MADISON, Wis. _ Wisconsin coach Greg Gard wasn't in the mood to mess around.
From the opening minute Thursday night at the Kohl Center it appeared that any UW player who made a mental gaffe would be heading to the bench at the next whistle.
Vitto Brown, Ethan Happ and Zak Showalter all joined Gard on the bench in the first 1 minute, 41 seconds against Chicago State.
Ten UW players saw action in the first 5:22 as the reserves contributed significantly in the 11th-ranked Badgers' 69-51 victory over the Cougars.
The bench contributed 18 of UW's 32 first-half points and helped UW recover from an ugly 8-0 hole just 2:23 into the game to build an eight-point lead at the break. The reserves finished with 36 points, led by sophomore Khalil Iverson with 11.
Iverson added five rebounds, two assists and a block. He made 5 of 7 field-goal attempts, with three coming on rim-rattling dunks.
Another noticeable development was that UW was determined to get the ball into the lane.
UW (2-1) entered the night with 58.6 percent of its field-goal attempts coming from 3-point range (68 of 116) in its first two games.
The Badgers were shooting just 32.4 percent from outside the arc (22 of 68) but a robust 60.4 percent from two-point range (29 of 48).
After attempting 39 3-pointers in a 12-point loss Tuesday night at Creighton, the Badgers launched 10 3-pointers in the first half and 19 overall against Chicago State (1-1).
Although UW successfully worked the ball inside, too often the shots didn't fall.
The Badgers scored 12 points in the paint in the first half but made just 8 of 18 two-point attempts. They finished with 34 points in the paint and made 12 of 19 free-throw attempts. They made 13 of 21 two-point attempts in the second half.
The Badgers looked sharp at times. Other times they looked like a team that had one day to prepare for Chicago State _ after suffering a tough road loss to Creighton _ and then heading to Maui in the morning.
Brown, who scored a total of seven points in the first two games, responded to the early benching to score 12 points, on 5-of-7 shooting.
Freshman guard D'Mitrik Trice was fabulous. He contributed three points and five assists in 13 minutes in the first half and finished with seven assists and two rebounds in 23 minutes. Trice played a combined 17 minutes in UW's first two games.
Sophomore forwards Alex Illikainen and Charlie Thomas added eight and seven points, respectively. Thomas added seven rebounds to help UW win that battle, 46-20.
Bronson Koenig added 10 points but made just 1 of 6 3-pointers. Koening entered the night 7 of 23 from 3-point range.
Guard Fred Sims Jr. scored 26 points to lead Chicago State.
