The Wisconsin Badgers’ improbable metamorphosis into a high-level offensive force — that is what they have become, whether you want to admit it or not — contains a lot of surprises. D’Mitrik Trice scoring 28 at Michigan, against a good defense? Wow. Aleem Ford and Micah Potter scoring 18 points apiece in the same game, on the ROAD? Get out of here. That really happened? Wisconsin shot 48 percent on threes, on the road, against a non-Nebraska, non-Northwestern Big Ten defense? Incredible.
One could go up and down the list of amazing Wisconsin feats from Thursday night’s 81-74 win in Ann Arbor against the shocked Wolverines, but to me, one fact rises above all the others: Wisconsin assisted on just 10 of its 29 made field goals.
Think about that for a moment.
Wisconsin’s offense had been so good in recent weeks in large part because the assists had been going up, up, up, and the turnovers had stayed down, down, down. D’Mitrik Trice was distributing the ball better. He was making wiser, more accurate reads of the defense and producing superior decisions. He improved his floor game and gave the Badgers’ offense a lot more cohesion. This always made sense as the pathway toward improvement for the 2020 Badgers: Develop the fundamentals. Make better decisions. Screw up less often. Get out of your own way. No, don’t expect incredible shooting performances, but limit the mistakes and don’t give away so many possessions. See what can happen with a cleaner, more blended style of play.
It worked. That improved level of efficiency — more assists, limited turnovers — definitely brought out a new dimension of this team.
What was so remarkable about the Michigan game and that fact about UW assisting on just 10 of 29 field goals is that the Badgers didn’t have to set up everything in their halfcourt offense with passing and ball movement.
Do you realize the significance of the 10 assists on 29 made field goals statistic? Wisconsin just showed — Trice in particular — that this offense can CREATE ITS OWN SHOT.
That is a thunderbolt, as surprising as anything I have witnessed in this team this season.
What did we see with our own two eyes through November and December and January and most of February? We saw an offense which generally could not create its own shot and generally could not get to the foul line 20 times per game. (Against Michigan: 15 free throws, so that part still remained intact.)
Suddenly, though, against Michigan — hardly the weakest defense Wisconsin has seen this season, and in truth, probably one of the better ones — the Badgers didn’t just reveal a fully-functioning offensive unit. They displayed the ability to create shots without always passing. No, this doesn’t mean Trice and the rest of the offense should try to play more hero-ball in March, but it does show that I underestimated the capacity and capability of this offense to create its own shot.
Coaches — Greg Gard included — generally want an assist-to-made-basket ratio much higher than 1-to-3. Yet, for one night, a (roughly) 1-to-3 assist-make ratio was a good thing. Wisconsin can create its own shot now. That isn’t something a team wants to completely rely on in March — good shots being created by good ball movement are always better than one-on-one shots if given a choice to pick between the two — but it’s important to be able to create something from nothing against strong defense in the cauldron of the NCAA Tournament.
Wisconsin is a lot more equipped for March than any of us could have imagined not just four weeks ago, but four DAYS ago.
This performance against Michigan answered a lot of questions about the 2020 Badgers. All the answers were perfect.