2. The Wisconsin basketball team suddenly has no shortage of options
Earlier in the season, the knock on the Wisconsin basketball team was a one-man show with Johnny Davis. While Davis has been unbelievable and could be credited with carrying this team to multiple wins on his back, I don’t think you can accurately say that about this squad.
Earlier in the season, yes, it was Davis and Davison that were the top two scoring threats and there wasn’t a ton outside of that. But now, there seem to be one or more players stepping up outside of Davis and Davison.
At first, Chris Vogt was making some big plays, not necessarily scoring plays, off of the bench. He was impacting the game. Then Steven Crowl would have a game where all of a sudden the lid was of the hoop and he was scoring 20+ points.
We are even seeing freshman guard Chucky Hepburn starting to become more of a threat offensively. He hit a deep three last night before the shot clock expired and then hit an improbable 2/3-court shot at the buzzer before halftime to put the Badgers up six at the break.
But I think Tyler Wahl has been the biggest riser at this point scoring-wise. All year he has been the guy who plays hard defense, gets rebounds, and does the dirty work. But now he is starting to become a bigger part of the offense inside and out. His three-point percentage this season isn’t great (14%), but in the past two games, he has gone 3-of-5 from deep, hitting 60% of his shots.
His 20-point effort against Ohio State last week paced the Badgers to a win over the Buckeyes when Davis managed just 14 points. Davis had an off night and Wahl was right there to pick up the slack.
He is third in scoring for Wisconsin, breaking into double-digits averages 11.0 points per game. Despite his atrocious percentage from three, he leads the team in overall field goal percentage, shooting 51% from the field. Wahl’s offense, not just his defense, is a big reason this Wisconsin basketball team is 15-2.
The Badgers’ ability to provide scoring outside of Davis when he gets so much attention has been huge for this Wisconsin team and will need to continue if they want to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament this year.