Badger Basketball: Inability to Close Costs Wisconsin Again

Badger Basketball suffered its third straight loss and there was a familiar theme present costing Wisconsin the victory.

A day after losing to Baylor in the opening game of the Hall of Fame Classic, Badger Basketball suffered a similar fate against UCLA.

With the loss, Bucky falls to 2-3 on the season. Of course, there is a common element for all these losses.

Badger Basketball led UCLA 67-62 with just three minutes left. But UCLA scored the next eight points as Wisconsin missed a shot and turned the ball over.

D’Mitrik Trice made a layup with 33 seconds left to trim the Bruin advantage to 70-69. Khalil Iverson had a chance to give Wisconsin the lead with 31 seconds left. But he split the pair tying the game.

But UCLA scored the game winning layup with .9 seconds left to break Badger hearts. Wisconsin again suffered a last minute loss because it couldn’t finish off a quality opponent.

Badgers switch on the ball screen and Happ guarding a smaller player is a good match up for UCLA. Happ over commits a little at the arc and that gives Holiday the angle/step to glide to the rim for the winner https://t.co/o7y3L8JLQc
— Badger of Honor (@BadgerOfHonorFS) November 22, 2017

This unfortunately, is becoming a theme for Badger basketball. They easily could be 5-0 with three good resume wins. But the late game execution, especially on offense is a big problem.

Another painful loss for Badger basketball fans. Wisconsin led or been within 2 in the final 3 minutes of all 3 losses https://t.co/YA4gvvdFi0
— Badger of Honor (@BadgerOfHonorFS) November 22, 2017

Here is the breakdown for the Badger losses to Xavier, Baylor, and UCLA at the end of the game.

#16 Xavier: Wisconsin up 66-64 with 2:44 left. Lose 80-70.
#22 Baylor: Wisconsin down 57-55 with 2:20 left. Lose 70-65.
#23 UCLA: Wisconsin up 67-62 with 3:00 left. Lose 72-70

So the positive spin here is a young Badger Basketball team went toe-to-toe with a couple ranked foes and nearly won all three games. Of course, the negative side is that Wisconsin wasted opportunities to pick up quality wins against ranked foes early in the season.

The key here is Wisconsin developing the composure to stick with its offense and take care of the basketball. In addition, the Badgers are shooting just 67.6 percent from the foul line.

Next: 10 Bold Predictions for Badger Basketball Season

The Badgers will have to dedicate serious practice time to late game execution. The inability to close out games has already been expensive just five games into the season.