No. 9 Wisconsin hits the road for the first time to take on No. 22 Creighton on Nov. 15; Tip off at 7:30 p.m. (CT) on FS1.

UW TRAVELS TO CREIGHTON FOR GAVITT GAMES
No. 9 Wisconsin hits the road for the first time to take on No. 22 Creighton on Nov. 15 as part of the 2016 Gavitt Tipoff Games. The game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. (CT) on FS1.

Up next, the Badgers will host Chicago State on Nov. 17 before traveling to the Maui Invitational for three games Nov. 21-23.

ALL-TIME VS. CREIGHTONWHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WISCONSIN
1    HAPPY NEW YEAR: Wisc onsin begins its 118th season of men’s basketball in 2016-17 and the first full season under Greg Gard, who took over for the final 23 games of the 2015-16 season.
2    QUITE A DEBUT: In his inaugural season as head coach, Gard led Wisconsin to wins in 11 of the final 13 regular-season games and a trip to the 2016 Sweet 16, winning the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award.
3 GANG’S ALL HERE: Wisconsin returns each of the top 9 scorers from last season. In fact, the Badgers bring back all but 20 minutes played (99.8%) and all but 6 points (99.7%) from a year ago. UW returns all 5 starters for the first time since the 1988-89 season.
4 TERRIFIC TRIO: Senior Nigel Hayes was named Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year as well as a consensus member of the Preseason All-Big Ten Team. Fellow senior Bronson Koenig and sophomore Ethan Happ were also selected for the Preseason All-Big Ten team.
5 POLL POSITION: Wisconsin opens the year ranked No. 9 in the preseason AP Top 25, the second-highest debut in program history (UW was ranked third in the 2014-15 preseason poll).
6 PRO OR (NON)CON: The Badgers have won 37 of their last 43 (.860) regular-season, non-conference games dating back to Dec. of 2012. Of those six losses, five came last season.
7 BENCHMARKS: Nigel Hayes already ranks 16th in school history with 1,354 career points, while fellow senior Bronson Koenig needs just 47 points to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
8 WRECKING THE RANKED: UW went 6-5 against ranked opponents last season. Over the last 3 seasons, the Badgers are 20-10, including a mark of 6-4 on the road against the AP Top 25.
9 STRONG START: The Badgers dispatched Central Arkansas in their season opener, 79-47. Led by a combined 30 points from Koenig/Hayes, UW hit 11 3-pointers and held UCA to 28.3% shooting.
10 WINS RECORD: The Badgers’ senior class has been a part of 89 wins already in their UW career, averaging 29.3 wins per season. The winningest class graduated in 2015 with a total of 115 victories.

Tuesday’s game marks the third all-time meeting between Wisconsin and Creighton. The Badgers claimed a 75-39 home win in 1949, but the Blue Jays won the most recent matchup. Creighton registered an 84-74 win in 2012 as part of the Las Vegas Invitational.

GAVITT GAMES
The Gavitt Tipoff Games is an annual series between the Big Ten and BIG EAST Conferences and named in honor of Dave Gavitt, founder of the BIG EAST and basketball visionary. The series is in its second year and will span eight years with games being played on home site. The Games will be played in their first full week of the college basketball season.

– The Badgers welcome back 2016 first-team All-Big Ten selection Nigel Hayes, who averaged 15.7 ppg and 5.8 rpg while leading UW with 104 assists. The 2016-17 Blue Ribbon Magazine preseason National Player of the Year and preseason Big Ten Player of the Year, Hayes joins Michael Finley as the only Badgers to tally at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists by their junior season. If he just matches his junior year totals he would finish 3rd in school history in points (1,340 entering 2016-17), 7th in rebounds (557 entering 2016-17) and 7th in career assists (219 entering 2016-17).
– Sophomore Ethan Happ looks to build off his 2016 Big Ten Freshman of the Year campaign during which he averaged 12.4 ppg, ranked 6th in the Big Ten with 7.9 rpg and became the first freshman to lead the Big Ten in steals (63 steals) since OSU’s Aaron Craft (2010). Happ became just the third NCAA freshman over the last 15 seasons to score 400 points, while recording 60 steals and 30 blocks (also Kevin Durant and DuJuan Blair).
– Senior Vitto Brown finished 4th on the team in scoring, averaing 9.7 ppg with 5.0 rpg. He enjoyed the third-largest scoring increase in the Big Ten a year ago, going from 1.8 ppg to 9.7 ppg in 2015-16. Brown did not attempt a 3-pointer in his first two seasons at UW, but led the team last year, shooting 40% (38-95) from deep.

RETURNING BACKCOURT STARTERS
– Third-team All-Big Ten junior Bronson Koenig returns as the team’s lead guard after averaging 13.1 ppg and shooting 39.0% (83-213) from 3-point range. The moniker “Klutch Koenig” was born in 2015-16 after his game-winning shots against VCU and Xavier. In fact, over the final 5:00 and overtime of games last season, Koenig shot 54.8% (17-for-31) from 3-point range. Koenig needs just 71 points and 27 assists to become the 14th player in UW history with at least 1,000 points and 250 assists.
– Senior guard Zak Showalter made just four 3-pointers in his first two seasons, but knocked down 35 percent (37-107) from long range as a junior. Showalter averaged 7.5 ppg and 3.8 rpg while ranking third on UW with 36 steals.
– The Badgers also return key reserves Jordan Hill (junior guard – 15.6 mpg), Khalil Iverson (soph. guard – 13.0 mpg), Alex Illikainen (soph. forward – 9.8 mpg) and Charles Thomas, IV (soph. forward – 9.1 mpg). Wisconsin will also regain the services of redshirt freshman guard Brevin Pritzl, who missed all but one game of his freshman year with a foot injury and sophomore forward Andy Van Vliet, who was forced to sit out the 2015-16 season after the NCAA ruled him ineligible for not enrolling in college within a year of high school graduation.
– Wisconsin will also welcome a three-man freshman class that features guard D’Mitrik Trice (6-0, Huber Heights, Ohio), forward Aleem Ford (6-8, Lawrenceville, Ga.) and walk-on guard Michael Ballard (6-4, Oak Park, Ill.).