Wisconsin Men’s Basketball vs. UW-Green Bay: Game Preview

The Wisconsin Badgers return to the Kohl Center 2-0 after their win over Stanford last Friday. Tonight, they’ll look to make that 3-0 as they take on the UW-Green Bay Phoenix who come into this game 0-2 on the season. Let’s take a look at this non-con matchup!

Quick Facts

Who (are the Badgers playing): UW-Green Bay

What (are they): Phoenix

When: 8:00 PM CT

Where: Kohl Center Madison, WI

How (to watch): Big Ten Network

Line: UW -27, total of 130.5

Series History: Wisconsin is 25-1 against UWGB in it’s history

Opponent Preview

Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images

UW-Green Bay comes into this contest struggling on the young season as they sit 0-2 with losses to Indiana State and Georgetown. The start for Green Bay, unfortunatley for them, comes as not much of a surprise after a tough 2021 season. Last year, the Phoenix went 5-25 overall and finished last in the Horizon League standings.

2022 expects to be much of the same according to the preaseason Horizon League Poll as the Phoenix were picked to finish 10th in the conference (out of 11). Will Ryan, former assistant coach at UW and son of Bo Ryan, will look to improve on that mark in 2022. He’ll do with a fairly young roster as 8 of the 14 players on Green Bay’s team are underclassmen. Leading the way for the Phoenix are junior guard Davin Ziegler and sophomore guard Zae Blake who are both averaging double-digit scoring outputs two games into the season.

Things to Watch for Wisconsin

Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images

Familiar Foes: UW-Green Bay and Wisconsin have squared off 26 times which is the second most times among non-conference teams (UW-Milwaukee and UW have met 29 times). There is plenty of familiarity between these two sides as Green Bay Head Coach Will Ryan and Greg Gard were previously both assistants at Wisconsin before getting their respective head coaching jobs.

Additionally, reserve guard Kamari Mcgee previously played for UWGB so he will get the opportunity to play against his former team on Tuesday night. Mcgee was second on the team in scoring for Green Bay last season.

The bench: Speaking of Mcgee, it will be interesting to see how deep Wisconsin goes in this contest when it comes to the bench. Frankly, the Badgers should have this game pretty well in their hand which should allow Wisconsin to work on some things with their reserves.

Guard Kamari Mcgee played very little for the Badgers against Stanford getting just two minutes of work, but he did get 8 minutes against South Dakota in the opener. Someone will need to seize the backup point guard job whether it be Mcgee or reserve Isaac Lindsey. Who we see in action Tuesday should start to give that a clearer picture.