Big-time college basketball played on national television at a neutral site just before Thanksgiving is not the same as playing pickup basketball on the playground in many ways. Yet, there is a basic principle about basketball, no matter where it is played, which applies to the sport and needs to be understood at all times. The Wisconsin Badgers hopefully absorbed that principle after losing to the Richmond Spiders on Monday night in Brooklyn.
That principle is simply this: When you miss a lot of long-range shots, take the ball to the basket. That’s it. That’s the tweet. If you miss 25-footers, create some two-footers or dunks, or at least some six-foot floaters. You can go back to the 3-point line at some stage of the game, but establish the ability to go to the rim and put the defense on its heels.
This isn’t a sermon on needing to play basketball inside-out, starting with forays to the tin and then kicking the ball out for threes. If one has shooters, there is nothing especially wrong or misguided about starting with 3-point shots to create drives to the basket on subsequent possessions. If the defense begins a game playing against the drive and allowing the jump shot, fine — you’re going to have to make some jump shots at some point. Shooters have to take them if given them.
However, if a team misses a ton of threes at the outset, it has to be willing AND able to go to the rack and collect foul shots. That is basic basketball. It is not a foreign concept or a strange notion to anyone who has played or watched the sport, whether on a playground or in an arena.
Very simply, Wisconsin missed 11 of its first 12 3-pointers against Richmond. The Badgers finished the night 7 of 27 from long distance. It is true that Wisconsin committed 15 turnovers, and that its offense simply didn’t function well against the Spiders. “Playing better” obviously fixes a lot of problems. Yet, this wasn’t just about “playing better.” This is more precisely about playing smarter and with more force.
If you’re going to struggle from 3-point range, you have to be able to formulate a Plan B. That Plan B when the long shots aren’t falling is to get to the foul line. Wisconsin generated only 14 free throws against Richmond. That is a problem. When threes don’t fall, someone has to be the alpha dog on the court and get two free throws against robust and vigorous defense. Wisconsin produced three players — Nate Reuvers, Aleem Ford, and Kobe King — who earned four free throw attempts, but no one earned more.
The next time Wisconsin shoots under 26 percent from three, the Badgers need to have 26 or more free throws as a counterbalance. That is a simple way of conveying the need to have a Plan B when shots don’t fall.