No. 13 Wisconsin (3-1, 0-0) vs. Rhode Island (3-2, 0-0)
Game: Wednesday, Dec. 9 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin
Time: 3:30 PM CT
Watch: BTN (Jeff Levering and Ben Brust)
Listen: 1310 AM and 101.5 FM (Matt Lepay and Mike Lucas)
Follow Online: The Badgers' Den
Twitter: @Badger_Blitz
PRE-GAME NOTES
It didn't take long for Wisconsin to have its 2020-21 schedule tinkered with.
The Badgers' ACC/Big Ten Challenge game against Louisville was postponed earlier in week, but Greg Gard and the staff quickly added a game with another quality non-conference opponent in Rhode Island.
“There are just so many moving parts with this thing (schedule),” Gard told reporters on Monday. “It’s constantly changing. Trying to play as many games against the best competition we can find. Probably More so than ever, just trying to get a schedule together trumps what that schedule at the end of the day is going to look like because it’s not going to look like how we intended it to look.”
After having it's 11-game winning streak snapped this past weekend, Wisconsin is looking to start fresh with a win over the 3-2 Rams. Rhode Island is coming off three straight wins after dropping its first two games to open the season. The losses were a pair of narrow defeats to Arizona State and Boston College, but the Rams have since added quality wins over San Francisco and Seton Hall.
The player to look out for is senior Fatts Russell, who leads the Rams in scoring. Russell was named to the watch lists for the Naismith Player of the Year and the Bob Cousy Award. The 5-foot-11 senior is currently averaging 17.8 points per game and has scored at least 21 points in a pair of games this season.
D'Mitrik Trice and Nate Reuvers will be the players to watch for the Badgers. Trice played his most aggressive game this season against Marquette as he pushed the ball, attacked and created for others. As a result, the redshirt senior scored a season-high 17 points and had a season-high in assists with five. Trice will likely draw the assignment of sticking with Russell and limiting him.
As for Reuvers, the Minnesota native is just one block shy of passing Ethan Happ for the school record. Registering at least one block in each game this season, Reuvers should come away with the record this afternoon.
Wisconsin is 2-0 in the series, winning its only two meetings with Rhode Island. The two matchups were a pair of games in the 1998-99 season and the 1999-00 season.
