If you look at Wisconsin’s remaining 2020 Big Ten basketball schedule, this Tuesday’s home date with Nebraska is the easiest remaining game on the whole slate. The only other games which are comparably easy are road trips to Nebraska and Northwestern later in the season. The one home game against one of the two bad teams in the Big Ten should be, on paper, the simplest task remaining for the Badgers this season.
In many ways, this might seem like the least important game on the slate. It will certainly attract less national attention, and it will also draw relatively little regional attention among those who follow college basketball throughout the Midwest. Yet, this is precisely the kind of game in which a coach — who just saw his team get ripped apart by the conference favorite (Michigan State) — needs to find solutions which can benefit his team in the long run.
Here is my explanation of that point, relative to Wisconsin coach Greg Gard.
One of the more subtle yet powerful truths of sports is that awakenings — realizations that an athlete can perform at a much higher level than previously thought — can occur in a full range of circumstances. Yes, it is obviously ideal if an awakening in a young or unproven athlete comes against elite opposition. When that happens, the athlete instantly knows he or she can grow and develop into something special on the playing field (or court, or rink).
Yet, these awakenings don’t have to happen against elite opponents. Sometimes, it is in the games which don’t involve huge pressure, and don’t attract considerable media scrutiny, that an athlete busts out and discovers a much higher ceiling of potential than anyone had imagined. The fact that the opponent was mediocre matters less, in these instances, than the fact that an athlete played well and showed progress. The reality of self-improvement becomes its own catalyst, regardless of how good the opponent was.
I invite you to consider, then, what this game could mean for Gard and Wisconsin if Tyler Wahl or Brevin Pritzl have big games against Nebraska. (Hey, maybe both could go off!) What if this is a game in which all five Wisconsin starters score 10 points? What if this is a game in which the Badgers earn 30 free throw attempts and learn that they can move the ball in ways which make their offense less inclined to seek 3-point shots, and post a depressingly familiar 7-of-22-ish shooting number from long distance?
This is precisely the kind of game in which a coach has a chance to tinker with some lineup combinations and explore new ways of getting the best out of every player in the main rotation, which generally runs nine deep?
This isn’t a sexy game. It doesn’t carry the emotional weight of the bigger battles which lie ahead… which is exactly why it is a time to explore ways for this team to grow. We will see how the Badgers look when this game is over. Hopefully, UW will look different… in the best possible ways.