Badgers looking to make the most of their return to the Big Dance
MADISON, Wis. - So far the Wisconsin Badgers have kept their promise. After missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 19 years at the end of last season, the Badgers are on their way back to the Big Dance as a No. 5 seed in the South region. They will take on No. 12 Oregon in San Jose, Calif., on Friday afternoon - and are going to do their best to make sure this trip isn’t a short one.
But in order to avoid becoming a one-and-one tournament participant, the Badgers are going to have to make sure they don’t get too high or too low now that they have accomplished one of their major goals for the season. After all, there is still work to be done.
“It was discussed ever since the first day of the summer,” sophomore guard Brad Davison said of making a trip to the Big Dance. “That was one of our primary goals, to get back to the NCAA tournament, and then once you get there just take care of business. We always say we control what we can control and play our game and not really worry about the opponent- just play to the best of our ability.”
To keep their season alive as long as possible the Badgers will have to take down an Oregon team that has been one of the hottest teams in the country over the last few weeks. The Ducks are coming off of a Pac-12 Tournament Championship and have won eight games in a row, thanks to some timely offense and a stingy defense that could give the Badgers a run for their money.
It could make for a low-scoring contest on Friday at the SAP Center, since the Badgers rank No. 3 in the country in KenPom.com’s defensive efficiency metric and Oregon checks in just behind them at No. 18. So with this Badgers allowing 61.4 points per game and Oregon giving up 62.9, the Badgers are going to have to be ready win a dog fight of a first round game this weekend.
“Regardless of who we were going to get and what seed line we’d be on, this time of year there are no easy ones,” head coach Greg Gard said on Sunday. “They’re all very worthy opponents that are going to be a challenge, and Oregon is no different than anyone we would have seen in terms of the challenge presented.”
Playing in the tournament on Friday doesn’t leave the Badgers with much time to do a lot of film study on the Ducks, let alone whoever they would play in the second round should they win on Friday. But that just means the Badgers can spend more time focusing on showing the best of themselves on both offense and defense this weekend - by learning from their loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament and knocking down a few more open looks when they come their way on Friday.
“We had a tough shooting stretch against Michigan State but when it comes down to it I thought we defended pretty well and we played hard, and that’s all you can ask for,” junior guard Brevin Pritzl said after the team’s practice on Monday. “As long as you defend well you’re always going to be in a game. We’ve just got to get the ball to go in the hoop a little more and we’ll be fine.”
So that’s the plan: play good defense, knock down shots when they come to you. But will it be enough for this Wisconsin team make a deep run in the tournament? The players certainly think so.
“You’re not going to get anyone in this tournament to say they can’t go all the way,” senior forward Ethan Happ said on Sunday. “We really believe that. But we’re not looking at the championship game. We’re looking at Oregon right now.”
___________________________________________________
John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.