The Badgers lost their first game of the season 64-67 to Michigan this week, and part of the blame can be attributed to the struggles of veterans Max Klesmit and Steven Crowl. The upperclassman have been on a cold streak that finally caught up to them against Michigan.
Over the past four games, Klesmit has shot a putrid 23% from the field and has failed to reach double-digits in any of those contests. Meanwhile Crowl fouled out against Michigan after going 1-for-5 from the field, and got absolutely bullied on the inside by the Michigan big men. Greg Gard spoke about the duo's recent struggles and offered up an analytical approach to fixing their woes.
"I don't think you can play psychologists and try to make up fictitious information," Gard told reporters. "You're showing them what the shots they're getting. You know it's not necessarily even the the three so to speak for Max, it's the other shots at times that he has taken that maybe we can get a better shot."
While Klesmit obviously needs to wait for better looks during the game, Gard wants the opposite approach for Crowl, who he thinks needs to be more aggressive on defense as well as offense.
"And for Steve I just want him to be more consistently aggressive on both ends of the floor," Gard said. "I want him to be more imposing in the paint defensively than what he is, and and same thing on the offensive end too. So you keep pushing, but I think these are these are a really smart players so you can't you can't BS them. You better come with information, and with facts, and with the data, and then you back it up with film so you're able to show them how they can improve what they're doing."
Both veterans have proven to be valuable assets to the team, they just need to get out of this funk. Gard has seemingly taken a very analytical approach to get it done, relying on numbers and data to show where improvement can happen. It'a similar theme to his approach offensively this year, as the analytics will point more and more towards embracing the three ball, something the Badgers haven't exactly centered on in the past.
Klesmit and Crowl won't have very long to figure out their issues though, as the Badgers will take on No. 5 Marquette on Saturday.