Coach Sidney Lowe and his young team could only hang with Wisconsin for about 10 minutes of Wednesday night’s 87-48 drubbing at the hands of the Badgers.
The Wolfpack knew before it headed west for Wednesday night’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge showdown with Wisconsin that it would have its work cut out for it. And by halftime, State had learned firsthand how coach Bo Ryan and the Badgers have now won 139 of 150 Ryan’s career home games – by forcing bad shots and knocking down looks from three-point land.
2009 second-team all-conference selection Tracy Smith watched from the sidelines as four underclassmen – two freshmen and two sophomores – started on the road in what has quietly become one of the nation’s most hostile home-court advantages. Under such circumstances, it was apparent before tipoff that the Pack would need to play its best and probably catch a few lucky breaks to knock off UW.
It was obvious well before halftime that neither of those things would occur Wednesday evening. Already in trouble in the paint with Smith injured and unavailable, matters quickly worsened when sophomore center DeShawn Painter picked up two fouls in the game’s first 4:33.
State more or less held its own until it scored its last points of the first half with 6:36 to play before halftime, then quickly fell apart, trailing 44-21 at intermission. The layup by Brown that made it 29-21 was the last the Pack scored until nearly four minutes had elapsed in the second half. In that time, Wisconsin had no trouble generating offense, building a 52-21 lead before sophomore Scott Wood ended the 10-minute drought that made the game’s final 16 minutes virtually moot.
Wisconsin didn’t stop there, pouring in 43 second-half points thanks in large part to six-for-11 shooting from downtown.
But it was hard to tell whether the Badgers were more dominant on the offensive or defensive end. The Pack struggled all night to find clean looks at the basket, finishing the evening shooting less than 32 percent from the floor. And if not for Wood, who knocked down five of his 10 field goal attempts, including three from long range, that number would have been even lower.
To say the least, the first road test for Ryan Harrow, C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown will leave room for improvement. After three turnovers and poor shooting in the early going, Leslie spent the remainder of the evening on the bench, logging only 15 minutes on the night, more than only sophomore Richard Howell and little-used reserve Kendall Smith.
But he wasn’t the only member of the highly-touted trio who appeared uncomfortable. Harrow never found his rhythm, finishing the night with seven points on 2-for-12 shooting, while Brown wasn’t much better, converting two of his 10 field goal attempts after starting the game and logging 26 minutes.
The Pack will have a chance to right the ship Saturday when it travels to Syracuse. But after a loss in which it was so thoroughly dominated, the trip north to take on the No. 7 Orange could very well end in another night to forget. The Cuse are 6-0 and coming off a narrow victory over Georgia Tech to secure the Legends Classic, followed by a blowout victory over Cornell. One hope for the Pack is that Syracuse, which will host a top-ten opponent in Michigan State three days later, will be caught looking ahead. The Orangemen are led by forward Kris Joseph, who has averaged 14.6 points per game this season.
