After an ugly five-game stretch to end the regular season, the Badgers of January showed up Friday in Indianapolis. Wisconsin dominated from start to finish on the backs of an incredible shooting performance to down the Bruins by 16 points.
It was a contest reminiscent of Wisconsin's 2nd round matchup against Maryland in last year's Big 10 Tournament, when the Badgers knocked down 16 three-pointers and won by 31 points. While it's unclear if Friday's performance will give the Badgers enough momentum to make the Championship game, it will certainly help Wisconsin's NCAA Tournament seeding.
Here are my biggest takeaways from Friday's massive win:
Expectations should be high moving forward
With Friday's victory, Wisconsin advanced to the Big 10 Tournament semifinals in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2014-15. In addition, the Badgers -- who were listed as a four seed leading up to the contest per Mike Lunardi -- are slated to move up to a three seed in the NCAA Tournament after Texas A&M and Iowa State -- both three seeds according Lunardi -- lost Thursday.
Despite the recent struggles, expectations should be as high as they were when the Badgers were ranked 11th in the country a few weeks ago. Looking past the outstanding three-point performance, Wisconsin was outstanding on defense and showed enough off the dribble drive offensively to give me hope.
UCLA shot 32.4 percent from the field and was held below their previous season average of 74.9 points per game. It continued a trend of quality defensive showings, which should inspire hope among Badger fans looking for Wisconsin to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
Well... the Badgers aren't in a slump anymore
Wisconsin came into Friday's game shooting 26.7 percent across its last six games. To say they broke out of their cold spell would be an understatement. The Badgers hit on eight of their first 11 makes from distance and tied for the most made three-pointers in a Big 10 Tournament game ever with 19. Wisconsin's 16 made three-pointers last season against Maryland are the third most in a Big 10 Tournament game.
John Tonje led the charge, knocking down all six of his three-point attempts. Yet, it was a team effort. six different Badgers logged a three-pointer, and five made multiple shots from beyond the arc.
Mara kept silent in rematch
Aday Mara had a coming-out game last time the Bruins matched up with Wisconsin. He scored 22 points on 7-of-7 shooting to pair with four offensive rebounds and a pair of blocks across 21 minutes. Since then, he's been averaging 7.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game across 16.9 minutes.
The 7-foot-3 sophomore was nowhere to be found Friday. He played just 11 minutes and totaled four points, seven rebounds and two assists.. The drastic change in Mara's success should partially be chalked up to Steven Crowl, Nolan Winter and Carter Gilmore's defensive improvement.
Defending seven-footers or other big-bodied centers was a weakness for this group last season and, in particular, for Steven Crowl during his career. Friday's contest was another data point to show his growth on the defense end.