Wisconsin Basketball: Key Stats From Win Over UW-Stevens Point

In their final exhibition game before the regular season, the Wisconsin basketball team downed UW-Stevens Point at the Kohl Center.  Fans who watched on BTN+ or were in attendance got their first glimpse of the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team in action.

If you didn’t get to catch the game in person or on TV, you can read some observations from BadgerNotes.

There are some tell-tale stats about the game that could give us insight into how the Wisconsin basketball team is going to play this year. So let’s dig into the box score and see what we can find.

Key Stats from Wisconsin Basketball vs. UW-Stevens Point

Chucky Hepburn’s Low Scoring Output a Positive for the Wisconsin Badgers

This exhibition game was decided pretty early on. The Badgers led 42-22 at the half. So naturally, there were a lot of players that got playing time and many of the starters didn’t get as many minutes as you would expect in the regular season. But if we look at first-half stats, I think that can give us a decent idea of what we will see from the Badgers this year.

AJ Storr – 12 points (4/5), 2 rebounds, 1 assist
Tyler Wahl – 9 points (4/4), 4 rebounds, 2 assists
Max Klesmit – 6 points (2/3), 4 assists, 1 steal
Steven Crowl – 6 points (3/5), 6 rebounds, 1 assist
Chucky Hepburn – 0 points (0/2), 5 assists, 3 steals

The most noticeable thing from the first-half box score is Storr and Hepburn. With the addition of Storr, Wisconsin basketball head coach Greg Gard can take some pressure off of Hepburn and allow him to create.

Gard says the plan is to take some pressure off of Hepburn to be the main scorer so he can facilitate more.

— Christian Borman (@christianborman) November 2, 2023

By the end of the game, Hepburn scored seven points, but more impressively, he finished with six assists, four steals, and no turnovers.

He looked very different on the floor last night, looking to make plays for other guys rather than hunting for shots.

Connor Essegian Has a Green Light

We all know that Connor Essegian is going to get his shots. That’s not going to change this season.

Essegian came off the bench for the Wisconsin basketball team in their win over the Pointers. It took him just over a minute of game time to get his first three off, which was a couple of feet behind the three-point line, which he missed. In fact, he ended the first half 0-3 from the field, all of which were from beyond the arc.

In the second half, however, he kept shooting. He scored 11 points after the break, going 4-7 from the field and 3-6 from three. He finished the game going 3/9 from deep.

In his presser, Gard was asked about Essegian coming off the bench and bringing some scoring juice with the second unit and that he has a green light to shoot the ball.

Gard said Essegian coming off the bench was a good time for him to get into a rhythm with that second unit. So I would expect to see him coming off the bench this season and providing that second unit with some offense.

Multiple Wisconsin Basketball Players Log Double-Digit Minutes

Every active player on the roster got into the game for the Wisconsin Badgers, but that’s not abnormal in an exhibition game.

But last night, there were nine players that logged double-digit minutes for Wisconsin. Max Klesmit led the way with 21 minutes on the floor. Hepburn (20), Storr (19), John Blackwell (18), Nolan Winter (17), Tyler Wahl (17), Steven Crowl (16), Connor Essegian (15), and Markus Ilver (12) all were in the game at least 30 percent of the game.

I think the top eight are going to be getting regular minutes. I would expect Carter Gilmore (9 minutes) to get more minutes this year than Ilver. So that would put the Badgers at nine players who will probably get regular minutes in the regular season.

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