This contest Thursday night in Madison, Wis., is rife with contrasts. No. 11 Indiana is star-studded and combustible enough to lead the Big Ten in scoring. No. 13 Wisconsin is a relatively anonymous collection and miserly enough to lead it in scoring defense.
The Hoosiers (17-2, 6-0) feature the league’s top scorer in acclaimed freshman Eric Gordon, who is expected to play despite suffering a wrist injury in practice Tuesday, and top rebounder in stolid senior D.J. White. Both are among the 30 names still under consideration to receive the Wooden Award that goes to the national player of the year.
The Badgers (16-3, 6-1) feature coach Bo Ryan’s system and are egalitarian enough that this season they have had seven players lead them in scoring. None of their names are among those on that Wooden list.
On defense the Hoosiers aim to get in an opponent’s grill, to use a term coach Kelvin Sampson favors, and then feed their offense off the errors they create. On defense the Badgers are more reliant on positioning, which they use to block paths to the basket, and their offense also is more patient and patterned.
Each has caused 293 turnovers, third most in the league behind Purdue and Minnesota. But the Badgers, with their steady style, have committed only 255 of their own while the Hoosiers, who play more in frenzy, have committed 277.
Both are coming off a loss, Indiana to Connecticut and Wisconsin to Purdue, and that adds to the anticipation at Wisconsin’s Kohl Center. This is a long-awaited meeting that matches a pair of the league’s best. It marks Indiana’s first game against a ranked team and gives the Badgers a chance to improve on the 103-6 record they have run up at home under Ryan.
“We certainly could have played better across the board [against Connecticut], but we have a great opportunity Thursday night,” Sampson said of his team earlier this week. “We [can] right a lot of wrongs and play a lot better, and we’re going to have to.”
He understands the Badgers don’t beat themselves.
“Their greatest strength is they don’t contribute to their demise,” Sampson said. “The right people take the shots. They’re balanced inside and out. … They’re very, very mentally tough kids who rarely make mistakes. … They’re just really sound in what they do.”
That soundness is not the stuff of highlight reels, which is the kind of fodder the electric Gordon often provides. But that is no surprise. Gordon merely is proving worthy of the advanced billing he received. The surprise is the metamorphosis of White, who until this season was an unreliable presence whose nature often favored pacifism.
Last season he shot just 51.2 percent from the field. This season he is at 61.5. Last season he averaged just 7.3 rebounds a game. This season that number is 10.2.
“He just takes a lot of pride in it now,” Sampson said of the 6-foot-8-inch White’s newfound diligence on the boards. “He has grown up a lot. He has gotten tougher. Big kids who don’t rebound are either non-aggressive or have no feel for it.”
Badgers senior Brian Butch has undergone his own metamorphosis, one no less stunning than White’s. A high school All-American who surprisingly chose to redshirt as a freshman, he has conquered illness, injury and his own limitations to emerge as a multifaceted force.
At 6-11, he clearly can work down low. But he is also capable of dropping a three-pointer and this year, for the first time, of putting the ball on the floor as well.
“When you come as a tall young man with a good touch, there are other things in the game that you have to learn when you get to college,” Ryan said of his development. “But as the saying goes, merit wins the soul. So by the time he’s done with his college career … it’s the merit that he’ll represent that will get people to understand that he has had a pretty good career.”
Just as they should understand that Thursday night too will be pretty good.
How they match up
Averages per game
(Big Ten rank)
%% HOOSIERS CATEGORY BADGERS
78.6 (1) Scoring offense 70.1 (4)
62.1 (6) Scoring defense 54.7 (2)
48.5 (2) FG percentage 46.8 (3)
38.5 (1) 3FG percentage 35.6 (6)
74.6 (1) FT percentage 67.5 (6)
38.8 (2) Rebounding 37.1 (4)
14.6 (3) Turnovers 13.4 (5) %%
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smyslenski@tribune.com
