Davis , No. 11 Badgers head to 18th-ranked Illinois for 1st-place matchup Wednesday
Johnny Davis has yet to go three consecutive games this season scoring under 20 points.
The La Crosse native leads the No. 11 University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team in just about every statistical category heading into Wednesday’s matchup at 18th-ranked Illinois in a battle for first place in the Big Ten Conference.
Davis, however, is coming off back-to-back 13- and 16-point games, respectively — both Badgers wins. So, the 20-point-game streak — if you want to call it that — is on the line, not that Davis cares much about his scoring average.
Regardless, the sophomore is averaging 21.4 points a game this season, shooting 44% from the field and 35.5% from beyond the arc, to go along with 7.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.2 turnovers.
Davis has become a bit of a phenomenon nationally, seemingly coming out of nowhere, with serious Player of the Year hype of late, despite being under 20 points the past two games.
Part of that is due to his ending Minnesota in the Badgers’ last outing, scoring the game’s final six points. He also had a career-high 15 rebounds.
Davis has scored over 20 points 11 times this season, including a career-high 37 in a win against No. 3-ranked Purdue.
Last season, he scored in the teens (17) one time and averaged 7.0 points a game.
While first place in the Big Ten is sort of on the line — it’s a three-way tie that also includes Michigan State (17-4, 8-2) — there are still nine more conference games to go for Wisconsin (17-3, 8-2), though this might be the toughest stretch remaining.
After this road trip to Illinois (15-5, 8-2), the Badgers host Penn State (9-9, 4-6) before heading to No. 13 Michigan State, which is 9-1 at home and recently snapped UW’s seven-game win streak with a 12-point win at the Kohl Center.
TOP PHOTO: FILE – Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis (1) Steven Crowl (22) and Tyler Wahl during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)