MADISON, Wis. – As he poured over his team’s offensive numbers, Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg felt the Huskers did enough to win, or at the minimum give them a chance to be competitive. Wisconsin’s offense turned that notion into a moot point on an afternoon where the Badgers got pretty much whatever they wanted from wherever they wanted it.

Leading by as many as 21 points, No.21 Wisconsin never felt threatened after the opening half because of an offense that showed superior ball movement, range, and efficiency in an 88-72 victory at the Kohl Center.

The margin of victory is the largest for Wisconsin (11-3, 3-0 Big Ten) since Feb. 21, 2021, and continues a stretch of offensive basketball where the Badgers have scored at least 80 points in three straight games for the first time since December 2017.

Here are my takeaways from the Kohl Center.

Putting up offensive numbers not usually produced by the Wisconsin program, it only seemed natural the familiarity of Big Ten opponents and the grind of the conference schedule would start to slow UW’s efficiency down.

It still may, considering we’re in the infancy of the Big Ten slate, but Saturday’s performance gave no credence to the notion that UW may slow down any time soon. On pace for its highest scoring average since 1993-94, Wisconsin put up its most Big Ten points since Jan.12, 2017, a span of 157 conference games.

Wisconsin had five players score in double figures for the second time this season (led by Tyler Wahl's 17 points) and got scoring from six other rotation players on an afternoon where it shot 55.0 percent from the floor (33 of 60). Without that depth and balance last season, Wisconsin shot 41.4 percent from the field and averaged 65.3 points per game. Fast forward a year, the Badgers percentages have jumped to 46.9 percent shooting and 75.8 per game scoring.

“This is a team that when they are hitting their shots, they are one of the top teams in the country,” Hoiberg said. “They stepped up with a lot of confidence and knocked down their shots.”

Everything clicked for Wisconsin in the opening half, an offensive clinic that saw the Badgers average 1.5 points on 1.5 points on their 34 possessions, shooting 54.9 percent from the floor, and get at least eight points from four players.

Nine of the 10 players who played in that half scored for the Badgers, with several of them impacting the offense around the second media timeout.

Holding a 14-12 lead, guard John Blackwell (10 points) delivered a layup through contact for a three-point play off a feed from Steven Crowl (9 points). One possession later, sparked by an A.J. Storr (10 points) steal, Storr found Connor Essegian (12 points) open, resulting in a catch-and-shoot three-pointer.

The next trip down the floor, Storr stopped and popped a mid-range jumper to push the run to 8-0 in just 68 seconds, forcing Hoiberg to burn a timeout instead of waiting for a stopping in play.

The run eventually ballooned to 13-3 as Essegian hit another three-pointer and Kamari McGee notched a layup off a hesitation dribble. UW tallied 36 bench points thanks to Essegian, McGee, Blackwell, and others, the most in a Big Ten game since March 7, 2021.

“It’s not really stressing about the next group coming in or who is in there,” Wahl said. “When we get a group of five out there, they’re putting in their best effort and trying to stick to what we do.”

Nebraska forced 15 steals in its win over Indiana but managed only four against Wisconsin. Wisconsin assisted on 18 of its 33 buckets, a season-high that resulted in UW going 20-for-24 from two-point range, scoring 36 points in the paint, 13-for-26 from three-point range, and 9-for-13 from the foul line.

The multitude of options has allowed Wisconsin to fight off the scoring droughts that plagued the Badgers constantly last season. A year after routinely having droughts lasting over four minutes, UW’s longest drought on Saturday was 3:14 in the second half, and suffered only three droughts of over two.

UW hasn’t had a scoring drought of over four minutes since the SMU game, a reason why UW – which played in 21 games decided by six points or less last season – hasn’t played in a game closer than eight all season.

“Everybody talks about the transfer portal and NIL, they promote individualism,” head coach Greg Gard said. “You have to counter that. That’s part of it (with) the world we’re in. But from a coaching staff standpoint and how you want your culture to be, it’s still about the team has to accomplish big things. When those big things happen, individuals get rewarded as a byproduct of a team being really good.”

KenPom ranked Nebraska's adjusted defensive efficiency at 69th in the country, but the Huskers ranked eighth in forcing teams into a 43.8 percent effective field goal percentage. So, naturally, the Huskers were the perfect opponent for the Badgers to bust their three-point slump against.

Entering the afternoon 235th nationally in three-point shooting at 32.4 percent, Wisconsin hit a season-high 13 three-pointers on 26 attempts. The Badgers hit seven three-pointers in the first half, more than they’ve hit in nine full games, and hit the most perimeter shots in a game since making 13 in the opening round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

What’s more impressive about the perimeter barrage is that only two of the makes came from UW’s two best three-point shooters: Crowl (68.8 percent) and Blackwell (46.2).

