MADISON, Wis. – If John Blackwell hadn’t received his ‘Welcome to the Big Ten’ moment, running into 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey would certainly qualify, as he had the bruises to prove it.

Instead of a bucket at the rim in a close game, the freshman guard got nasty swelling and missed a pair of games that altered UW’s rotations and its offensive flow.

That appears to be behind Blackwell now, as the freshman went through his full practice on Thursday since the injury and says he’ll be available when No.20 Wisconsin (17-8, 9-5 Big Ten) faces Iowa (14-11, 6-8) Saturday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“I credit my teammates for trusting me,” Blackwell said. “I credit God for just giving me the confidence to go out there, and the coaches, too.”

Blackwell’s injury occurred on a drive to the rim in the 75-69 loss to No.2 Purdue. Getting the ball knocked out of his hand as he extended upward, Blackwell collided with Edey as the Purdue All-American rotated over and collided. Saying in retrospect that he should have tried to grab the rim to steady himself, Blackwell instead fell on his right hip.

“I didn’t think anything was wrong, just a normal limp, but later that night I couldn’t even walk,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell scored three points in UW’s next game at Michigan after doing training work leading into the game, but admitted he would have been better off resting his hip. His 11 minutes on the court strained his hip more and caused him to miss UW’s loss at Rutgers and Tuesday’s home win over Ohio State.

Blackwell is averaging 7.9 points and 17.5 minutes per game in his freshman season. Like many of his teammates, he has hit a scoring wall as of late. After scoring in double figures in seven of his first 10 games, Blackwell has hit the number only three times in the past two months, including scoring five points or fewer in the last five games.

Asked about dealing with the grind of the college season, Blackwell points to staying within himself.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Blackwell said. “If a person has so much success, just like in life, they start to get content and not push themself over that hump. I can’t get content with what I’ve accomplished this year and just need to push myself harder and keep staying hungry.

“I feel like in a way that’s why we took a couple losses. We were a little content, ranked No.6 in the country, and we weren’t as hungry as we were for the other games. I feel like we got back to that against Ohio State.”

In the last two games without Blackwell or reserve Kamari McGee (who has been without since January 19 with a foot injury), sophomore Connor Essegian and Isaac Lindsey – a junior – have been the only backcourt players available from the rotation. That has forced point guard Chucky Hepburn to play 72 minutes, 22 seconds out of a possible 80 minutes. Max Klesmit was limited to 20:40 because of foul trouble against Rutgers but played 32:43 against Ohio State, five minutes more than he usually averages.

The impending return of Blackwell comes at good time with Wisconsin preparing for a Hawkeyes team that ranks second in the league in scoring (83.5) and field goal percentage (47.7) and are 14th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency (118.7).

Guards Tony Perkins (15.4 ppg) and Payton Sandfort (15.1) rank in the top 15 in the conference in scoring but were a combined 10-for-29 in Wednesday’s 78-66 loss at Maryland.

In UW’s 83-72 win over Iowa in Madison on January 2, Perkins had a game-high 25 points on 14 shots while Sandfort was 3-for-11.

“They are really talented in transition, too, with Perkins pushing it,” Blackwell said. “They got talented shooters, so we’re going to have to try to shut that down with transition points. I feel like we did a good job the first time of stopping it, too. They’re talented, so it’s going to be a battle for sure.”

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