Wisconsin Basketball: 3 Lessons from Virginia Loss

Wisconsin Basketball fell to 3-4 losing on the road in the Big Ten -ACC Challenge. So what did we learn from the loss?

Wisconsin basketball is now under .500 on the season. The Badgers fell in ugly fashion 49-37 on the road to #18 Virginia on Monday night.

Bucky was never able to get consistent offense going against a tough Virginia defense. As a result, Wisconsin basketball lost to a ranked opponent for the fourth time this year.

Notably, losing on the road to a ranked foe is no shame for a young Badger team. So what did we learn from the loss to the Cavaliers?

1. Wisconsin has to fix its defense to keep opponents out of the lane

We went through this against Xavier. Early on especially, the Musketeers were able to knife to the goal time and again for easy hoops.

Virginia was able to replicate that formula using an array of runners, floaters, and layups. The Cavs were canny enough to sometimes wall off Ethan Happ so he couldn’t help on rim defense.

So while, Virginia only scored 49 points you can see the shot chart at the link here. The host Cavaliers feasted on high percentage looks inside. That especially disappointing since Virginia shot 23-60 (38.3 percent) including 3-14 from three.

2. Wisconsin rebounding needs to get back to basics

For the game, Wisconsin lost the rebounding battle 39-30. But even worse for Bucky, the Cavs managed 14 offensive rebounds. Those extra possessions shortened the game and afforded Virginia far too many second chance opportunities.

Too often you saw Wisconsin ball watching instead of getting a cardinal jersey on a white jersey and boxing out. In addition, Wisconsin isn’t playing with a giant lineup so they need to rely on technique and not size alone to clean the glass.

3. The Wisconsin offense is adrift without Ethan Happ on the floor

So yeah, Wisconsin is going to be better on both ends with its All American candidate. But this matters in specific ways on offense. Without him, there is no scintilla of a threat of post scoring.

A little bit of a problem that without Happ no options for scoring in the post. When he's on the bench the offense fizzles into lots of optimistic jumpers.

Virginia still winning 1-on-1 and making easy shots. Cavs up 38-26 as we approach the under 12.
— Badger of Honor (@BadgerOfHonorFS) November 28, 2017

When Happ is out there, the Badgers can run things through him. They’ll clear space and let him go 1-on-1. Or he can draw double teams and kick it out to open shooters (Side Note: make your open looks please).

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But when he gets early foul trouble or needs rest, the offense sputters. You see too much ponderous dribbling and forcing contested jump shots. The Badgers were just 15-48 from the floor including 3-20 from three.

Those "shot clock running low and have to hoist a contested jumper" don't count as a turnover in the box score but they probably should.
— Badger of Honor (@BadgerOfHonorFS) November 28, 2017

It bears repeating that 3-4 with all four losses coming to ranked foes isn’t a disaster. But Wisconsin basketball definitely has some big things to work on as conference play beckons.