Wisconsin won against UW-Platteville in their second exhibition, 69-53. Exhibitions are glorified practices against real opponents, used by head coaches as litmus tests to see where a team's offense and defense are before the games actually count. It's also a time for experiments with lineups and trying things out. However, one lineup Greg Gard tried tonight went absolutely haywire, leading to a few turnovers before Gard corrected it.
When asked why the Badgers had 15 turnovers, Gard answered with what you would expect: It's a new team with players learning to play together. He also said that his players are still learning to play in control and in rhythm, with two feet on the ground. However, candidly, he said, there was a moment he could take credit for at least a couple of turnovers.
"A couple of them are on me because I went with the smaller lineup at one point with Blackwell at the 4, and we hadn't done that, even practiced it, and we had one fly out of bounds on that. Everybody didn't know where everybody else was; we were out of sorts and out of shape within the offense."Greg Gard
John Blackwell played the 4 and that may be a lineup that either gets scraped or practiced more
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In an effort to go small, Greg Gard slid John Blackwell down to the 4 with Nolan Winter at the 5, and the rest of the positions were all guards. It's smart to have a lineup that can play small and go fast, but not when it leads to turnovers. This lineup went south fast, with balls being thrown out of bounds, the players not knowing where others would be, and Blackwell out of position. It was rough.
This experiment may need to be filed away in Gard's cabinet as "needs work" or "do not do again." However, a perfect time to try it is in an exhibition. Though it would have been smart to test it first, see how it worked, and make sure everyone knew their roles before launching it.
The Badgers now get to face off against a game that counts with Campbell coming to the Kohl Center on November 3 at 7 pm CST. The game will air live on Big Ten+.