After some painful close losses Badger basketball returned to the correct side of the ledger dispatching UW-Milwaukee on Friday evening. Here are three thoughts on the victory.
Late game execution, or lack thereof, cost Badger basketball some early season non-conference wins against ranked opponents. But the final minutes were drama on free on Friday as Wisconsin coasted to a win against UW-Milwaukee.
Badger basketball notched a 71-49 win to even its season mark to 3-3 and snap its rough three-game skid.
Wisconsin surged into the halftime break to take a 28-23. Bucky then scored the first six points of the second half part of an 11-2 run to start the second stanza.
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The visiting Panthers never threatened the final result after that. That gave Greg Gard a chance to dig into his bench a bit.
So here are three thoughts on the Badger basketball victory:
1. Count the dribbles to understand the Wisconsin offense
When the swing offense is humming, the ball doesn’t touch the floor more than is required by the rules. The Badgers touch the post with Happ and everything flows from that.
Its incumbent on the supporting cast to understand floor spacing and move with purpose. That gives Happ more options and clears the way if it wants to go himself or kick it out.
Regardless, the ball has to move quickly. The Wisconsin offense gets stuck in the mud when there is too much pensive perimeter dribbling and iso ball.
For the game, the Badgers had 14 assists on 27 made field goals (51.9 percent). That’s slightly above the season mark of 80 assists on 163 baskets (49.1 percent).
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2. The Badgers do have shooters
For the game, Wisconsin shot 27/54 from the floor including 10/19 beyond the arc. And apparently its the youngest Badgers who will handle the shooting. Freshman Brad Davison (5/6 from three) freshman Kobe King (2/2 from three), and sophomore D’Mitrik Trice (2/3 from three) all did their part.
That trio connected on 9 of Wisconsin’s 10 made triples. Sophomore Brevin Pritzl hit the other. Davison has a nice feel around the arc to get his feet set and ready to shoot off post feeds. King has a very smooth shooting stroke.
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Making those outside shots is so critical for stretching opposing defenses and giving Happ the room to operate.
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3. Nate Reuvers will get there
The big story before the game was freshman Nate Reuvers cashing in his redshirt. He played an earnest and eager 14 minutes. He missed on all six shot attempts but clearly showed no hesitation on the trigger.
Importantly, most (not all) of the shots came within the natural rhythm of the offense. But he was clearly pressing a bit and hurrying himself up excited to be on the floor.
So while he went scoreless, Reuvers did chip in six rebounds, and two assists. He showed good effort on the glass even if his box out technique was lacking at times.
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But I anticipate seeing some more of Reuvers in the weeks ahead as the Badger coaching staff works him into the rotation. Clearly Andy Van Vliet’s star has dulled and Gard is looking for another big to fill out his depth chart.