Men's basketball scouting report: No. 23 Wisconsin at No. 1 Arizona, 1:15 p.m. Saturday, McKale Center

ARIZONA SCOUTING REPORT

No. 23 Wisconsin (6-2) at No. 1 Arizona (7-0)

McKale Center • 1:15 p.m. • ESPN • 1290-AM, 107.5 FM

Probable starters

ARIZONA

G Kylan Boswell (6-2 sophomore)

G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)

F Pelle Larsson (6-6 senior)

F Keshad Johnson (6-7 senior)

C Oumar Ballo (7-0 senior)

WISCONSIN

G Chucky Hepburn (6-2 junior)

G Max Klesmit (6-4 junior)

F A.J. Storr (6-7 sophomore)

F Steven Crowl (7-0 senior)

F Tyler Wahl (6-9 senior)

How they match up

The series: Wisconsin leads 5-2 after handing Arizona two of its most painful losses in history, Elite Eight games in 2013-14 and 2014-15. The Badgers also stunned No. 1-seeded Arizona 66-59 in the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City, while Arizona’s lone NCAA Tournament win over Wisconsin came in an 8-vs-9 game in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament. Wisconsin also beat Arizona 65-61 in the 2009 Maui Invitational. The teams have never met at McKale Center, but UA beat Wisconsin 51-46 in 1962-63 at Bear Down Gym.

Game agreement: Wisconsin is appearing for the first game of a two-year home-and-home series, which will conclude when Arizona plays at Wisconsin on Nov. 15, 2024.

Wisconsin overview: How unusual are the Badgers in today’s transfer portal era? They not only return five starters from last season but also three starters — Chucky Hepburn, center Steven Crowl and forward Tyler Wahl — from the team that shared the Big Ten title with Illinois in 2021-22. They added just one transfer this season but a key one in wing A.J. Storr of St. John’s, along with a three-player freshman class. Their continuity and experience has paid off, especially over the past few weeks when Wisconsin has beaten Virginia, SMU, then-No. 3 Marquette and, on Tuesday, Michigan State on the road.

Wisconsin does it with a balanced, efficient and patient offense that goes deep into the shot clock. They shoot just 31.8% from 3-point range but hit 10 of 23 against Michigan State, while setting up 23 of their field goals with 17 assists. Hepburn had eight assists to only one turnover against the Spartans while Storr, who has emerged as the Badgers’ leading scorer, had 11 points on 8-for-11 shooting while hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers.

At 6-foot-7 and 205 pounds, Storr adds to his scoring by drawing 4.6 fouls per 40 minutes and hitting free throws at a 92.3% rate. Inside Crowl and Wahl are efficient scorers and rebounders, both averaging over 55% shooting, while Crowl pulls down 14.5% of his teammates’ missed shots when he’s on the floor (the 42nd-best offensive rebounding percentage in Division I) while Wahl has a 12.8 offensive rebounding percentage.

With Storr starting at small forward in place, the Badgers have moved 6-4 wing Connor Essegian back to the bench, where he shot 45.3% from 3 last season before starting in the second half of last season. Shooting guard Max Klesmit is dangerous from beyond the arc, hitting 5 of 10 3s against Marquette.

He said it: “They’re very balanced offense. It’s a different style, where ball movement is more important than dribbling. They’re very comfortable playing at a slow pace… They have a couple of different offenses, but one of the main ones is back screens and moving the ball, kind of a flex offense. They don’t take many risks. They’re not trying to thread the needle on their passes. They’re very comfortable looking for good shots, and they’ve always been historically low turnover team and they’re great rebounding team. That’s a recipe for good offense. But they obviously do it different than us.

“(Hepburn) is as capable a shooter as there is. … He’s gonna move the ball, he’s tough, knows their system, is the kind of player who makes the team go. Klesmit is a really high-level shooter, and from the bench, Essegian is a knockout shooer. I think the wild card from them that makes them different than last year is Storr. He’s been really good and he’s very aggressive attacking the rim, getting all the way, making tough shots. He’s a big, big piece for them.

“The two bigs (Wahl and Crowl) have been unbelievable on the glass. Wahl has been there forever, he’s the heart and soul of the team, plays his ass off every night, makes big plays for them. Crowl is probably the best big in the country that is not spoken about. Good hands, really good around the room, good rebounder, very good defensively. Then (John) Blackwell from the bench, he’s very athletic, can shoot. He’s a big time player.”

