Tag: Wisconsin Badgers

The Wisconsin Badgers have a well-developed identity. Everyone who follows Wisconsin hoops knows that identity was powerfully affirmed on Sunday in a decisive win over the Marquette Golden Eagles. A timely reminder about affirming a positive identity is that it never happens without performing “detail work,” the intense and relentless process of paying attention to every aspect of competition.

Wisconsin’s awareness of what it needed to do — and how it needed to do it — was constant against Marquette. Everyone on the roster was vigilant and clearheaded. If you had to pick a star of the game, it was Brevin Pritzl, but the biggest takeaway from the win is that it was a group effort.

One could pick several non-Pritzl players who created this victory over Marquette. All such selections would be reasonable and illustrative of what the Badgers achieved against the Golden Eagles. I will choose Aleem Ford, who made his presence felt at both ends of the floor. His “detail work” paid off in numerous ways which separated Wisconsin from Marquette.

One of the things I saw when watching this game was that Marquette players, on dribble drives or post feeds, pushed their bounce passes with one hand. To be sure, great point guards know how to use a one-handed push pass, but those passes are more often in the air than bounce passes. Marquette’s attempts at one-handed passes were often bounce passes, and Wisconsin was able to get its hands on a number of those passes, either for steals or deflections.

In contrast to Marquette’s one-handed bounce passes, Ford used a two-handed bounce pass on a number of occasions. He fed Brad Davison with a two-handed bounce pass to create a layup late in the first half. Little details such as that enabled more Wisconsin possessions to end in made baskets, whereas the Golden Eagles didn’t exhibit the same precision. It mattered.

Ford also displayed attentiveness and sound positioning on defense, as shown in this play:

Aleem Ford told Markus Howard to take take that sh*t Back to Milwaukee 👋🏽

Huge game from Aleem today
• 12 points
• 7 rebounds
• 2 blocks pic.twitter.com/4dbFsMqLVq

— IKE Badgers (@IKE_Badgers) November 17, 2019

The crispness of a pass, the value of occupying a specific spot on the floor, the ability to maintain structure in help defense — these are the small details which, when observed, win games. When ignored, they lose games. Wisconsin tended to these details just as surely and clearly as Marquette failed in the same task.

We talked earlier in the season about college basketball players failing to exhibit good habits. Wisconsin’s final possession in regulation against Saint Mary’s was one of those bad habits. The important thing was for the Badgers to grow from that experience and demonstrate more vigilance. They certainly did that against Marquette. Let’s see if Wisconsin can sustain that identity in the coming weeks, heading into Big Ten play.

Technically, a college basketball game encompasses 40 minutes of scoreboard clock time. Converted into seconds, a college basketball game lasts 2,400 seconds of scoreboard time. On Sunday in Madison, the Wisconsin Badgers needed only 100 of those 2,400 seconds to deck the Marquette Golden Eagles and secure a coveted victory in this in-state rivalry.

Wisconsin played well throughout this game, but if a particular sliver of Sunday’s showdown stood out, it was the pocket of one minute and 40 seconds — 100 seconds — which followed the under-eight-minute TV timeout in the second half. With 7:52 left, Wisconsin led 58-51, possessing a small working margin but nothing which could be considered comfortable — not with Marquette’s Markus Howard being capable of a massive scoring binge at any moment. Wisconsin had a lot of work to do to send Marquette to the canvas. It seemed as though the game was going to go down to the final few minutes.

That changed in the next 100 seconds. Brad Davison hit a 3-pointer. Nate Reuvers came up with a steal. D’Mitrik Trice hit a three. The defense forced a turnover by Marquette’s Theo John. Brevin Pritzl hit a three off an unselfish assist pass from Kobe King. With 6:12 left, Wisconsin led 67-51, and that was that. No late drama. No last-minute intrigue. Wisconsin scored a knockout before the final media timeout of the afternoon.

The beauty of these 100 seconds lay in the fact that every play involved a different Wisconsin player: Davison. Then Reuvers. Then Trice. Then Pritzl and King. While Howard tried to play Hero-Ball at times, and shot 6 for 21 in the process, Wisconsin kept spreading the wealth and sharing responsibilities at both ends of the floor. It was beautiful. It was necessary, with Micah Potter out. It was the best of Wisconsin basketball, the heart of this program’s identity in the 21st century, dating back to Dick Bennett’s Final Four trip in the year 2000.

The number 100 is a nice, round number. That round number in the realm of roundball referred to the amount of seconds Wisconsin needed to turn a typically tough and tense tussle against a rival into a runaway. The Badgers hope to replicate that 100-second sequence many times over this season. If they do, look out, Big Ten. You never know where or when these Badgers will strike. Everyone got involved in the best 100 seconds of a satisfying Sunday for Wisconsin.

Heading into Sunday’s game against the Wisconsin Badgers, the Marquette Golden Eagles probably thought they had the best player on the floor: Markus Howard. That was not a wildly irresponsible thought to have. Howard is a luminously skilled player and a legitimate star player in the larger world of college basketball.

Marquette was counting on Howard to be the best player on the floor in this game. The Golden Eagles and Steve Wojciechowski needed Howard to rise above everyone else in the Kohl Center and bring this game home. Howard was the “Wojo Mojo” Marquette hoped for.

Instead, Brevin Pritzl stole the show. Coming off the bench, Pritzl stuffed the stat sheet not only with 15 points, but with efficient shooting (4 of 6 from the field, 3 of 4 on 3-pointers, 4 of 4 at the foul line) and 13 rebounds, six on the offensive backboard. It is true that Howard was not the best player on the floor; Pritzl was. Yet, suggesting that a player-versus-player comparison — or a “best on the floor” designation — made the difference in Sunday’s game is a detour from the most important truth: This contest wasn’t centrally won by Pritzl, though he surely gave Wisconsin a difference-making effort; the Badgers’ biggest weapon against the Golden Eagles was their balance.

This is how it always needed to be for Greg Gard. Without Micah Potter, Wisconsin needed all hands on deck. It needed a stifling halfcourt defense to hold Howard to 6-of-21 shooting from the field. It needed all five starters to hit a 3-point shot. It needed all five starters to grab at least one rebound. It needed four of five starters to hand out at least one assist. It needed six different Badgers to score in double figures.

If Gard had a template for this game, he could not have hoped for a better outcome. This is exactly what 2019-2020 Wisconsin basketball has to be, certainly as long as Potter is unfairly prevented from playing. Sure, Wisconsin hoops took the next step when it cultivated takeover players such as Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker. Having elite crunch-time scorers will take a program to the next level. That said, Wisconsin faced a critical early-season test and not only passed it with flying colors; the Badgers aced this test exactly the way they needed to.

The act of winning was huge under any circumstance and regardless of details; the way in which Wisconsin won is just as important as the win itself, if not more so. Supreme balance — with high-quality performances from six different players plus capable defense from other members of the rotation — defined this victory over Marquette. It will need to continue to define the basketball Badgers as long as Micah Potter can’t take the court.