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.