Wisconsin's Achilles Heel heading into March Madness

Wisconsin is all but in the NCAA Tournament barring a complete collapse in the Big Ten Tournament, although even if that happened, I would still probably say they are a lock. The Badgers, however, are not the perfect team and they have things to work on.

The Achilles heel for this team is shooting and defending the three-point shot. The Badgers shot just 33.9 percent from beyond the arc this season, which is below the NCAA average giving them a -3.5 differential from behind the line.

The Badgers also struggle to defend the three-point shot as opponents shoot 37.3 percent from beyond the three-point line against Wisconsin. This could be a problem if the Badgers meet up with a team say BYU that lives behind the three-point arc.

Wisconsin struggled is good at protecting the paint, but struggled when trying to recover to the contest the three-point shot. The Badgers' worst game guarding beyond the arc was against Robert Morris early in the season where they gave up 13 three-pointers. The worst three-point field goal percentage they gave up was to Rutgers late in the season where they shot 58.8 percent from beyond the arc.

Wisconsin while they had success behind the arc from time to time, they struggled overall. their worst three-point shooting game was against Purdue also late in the season where they shot just 15.8 percent.

While teams that don't always shoot well from behind the three-point line can still be successful, it seems like there are a lot of teams going into March Madness that are lethal from behind the arc. As I mentioned BYU is one, but there are also the top three-point shooting teams in the nation like Kentucky (0.412), Purdue (0.414), Baylor (0.398), and Northwestern (0.396).

Wisconsin will have to clean up their three-point defense if they want to stay in the game during the NCAA Tournament. The three-point shots will probably be what they are for right now, there is not much to do other than just practice those shots, but three-point defense can be worked on.

Wisconsin will need to work on these things if they want to make a run in the NCAA Tournament, it may not be detrimental, but against the right team, it could knock them out.

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