Wisconsin's Johnny Davis, Iowa's Keegan Murray Are Cut From Similar Cloth

MADISON, Wis. – Monday night marked the first time in 17 years that two Big Ten players scored at least 35 points on the same night. As fate would have it, those two players – Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis and Iowa’s Keegan Murray – will share the same court three nights later.

After Davis delivered a headline-generating 37 points in No.23 Wisconsin’s five-point victory at No.3 Purdue, just over 300 miles away, Murray did his best to steal some of the spotlight away by tying his career-high with 35 points in an 80-75 victory over Maryland.

It’s two individual performances that set up a fascinating showdown when the Badgers (11-2, 2-1 Big Ten) host Iowa at the Kohl Center Thursday night in the only regular-season meeting between the two teams.

“That’s the Big Ten for you, everybody has got great players,” UW senior Brad Davison said. “This is two of the best tomorrow.”

Even more impressive is that neither player finished last season averaging in double figures. At least Murray (24.5 ppg) appeared on the conference’s preseason watch list in October for Iowa (11-3, 1-2), while Davis (22.3 ppg) has made a lot of pundits look foolish for the oversight.

Not since Michigan State’s Maurice Ager scored 36 in triple overtime and Purdue’s Carl Landry had 35 against South Alabama in 2005 that two conference players hit 35 points on the same night. With due respect, this week’s individual presentations were better.

Having earned the Big Ten weekly honor three times this season, including twice in the past three weeks, Murray has done well trying to fill the shoes vacated by 2021 national player of the year Luka Garza. Monday was his seventh game scoring at least 25 points, as he finished 14-for-21 from the field. He scored 14 of his points in the first 8+ minutes of the first half, nine of his team’s first 11 in the second half and sparked a 17-5 run in the second half with his perimeter shooting. He went 5-for-6 from 3-point range while adding eight rebounds, three blocks, one assist, and one steal.

“The thing about him, he never forces anything,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said of Murray. “He just plays at his pace. We’re going to go to him at times, and at times it’s going to come to him naturally. He wasn’t hunting shots. He played defense … That’s just who he is. He doesn’t rattle.”

The same could be said about Davis, who drew national headlines for his performance in Mackey Arena. The first player to lead his team in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocks, and steals in a road win over an AP Top 5 team since Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan, Davis scored 27 points and had eight rebounds in the second half alone.

Matching the 10th-best single-game scoring performance in school history overall, Davis is the first Purdue opponent to score 30 points in a game at Mackey since Minnesota’s Nate Mason had 31 on Jan. 1, 2017.

Much like Murray, Davis hasn’t wavered with the pressure of shouldering the scoring of a Wisconsin offense that needed to replace six seniors from last year.

“The mindset to come ready to practice every day and become better at the little things is what impresses me the most,” sophomore guard Jordan Davis said of his teammate and twin brother. “His ability to pick up on stuff from last year and bring it to this year, and to do what he’s doing now is really impressive.”

Naturally, both Davis and Murray have a strong supporting cast around them that has allowed them to thrive.

Davison is averaging a career-best 15.2 points per game and delivered 15 points, three rebounds, and three assists at Purdue. He hit 3 of 6 3-pointers and twice hit Davis for baskets in the final two minutes. UW also got low-post help from Tyler Wahl (six points, four rebounds), Steven Crowl (four points, two rebounds), and Chris Vogt (six points, three rebounds) to limit Purdue – which entered shooting 51.6 percent from the field – to just 41.1 percent (23 of 56) from the field.

“We’ve got a pretty great team here,” Davison said. “We’ve done a lot of really good things individually, Johnny has, but also as a team.”

After a large chunk of the offense went through Garza last season, Iowa has stuck to the same transition-based offense while getting plenty of scoring contributions. Veteran guards Patrick McCaffery (11.3) and Jordan Bohannon (10.7) are averaging double figures. North Dakota transfer Filip Rebraca has helped fill the void left by transfer guard C.J. Fredrick and Joe Toussiant has stuffed the stat sheet, finishing with nine points, nine assists, four rebounds, and three steals against the Terps.

“You look at nine points, nine assists and he's guarding one of the fastest guys in college basketball (Maryland's Fatts Russell)," McCaffery said of Toussiant. “And that guy who's really fast is getting a ball screen, like, about every five seconds. That's not easy to do. I'm proud of the way he competed.”

As a team, Iowa leads the nation in fewest turnover per game (8.8) and is second in the country with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.97. All things combined have the Hawkeyes averaging 87.4 points per game, breaking the 90-point mark in three of the last four games.

Not surprisingly, it’s been Murray who has led the team in scoring in those outbursts.

“His evolution has been really astounding to watch on film,” head coach Greg Gard said. “I knew he was going to be good. You could see glimpses of it last year. I think much like our younger guys, you have an older group that dominates the platform and the voice, so to speak. Now he’s one of the focal points. He can do so many things.”

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @JakeKoco, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45

*Like us on Facebook