Chucky Hepburn (13 points) entered the game shooting 25.6 percent from the perimeter, having not made multiple three-pointers in a game since November 22 and only three in 16 attempts over the previous six games. He hit three against the Huskers, including two in the first 12 minutes.

“It gives me more confidence and makes us even harder to guard because when I’m hitting threes, when Conor is hitting threes, multiple of us are hitting threes, it makes us hard to guard,” Hepburn said. “You have to extend. We got enough players to get to the rim, so it just opens things up.”

Essegian had gone just 6 of 24 from the perimeter in his uneven season but the sophomore set season highs in makes (four) and attempts (seven) from three-point range in just over 12 minutes on the court.

UW even got three-point shots from McGee (1 of 4 entering the game) and Wahl (0 of 4), as eight different players hit a perimeter shot.

“When they are hitting their (three-point) shots, they are one of the top teams in the country,” Hoiberg said.

It’s been one of the few areas of Wisconsin’s offense that hasn’t been in sync. If Wisconsin can ignite Hepburn and Essegian, two of its top three three-point shooters from last season, the Badgers’ offense becomes even more complex and dynamic.

Of course, UW hasn’t needed it like last year. After getting 36.3 percent of its offense from the three-point shot last season, UW is at 24.4 percent this season (312th in the country) but has the 10th most efficient offense, according to KenPom.

“I don’t want to be dependent on it, that you have to have threes,” Gard said. “That’s why you play in the paint … I don’t want to be one-dimensional offensively. We make threes? Great. If we aren’t or if teams are able to take it away somehow, got to find other ways and that’s the paint, the foul line, offensive rebounding, those things.”

Playing his first season of college basketball, going through the Big Ten grinder, and being elevated into the starting lineup put a lot on Essegian’s plate last season. It says something when the sophomore admits that this year has been more mentally taxing on him.

From the back injury suffered in the opener to the ongoing offensive slump and defensive shortcomings that have been exposed, the first two months of Essegian’s season have been frustrating.

Maybe that’s why he showed so much emotion on the court Saturday. Playing the most minutes against a major conference opponent since November, Essegian scored more points than his previous six games combined and drew a pair of offensive fouls to boot.

“You never know when your last game, last minute will be,” said Essegian, who came in averaging 2.5 points in 7.5 minutes. “To be able to go out there and play hard, make winning plays on both ends of the floor is something I’ve been working on a lot recently. It translates from practice, too, so to have it going on both ends is great.”

Gard has been adamant that Essegian needs to practice better defensively to earn minutes but that he’s practiced better and absorbed coaching. It’s helped Essegian that Gard has worked him on both the regular team and the scout team, estimating the sophomore is running between three and five miles a practice.

“Everybody loves the ball to go in but I told him I don’t care about that,” Gard said. “I want you to compete, defend, scrap, get a little scratched up, get a little dirty and shots will go in. He knows he can help this team, but he also knows it’s more than just shooting that he has to do.”

There’s still a lot of growth Essegian to make defensively, something he acknowledged, and Gard saying the change won’t happen overnight with where he needs to be and can be. There’s also no denying that his shot – when it’s on point – can provide a major lift over the next several weeks.

“When Connor comes off the bench and gives an extra spark like that, we all get excited. We all want to see him succeed. When he takes shots like that, it gives us momentum, gives the crowd momentum because the crowd loves it when he gets into it. When he’s in the game, we know he’s going to knock it down. We believe in him.”

“I feel like (the adversity) has made me a better basketball player to this point, even a better person, as well,” Essegian added. “The challenges that have come my way, I’ll take the next one on too.”

80 - Wisconsin has scored 80 points for the third straight game and the fourth time this season. The last time UW scored 80+ in three straight was a stretch of four consecutive from Dec.13 to Dec.30, 2017, against Western Kentucky, Green Bay, Chicago State, and UMass Lowell. UW went 7-11 after that stretch and missed the NCAA Tournament.

51 - Wisconsin scored 51 first-half points, the team's highest total in a Big Ten game since at least the 1998-99 season.

102 - Including the 51 second-half points Wisconsin scored against Iowa, the Badgers tallied 102 points over a 40-minutes span of Big Ten basketball.

96 - Gard won his 96th Big Ten game Saturday, equalling Ohio State's Eldon Miller (1977-86) for 25th place on the Big Ten's all-time conference winning list.

6 - Wisconsin shot better than 50 percent from the field for the sixth time this season. The 55.0 percent was UW's best mark in a conference game since shooting 60.4 percent in a win over Indiana on Feb.3, 2015.

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