Another night, another game with fewer than 60 points for the Wisconsin Badgers. Wisconsin won at Penn State and at home versus Maryland despite failing to hit the big six-oh. Wisconsin scored 61 in its win at Ohio State. There is a definite ceiling for the Badgers’ offense this season, and it is a low one.
Here at Badgers Wire, we keep looking for ways to explain what is wrong with the Badgers’ offense — we can’t just keep saying “limited talent,” as true as that point might be. Yes, the lack of high-end talent on this offense is obvious, but it’s up to Greg Gard to find ways around those limitations and find ways to unlock the capacities of every player on this team. The lack of consistent double-figure scorers is one problem we have spotlighted on a number of occasions. We have discussed the tendency for at least one Wisconsin starter to go scoreless in the month of January (four times in five games played after Friday night’s loss to Michigan State).
Here is another pattern Wisconsin has to address and ultimately solve: Non-Micah Potter-based bench scoring has gotten worse for the Badgers in the month of January.
Against Ohio State, the Badgers’ non-Potter reserves scored 16 points. Against Illinois: 11 points. Wisconsin scored 61 points or more in those two games.
Against Penn State: seven points. Against Maryland: three. In this loss to Michigan State, Wisconsin reserves other than Potter scored just four points. It is impressive that Wisconsin was able to go 2-1 in these last three games, given how little scoring punch it has received from the non-Potter members of the bench. Wisconsin’s defense, plus that late flurry of greatness from Brad Davison against Maryland, are the main reasons the Badgers have managed to weather the storm over the past two weeks. However, if non-Potter bench scoring doesn’t noticeably improve, Wisconsin won’t create the larger margins for error it needs to fulfill its potential this season.
We can all debate which specific non-Potter player needs to rise up more than anyone else. That’s a good sports-bar-style conversation to have as Wisconsin basketball heads into the second half of January. The bigger point on which we can all agree, however, is that SOMEONE needs to stand up and be counted when Greg Gard looks to the bench and tries to find a spark for this offense. If that doesn’t happen, Wisconsin’s attempt to get a top-four seed in the Big Ten Tournament probably won’t be successful.