MADISON, Wis. – Winning in the Big Ten is not easy; a glance around the recent results of the league would indicate how good a team can look one night and how bad it could go the next.

Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard – having coached in the league in some form since 2001-02 – knows it well, which is why the message he’s giving the only undefeated Big Ten team at the quarter-poll of the season isn’t an overly celebratory one.

“It’s not easy. It should be hard, and it has to be hard,” Gard said. “You don’t have a lot of choices. You really don’t have a choice. How good do you want to be and are you willing to commit and stay disciplined and focused on that path?”

The short answer is yes. A team that plays like a group that has unfinished business to attend to, No.15 Wisconsin dug deep down the stretch to make the critical plays in a 71-63 victory over Northwestern at the Kohl Center.

Winners of 12 of its last 13 games, Wisconsin (13-3, 5-0 Big Ten) is off to its best Big Ten start since the 2007-08 season with an offense that continues to be efficient, a defense that continues to make the right plays, and a team that plays like they are truly unsatisfied.

“They have a feeling of unfulfillment from last year, like we have something to prove,” Gard said. “That’s the edge I want them to keep. I want them to have an edge.”

Here are my takeaways from the Kohl Center.

Wisconsin coaches and players have been asked ad nauseam about the differences between last year’s team which so often crumbled in late-game situations and this year’s team which has one of the most efficient offenses in the country.

The Badgers can show Saturday’s game to people to illustrate the differences.

Wisconsin has had few games truly undecided in the final five minutes this season before facing Northwestern, so the fact that the Badgers closed the game with an 8-0 run is another feather in their cap.

“It’s sticking to what we do,” said guard Max Klesmit, who scored a UW career-high 24 points. “Having a ton of everyday guys in the locker room, coming to the gym ready to work every day, and push one another, this team has grown in that aspect since last year.”

Improved shot-making might be at the top of the list. After Northwestern tied the game at 61, Klesmit hit a turnover jumper in the lane. Just over a minute later, A.J. Storr (14 points) hit a high-arching jumper to put UW ahead 65-63. After attempting only three shots in the first half, Storr’s renewed aggressiveness paid off with 13 points on eight attempts in the second half, including six in the final 2:32.

“Fall-away jump shots are something I work on a lot when I’m in the gym by myself.,” Storr said. “Just very confident shooting it. I know Kles is the same. You got two closers right here.”

Added Northwestern coach Chris Collins: “Those are heavily contested, really well defended plays and guys just jumped up and made a shot. You got to tip your cap to them.”

Northwestern didn’t make a field goal after the 4:16 mark and didn’t score a point in the final 2:51 because the Badgers’ defense delivered one of the best stretches of the season.

7-foot, 280-pound center Matthew Nicholson had a look at a low post bucket until Steven Crowl rotated over and blocked the shot in between the rim and the backboard, resulting in a jump ball.

Northwestern retained possession, but Chucky Hepburn’s ball pressure on Buie resulted in a steal for Storr. Buie was forced to foul Storr in transition and the two made free throws pushed the lead to 67-63.

Crowl blocked Buie on the ensuing possession and UW delivered the dagger possession, seeing Crowl and Hepburn register offensive rebounds that forced Northwestern to foul with 29 seconds left and down four. Hepburn made both free throws, and the Badgers forced Buie into one final turnover on the next possession for good measure.

Crowl finished with just six points on 2-for-6 shooting but had a game-high eight rebounds, three assists, and made several critical hustle plays late.

“It speaks to the guy he is,” Klesmit said of Crowl. “He’s going to pour himself into the team, do whatever he can to be there for his guys, his brothers. It’s just a tribute to who Steven Crowl is as a person, his mentality, the toughness that he has.”

Gard admitted that the Wildcats are a hard team to gain separation against because of their physicality, ability to create turnovers, and how they defend. The Badgers didn’t respond well to the post traps and aggressive ball screen defense early, evidenced by committing seven turnovers in the first 17 possessions.

But Wahl said UW’s mentality was better than a year ago, especially with Wisconsin prepared for how the Wildcats play disciplined with their sets and are not willing to back down.

