Trevon Hughes works out for Milwaukee Bucks

Trevon Hughes, who recently wrapped up his University of Wisconsin career, is working out for the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday morning as part of the first group of NBA draft prospects the team is evaluating.
The 6-foot-1 guard, a New York City native who played high school ball at St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, is among a group that includes one other backcourt player in Cal's Jerome Randle.
Also in the morning session are: Paul George, a 6-7 sophomore forward from Fresno State; Craig Brackins, a 6-10 junior post player from Iowa State; Marquis Gilstrap, a 6-6 senior forward from Iowa State; and Tyren Johnson, a 6-8 forward from Lousiana-Lafayette.
The afternoon session includes guard Jerry Smith, formerly of Wauwatosa East and Louisville, as well as Louisville sophomore forward Samardo Samuels, Texas El-Paso junior center Derrick Caracter, Louisiana Tech senior Magnum Rolle, Clemson senior forward Trevor Booker and guard Jeremy Wise, who played last season with Bakersfield of the NBA Developmental League.
It would be great to see another Badger in the NBA. GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!

Badgers Dominate Illini

Foul trouble? Who cares about that?Senior guard Trevon Hughes and junior forward Jon Leuer worked in and out of foul trouble all game but still got the job done offensively and helped the Badgers defeat Illinois, 72-57.
Hughes sat out a great portion of the first half because of fouls but managed to record his first double-double in his final regular-season game at Wisconsin. Hughes finished the contest with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Leuer also danced around foul trouble Sunday, picking up a third foul in the opening minutes of the second half. Then, after only a two-minute stint on the bench, he came in and promptly picked up his fourth. But the forward, who did not play in the first meeting between the two teams, was a force offensively, scoring 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field.
“They get in foul trouble, which they never seem to get in foul trouble,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said. “And we couldn’t take advantage of it.”
When Hughes was on the bench, sophomore guard Jordan Taylor handled the offensive reins and matched Leuer’s offensive output with 20 points. Taylor shot 8-of-17 from the field, including 3-of-6 from long distance, and added eight rebounds and three assists to ensure the Badgers did not miss a beat when Hughes, their starting point guard, was relegated to the bench.
Of Hughes’ and Taylor’s 19 rebounds, 10 were on the offensive side of the ball. Junior forward Keaton Nankivil added five offensive rebounds.
“The thing we said could make a difference in the game were loose balls, rebounds, and they were able to get them,” Weber said.
Illini junior guard Demetri McCamey, who torched the Badgers for 27 in the teams’ first meeting, never got going like he did in Madison, scoring 11 points Sunday on 2-of-8 shooting. Junior center Mike Tisdale led all Illini with 16 points on Illinois’ Senior Day.
The No. 16 Badgers (13-5 Big Ten, 23-7 overall) will now close the book on the regular season and focus on the Big Ten Tournament beginning Friday, which rematches the Badgers against the Illini.
Illinois (10-8, 18-13) now sits in a precarious position in terms of its NCAA Tournament prospects. If the Badgers believed they were facing a desperate team today, Friday will be against a team ultimately in a must-win situation.
“We got one last chance to make the season a positive one, but we’ve got to play smarter and we’ve got to get better effort on both sides of the court,” Weber said.
Tisdale echoed the same sentiment as Weber, knowing this could be the team’s final chance to somehow get back into the NCAA Tournament picture.
“It’s do or die,” Tisdale said.
It is great to see the Badgers turn it up in March. GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UW Seniors go out with a win

In their last game at the Kohl Center senior guards Jason Bohannon and Trevon Hughes said farewell the only way they know how: with style.
Bohannon and Hughes hit back-to-back shots to open a game-long celebration of their Badger careers and finished the game on pace to become the highest scoring backcourt in Wisconsin history.
Hughes finished with 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting and Bohannon added 11 on 5-of-8 and also grabbed a career-high nine rebounds. Both became members of Wisconsin’s 1,000-point club this season and, depending on how the rest of the season plays out, they have a chance to become two of the most winningest basketball players at the university.
“If I was a director I couldn’t write a better script for tonight,” Hughes said. “Our team came out firing, [the way] the two teams opened up the game, and especially with [Bohannon]. The very first possession once he touched it I knew it was going to be a good night.”
If it was not clear by how they interact on the floor, Hughes and Bohannon share a unique bond. They were roommates in the dorms freshman year, which brought them closer together socially and helped form the chemistry on the court that gave them the opportunity to grow into such an impressive duo. It is only fitting that they also got to share all of the achievements they’ve accomplished with the team these past four years.
“Just think about two guys going over 1,000 points in the same year, playing on NCAA tournament teams, conference championship teams, conference tournament champion teams,” head coach Bo Ryan said of his two departing seniors. “That’s pretty exciting. There are a lot of people who would like to be Jason Bohannon and Trevon Hughes. I would.”
Both Hughes and Bohannon also shared the night with their families. Hughes’ mom got the chance to see her son play at the Kohl Center for the first time since he played in the Wisconsin state high school tournament. And because Hughes’ team didn’t win the title back then, he was glad his mom got to see him lead the Badgers to a victory.
Sometimes it’s funny how things work out and in what Bohannon called a “cool situation,” he got to finish his career at the Kohl Center against his home-state team in front of his dad, the quarterback of Iowa’s 1982 Rose Bowl team, and his mom.
The most difficult part of the night for Hughes, Bohannon and their families was not winning the game, but trying to hold back the tears.
“It’s very tough,” Hughes said of the emotions. “You just have to suck it up sometimes or sometimes let it go. There’s nothing wrong with shedding a tear. The emotion did play a role in the tonight’s game and I think that’s the energy we need to come out and play with in every game.”
The performances by Hughes and Bohannon were special, but in his fourth game back from a wrist injury a junior forward took over some of the spotlight. Consider it a passing of the torch to the Orono, Minn. native as it will be his team next year without Hughes and Bohannon. The heir-apparent to the Wisconsin leadership throne, scored 10 straight points, thanks to assists from both Bohannon and Hughes, in an 18-0 run and left no doubts that he is back to full form.
Let's hope that the Badgers are peaking at the right time. GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers Crush Hoosiers