Their balance is “what that’s what makes them good. You don’t know who’s gonna be the guy. They don’t know. They’re just gonna take advantage of what’s out there. So we have to do a good job limiting and taking away the strength of each individual player.” — UA assistant coach Riccardo Fois, who scouted the Badgers.

Key players

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WISCONSIN — Chucky Hepburn

Maybe it’s fitting that the Badgers’ point guard has a first name that rhymes with their mascot, Bucky. Hepburn is the engine of a patient offense, often orchestrating opportunities on the fly as defenses allow. It’s never for sure which Wisconsin player might take advantage of a defensive breakdown, but Hepburn is always running the show.

ARIZONA — Keshad Johnson The Wildcats’ transfer forward is known for playing bigger than his size and he’ll need to be in order to defend and keep Wahl off the glass. The Badgers’ fifth-year veteran post player is a crafty scorer and rugged rebounder. But if the Wildcats can disrupt the Badger offense and get out on the break, Johnson can damage on the other end.

Sidelines

Slo-mo Wildcats

With three juniors, a senior and a sophomore starting in an offensively balanced lineup that is happy passing the ball repeatedly around until a shot appears, Wisconsin sort of resembles Arizona offensively in some ways.

Except for this stat: Arizona runs at an adjusted offensive tempo ranked the sixth-fastest in the country, while Wisconsin … ranks No. 343.

And this one: The Wildcats average just 14.8 seconds per offensive possession, the seventh least in Division I, while Wisconsin averages 20.0 – the fifth most time out of 362 Division I teams.

So you have to look past the pace of the game to see anything in common.

“I do think there’s some similarities,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “I think they have organized, set ways they move with some fluidity to them that aren’t rigid, and they have different little patterns they run that they’re really good at.

“We have a version of similar stuff and we just do ours at a little different pace. But both teams have a fluidity to them that makes them hard to guard. I really enjoyed watching them play and scouting them.”

Bucky-ing the trend

As a standout post player who graduated after last season, Wisconsin’s Tyler Wahl was a prime candidate to take his “COVID” year of eligibility and use it somewhere else, maybe somewhere that had an especially well-endowed NIL collective.

But, nope. Wahl helped the Badgers reach the NIT Final Four last season during a “weird situation where we’re still playing games while everyone else is thinking about transferring,” and then considered leaving himself it for a hot minute after the season.

But just a week later, he announced he was returning to Madison for a fifth season.

“It was a whole thing,” Wahl said. “But at the end of the day, this is a school I love. I’ve won a couple of championships here and we didn’t have the best year according to our standards last year. Leaving that would have probably left me with a hole in my heart. Having that opportunity to come back and compete for another championship compete with my teammates is something just something that I couldn’t pass up.”

Um, no thanks

Of the three seasons Frank Kaminsky spent with the Phoenix Suns, two were with Fois, then the Suns’ director of player personnel. So after Fois joined Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd’s Arizona staff in 2021-22, when Kaminsky spent a third season in Phoenix, Fois suggested maybe he might want to pay a visit to McKale.

Sure, Kaminsky had run all over the Wildcats in the Badgers’ 2014 and 2015 Elite Eight games, but Fois said he’s a good guy who respects Arizona and, besides, hadn’t it been a while?

“I told him a bunch of times like, `Come down, the fans will love it,’ “ Fois said. “He’s like, `I don’t know if the fans will love it like you think.’ “

Fois understood. He said Kaminsky was aware he might be one of the players UA fans actually like the least.

“Frank knew it,” Fois said. “But I also know this: If Frank would come here, he would totally embraced it, and Arizona fans would have loved that he embraced it. He’s that guy. He has so much respect for Arizona and our school. He could have avoided kicking our ass but not everybody is perfect.”

Numbers game

7: Wins over Top 5 ranked teams by Wisconsin under ninth-year coach Greg Gard.

9: Wisconsin’s Kenpom rank in minutes continuity (71.8), the percentage of a team’s minutes that are played by the same player from last season to this season.

14.7: Wisconsin’s average margin of victory over during its six-game winning streak.

30.8: Arizona’s average margin of victory in its 7-0 start.

— Bruce Pascoe