Wisconsin MBB Defeats Arkansas State 105-76: Here’s What Stood Out
Takeaways from the Badgers season opening win over the Red Wolves.
On Monday night, Greg Gard and the Wisconsin Badgers basketball program welcomed head coach Bryan Hodgson & his Arkansas State team to the Kohl Center for the season opener.
The Badgers, who took the lead 20 seconds into the game, never looked back and walked away with a convincing 105-76 win over the Red Wolves while setting a new Kohl Center scoring record. UW has now won 25 of its last 26 home openers.
Here are a few things that stood out from the Wisconsin Badgers season-opening win over Arkansas State.
Wisconsin Basketball Found Its Missing Piece
For all of last season’s shortcomings, the Wisconsin basketball program found what it was missing in the transfer portal when Greg Gard landed sophomore small forward AJ Storr.
The Illinois native finished with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting and chipped in two rebounds, two assists, and a block. By my estimation, he looked like the best player on the court by a wide margin. His athleticism pops.
Storr is an absolute weapon in transition, which will be an exciting element to monitor throughout the season — and could be the key to opening up the Wisconsin basketball offense in 2023-24.
Stock up.
Wisconsin Has Much Better Depth Than a Year Ago
I understand that it’s the opening game of the season against a team that finished second to last in the Sun Belt last season — but the Wisconsin Badgers have considerably more playable depth than a year ago.
In the first nine minutes, UW rolled out Nolan Winter, Carter Gilmore, Connor Essegian, and John Blackwell. I wouldn’t be shocked if that were the core group of rotation players this season. I also feel safe in saying they’ll produce far more counting stats than the Badgers bench did last year — even though every game won’t look like this one.