The Badgers picked up just their fourth road win of the season with a 78-46 clinic over the Hoosiers last night, marking their largest margin of victory in a road Big Ten game since their 54-20 win over the University of Chicago in 1942.
Perhaps most importantly, the Badgers finished the game without any injuries.
With Purdue junior forward Robbie Hummel’s season cut short with an ACL injury Wednesday against Minnesota, the injury bug has found its way to each of the Big Ten’s top teams. Ohio State’s junior forward Evan Turner, Michigan State’s junior guard Kalin Lucas and the Badgers’ own junior forward Jon Leuer have all missed at least one game this Big Ten season.
Indiana (3-12 Big Ten, 9-18 overall) forced Wisconsin (11-5, 21-7) into a drowsy start, but junior forward Keaton Nankivil was sharp for the Badgers. He was just 12-of-30 from the field since the Illinois game, but started 4-of-5 to jump-start Wisconsin’s 23-to-8 run in the first half that gave the Badgers a 39-22 lead going into the locker room.
Wisconsin’s guards had a field day and found success getting into the lane, which lead to open layups. Sophomore guard Jordan Taylor collected two uncontested layups as the first half was winding down in front of a frustrated Assembly Hall.
In the early going it was all about balance for the Badgers. Senior guard Trevon Hughes and Taylor both contributed eight points while Taylor also pulled down five rebounds in the first half. Each of Wisconsin’s starters scored at least five points in the first half, with Nankvil scoring a game-high 10 at the half and finishing with 14, the highest since his 25-point explosion against the Boilermakers.
Turnovers plagued the Hoosiers again. In the first meeting at the Kohl Center, Indiana finished with an incredible 21 turnovers, and followed it up by giving away the ball 18 times to Wisconsin. The Badgers turned those 18 turnovers into 21 points, and thanks to 32 rebounds, they scored 11 second-chance points.
Wisconsin continued its streak of hot shooting as well. After scorching the net for 75 percent in the first half against Northwestern, the Badgers shot almost 55 percent from the field for the game and an amazing 8-of-11, or 72.7 percent from 3-point land.
I hope the Badgers are just tuning up for March Madness. GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wisconsin Falls Short At No. 12 Purdue

At times in the second half it seemed like Wisconsin was throwing everything it could at No. 12 Purdue.
And at night’s end it was just enough to fall short.
As senior point guard Trevon Hughes’ final runner bounced off the rim, No. 16 Wisconsin (6-3 Big Ten, 16-5 overall) lost the chance to earn a rare win over Purdue (5-3, 17-3) in Mackey Arena. The final score was 60-57, but that does not tell the story of a second half that featured several big momentum swings and a slew of important shots in the game’s final minute.
“It was especially frustrating tonight because I felt like a couple times we had [them in] a position where we kind of wanted them,” junior forward Keaton Nankivil said. “In both cases I thought we had some good stuff going, but I guess they made plays down the stretch and we struggled a couple times.”
The Badgers were up 38-31 early in the second half, but Purdue refused to let them pull away, going on a 9-0 spurt. Sophomore guard Jordan Taylor stemmed the run for a moment with a pair of free throws, but Purdue then dropped eight more on the Badgers.This time it was Wisconsin that did not fold.
“We were, maybe to some people, buried a little bit,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “When it’s 48-40 and playing as hardnosed as both our teams are, that’s a deep deficit to come back from, and we did. So I like that part, and just possession for possession, at the end they got a little more than us.”
The Badgers rallied behind Nankivil’s shooting, and his 3-pointer from the top of the key with 43 seconds left gave them a 57-56 edge. On the other end, junior guard E’Twaun Moore responded, working off a screen from junior teammate JaJuan Johnson and dropping a floater in the lane to retake the advantage for good.
Ryan put the ball in Hughes’ hands, but the only shot he could get was a pressured 3-pointer from the corner that did not draw iron but bounced out of bounds off a Purdue player. Hughes got another chance with six seconds left, but his driving bank shot over a crowd of defenders went a bit too hard off the glass.
Let's hope the Badgers can rebound and return to their winning ways. GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!

