Surging Wisconsin is a team no high seed should want to draw
Moments after Wisconsin’s 67-59 victory at eighth-ranked Iowa on Wednesday night, interim coach Greg Gard addressed his players in the locker room.
“As long as you stick together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish,” he told them, and at this point who would dare argue?
It was only a six weeks ago ago that Wisconsin’s season appeared to be spiraling after a humbling loss at Northwestern dropped the Badgers to 9-9 overall and 1-4 in the Big Ten. They’ve since reeled off nine wins in their next 10 games to vault from the bottom third of the Big Ten standings to the cusp of an 18th straight NCAA tournament bid.
At 18-10 overall and 10-5 in the Big Ten, Wisconsin would probably be a in the 8-to-10 seed range if the season ended today. They’ve offset some dreadful early-season losses by toppling Big Ten contenders Iowa, Indiana, Maryland and Michigan State in recent weeks, establishing themselves as a team no high seed will want to draw if they can sneak into the NCAA tournament.
What’s the key to Wisconsin’s improvement? It started when Gard reinstalled Bo Ryan’s trademark swing offense after he took over the job in late December and taught it to the Badgers on the fly.
Wisconsin had abandoned the swing for a more traditional free-flowing attack the past couple years since it had an unusual wealth of offensive talent at its disposal, but that changed when Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker and Josh Gasser graduated. This year’s Badgers were far better suited to a structured, deliberate scheme that places an emphasis on spacing, screening, cutting and good passing.
Promising center Ethan Happ has developed into an effective low-post scorer and offensive rebounder. Stretch forward Vitto Brown has been effective knocking down jump shots. Zak Showalter, Jordan Hill and Khalil Iverson each have contributed in flashes as well.
More scoring from Wisconsin’s role players has eased the burden on its two stars. Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig have both been more efficient the past six weeks in part because they’re no longer trying to do too much in order to compensate for the departure of Kaminsky and Dekker.
The result is a team that has ascended into the top 50 in offensive efficiency while also playing outstanding defense. That combination was on display in the Iowa game as Wisconsin stormed back from a six-point second-half deficit and took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Koenig with 4:50 to go.
Four Wisconsin players scored at least nine points led by Koenig’s 15. Peter Jok had 17 points of Iowa’s 34 first-half points, but Showalter limited him to just four in the second half. The Badgers also did a good job on all-conference forward Jarrod Uthoff, limiting him to a quiet 11 points.
Wisconsin now has three games left before the Big Ten tournament, a home game against Michigan and road games against rebuilding Minnesota and upper-echelon Purdue.
Barring a complete collapse, the Badgers should hear their name called on Selection Sunday, and six weeks ago who would have thought that were possible?
– – – – – – –
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
