Golden Eagles 61, Badgers 54: The Invisible Offense

December 23rd, 2009. On that night, the Texas Longhorns defeated the Wisconsin Badgers 74-69 at the Kohl Center. Until Saturday afternoon, that was the last time a non-conference opponent had defeated the Badgers in Madison.

Marquette ended the Badgers’ 21-game non-conference home winning streak Saturday afternoon, defeating the Badgers by a 61-54 score. The Golden Eagles held the lead for the game’s final 27 minutes, including a 32-22 halftime lead. The Badgers would storm back to get within one at 41-40 with just under 11 minutes to go. The Badgers would keep the game close the rest of the way, but Marquette had just enough to close it out.

The final 10 minutes of the game can be summed up by a Darius Johnson-Odom free throw with 52 seconds to go. Ben Brust had just nailed a three-point shot off an offensive rebound to get the Badgers within four points, 55-51. With time ticking down the Badgers had to foul and sent Johnson-Odom to the line for a one-and-one. Johnson-Odom’s first free throw went up, clanked on the rim four or five times, and then harmlessly dropped through the net. He would make the second to extend the lead to six, the Badgers would fail to score on their next possession, and the clock would run down to zeroes after the formalities of more fouls and free throws.

The Badgers, after seeming so down and out for much of the game, had these fleeting chances, but Marquette managed to dash each and every one. Wisconsin deserves credit for resiliency, but they also need to fix the reason why the deficit was so wide in the first place: an utterly invisible offense in the first half of play.

The Badgers’ 22 first half points came on 32 first half possessions. The 66.67 points per 100 possession is roughly equal to what the Badgers held its first six opponents to while they were blowing out the early portion of its non-conference schedule. Even as the offense figured some things out in the second half, the Badgers still only finished with an offensive efficiency of 85.4 points per 100 possessions — right on mark with the 85.8 they posted against Butler in the Sweet 16 of last year’s NCAA tournament.

In any truly atrocious shooting performance like this — the Badgers finished 16-50 from the field and 5-19 from three — there is some luck involved. Wisconsin probably won’t go 5-13 on layups too many times, particularly not at home. Still, there was very little offensive movement. The Badgers only managed eight assists the entire game, and the fact that this total represents 50% of made field goals should tell us something about how Wisconsin needs to move the ball to produce an effective offense.

Jordan Taylor showed up in the last eight minutes, ending with a respectable 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting, but he also had an extremely uncharacteristic five turnovers against just two assists. Oddly enough, Taylor seemed a bit unwilling to take the bail-out shots at the end of the shot clock, perhaps feeling a bit uneasy after a 6-for-20 performance against North Carolina. Either way, he was failing to handle Marquette’s pressure with either his jump shot or his ball movement or his driving ability, and his failures largely influenced the failures of the rest of the team.

Jared Berggren and Ben Brust were each 3-for-11; Josh Gasser and Mike Bruesewitz combined to go 2-for-10. Only Ryan Evans and Frank Kaminsky managed to shoot 50%, on six and two shots respectively. Each of these individual players must do better with their own shots — Gasser and Bruesewitz were an unacceptable 0-for-5 on layups — but, at some point, Jordan Taylor will have to do his part to find good shots for his teammates. Jon Leuer isn’t walking through that door any more.

Even still, the Badgers were right in this game. Even with Marquette reeling in 45% of their own missed shots (an alarming total in itself), the Badgers were stout enough on defense to hold the Eagles under one point per trip down the floor. The defense continues to be among the best in the country, thanks to the great inside play of Jared Berggren and especially Ryan Evans. Such is what happens when you hold opponents to 13-of-30 shooting on layups.

As encouraging as the defense is, this team will be limited until it can figure out how to play effective offense against the more athletic teams they will face. Wisconsin is now 14th in the AP Poll and 16th in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. Until Jordan Taylor and the offense can figure out how to properly utilize the talent on the floor — or at least hit some three-pointers — the Badgers won’t be moving any higher.