MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Ryan Evans and Jared Berggren have played plenty of basketball the past two seasons, but they have just one career start between them.
That likely will change this season, with the juniors expected to start and play significant minutes in the frontcourt for No. 15 Wisconsin with Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil having graduated.
Evans scored 16 points, Berggren added 12 and each grabbed five rebounds as the Badgers beat Division III Wisconsin-Stevens Point 80-54 in an exhibition game Saturday night.
Asked about getting a chance at a higher-profile role, Berggren said it wasn’t a big deal to him if he starts or not, just that his contributions help the team succeed.
His teammate sitting next to him flashed a big smile and offered a different answer.
“Jared can speak for himself – I’d like to be starting. I’m going to keep it real,” said Evans, who averaged 3.1 points in 12.4 minutes in 67 games over his first two seasons.
“It’s more opportunity and we’re glad to have that. In the past years, we liked playing roles and that type of thing, but we obviously do want to be starting and helping the team along with this guy, Jordan.”
Evans was motioning toward senior point guard Jordan Taylor. The Preseason All-American had eight points, seven assists and one turnover against the Pointers in a performance Badgers coach Bo Ryan called “a great job of orchestrating the offense.
“You didn’t see him force, you didn’t see him do anything other than get his teammates real good shots That’s when you know you’ve got a good point guard,” Ryan said.
Ben Brust came off the bench to score 14 points and fellow sophomore Josh Gasser had 10 for Wisconsin, which opens the regular season next Saturday against Kennesaw State.
The Badgers raced out to a 14-2 lead and led by double figures most of the rest of the way. The biggest cheers from the sparse crowd at the Kohl Center came when the score from the Wisconsin football team’s 62-17 rout of Purdue earlier in the day flashed up on the scoreboard and after Evans’ alley-oop dunk off a pass from Taylor with 6:20 left.
Dan Tillema had a game-high 24 points for Stevens Point, which won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last season and is favored to do so again this season.
Add A Comment