Tag: Indiana Basketball

It is true that the Wisconsin Badgers — by defeating the Indiana Hoosiers by 20 points on Saturday — relieved a lot of pressure from their locker room. A loss to Indiana would have dramatically increased the doubts swirling around the Badgers and Greg Gard. A loss would have been an existential crisis for this team, given that it knows it can regroup in the safety of the Kohl Center. Losing its home-court comfort zone would have been disastrous for the Badgers. Knowing they can still be at their best in Madison offers considerable reassurance.

I wrote on Saturday that Wisconsin’s ability to play well, to once again see what a good performance looks like, matters more than any of Indiana’s many and severe deficiencies. So what if the Hoosiers stunk up the joint? Wisconsin needed the positive reinforcement. The bigger story from Saturday is NOT that Indiana was awful; it is that Wisconsin could still raise its level of play at home in a moment of consequence.

Done.

Now, though, we DO have to ask the obvious question with Wisconsin basketball: Can this team finally go on the road and play well? Some will ask, “Can Wisconsin win?” Sure, winning is the end goal, but let’s actually have a game removed from Madison in which Wisconsin plays well for 40 minutes. We haven’t seen that yet this season.

Saint Mary’s wasn’t a complete game. Neither was Richmond. Neither was New Mexico. Neither was North Carolina State. None of those four losses were games in which Wisconsin played well and was simply eclipsed by an opponent which played out of its mind. Those games do happen every now and then, but they didn’t happen to Wisconsin this season. No, the Badgers lost those four games because they didn’t play particularly well in any of them, especially on offense.

It is time for Wisconsin to play a quality game on the road. If Rutgers is somehow great enough to defeat the Badgers on a night when Wisconsin plays at an A-minus or even B-plus level, so be it. Before winning away from home, Wisconsin simply has to play well away from home. That would be a good start for a team which knows exactly how — and when, and where — it needs to change its own sense of self.

Yes, the Indiana Hoosiers were bad on Saturday afternoon against the Wisconsin Badgers. Sure enough, Indiana had none of the juice it owned a few days earlier against Florida State. Sure enough, Indiana lacked the fire it often possesses in Assembly Hall. Sure enough, Indiana was unprepared — emotionally, tactically, holistically — for its first road game of the season. Note to coaches: Schedule a road game before your conference opener. Maybe Archie Miller learned an important lesson on Saturday.

We can acknowledge how bad Indiana was. We can point out that the Hoosiers were often lost on defense. Yet, for all the criticisms one can lob in the Hoosiers’ direction, it remains that Wisconsin played a quality basketball game. The Badgers were focused. They looked like a team intent on correcting past mistakes. They looked like a team which knew it had to eliminate bad patterns… and could actually apply the lessons it learned since the North Carolina State game.

One of the tension points constantly found in sports analysis is the ability to determine if one team’s bad day and another team’s good day is more of a commentary on the losing team or the winning team. My honest verdict after this game on Saturday in the Kohl Center: I’m not sure. However, what is often true in sports is that even when a flawed team shows its flaws — as Indiana did — the opponent can still derive a lot of benefit and meaning from the observed experience of playing well. Even if the opponent didn’t have much to offer, the reality of playing a good game — by itself, not adjusted for any circumstances — can snap a team into focus. I’m not sure that Wisconsin will immediately improve in its next road game, but I will say this: The Badgers have definitely given themselves a much better chance to play well in their next game away from Madison.

This team NEEDED a game like this. It NEEDED the confidence boost. It needed to see what it was like when the ball moves well, and every offensive move is crisp and decisive, and the hesitancy on offense goes away. Wisconsin needed this. Indiana’s bad day doesn’t matter. The Badgers learned that good things happen when they play the right way on offense.

Obviously, Wisconsin will face tougher defenses than Indiana’s. Obviously, the Badgers will get punched in the mouth by future opponents. This win over Indiana doesn’t guarantee that Wisconsin will have a markedly better season.

It DOES give the Badgers a real chance to grow and evolve, however. For now, that’s a good takeaway from a happy and satisfying Big Ten opener.