Wisconsin is the host team when it faces Stanford on Friday night in Milwaukee, but it remains to be seen if the Badgers will have home-field advantage in the first basketball game played at American Family Field — home of baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers.
Wisconsin (1-0) and the Cardinal (1-0) meet in the nightcap of a doubleheader dubbed the “Brew City Battle,” with the court spanning the infield from first base to third. The Wisconsin women’s team faces Kansas State in the first game.
“This is an opportunity to play in a venue that nobody else is going to do,” said Stanford coach Jerod Haase. “It’s a very unique situation — and have a lot of attention and a lot of excitement around it. And I think our guys are excited for that and they deserve that. They’ve worked really hard to get to this point.”
Wisconsin, picked ninth in the Big Ten preseason poll, opened with an 85-59 nonconference victory over South Dakota on Monday at home. Stanford also picked up a nonconference win at home Monday, topping Pacific 88-78.
Tyler Wahl, one of three returning starters, led the Badgers with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Chucky Hepburn, who last season became the first true freshman to start for Wisconsin since eventual NBA star Devin Harris in 2001, had 14 points, including three 3-pointers.
Steven Crowl had 12 points and Wofford transfer Max Klesmit added 11.
Wisconsin, which shot just 30.6 percent beyond the arc last season, hit 12 of 26 from long range against South Dakota. Seven players made at least one triple.
“I thought we got better as the game went on in a lot of certain areas,” said Wisconsin coach Greg Gard. “Obviously, it’s always great when you knock down shots. It erases a lot of other miscues maybe, from time to time, but I thought we got good contributions from a lot of people.”
Michael Jones, the first graduate transfer in Stanford history, scored a career-high 31 points as the Cardinal held off Pacific, which cut a 19-point second-half deficit to three with just over seven minutes left. Jones previously played for Davidson.
Maxime Raynaud added a career-best 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting with nine rebounds.
In the last meeting, Wisconsin defeated Stanford 62-46 at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas in 2018.
–Field Level Media