John Blackwell's post game evaluation after frustrating loss to TCU says it all

The Wisconsin Badgers made it to the championship game of the Rady Children's Invitational by throttling Providence. Yet, Wisconsin was on the other end of that for most of the game against TCU. While the Badgers made it a game in the final minutes, only losing 74-63, it was easily a 20-point loss for most of the contest.

Star guard John Blackwell's post-game assessment was spot on and yet challenges the one weakness Greg Gard saw after their last loss to BYU: mental toughness (and maybe physical toughness too). Blackwell told Evan Flood of On3.com, "They (TCU) just wanted it more."

John Blackwell was the star for Wisconsin but basically had no help to beat TCU

Related: Wisconsin Badgers' blowout win has Providence fans calling for changes

Blackwell's evaluation of the Wisconsin performance can't be pointed at himself (even if he didn't blame his teammates). Blackwell was the only consistent source of offense in the game. He had a game-high 30 points. Yet, his teammates were nowhere to be found; the only other double-digit scorer was Nick Boyd with 15.

The rest of the team, which includes seven guys, scored only 18 points, including an absolutely embarrassing five points from Austin Rapp and Nolan Winter.

In fact, if you asked the average fan where the effort was lacking, they would point it exclusively at the big men. Not just Winter and Rapp but also Aleksas Bieliauskas and Will Garlock. Those four guys had a combined 5 points, 21 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 4 turnovers.

Wisconsin is one of the biggest teams in the nation, listed as the 7th tallest team, but played against TCU (a much smaller team) like they were 6'2. Soft and unable to get anything going in the paint (for the big men).

The Badgers went 1-1 at the Rady Children's Invitational and are now 1-2 in quad-1 or 2 games. Big Ten play starts with an early matchup against Northwestern next week, on December 3rd. Wisconsin will need to figure out if they are the team that throttled Providence or the soft one that rolled over for TCU.