Last year, there was no question which University of Wisconsin men's basketball player would be asked to guard Avery Smith, UW-Milwaukee's leading scorer.

Defensive whiz Michael Flowers would have drawn the assignment of checking Smith, an athletic 6-foot-3 slasher who is back at UWM and scoring well following a one-year sabbatical.

Flowers was the best defender on the best defensive team in NCAA Division I last year, but he's playing in Germany now and UW coach Bo Ryan is still searching for his replacement as the team's perimeter stopper.

Saturday, it was point guard Trevon Hughes — with a little help from his friends — who rendered Smith a non-factor in the Badgers' 67-46 victory over the Panthers at the Kohl Center.

Smith, who came in averaging 16 points per game, was held to two. He took only three shots as Hughes and the Badgers successfully kept him from penetrating into the lane.

"I was just trying to keep him out of the paint," Hughes said. "They spread the floor for the dribble drive and they just kick it to their shooters. We try to eliminate that. We shrink the court. My teammates helped me out, closing the gaps when he did get by me sometimes."

The Badgers defended Smith so well that he didn't score until 6 minutes, 17 seconds remained in the game. By the time he hit a driving layup, the Badgers were leading by 24 points.

"He's a slasher first and the driving lanes were a little more difficult to get into against a team that's real disciplined like the Badgers are," UWM coach Rob Jeter said. "You'd much rather have Avery shooting jump shots."

Despite its success in shutting down UWM — the Panthers scored only seven points in a 15-minute stretch that began late in the first half — UW has much work to do to return to last year's level of effectiveness on defense. The combination of Flowers outside and twin towers Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma inside helped the Badgers lead the nation in fewest points allowed.

Ryan has no one in his playing rotation with the size of Butch or Stiemsma, but he does have candidates to replace Flowers as the top outside defender. However, Hughes' combination of strength, quickness and experience make him the logical choice.

"I don't think it's my role right now; I think it can be," Hughes said. "I think we've got a bunch of guys that are trying that spot out right now, filling Michael's shoes, but it's going to be hard filling Michael's shoes. He's ... probably one of the greatest defensive players that ever came to Wisconsin and I think it's going to take all 17 guys to fill his shoes."

Ryan would settle for two or three guys filling Flowers' Adidas. Junior Jason Bohannon, sophomore Tim Jarmusz and freshmen Rob Wilson and Jordan Taylor all could be part of a stopper-by-committee along with Hughes.

Still, Ryan praised Hughes for his positioning on defense against Smith and said he thinks the junior could become a lock-down defender.

"Defensively, he's going to have to be pretty solid," Ryan said. "JaBo (Bohannon) has gotten a little better; JaBo did a decent job today. But I'm still looking at Tim Jarmusz against certain types of guards. The guards with the blazing speed exposed him a little bit, but he can play certain perimeter people. And Rob Wilson, I think will develop. And Jordan Taylor, same thing. I think Jordan did an excellent job on (UWM's) Tone Boyle."