MADISON, Wis. – Steven Crowl knows the list of things on his offseason improvement list is long and important if Wisconsin wants to factor into next season's Big Ten race and NCAA Tournament. In addition to needed strength, Wisconsin's starting forward wants to be a bigger threat from the perimeter, a weakness that limited his effectiveness for an offense that struggled to consistently score points.
In the opening round of the NIT, Crowl showed a sparsely populated Kohl Center how good he can be with an effective three-point presence.
With the disappointment of missing the NCAA Tournament still fresh in the minds of him and his teammates, Crowl helped Wisconsin turn the page with a career performance in an 81-62 victory over Bradley Tuesday night.
Crowl scored a career-high 36 points on a career-best 5-for-7 from three-point range, a distance where he connected on just 28.2 percent (22-for-78) and made multiple three points in only four games.
Max Klesmit added 16 points for Wisconsin (18-14), which will host No.3 Liberty (28-8) this weekend. The Flames – co-champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference - defeated Villanova, 61-57, earlier Tuesday.
Crowl’s point total set a new scoring record for the Badgers in the NIT (breaking Willie Simms’ 31 points against Bowling Green in 1991) and is the most points scored by a Wisconsin player since Johnny Davis had 37 at Purdue on January 3.
Forward Rienk Mast had 14 points and 12 rebounds for Bradley (25-10), the champions of the Missouri Valley who were left out of the NCAA Tournament after losing to Drake in the tournament championship game. The Braves never led because they could not slow Crowl, who scored eight of UW’s first 13 points by being active in the low post.
He made his first three-pointer at the 9:45 mark of the first half and spent the rest of the night either hitting perimeter shots or dunks, as Wisconsin led by double figures for the final 8:24.
What it means: The level of motivation is always interesting to gauge for teams in the NIT, and head coach Greg Gard promised Sunday that his team would be ready. His junior forward was, as the Badgers improved to 4-1 in the opening round of the NIT.
Star of the game: Crowl was spectacular and helped Wisconsin average 1.227 points per possession. In addition to his scoring, he added nine rebounds, two blocks, one assist, and had just one turnover in 33 minutes.
Stat of the game: Despite being separated by a little more than four hours, the series between Bradley and Wisconsin includes only three true road games. The Braves only previous appearance in Madison came on Feb. 12, 1929, a 48-22 victory at the Red Gym.
Reason to be Concerned: Chucky Hepburn’s rough postseason continues, as the sophomore was just 1-for-7 from the floor for three points, although he added five assists to one turnover. In two postseason games for the Badgers, Hepburn is shooting 18.8 percent from the floor and 16.7 percent from the perimeter.
Don’t overlook: Wisconsin’s 19-point victory was the largest for the Badgers since winning by 22 on Dec.15 and the first time the Badgers cracked the 80-point mark in regulation since the season opener.
What’s next: Wisconsin promises to have its hands full when it hosts Liberty and its talented senior guard Darius McGhee. The fifth-highest scoring player in the nation at 22.5 points per game, McGhee had 26 points in Tuesday’s win over Villanova and shot 13 of the Flames’ 26 three-point attempts. The Badgers have never played Liberty and are 2-0 all-time against teams from the Atlantic Sun Conference.
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