Wisconsin Basketball: Badgers drop heartbreaker to Northwestern 54-52

When Northwestern came to Madison on Sunday, the UW Men had a chance to exact a little revenge on a team that had beaten them 13 days earlier. After losing 54-52, the Wildcats had swept Wisconsin Basketball for the first time since 1995-96.

Not exactly the side of history our Badgers wanted to be on.

What went right for Wisconsin Basketball

In my Sunday “Cup of Joey” article, I stated that Wisconsin somehow had to slow down the backcourt duo of Buie and Audige. Buie scored 13 and Audige 11, both below their season average of 16.2 and 15.5 PPG, respectively.

If you would have said, before the game, that these two players would combine for only 24 points, I would have expected UW to win by about 15 points.

Wisconsin came into this contest averaging only 8.9 turnovers per game, placing them as both the second-ranked team in the Big Ten and the nation (Penn State is first with 8.6). The Badgers only committed nine turnovers all game. Ball security has been a cornerstone of this team all season and Sunday’s game was no different.

The Badgers went 9-23 (39.1%) from beyond the arc. They were ranked 76th in the nation with a team 3-point percentage of 35.99%.

What went wrong for Wisconsin Basketball

While Wisconsin shot the ball effectively from long range, their other shooting percentages were abysmal. They went 10-27 (37%) on shots INSIDE the 3-point line. Their foul shooting was not much better, going 5-11 (45.5%) from the charity stripe. On the season, UW is ranked #323 out of 352 in foul shooting.

This game certainly didn’t improve those rankings.

While UW shut down Northwestern’s star duo, unfortunately, the Wildcats did the same to Wisconsin’s two big men. Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl each had five points. In an article a few games back, I stated the importance to Wisconsin Basketball to have the offense flow through these two players.

It is going to be very difficult for UW to win when its two interior men score a combined 10 points.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but rebounding still continues to haunt this squad. Sunday saw them out-rebounded by a margin of 33-26. It is difficult to be ranked lower than their poor foul shooting, but Wisconsin’s rebounding margin (-4.8) actually comes in ranked at #334 nationally. One of the announcers on the Big Ten commented on Wisconsin getting an offensive rebound as a “rare sight so take notice”.

Being better than only 18 teams out of 352 in the nation in a fundamental category such as rebounding is going to make it difficult to sustain success in the Big Ten.

Breakdown of player stats

Chucky Hepburn led all scoring on the night with 17 points, on 6-15 shooting and 3-5 from 3-point range. Connor Essegian was the second leading scorer with 15, 5-11 from downtown (he missed his three shots from inside of the arc). Max Klesmit chipped in 6 points as well.

As mentioned before, Wahl and Crowl each had five points. It wasn’t as if they had poor days shooting either, as each went 2-5 from the field. Nor were they in foul trouble, as Crowl didn’t pick up his fourth foul until late in the game.

Crowl led Wisconsin in rebounding with eight boards. He and Wahl tied for the team lead in assists with four apiece. Hepburn had two steals and four other players had one.

What happens now?

It’s difficult to believe that this team was once 11-2. That seems like a completely different season. To be sure, losing their star player for three games certainly did not help matters for the Badgers. To compound that setback, they then also lost Max Klesmit for two games right as Wahl was coming back from his injury.

However, I think the stark reality is that this Wisconsin Basketball team is just an average team. It doesn’t mean that we love them any less, but it’s becoming painfully obvious that their deficiencies in foul shooting and rebounding have not gotten better as the season progressed.

They have quality players, to be sure, and I believe a quality coach. I know that there are some in the Wisconsin faithful that would like to upgrade to a different head coach, but two out of the last three seasons as Big Ten Coach of the Year should count for something.

Average teams occur in good programs. I’ll admit, I started to drink the Kool-Aid when I first started covering UW and they were 10-2. Maybe it’s time to temper our expectations a bit. We’ll still cheer our hearts out for our beloved Badgers.

Maybe we just won’t be completely devastated when they lose, because I know that I’ve taken this stretch of losses very tough, and I’m a relative newcomer to Badger Nation. I can only imagine what life-long fans have been going through.