Badgers looking to come out hot against Maryland
MADISON, Wis. - A trio of Wisconsin players sat and took questions about their overtime loss to Purdue late on Friday night, talking about the little mistakes that ultimately doomed their comeback effort against the Boilermakers.
An unusually high number of turnovers (17) and a 17-8 deficit on the offensive glass was the major takeaway - little things that allowed Purdue to pull out an 84-80 win despite shooting 42 percent in the game to Wisconsin’s 53 percent from the floor. But that wasn’t all - sophomore guard Brad Davison pointed said he and the Badgers need to re-discover a sense of urgency that was lacking on Friday at the Kohl Center.
“It’s something we talk about in the locker room,” Davison said. “We definitely beat ourselves ... we need to come out with a sense of urgency. We need to be our own energy from the start.”
After all, the Badgers have seen what can happen when they don’t bring their ‘A’ game from the start - and they got another example on Friday when the Boilermakers started the game hot from the 3-point line, helping them take a double-digit lead in the first half that forced the Badgers to play from behind for most of the game.
“When you fall down early and are clawing back all game that makes it tough,” Davison said. “It’s something we need to work on, something we need to get better at. Because once we lock in and get that energy we can compete with anybody. We’re a tough team to match up against. We need to come out with more energy and fire.”
So how do the Badgers go about bringing more energy from the opening tip? It sounds simple, but sophomore guard D’Mitrik Trice said on Saturday after practice that it’s going to be different for each player - but it’s going to have to start with the team’s starting five.
“Honestly it’s going to be different for everybody,” Trice said. “The way they prepare for a game is going to be big. The way we focus in the locker room, but it honestly starts with that starting five. We’ve got to set the tone early, and when we don’t do that then the other guys think maybe they can coast through it or maybe not come with that same intensity.”
One thing the starting five can do to get some momentum early would be to cut down on the turnovers - something the Badgers have prided themselves on in the season as whole, where they are averaging just over nine per game (even after Friday night’s season-high). After going through the film after the game the Badgers said they felt most of their mistakes against the Boilermakers were self-inflicted - that doesn’t make them easier to swallow, but it might help them fix the issue in the future.
“I think we’re in the top tier of the country as far as turnovers go,” Ethan Happ said on Saturday after practice when asked about if the team’s 17 turnovers concerned him. “I’d say going forward that’s not the biggest concern but in our losses we’ve had double digit turnovers in every one. I think from memory there’s been some big plays down the stretch of a game where we’ve needed bucket and we ended up turning the ball over. I think overall not really, but down the stretch we need to shore up things on that end.”
But the best thing for the Badgers right now might be to get back on the court and prove that they are better than how they played on Friday night - and they’ll get their first chance on Monday night when they head to College Park to take on the Maryland Terrapins.
It’s a quick turnaround, but in the Big Ten there’s not much time to get caught up in ‘What ifs’ - the Badgers will have to learn from their mistakes and prove they have the fire in the belly to bounce back and get another key conference win on the road.
“I think we’re just hungry and ready to get back at it on Monday,” Trice said.
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.