Kevin Morales/Daily Register Fil
Wisconsin freshman Rob Wilson (33) scored seven points in seven minutes in the Badgers win over Michigan on Saturday. Wilson and classmate Jordan Taylor look to continue giving the Badgers more solid play off the bench.

MADISON - The numbers don't jump out at you.

But the performance of freshman guards Rob Wilson and Jordan Taylor in their first taste of Big Ten Conference action was an encouraging sign for the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team.

Wilson scored seven points in 7 minutes in the Badgers' 73-61 conference season-opening win at 23rd-ranked Michigan Wednesday after four fairly anonymous games on the offensive end.

Taylor, meanwhile, snapped a 0-for-11 shooting slump that had spanned five-plus games and finished with two points and no turnovers in 7 minutes.

UW will no doubt hope for more of the same from its backup guards Saturday afternoon when the Badgers (10-3, 1-0 Big Ten) play host to Penn State (12-2, 1-0) at the Kohl Center.

Getting bench scoring hasn't been a problem for UW this season. But getting it from players other than sophomore forward Jon Leuer has been a less frequent occurrence.

The Badgers' reserves have outscored their counterparts in eight of 13 games this season, with Leuer, UW's fourth-leading scorer at 9.9 points per game, accounting for 54 percent of their bench production.

"We keep bringing energy off the bench. We need that. Jon's been doing great at it," said Wilson, who's averaging 2.5 points per game. "It's the other people who just need to do it now."

That happened against the Wolverines.

Wilson scored five of his points during the Badgers' 24-12 run to open the game, a surge that put them in control. After scoring seven points in a loss at Marquette, Wilson had just two with four turnovers in the ensuing four games before Wednesday.

Taylor hadn't made a field goal since early in the first half of UW's win at Virginia Tech - on Dec. 1 - before nailing a pull-up jumper just before halftime Wednesday.

"It was nice. Eventually it was going to go down sooner or later, so it was nice (for it) to go down, but it was more important that we got the win," said Taylor, who's scoring at a 0.8 per game clip. "I think we played well."

Sophomore swingman Tim Jarmusz also added two points, five rebounds and three assists against no turnovers in 21 minutes against the Wolverines to supplement Leuer's 12 points and five rebounds.

In the Badgers' three previous games against ranked teams, Jarmusz had totaled six points with six turnovers and no assists and two rebounds in 43 minutes.

"We're not looking for a guy to come in and do everything that somebody else has done," UW coach Bo Ryan said of his expectations for his bench players. "Maybe you're going to do some things a little differently and bring a little more to the table in certain areas. But at least what you've got to do is make sure there's some continuity as far as what we're doing."

Wilson and Taylor said they haven't let any offensive struggles affect the rest of their games, an assertion Badgers assistant Gary Close backed up. The two have emerged as solid perimeter defenders off the bench.

"They're just going through normal freshman growing pains, so to speak," Close said. "... Jordan's given us really good defensive minutes, and Rob's done the same thing coming off the bench. And they've shot the ball pretty well in practice, so it's not like it's been something that's carried over day after day."