MADISON, Wis. – The margin for error was agonizing small last year for the University of Wisconsin.
How small?
The Badgers lost to Big Ten champion Purdue by two, twice to second-place Northwestern by a combined five points, dropped a four-point home game to fourth-place Michigan State, and a pair of road February overtime games to teams that failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
“The margin for error we know is very slim,” head coach Greg Gard said. “But I think helped put them in a mindset: You know what? We’re not real far away.”
It goes without saying that a team coming off a 17-14 regular season, beating only one team who finished the season ranked in the final coaches’ poll, and was not selected to the NCAA Tournament isn’t going to generate much national attention. That’s where UW begins the season on Monday against Arkansas State, sitting just outside the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Over the past 15 seasons, UW has started unranked seven times. In five of those seven instances, they finished the year ranked and made the NCAA tournament, twice entering the postseason as Big Ten champions with Gard at the helm (2019-20 & 2021-22).
With how easy it has become for players to move from program to program, Wisconsin lost no significant rotation player to the transfer portal. Throw in Tyler Wahl choosing to take advantage of his extra COVID year, and Wisconsin returns all five starters from last year’s team that advanced to the NIT semifinals: Wahl, sophomore Connor Essegian, and juniors Chucky Hepburn, Steven Crowl, and Max Klesmit, a group that started between 19 and 36 games last season.
Throw in returning rotational players Carter Gilmore and Kamari McGee, Wisconsin returns 92 percent of its scoring from last year, the most of any major conference team in the country, and saw each starter lead Wisconsin in scoring in at least one game.
UW also returns 88.8 percent of its rebounds, 96.3 percent of assists, 98.1 percent of steals, and 92.3 percent of its blocks. The lone departure was guard Jordan Davis, who transferred to Illinois State. Davis averaged 5.1 points per game and started 18 of 35 games for UW before being replaced in the starting lineup by Essegian.
That depth is part of the reason Wisconsin was picked to finish fifth in the league by the sportswriters.
“To have these guys all committed to want to come back and to do that for each other, I think speaks volumes to where their minds are,” Gard said. “I know what their expectations are. They’re high. This group wants to chase more titles.”
The early returns suggest Wisconsin should be in the mix this season largely because of its depth. In scrimmages, practices, and Wednesday’s exhibition against Stevens Point, the Badgers’ offense runs just as smoothly no matter if the five players on the floor are the starters, reserves, or a combination of the two. UW also is further along defensively with the schemes the staff wants to run, utilizing full-court press after made baskets in the exhibition as an example of some of the areas of growth.
“That’s something we really started putting together through the spring and summer of what we felt we could do,” Gard said. “Not only with this team but with the evolution of the game. Can we find a way to get a couple more easy baskets? Can we cause some distress for the offensive team? You have to be able to do it in the right amount … I think our guys are getting more accustomed to it. We’ve done it selectively over the years, but we’ve put a lot of time into over the summer in really teaching it.”
“It’s something our guys like. They like the aggressive mindset. This team feeds off of that.”
The synergy is there, evident by the Badgers having 13 assists on 15 baskets in the first half of its game against Stevens Point, finishing with 21 assists on 32 baskets.
Struggling to fill the shoes of lottery pick Johnny Davis, Hepburn appeared to press offensively at times. Without a proven scorer/shot maker on the roster, Hepburn often relied on a step-back jumper to try to win or tie games in the closing seconds. The bad more often outweighed the good. Hepburn dropped 15 pounds in the offseason to improve his stamina and looks comfortable yielding his offense to facilitate to others. Against the Pointers, Hepburn had six assists, no turnovers, and four steals. He scored only seven points, but the Badgers’ offense scored 84.
“His numbers in practice have been through the roof in that way, too,” Gard said. “I think he’s 36 assists to five turnovers in live action in practice, so he’s really dispersing it well, which has been one of the focuses of the offseason of having him facilitate more to add to what he can do scoring-wise.”
“It’s good to see he has confidence in all the other people around him that he’s comfortable really distributing and finding people.”
Choosing to drop weight like Hepburn, Klesmit looks more comfortable in his role as a leader a year after transferring from Wofford. Over the final 12 games of last season, Klesmit scored in double figures seven times, shooting 21-for-44 from 3-point range (43.8%) over that stretch. Crowl finished last season averaging 12.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game and has grown his all-around game each full season he’s been on campus.
And Wahl, who decided to take advantage of an extra year of eligibility given to all winter sports athletes affected by the 2020 postseason tournament cancelation, is healthy and has returned to the aggressive style he displayed at the start of last season.
Wisconsin played in 23 games that came down to the last four minutes and went 13-10 in those games. Of those 10, the Badgers had leads in eight of them. It appears on paper that UW has a lot more firepower to a) not be in those situations and b) more options to successfully execute in crunch time.
“We have some pieces that can score more frequently,” Gard said. “You can go individually with what we’ve added, who’s coming back. I think this group that the depth factor hopefully can help … We have more pieces that can find the basket and I think the guys who are back are better at doing that than they were a year ago.”
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