Wisconsin sent a message with its record-breaking 116-85 win over Iowa on Friday.
That message was first to Iowa, establishing a clear discrepancy between the two teams despite each entering with a 10-3 record. It was also to the rest of the Big Ten, as the win reestablished the Badgers’ ceiling as a potential top team in the conference.
Related: Biggest takeaways from Wisconsin basketball’s record-breaking win over Iowa
Wisconsin’s offensive dominance was the obvious story of the contest. The Badgers scored a Kohl Center record 116 points thanks to 64.5% field-goal shooting and a record 21 three-point makes on 67.7% shooting.
The Badgers boast a top-10 offense on KenPom, while the Hawkeyes’ defense is now rated No. 128. While that’s a clear mismatch in hindsight, it still doesn’t explain the 116-point tally. That point total in a Big Ten game between two 10-3 teams points to some poor defense on one side of the court.
Wisconsin guard Kamari McGee reflected that sentiment when meeting with the media postgame.
“Once we realized that they were just trying to outscore us [things changed],” McGee said. “Once we realized that they were just coming in here to try to outscore us and not, they didn’t really care much about the defensive end, we took advantage of that. We didn’t know we were going to shoot this great tonight, but we trust our teammates, we trust the players. So we know we can score the ball in bunches. We just knew that they didn’t want to play defense. All we had to do was play a little more defense than them and the game is ours.”
The Badgers held the Hawkeyes to 85 points (four under their season average) on 48.5% shooting and 37.5% from three. Wisconsin somewhat won the game with its defense to begin the second half, holding Iowa to just four points in the half’s first five minutes. That allowed the Badgers to balloon their lead to 20, igniting their second-half offensive explosion.
Wisconsin improves to 11-3 (1-2 Big Ten) with the victory. The win creates an altered rest-of-season outlook, with Big Ten contention possibly entering the picture. Iowa, meanwhile, has a glaring issue on the defensive end. An NCAA Tournament berth will be a challenge with more performances consistent with Friday’s.
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