Five Takeaways from No.23 Wisconsin's 87-78 Win Over Iowa

MADISON, Wis. – A game that had the makings of being a potential letdown performance for a young team was anything but. In a word, it was dominant.

No.23 Wisconsin put five players in double figures for the first time this season, finished plus-17 on the glass, and led by as many as 23 points in a comfortable 87-78 victory over Iowa.

Avoiding those setbacks, according to head coach Greg Gard, is thanks to the groundwork the team started laying last April.

“They wanted to become a good team and in order to do that, you’ve got to compete with each other first,” he said. “It starts in the weight room and transcended to the practice floor in the summer. When you have that everyday mentality … there’s not a time for them to relax. We have competitive guys.”

The victory – another Quad 1 win for the Badgers - was Wisconsin’s seventh Quad 1 or Quad 2 win on the season, tying them with Alabama for the most in the country.

Here are my takeaways from Wisconsin’s victory that broke a four-game losing streak to the Hawkeyes.

Since the moment Johnny Davis dropped 37 at No.3 Purdue and Murray put 35 on Maryland, the buzz around the Kohl Center hosting two of the nation’s top scorers was noticeable when both players took the court.

Iowa junior Joe Toussaint drew the assignment of Davis after performing well chasing Maryland’s Fatts Russell through screens throughout Monday. It became evident that this was a different animal.

Davis had 19 points (7-for-11) and seven rebounds in the first half and filled another stat sheet for the Badgers, scoring 26 points to go with nine rebounds and five assists in 35 minutes of work.

When Wisconsin went on an 11-0 run to start the separation, it was Davis that heated things up with seven points, beating Iowa off the dribble, on pull-ups, ball fakes, and a host of other moves. In one sequence, Davis’s pump fake caused two defenders to jump out at him on the perimeter. He picked up his dribble to drive baseline and went up and under another defender for a finger-roll layup. It was masterful.

Davis has scored at least 20 points in six straight games, the first Badger to do that since Alando Tucker in 2007. Davis also is just the third Wisconsin player in the last 20 seasons to score at least 15 points in 12 straight games.

Murray finished with a game-high 27 points, as the nation’s leading scorer was 10-for-16 from the floor. However, he scored nine of his points in the last 7:32 when Iowa was down 20+ and the Hawkeyes were outscored by 17 points with him on the floor – a combination of him playing 35 minutes and not getting consistent help from the supporting cast.

“I thought we did a great job,” said senior Brad Davison, who finished with 18 points. “He might have had his average but for a good course of that game, we were heavily in control.

Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said he made the decision not to double the post because of the ability of Steven Crowl and Tyler Wahl to pass out of double teams and find cutters. It was a pick your poison decision because UW went 5-for-17 from 3-point range and still scored 87 points – the most a UW team has scored on Iowa in 28 years.

Wahl had a busy night with the defensive assignment of Murray and still managed to go 6-for-7 from the floor with 16 points and nine rebounds. He had 10 points and two steals in the second half alone.

“Tyler played exceptionally well,” Gard said. “He had a heck of a defensive challenge with Keegan. You do that on one end and come back on the other end and go 6-for-7 with nine rebounds. He was really important for us to get some separation in the second half.”

Crowl’s stat line was just as good: 12 points, 6-for-8 shooting, three assists, three rebounds, one steal, and no turnovers in 24 minutes. When he was on the court, the Badgers outscored Iowa by 24.

“I knew coming into this year that we were going to need him to step up,” Davis said. “He’s playing the best basketball of his whole career. He’s one of those big men who can really stretch the floor. Pick-and-rolls, he can pop or he can roll. He can finish down low. He can hit the three, and I think he’s a really good defensive presence inside. He’s a real big centerpiece as to why we’re so successful.”

Davis didn’t score until the 11:36 mark in the second half and UW didn’t hit its first second-half 3-pointer until there was 7:41 remaining. Still, the Badgers extended their halftime lead from 13 to 19 after just 3:57 had elapsed.

The Badgers did that by pounding the ball inside to Wahl and Crowl and hitting the glass. Wahl hit a hook shot at 19:32 and cleaned up an offensive rebound with a tough turnaround jumper at 18:17. Crowl scored the next four UW points in the paint and then delivered a steal, fed the ball to Davis, who hit a cutting Wahl for a two-handed dunk that forced McCaffery to burn a timeout.

Entering the final media timeout, Iowa was shooting 55 percent from the floor (11-for-21) but had been outscored by two points since halftime because UW was shooting 51.7 percent (15-for-29)

“We were just kind of trading (baskets),” McCaffery said. “You’ve got to kind of nibble away at it. It’s not like you’re going to get it all back at once against this team the way they play. You’ve got to be smarter than that. We were trying to execute. We weren’t getting the stops we needed.”

Iowa dominated the paint through the first seven minutes, scoring 14 of their first 17 points in the lane. The smaller Hawks were also up 7-5 on the glass, including cleaning up both offensive rebounds for paint points.

Of the next 13 rebounds following the media timeout, Wisconsin grabbed 10 of them and exerted its will by getting a better handle of Iowa’s transition offense and playing more five-on-five defense. The Hawkeyes finished with only 19 rebounds in the final 32 minutes.

UW finished with a 43-26 edge on the glass, turned 15 offensive rebounds into 18 second-chance points, and only allowed Iowa to rebound six of its 31 misses.

The latest analytics from KenPom rank Wisconsin 280th in the country in tempo, not blazing speed by any stretch of the imagination but certainly an uptick from previous seasons. In the previous seven seasons, the Badgers have ranked in the 300s in tempo, finishing anywhere from 328 to 347. The year Wisconsin rode the most efficient offense in the country to the national championship game, the Badgers ranked 345th

It’s noticeable this season that the Badgers aren’t waiting for single digits on the shot clock before attacking, as the Badgers have natural chemistry and the ability to push the tempo while not being reckless.

“We have a lot of weapons,” Davison said. “We have one of the best players in the country. Chucky does a great job of finding guys in there. We have rim runners. We have guys who can shoot. Just taking advantage of the opportunities we have to score. If we don’t have to work as hard on offense and we can get a transition bucket, it’s a big-time help for us.”

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