MADISON, Wis. – A school record for 3-pointers was not on the mind of three University of Wisconsin juniors throughout the second half Tuesday night.
Addressing the media following Wisconsin’s 82-68 victory over Nebraska, Brad Davison, Nate Reuvers or D’Mitrik Trice were unaware that 18 made 3-pointers was a new school record they were closing in on.
“It should have been 19; I said sorry to Brevin for that screen,” quipped Reuvers, who wiped out a Pritzl 3-pointer with an illegal screen.
“It could have been 20 if Meech had moved his foot back a little bit,” countered Davison on Trice’s long two from the corner.
“Or Aleem (Ford’s) rattling in and out,” Trice added.
Jokes aside, one thing they were sure of was that their defense wasn’t up to snuff.
“Very displeased” were the words Davidson used to describe head coach Greg Gard’s demeanor at halftime. Wisconsin had shot 45.2 percent in the opening 20 minutes, hit eight 3-pointers and had 11 assists on 14 made field goals.
It was as complete of a first half Wisconsin has had in several weeks offensively, but the Badgers were bludgeoned by a small lineup that likes to attack. Entering the night, the Huskers were 13th nationally in offensive tempo, averaging only 15.3 seconds per offensive possessions (third fastest power conference school nationally).
Huskers shoot the most threes in the Big Ten, but Nebraska only attempted nine in the first half (seven fewer than Wisconsin) because the driving lanes to the rim contained little resistance.
“A couple times we had mistakes right away,” Gard said. “We went under the first three (Thorir Thorbjarnarson) hit, we went under the screen. We didn’t exchange on one of them; we exchanged but two guys went with the ball and we gave up a layup. We just had some miscommunication issues.
“We did a poor job of stopping the ball at times. We were either too low on the ball screen, too low when it did come, got spun around on a three in front of our bench twice in a row. There were just some things that needed to be straightened out and refocused on that end of the floor.”
It was a complete role reversal for Wisconsin, which has been struggling to find an offensive spark after scoring in the 50s for three straight games. UW went 2-1 in that stretch in large part because its defense had been on point. In the last nine games the Badgers had held eight teams under 70 points. The one exception being the 71 points to Illinois on Jan.8, but that game showed some flaws in the scheme.
Ball screens, transition defense and on-ball defense were an Achilles’ heel for the Badgers in the loss at No.15 Michigan State Friday. Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg had his players exploit it again to the tune of 18 points in the paint in each half with guards attacking off the dribble.
Nebraska had only outscored one of its last five opponents in the paint, not to mention being outscored by double figures in three of them.
“I was really, really pleased with our offense in the first half,” Hoiberg said, as Nebraska outscored UW by 20 in the lane. “Our movement was excellent. That is hard to do, to shoot that type of percentage against this team. They make you work for everything you get.”
Nebraska is the furthest thing from a juggernaut defensively, especially with 14 new players on the roster trying to learn Hoiberg’s defensive teachings. The message, according to Gard, was no to get so caught up with the ball finally going through the net with consistency that they forget the rules defensively.
“The main message at halftime was don’t worry about offense, offense will take care of itself, but we’re going to win this game on the defensive end,” Davison said. “It starts with the guy on the ball and then it trickles down. We don’t play individual defense. We play defense as a unit, five guys together connected. There were a lot of holes there in the first half that we had to clean up in the second half.”
There were still lapses in the final 20 minutes, but the Huskers’ disconnect from the perimeter (2-for-13) helped improve UW’s overall defensive totals.
“We decided to step on their throat a little bit more on the defensive end,” Trice said. “I think that was the biggest change (in the second half.”
Having already played in three challenging road venues this month, it’s only fitting that Wisconsin’s only two game road swing this season takes them to two of the more challenging environments in the league.
UW faces a Purdue team Friday that is coming off a 79-62 beating at the hands of Illinois Wednesday. The Boilermakers managed just 19 rebounds in the loss but are an eye-popping 40-4 against the Badgers in Mackey Arena. Three days later, the Badgers head to No.19 for their fourth ranked opponent on the road in 24 days. And for good measure, UW gets a second crack at Michigan State a week from Saturday.
Needless to say, lacking a consistent balance between a fluid offense and maintaining core defensive principles could signal a real rocky road ahead.
“We played (at Purdue) two years ago and got smacked,” said Reuvers, remembering a 78-50 smacking. “We’ve got to be ready. I think we will be.”