“It really was the little things the last two minutes and a couple great shots that was the difference in the game,” Collins said.

Buie led all scorers with 22 points, but the senior all-conference player needed 16 shots to get there. After scoring 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting (including 12 points in the first 10:06), Buie missed seven of his nine shots in the second half, including his last six, with Hepburn draped over him, providing constant pressure and denying him clean looks, passing lanes, and driving lanes.

That in-your-face defense led to the key turnover late on Storr’s free throws and shows how Hepburn has willingly changed from scorer to facilitator/defender this season.

“The way he’s sacrificed individual scoring for how he’s led this team and how he’s taken other teams'rjb perimeter players and done a terrific job,” Gard said. “He really made Boo Buie work. To have 16 shots for 22 points, even those last couple possessions he was in a full sprint. Does just a great job of commanding the point of our defense and what we do.”

“When you take all things that go into winning and leading a team in this league, I wouldn’t trade him for anybody.”

While Buie usually gets his points (he’s been held under 10 points just twice this season), Wisconsin was able to cut off the other options to make scoring challenging.

Guard Ty Berry – a 45.7 percent three-point shooter – had only six points and was 1-for-4 from the perimeter, while Ryan Langborg – a Princeton transfer shooting 39.2 percent from the perimeter – was 0-for-2 from behind the arc.

After Northwestern shot 61.4 percent from the field in a win over Penn State earlier this week, the Badgers held the Wildcats to 23-for-54 (42.6 percent) from the field, the lowest UW has allowed in conference play.

Film study showed Wisconsin was going to need to be prepared for Northwestern to do plenty of post-trapping, hedging ball screens, and forcing teams to make the extra pass.

“With how they play, you have to flip that physicalness against them and get to the free throw line and convert when you get there,” Gard said.

Nobody embodies that challenge more than Tyler Wahl. A nonfactor in last season’s losses to the Wildcats (a combined 6-for-15 from the field and 2-for-8 from the line), Wahl drew a game-high seven fouls with his ability to find gaps in the low post and attack the rim. The result was only 2-for-4 from the field but 7-for-11 from the free throw line.

“We knew they were going to double the post, so just cutting and finding those spots was something we worked on in practice,” said Wahl, who finished with 11 points. “I feel like we did a pretty good job of not only me but people cutting and finding open space to put the defense at a disadvantage.”

Six players attempted free throws for Wisconsin with the Badgers finishing 20-for-26 (76.9 percent) for the game, the seventh time this season UW has attempted that many free throws. In going 6-for-6 from the line in the last three minutes, the Badgers are 19-for-22 (86.4 percent) in the final 180 seconds of games this season.

Wisconsin is averaging 20.6 free throws a game and is leading the conference with a 76.3 percentage, a far cry from last season when UW’s 14.3 free throws attempted per game was its lowest per game average since at least 1968.

“You know you’re going to get one, probably two points at the line, and it also hinders a team’s confidence where they have to play a little more timid, not as aggressive (to) try not to sit on the bench,” Wahl said. “It’s been really good for us. We got a lot of guys who can draw fouls, get into the paint, make a good play.”

4:45 – Wisconsin did not trail in the second half. In five Big Ten games, the Badgers have trailed for a total of just 4:45 during the second half.

10 – By scoring 71 points, Wisconsin has now scored 70+ in 10 straight games, the program’s longest streak since 2015.

13 – Wisconsin finished with 13 assists on 22 made field goals. The Badgers have racked up at least 10 assists in eight straight games.

42 – Having scored a total of 42 points against Ohio State and Northwestern, Klesmit has delivered back-to-back double-digit scoring outings for the first time this season. Over the last two games, Klesmit is shooting 14-of-22 (63.6 percent) from the field and 7-of-11 (63.6 percent) mark from the perimeter.

70 – Reaching 70 points usually means success for Wisconsin in its series against Northwestern. Since 2001-02, the Badgers are 14-0 against the Wildcats when they score 70. Conversely, the Wildcats have reached 70 points just once in its last 47 meetings with Wisconsin (UW's win at NU in 2022).

_________________________________________________

*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, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook