Tag: Nebraska Cornhuskers

Every game matters. This much is true. However, not every game matters the same amount. Not every game will create the same level of emotional investment. Not every game will produce the same level of quality in a team or athlete or coaching staff. Seasons in any sport are long journeys. Players undergo significant evolutionary changes, for better or worse. Players are not the same organisms at the end of the season, compared to the beginning. In these long slogs, combinations of improvement and regression, creativity and stagnation, will emerge.

Accordingly, some games might be indicative of a team’s identity and illustrate why that team occupies a given position one month before the NCAA Tournament. Not all games will possess that quality, however. Not all games are crystal-clear indicators of where a team stands, and why it has reached a specific point in its developmental arc.

Take Wisconsin’s win over Nebraska on Saturday in Lincoln.

It is so easy for commentators to say that a given result, right after it goes final, fits right in with everything else they have seen from a specific team this season. It is easy to shoehorn one’s analysis, right after a game ends, into the other themes and patterns one has been emphasizing for multiple months.

Yes, I definitely have my own themes and points of emphasis. I often keep repeating those themes when I see them replicated in one game after another. There ARE and HAVE BEEN many times this season in which the central themes of 2020 Wisconsin basketball — inconsistency, scoring imbalance, subpar volume of free throw attempts, Micah Potter’s playing time, minimal bench scoring — have needed to be reasserted. When a game merits reasserting themes, yes, one should do so.

Yet, not all games are — or can be, or will be — examples of the need to reassert themes.

This game against Nebraska affirmed one basic truth: Nebraska is really bad in 2020. That’s it. That’s the tweet. Move along, find a better discussion point.

I could say how this game shows Wisconsin is turning the corner. I could say how this game shows Brad Davison is ready to rock and roll down the stretch. I could say that Wisconsin is finally starting to understand how to play offense.

I would be blowing smoke if I truly believed any of those things and tried to convince you they were true.

We don’t know if Wisconsin is turning the corner. We don’t know if Brad Davison is ready to take the next step as a player. We don’t know if the Badgers are going to raise their floor on offense and start performing at a more consistently elevated level. We don’t know. We HOPE, but we don’t know.

Nebraska is simply not going to tell any basketball analyst how good its opponent actually is. The same goes for Northwestern. The value of beating Nebraska is simply this: Wisconsin avoiding a bad hit to its NCAA resume. This isn’t a game Greg Gard will look at as proof that his team is finding its stride. Tuesday against Purdue will do a much better job of helping Gard identify where his team is.

I’m not going to provide a dramatic take on the Nebraska game… because there is no need for one. A reasonable yet dramatic take on that contest doesn’t exist. I’m not going to give you a strong take just for the sake of having one… because when a commentator does that, he or she loses all credibility, and loses the right to ask for patience when a strong and controversial take is necessary.

No, there was no great lesson learned from Saturday in Lincoln. Nebraska sucks this season and should be better next season. Wisconsin avoided a bad loss. The End.

Let’s move on, shall we?

Our team at Badgers Wire will have several different stories for you in the aftermath of the 81-64 win in Lincoln on Saturday against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, so we don’t have to tell you every single thing about this game in one shot. In this piece, we will make the very simple point that if there was a pothole for Wisconsin to step in — or a rake to step on, or a banana peel to slip on — the Badgers avoided it. Their path to the 2020 NCAA Tournament just became a lot easier by avoiding a loss to one of the two bad teams in the Big Ten, Northwestern being the other.

Here is the bottom line after the Badgers — following a full week of rest — took care of business against the Cornhuskers: There are fewer and fewer instances in which Wisconsin can mess this whole thing up.

Wisconsin hosts Northwestern later this season. That should be a very routine win for the Badgers, but it is hugely important because a loss there would really drag down UW’s overall profile. That game and a possible reunion with either Nebraska or Northwestern in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament are the only real pothole-type games left on the schedule. Every other game comes against a reasonably decent team.

Very simply, then: As long as Wisconsin beats Northwestern and — should it play one of the two NU schools one more time — wins any “bad-team rematch” on second-round Thursday at the Big Ten Tournament, it should be good to go for the Big Dance.

Wisconsin didn’t improve its resume at all with this win over Nebraska… but it didn’t worsen its resume by several orders of magnitude. Sometimes a team needs to move up the ladder; on this Saturday in the middle of February, the Badgers simply had to avoid falling several spots down that same ladder. Mission accomplished.

There are now far fewer chances for Wisconsin basketball to miss the Dance floor in the second half of March. On, Wisconsin… and let’s keep missing those potholes, shall we? You love to see it!

The Wisconsin Badgers do need to beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday, but while one can accurately say that Wisconsin urgently needs a victory, this game is more precisely framed by the need to NOT LOSE.

When teams pursue NCAA Tournament bids, there are various kinds of games a team must handle in February and early March. Some games are resume enhancers, wins over good teams which noticeably improve an overall profile. Those wins take a team from a bubble position to a spot several places above the bubble cut line, or from a good bubble position to a place safely inside the NCAA Tournament field. The cost of losing is not found in falling down the seed list, but in failing to improve the profile and create a much more secure position.

There are battleground bubble games in which teams face relatively equal opponents. The value of a win is found as much in hurting an opponent’s bubble chances as in improving one’s own. The costs of a loss in these situations are more substantial if the bubble positions of the two teams are dead-even at tip-off time. A loss might not have a massive effect on one team’s own bubble position, but the fact that the loss elevates the winner’s bubble position creates a problem.

The third basic kind of bubble game is the one the Badgers will play against Nebraska on Saturday. Wisconsin is somewhere between a pure bubble team and “safely in” the tournament right now. A loss to Nebraska would reduce the “safely in” status and move Wisconsin closer to a place of uncertainty. The Badgers would still be in the tournament, but a loss to the Cornhuskers means that a losing streak could then put them on the bubble. The Badgers have some margin for error, but a loss to Nebraska would reduce a lot of it.

The good news: As long as Wisconsin doesn’t stumble here in Lincoln or against Northwestern, the Badgers should be fine. UW simply has to make sure it doesn’t make its existence a lot more difficult and complicated against Nebrasketball.

It would be a mistake to panic about Wisconsin’s defense after Tuesday night’s game against Nebraska. First of all, every game has its own flow, and the way this game was played, Wisconsin knew it would get high-quality shots on a consistent basis. Many games are rugged, but this one was a lot more free-flowing. There were fewer than 30 total fouls. Only 23 free throws were attempted in the whole contest. Neither team committed a lot of turnovers (21 total for the game).

How fluid was this game? Those stats tell part of the story, but the ultimate indication of a flowing, relaxed basketball game is how quickly it is played. This game clocked in at under 1 hour and 50 minutes in duration, beginning a few minutes after 8 p.m. in the Kohl Center and ending at 9:51.

Observe the time stamp here, at 51 past the hour:

Final: #Badgers 82-68 over NEB.

— Jeff Potrykus (@jaypo1961) January 22, 2020

The other key point to make, in addition to the emphasis on some games being more fluid than others, is that in a long season, not every game can — or will — be played with the exact same level of intensity. Coaches do try to get teams to play with relative consistency, and when teams are erratic over a three- or four-week span, it is definitely a concern. However, there will be individual nights when the pilot light — if not out — will burn more dimly than others. That is a simple fact of competition and human limitation. Look at the Los Angeles Lakers in Boston on Monday. They were spent. They had nothing. It is hardly an indication of future trouble, but for one night, they had absolutely zero in the fuel tank. It happens.

So, with this in mind, one shouldn’t be alarmed about Wisconsin’s defense.

Yet, we can also make the simple point that a comparatively relaxing game against Nebraska can’t enable the Badgers to slip into bad habits. If Wisconsin’s 18-of-34 3-point shooting isn’t likely to carry over into future games, this defensive performance probably won’t carry over as well… but Greg Gard has to make sure of that.

If this game gave Wisconsin more of a margin for error, more safe space in which it could evolve on offense, this game also carried the risk that against a less threatening opponent, the defense would relax. That is precisely what happened in the first half before the Badgers cleaned up their defense in the second half.

No, one shouldn’t be too worried, but let’s indeed keep an eye on the defense this Friday in West Lafayette against Purdue. We wouldn’t want bad habits on defense to cancel out emergent good habits on offense.

Before the Wisconsin Badgers faced the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Tuesday night, we wrote about the reality that this game was likely to be the easiest one left on the 2020 schedule. We explored the idea that even though achievements against weaker opponents might not seem substantial, the mere fact that a team might play better in certain ways can unlock an awareness in players that they can improve to an extent not previously imagined. The awakening itself matters more than the caliber of opposition.

Hopefully, then, Wisconsin gained the realization that it can have a balanced and deep offense.

The best feature of Tuesday’s 82-68 win over Nebraska is that seven Wisconsin players scored eight or more points. Brad Davison had 14, Brevin Pritzl 12, D’Mitrik Trice and Nate Reuvers 11 apiece, Micah Potter and Kobe King with 9 apiece, and Aleem Ford 8. Every starter scored at least eight points. The recent trend of one starter scoring zero points in a game was halted.

Obviously, Nebraska has a much weaker defense than any other non-Northwestern Big Ten team, so it will be challenging for Wisconsin to carry this balanced offense into future games. However, the hope is that the Badgers — by displaying a balanced offense for one of the few times this season against a Power Five conference opponent — gained some realizations about how they can replicate this outcome. This is exactly what we meant when we said that Nebraska provided a unique team-building opportunity for the Badgers.

Yes, we shouldn’t expect the Badgers to hit 18 of 34 threes against tougher Big Ten opponents. That won’t be a regular feature of Wisconsin games against quality opposition. No one needs to pretend that is a realistic possibility. However, the instructive point here is that Wisconsin has been so bad in 3-point shooting in most of its Big Ten games (6 of 23, 7 of 22, 6 of 21, etc.) that if the Badgers can merely lift their percentage to the high 30s on a more regular basis, they will wind up shooting a lot better than their worst nights.

No one should expect 18 of 34 on a regular basis, but what if this game enables Wisconsin to become a team which makes 9 of 24 threes in a game, or 10 of 26? If UW can reach that level of 3-point shooting and stay there, the Badgers are going to win MORE games, not fewer, as we move along.

We will get to find out Friday at Purdue if this opportunity turned into a genuine source of evolution and development for Wisconsin basketball this year.

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.