College Basketball

Hayes, 17th-ranked Badgers host Idaho State

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:47 p.m. ET

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Greg Gard said quality and intent are discussed often when his No. 17 Wisconsin Badgers are seeking ways to be successful.

Senior forward Nigel Hayes has been impactful with his efforts and intentions the last two victories for the Badgers (7-2), who host Idaho State (1-7) on Tuesday night at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.

Hayes earned Big Ten Conference player of the week accolades, the first weekly league award for the standout. Hayes averaged 18.5 points, 8.0 assists and 6.5 rebounds per game in wins against then-No. 22 Syracuse and Oklahoma.

The Badgers recorded a season-low 5 turnovers in 67 possessions against Oklahoma. Hayes had 6 assists and no turnovers in that meeting. He also scored 18 of his game-high 28 points for Wisconsin, which shot 52.4 percent (33 of 63) in the victory.

"I think the whole team realizes this is how we need to play in terms of more than individually specific," Gard said. "That's been the neat part about watching some guys individually or us collectively as a team mature to understand what can make us good and what can make us real good.

"Ironically, the same things that make Nigel really, really good and a hard matchup are the same things that make us a really difficult matchup as a team, when everybody is on the same page."

The Badgers got double-digit scoring from four players against the Sooners, including freshman G D'Mitrik Trice, who scored a career-high 16 points. Trice made 4-of-4 shots from beyond the arc and had no turnovers in 20 minutes off the bench.

Meanwhile, Gard said he knows Idaho State coach Bill Evans, since Evans was an assistant coach at Montana with former Badgers player Freddie Owens.

"Idaho State, we'll see a variety of defenses from them," Gard said. "(Evans) is the guru of zone defense and combination defenses in the Utah-Idaho-Montana region."

Senior guard Ethan Telfair was suspended three games by Evans, who did not give a reason for the suspension. Telfair missed games last month during a holiday tournament in Cancun, Mexico.

Telfair, a community college transfer, led the team in scoring last season with 20.2 ppg in earning Big Sky Conference newcomer of the year honors. He is the younger brother for former NBA player Sebastian Telfair, who was a first-round pick in the 2004 NBA draft.

Telfair paces Idaho State with 19.8 ppg and 6.2 rpg. Telfair is fresh off a 26-point performance in the Bengals' 79-76 road loss on Dec. 3 to Cal State Northridge.

"My team played hard and really competed," Evans said after the loss. "We had good performances and fought really hard."

Freshman guard Brandon Boyd, who averages 14.3 ppg, drained 13 of 14 fouls shots in the game against Cal State Northridge.

Idaho State has relied on its perimeter game at times with efforts from a couple shooters. Junior guard Robert Jones III and Boyd are shooting 55 percent (11 of 20) and 44.1 percent (15 of 34), respectively, from beyond the arc.

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