Evans, Berggren are evolving big men for UW

MADISON, Wis. There isn't a player on Wisconsin's men's basketball team now who can safely say he'll be expected to contribute in exactly the same manner as last season, including preseason All-America point guard Jordan Taylor.Roles change every year. Players graduate. The holdovers mature physically. And expectations, of course, increase for every guy on the roster with a new year. Two players who appear to be taking full advantage of those new roles for the Badgers as the 2011-12 season begins are forward Ryan Evans and center Jared Berggren. Both received starting opportunities and stood out on Saturday night during Wisconsin's 80-54 exhibition victory against Division III Wisconsin-Stevens Point at the Kohl Center.Evans, a 6-foot-6 forward from Phoenix, Ariz., scored a team-high 16 points with five rebounds. Berggren, a 6-10 center from Princeton, Minn., tallied 12 points with five rebounds. For two guys who had combined to play in 115 games at Wisconsin with just one start, it was the type of change they'd been waiting for since both arrived on campus and redshirted as freshmen in 2008.Berggren was diplomatic when discussing the excitement level of himself and Evans at becoming members of the starting lineup."I think neither of us are going to make a huge deal about starting or coming off the bench," Berggren said. "As long as we're getting opportunities to come in and contribute to the team and as long as we're winning, I think we're both happy."Evans, however, wasn't so modest."Jared can speak for himself," Evans added. "I like to be starting. I'm going to keep it real. It's more opportunity, and we're glad to have that. In the past years, we liked playing roles, but we obviously do want to be starting and helping the team along."Before this season, Evans had appeared in 67 games without ever cracking the starting lineup. He averaged 2.8 points and 2.3 rebounds last year while seeing less than 12 minutes of action per game.In 48 career games at Wisconsin, Berggren started once. Last year, he averaged 1.9 points 0.8 rebounds per outing while playing seven minutes per game.Neither player saw much court time last season because senior forwards Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil suffocated the minutes among the Badgers' frontcourt players. Leuer and Nankivil both started every game a year ago and combined to average 28.0 points and 11.3 rebounds. "We've been in the gym consistently since we got here," Evans said. "We've known we could do this kind of stuff. With Jon and Keaton leaving, we know we've got to step up a little bit more."Evans finished Saturday's game 7 of 10 from the field in 23 minutes and demonstrated his ability to score in bunches. He engaged in a personal 8-0 run early in the first half, converting a jump shot, a layup and free-throw shot and a 3-pointer. In the process, Wisconsin extended its lead against UW-Stevens Point from 6-2 to 14-2, and the contest was never close again. Later, he punctuated his night with an alley-oop dunk off a feed from Taylor.Berggren was 5 of 9 from the field in 22 minutes He scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half while dominating an overwhelmed Division III frontcourt. Mike Bruesewitz, the other starting frontcourt player for Wisconsin, added seven points in 22 minutes. While Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan praised both Evans and Berggren on Saturday, he added that both have a lot to work on if they hope to compete at a similar level as Leuer and Nankivil."The timing that the three frontline guys that have moved on had, it got to be pretty good," Ryan said. "Because they knew how to play off of each other, knew how to handle the screens. ... In the frontline, we need to get more repetitions. And that's what the non-conference and exhibition games are for."Taylor, the Badgers' preseason All-America point guard, scored eight points with a team-best seven assists in 30 minutes. And the continued success of both Berggren and Evans should directly impact those assist totals.On Saturday, for example, four of Taylor's assists went to Berggren and Evans, the two newest members of the Badgers' starting lineup. "I've been with them for three years," Taylor said. "They're both really good players and they're getting a chance to show it now."