MADISON — When Purdue rolls into town, All-American center Zach Edey is usually what seals its victims fate.

The Badgers, however, played the big man valiantly. The bigger issue for Wisconsin was its at times highly questionable shot selection.

“At times we got jump-shot happy. It’s great when they’re going in, but it’s fools’ gold,” head coach Greg Gard said. “It’s not gonna last, and it’s not gonna work over the long haul against really good teams.”

Wisconsin had very few open threes — Purdue did an excellent job defending the perimeter.

“We really wanted to limit their threes,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. “When we did a good job of containing the dribble, we didn’t let them in, that really helped us.”

The Badgers struggled to get dribble penetration all afternoon, which meant that if they wanted to play out of the post, they mainly had to rely on an oftentimes double-teamed Steven Crowl.

Crowl is a superb passing big man, but as soon as he put the ball on the deck he was swarmed. That, naturally, was by design.

“We didn’t want Crowl to get his dribble-down post-ups. That was one thing that we thought, what can we take away,” Painter said.

Wisconsin struggled to get good looks set up by post touches, which is a major part of how this team operates. Too often, the guards were stagnant on the perimeter while the Boilermakers swarmed Crowl.

Schematically, Purdue managed to take Wisconsin out of a large facet of its offense. And while the Boilermakers’ defense certainly deserves credit for that, the Badgers too often settled for ill-advised looks.

“We didn’t attack. We did at times, we moved the needle, got to the free throw line, playing in the paint, doing good things and then we go away from it. We come back to it, and then we go away from it. We have to be consistent in those regards,” Gard said.

“Regardless of our opponent, we have to do a better job of attacking and not settling for pull-up jump shots and early threes. Moving the ball more, getting more touches from the five guys on the floor.”

Wisconsin has its most potent offense in years this season. Why? Because it operates like a well-oiled machine — players aren’t selfish and they don’t force shots. The Badgers strayed far from that philosophy on Sunday, and it hurt them.

“I think it could’ve been a lot better,” Crowl said of his team’s shot selection. “And that’s not just one or two people, it’s everyone. Whether it’s me or T (Wahl) down low or any of the guards on the outside, it’s a group effort.”

Settling for low-percentage shots is an issue that’s becoming more pertinent with this team. It reared its head in the second half of the Badgers’ defeat in Lincoln, and it was an issue from wire to wire against Purdue.

As Crowl alluded to, it’s a problem that permeates through the whole team. But there’s also an individual aspect; Gard was unhappy with some of the hero-ball-esque shots his players took.

“I’ll let a few heat-check shots go if the shots before them have gone down, but when we’re heat checking and we haven’t gotten any heat, then we can’t heat check,” Gard said with a wry smile.

Teams have bad shooting days. It’s not something that can be quantified. It happens. Certainly, that had something to do with Wisconsin’s shooting performance, especially from downtown. Painter would agree.

“There’s a handful of them in there that we were very fortunate that they missed,” the coach said.

But for the few good looks that were misses, there were plenty of bad looks as well.

“I always evaluate quality,” Gard said. “What type of three did you take? When did you take it? Was it contested? Did we move the ball? Has everybody touched it?”

Luckily for Wisconsin, shot selection is teachable. It can improve, and it’ll need to if this team is going to accomplish its lofty goals. It’s something Gard is constantly in his players’ ear about.

“It’s discussed before games, in-between games, during games,” he said. “You show film, you show time, score…Are we in a rhythm, are we not in a rhythm, are you feeling it, are you not feeling it?”

Purdue made the Badgers take bad shots, and too often, that’s what they settled for. A few bad decisions are inevitable, but when they culminate, it can cost you the game. Wisconsin found that out the hard way.

The Badgers’ offense is highly dangerous, but they can’t let themselves be taken out of their game, their play-style. As March creeps closer, tightening up the shot selection will be a key area to monitor with this team.

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