers were making their stretch run and accounted for eight of their last nine points on free throws when the Hawkeyes had to foul after losing the lead.
Against Iowa, Wisconsin shot 46.5 percent and had only eight turnovers.
“We didn’t get too anxious when we got down,” Taylor said. “We took it one possession at a time and executed. We worked the ball inside to Mike [Wilkinson], and he got us going.”
Wisconsin’s victory over Iowa was somewhat similar to Illinois’ close call at Michigan the previous night. Illini coach Bruce Weber relied on his regulars and used only one sub in the second half. Ryan went to his bench a little more often, but except for Taylor, the subs didn’t play very much.
“I wanted to get some kind of flow like we normally substitute, but that didn’t happen,” Ryan said. “When you’re playing from behind, you have to go with your guys who have been down to the wire in close situations.”
Freshman guard Michael Flowers was on the court for only two minutes in relief of Hanson in the second half, but Ryan lauded his defensive work against Iowa’s outstanding three-point shooter, Jeff Horner.
“Mike gave us a nice little stretch where he forced Horner to do some different things,” Ryan said. “That kind of slowed Horner down.
“Then Clayton came back in and did a much better job [on Horner] because people lose rhythm when you keep them on the move and make them work harder.”
Because of Flowers’ performance when pitted against Horner, Ryan may call on him again Saturday to try to thwart Head’s three-point shooting.
