Behind Hughes, Wisconsin keeps rolling with win over Iowa

Just a week and a half ago, the Wisconsin Badgers were ninth in the Big Ten, saddled with a 3-6 league record and buried behind Northwestern. Now, the world looks a lot more familiar to Bo Ryan's boys, who are gaining a spot in the conference standings with each game they play.
 
Wednesday's easy 69-52 win over Iowa gave the Badgers their third straight Big Ten victory, and as a result, the men of Madison have climbed back to .500 in the conference. Wisconsin's 6-6 record is good for a sixth-place tie with slumping Penn State, but because of a season sweep of the Nittany Lions, the Badgers will find themselves listed sixth on the leaderboard on Internet sites and in the morning papers. If UW can move just one notch higher in the league standings (past Minnesota for fifth place) before the end of the regular season, a single win in the Big Ten Tournament should be all the Badgers will need to lock up yet another NCAA Tournament appearance. As dark as the skies seemed for this team at the very end of January, the sun is now shining on Ryan's relentless and resilient roster, which refused to fold the tent in moments of acute adversity.

 
How did Wisconsin hammer the Hawkeyes in the Kohl Center? One could find many reasons, such as a total of 13 assists from UW's starting five, or the three 3-pointers hit by Badger sniper Jason Bohannon. Ultimately, however, the biggest key for Wisconsin in this game was the play of point guard Trevon Hughes. On Sunday, Hughes dominated Penn State despite a 1-of-10 shooting performance, because his defense against Talor Battle--then the league's top scorer--proved to be so thoroughly suffocating. In this game against Iowa, Hughes managed to shape the contours of a contest at the offensive end. The nerve center of the Wisconsin attack had an effective offensive floor game, hitting 50 percent of his shots (6-of-12) while handing out 6 assists. A productive yet blended game from Hughes enabled Wisconsin to shoot and score as well as it has all season long.
 
As well as the Badgers can defend, a 69-point outing in regulation time (Wisconsin scored 69 in an overtime loss to the Hawkeyes on Jan. 21 in Iowa City) will make this team incredibly hard to beat as March approaches. Trevon Hughes has controlled a number of games with his defense this season, but if Bo Ryan's floor leader can begin to produce with equivalent consistency at the offensive end of the floor, Wisconsin's identity will change for the better.

They looked to be down and out at the end of January. Now, just a week and a half later, Wisconsin is steadily moving up the Big Ten leaderboard. The cheeseheads can only hope that this feel-good run won't stop anytime soon... and that Trevon Hughes will continue to excel at both ends of the court.
 

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