A tough exhibition loss provided a retooled Wisconsin squad with several aspects to address before the Badgers’ regular-season opener against visiting Campbell.Wisconsin, ranked No. 24 in the preseason poll, dropped the exhibition opener against Oklahoma 85-84 on Friday. The Badgers, with nine newcomers, have another exhibition vs. in-state D-3 school Wisconsin-Platteville, before facing Campbell on Monday, Nov. 3.”I think the thing that excites me about this group the most is what they are not, in terms of we’re not good enough yet on the defensive end, specifically,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said following the Oklahoma game. “And being more efficient offensively on every possession. That tells me we’ve got, you know, obviously a long ways to go, but that’s the exciting part.”Wisconsin (27-10, 13-7 Big Ten) lost to BYU 91-89 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament when leading scorer John Tonje missed at the buzzer.Campbell (15-17, 10-8 CAA) will be under first-year coach John Andrzejek, who was an assistant the last two seasons at national champion Florida.Wisconsin must replace Tonje, who averaged a team-high 19.6 points in his lone season, along with 7-foot forward Steven Crowl (9.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg) who started all 37 games, and hard-nosed guard Max Klesmit (9.2 ppg).John Blackwell (15.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and Nolan Winter (9.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg) also each started all 37 games. Another key returner is redshirt sophomore guard Jack Janicki, who appeared in all 37 games.Senior Nick Boyd, who played last season at San Diego State (13.4 ppg) after three seasons at Florida Atlantic is expected to start at point guard. Senior guard Andrew Rohde transfers back to his home state after two seasons at Virginia, but averaged 17.1 points as a freshman at St. Thomas.Sophomore forward Austin Rapp, a native of Melbourne, Australia, averaged 13.8 points, 6.5 rebounds last season at Portland and was West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year.
