Wisconsin, UWSP mens basketball announce exhibition game on Nov. 1

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) - Greg Gard visited Stevens Point on Thursday to announce an exhibition game to be held between Wisconsin and UW-Stevens Point on Nov. 1. It will mark the second-ever game between the two schools.

The game will be part of Gard’s statewide ‘Garding Against Cancer’ campaign. A fundraiser will also be held in Stevens Point on Sept. 27. Wisconsin rotates each year with a new UW university, with UWSP falling into the rotation this year.

“I started my college coaching career at UW-Platteville so I have a strong understanding of exactly the value that this league has and how good it is and how important basketball is in the state of Wisconsin,” Gard said. “This league helped me get to where I am, so I wanted to do everything I could to continue that in terms of playing the games.”

The exhibition will be the first time the two teams play each other since 2011, when Wisconsin won 80-54. It will also be quite the debut for new Pointers’ head coach Keith Dernbach, who will coach his first game with UWSP at the Kohl Center. Dernbach coached against the Badgers while he was with UW-La Crosse, and he expects his team to be ready for the challenge.

“You expect to compete and that’s what every single team in our league has been able to do,” Dernbach said. “To go down there and compete and represent the best league In the country, represent the WIAC and I certainly expect us to do that.”

“Our players will have a terrific understanding of the type of team they’ll be playing and they understand that,” Gard said. “I tell our guys all the time, don’t get caught up in the Roman numeral behind the school because there’s really good basketball, division one, division two, division three.”

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