Much more for Wisconsin to shore up before Battle 4 Atlantis

MADISON - Wisconsin was able to handle business against Green Bay on Tuesday night to improve to a 3-0 on the season.

Competition, however, will get much stiffer from here on out. Coming into Tuesday, the Phoenix were ranked 365th out 363 Division I teams by KenPom.

Against that caliber of an opponent, the Badgers were OK shooting 16-of-53 from the floor and a remarkable 4-of-19 on layups. The inefficiency at the rim included a 2-of-15 mark on layups in the first half.

"I'd say no, but a win is a win," Jordan Davis said regarding whether or not the team played its best ball. "Sometimes it's not going to be your night. You have to rally together as a team and trust the work. A win is a win, I'll take it."

Greg Gard and the team travel down to the Bahamas on Monday before matching up with Dayton on Wednesday and either Kansas or N.C. State on Thursday.

A night like Tuesday won't cut it next week. The tough stretch of non-conference games is only getting started when the team gets through the three-game run.

Returning from the tournament, the program will play host to Wake Forest in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, head up to Milwaukee for the annual rivalry game with Marquette later that week and kick off Big Ten play against Maryland and Iowa thereafter.

Following the team’s win over Stanford in the Brew City Battle this past Friday, the ability to come away with a win while shooting 5-of-20 from the floor was encouraging.

The inconsistency from the field seemed to hurt other areas of the game for Wisconsin in the form of some uncharacteristic turnovers, pressing on offense and some inability to finish at the rim.

"Other than one little stretch in the first half, I didn't think we were in sync," Gard said. "I thought we looked a little out of sorts and that happens when you don't make shots. This group has to learn to not let that affect them emotionally or mentally and let that bleed into other parts of your game."

The inability to finish at the rim isn't a consistent trend with the entire team but continues a trend for point guard Chucky Hepburn, who finished 2-of-14 from the floor. Many of his misses came after getting to the rim.

"I think he's got to play off two feet a little better," Gard said after the win.

For Hepburn, the misses can be pointed to playing under control and exploding to the rim instead of toward out of bounds, among other things. All very correctable but somewhat alarming for a player hoping to make a leap as a sophomore.

The struggles weren't exclusive to Hepburn. His running mate, senior forward Tyler Wahl, finished 2-of-11 from the field, turned it over four times and scored just eight points after 19- and 17-point outings in the first two contests of the season.

"It definitely just showed what it's going to take if Chucky isn't having a great game, if Tyler isn't having a great game," forward Carter Gilmore, who scored five points and came down with five rebounds, said. "Different guys stepping up, different guys having to do different things. I thought it was a great game for us to figure out roles if one or two guys aren't having their best day - who else is going to show up and that's what a team is for."

For the staff, much is left to be figured out in terms of the rotation, lineups that work well, who to back up Steven Crowl and Hepburn, and what to expect from players on a given night, among other things.

All that is amplified with a team featuring a nearly new cast of characters on the floor.

If there is a positive to take away from the win, it's the consistent depth that's been displayed. Gard has said on multiple occasions the team can go 12 deep. With the group's top two players - Hepburn and Wahl - off line, the team was able to avoid an early upset with that depth.

The comfort with a number of players is clear. That is a refreshing change for a team that rarely went further than eight deep in 2021-'22.

"I think everyone is chugging along together and I think you see last year when Chucky got hurt or Tyler or Johnny (Davis) got hurt, how much that hurt our team and I think that's just the benefit of this team," Gilmore said. "If one guy goes down or one guy has a bad game that guys can step up and it might take a little longer. But I think in the end it will definitely come out to prove that it's nice to have to depth and nice to have guys you can turn on the bench if guys aren't having the best game or guys are hurt."

Gilmore's night could be tabbed as the most encouraging of the bunch. His line only reads as five points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal, but he filled his role and did so nicely, especially on a night when Wahl got into foul trouble.

"He's just solid," Gard said of the junior forward. "There's probably never going to be anything that jumps off the stat sheet. Just solid 20 minutes and playing probably more than he had because of Tyler's foul trouble. Thought he did some good things."

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @pete_brey12, @seamus_rohrer

*Like us on Facebook