If you thought in mid-January that it was realistic to expect the Wisconsin Badgers to score over 80 points against a legitimately good Big Ten defense on the road, I don’t believe you.
I don’t believe you sincerely told your friends on Jan. 15:
“Hey, this Badger offense is entirely capable of torching a defense playing at a Final Four level, and doing it in its own building. I don’t care if an opponent limited its previous two (non-Nebraska, non-Northwestern) opponents to 37-percent field goal shooting and 21-percent 3-point shooting. Wisconsin’s offense can trample a locked-in defense on the road.
“I can see D’Mitrik Trice going for 28 points. I can see Aleem Ford becoming an every-game BEAST. I can see Wisconsin producing a game in which its three leading scorers combine for 64 points (an average of 21.3 points per player) as opposed to 48 (16 points per player). I can see this team — against a good defense, not Nebraska or Northwestern — producing a shooting slash line of 54 percent from the field, 48 percent on threes, and 80 percent from the foul line.”
I do not believe ANY of you reading this piece right now thought Wisconsin could reach this ceiling, this season.
It is a TOTAL transformation.
We wondered if Wisconsin could carry its home-court momentum onto the road, which — if history was a guide — did not seem likely. Face-plants at Michigan State, Purdue and Minnesota, plus a late collapse at Iowa, pointed to a game in which Wisconsin might have its good moments, but wouldn’t sustain a high level of offense for 40 minutes.
Michigan entered this game having smothered Rutgers and Purdue, holding those two teams to a combined 37-percent shooting line on all field goals, 21 percent on threes.
Wisconsin ripped through the Wolverines’ defense as though it was nothing. D’Mitrik Trice — who had made huge progress over the past few weeks as a distributor who significantly increased his assist totals while reducing his number of turnovers — played like an elite scorer… maybe not Jayson Tatum, but certainly several notches better than anything we had previously seen this season.
Aleem Ford continued his phenomenal February — if it continues through March, Wisconsin will be a very tough out. Micah Potter, who has clearly grown and developed in the increased playing time he received after Kobe King’s departure forced other guys to play more minutes, provided a strong performance against Michigan.
This team always seemed to have a low ceiling.
Thursday, the Badgers roared through it. There’s a big hole in that ceiling which the homeowners’ association needs to repair… but nothing about this team needs repairing.
Wisconsin looks like a team no one wants to face in March… and March is when UW will play its next game.
Everything’s coming up Badgers at the right time of year.
If you said a month and a half ago this kind of team was possible, I don’t believe you… but we can all laugh about it, because it’s all smiles and fun in the Wisconsin locker room right now.
A team in dire straits on the morning of the first day of February — facing Michigan State without King and without Brad Davison — will end February as an NCAA Tournament dark horse no one wants to play.