Trevon Hughes Joins 1,000 Point Club

As has often been the case lately for Wisconsin, though, senior guard Trevon Hughes was the star of the show as the Badgers cruised to a 48-point victory.
Hughes, a 6-foot native of Queens, N.Y., scored 20 points while pulling down six rebounds, dishing out three assists and grabbing four steals. The co-captain shot 7-of-10 from the floor on the night, including a perfect 6-for-6 in the first half and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc on the night.
With just 5 1/2 minutes into the game, Hughes added to his list of accomplishments this season when he hit a jumper to put the Badgers up 15-4.
Though he thought it should have been a three, the long 2-point basket gave him nine points on the night, and 1,000 in his career a Badger. Hughes became the 34th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark and the first since Marcus Landry in 2008-09.
“It was like a big weight off my shoulders,” Hughes said. “Obviously, I came out tonight and I couldn’t miss the in the first half, the only thing that slowed me down was halftime. We had a joke about it at lunch today — me, Keaton (Nankivil) and J-Bo (Jason Bohannon) — because they reminded me that I was just nine points away.

It looks like the Badgers have rebounded from their loss to UW-GB up in the north woods. I was thinking about getting some Wisconsin Basketball tickets to an upcoming home game. Madison is always a blast. GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wisconsin Vs. Duke

Wisconsin basketball senior guard Jason Bohannon assured reporters Monday after practice that while the Duke game Wednesday night will be a great competition, in the end, it is just another game on the schedule.
Yeah, right.
In hosting the Blue Devils as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge — an event the Big Ten conference has lost every year since its inception in 1999 — the Badgers get the chance to score a major nonconference win, along with gaining a little revenge from the last time these two teams met.
Facing off at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the aforementioned challenge in 2007, the Badgers left Duke with an embarrassing 82-58 loss — by far their largest deficit in any defeat that season.
Still, UW head coach Bo Ryan refused to acknowledge how the past could affect his team Wednesday night.
“You know, I really haven’t looked at that one that much because this is a different team,” he said. “We got into a foul trouble. [Duke] shot lights out. … You look at, and you can’t; if you overreact to one game or underplay a game, it’s probably not very good for the overall psyche of your players.”
At the very least, senior point guard Trevon Hughes conceded he was looking forward to the rematch with one of the ACC’s perennial top two teams.
“I was surprised, I didn’t think we would get Duke again, playing them two years ago,” Hughes said. “I’m glad we did — I need to redeem myself. The guys that are here, we lost at their place and we feel like we owe them something.”
Coming in as the No. 6 team in the nation, the Blue Devils have already scored strong wins over Arizona State and, most recently, then-No. 13 Connecticut in the NIT Season Tip-Off last weekend.
It would be awesome if the Badgers could take advantage of their home court and beat Duke. GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers Fall Against MSU

For the game’s first 32 minutes, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team (8-7 Big Ten, 17-10 overall) matched the No. 6 Michigan State Spartans’ intensity in a hostile road atmosphere. But the Spartans owned the game’s final 12 minutes with lockdown defense and aggressive inside play to defeat the Badgers by a score of 61-50.
Wisconsin came out strong in the first half, continuing the defensive intensity that had helped the Badgers pull off their previous five-game winning streak. In the period, Wisconsin scored 12 points off 10 Michigan State turnovers.
Leading this defensive attack was junior guard Trévon Hughes, who finished the half with 10 points and three steals. The Badgers extended their led to 10 with less than seven minutes remaining in the first, but then the Spartans fought back and trimmed the lead to 31-25 going into the break.
In the second half, the teams battled back and forth until the Badgers broke through with back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 41-29 lead with 12:26 remaining. After a timeout, the Spartans would take matters into their own hands.
Michigan State rattled off eight straight points, but the Badgers still held on to a slim lead with some free throws. The Spartans clawed back with several second-chance opportunities to tie the score at 45 with five minutes left. And from there the Badgers fell apart, as the Spartans hit back-to-back threes to open up a 55-47 lead. The Spartans took advantage of Wisconsin’s two field goals in the game’s final 12 minutes to secure the victory.

Let me add this, I didn't expect Bucky to beat MSU but their were times during the game when I thought we were in control. Let's just hope that it was one small stumble in a marathon. GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!