Takeaways from No.23 Wisconsin's 70-66 Win At Georgia Tech

One week later, the Maui Invitational earned the University of Wisconsin another victory.

At least, that’s the way senior Brad Davison saw it as he addressed the media following the Badgers’ 70-66 victory over Georgia Tech at the McCamish Pavilion.

Davison delivered 27 points to give the 23rd-ranked Badgers (6-1) their fourth straight victory and clinched the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge for their conference. It was a triumph filled with prolonged shooting droughts, defensive miscues that allowed open looks, and plenty of situations that could cause a young team to fold.

Not this team, according to Davison, especially with the way they’ve already been tested.

“We always try to stay positive and stick together,” he said. “At the end of the day, shots are going to be made, shots are going to missed, fouls are going to be called, fouls aren’t going to be called. The thing you can control is sticking together and realizing you can split it into four-minute games. We can always bounce back. If we take a punch, we’re more than capable of throwing punches of our own.”

Here are my five takeaways from Wisconsin’s first road game of the season.

There are few players who can fill a role better than Davison, who seemingly has no problem handing the reins of the offense to a teammate. That was partly his plan before the season with such a young team, let others find their shot and have them build their confidence.

But on a night where players not named him were 14-for-38 (36.8 percent) overall and 4-for-15 (26.7 percent) from 3-point range, the savvy senior did not sit idly by.

Davison’s 27 points were spread out fairly equally over both halves, scoring 13 in the first and 14 in the second. His shooting was on point over 37 minutes, and he filled the stat sheet in other ways, too, with three assists, two rebounds, and one turnover.

“I want to do everything I can to help my team win and at the end of the day, get the win,” Davison said. “Whether it’s scoring, defending, leading, whatever comes with it, I want to make sure I put my best foot forward.”

His scoring was gigantic during one second-half stretch that built in some separation. Leading by three points, Davison scored UW’s next nine, including a personal 7-0 run that was mostly him on both ends of the floor. He hit a fallaway jumper over guard Devion Smith to give him 20 points and drew an offensive foul on the other end on a screen.

Davison hit one of his five 3-pointers from the top of the key on the next possession when he gained some separation with Tech being late on a switch. When he hit a fallaway jumper from 18 feet with a defender in his face on the next possession, Tech had to burn a timeout to try and cool him down.

“As someone who puts a lot of time into their shot, I trust it,” Davison said. “When I see a couple go in, the hoop gets a little bigger and so you got to get more aggressive. Just trying to get to my spots. My teammates found me in some great spots. I was trying to hunt, be aggressive and take advantage of the opportunities that they were giving. It’s always fun to get hot in someone else’s arena.”

After only seven games, it’s become evident how fortunate the Badgers are that Davison decided to return for a fifth season.

“That’s what he can do,” head coach Greg Gard said. "We needed it. It gave us a huge boost there. I’m glad he’s on our team, I can tell you that.”

The first road game experience for a lot of the players was against a team that mixed defensive pressures (sometimes within one possession), so it’s understandable how the offense could be sporadic.

The Badgers went 7 minutes, 57 seconds between field goals in the first half and 5:41 between scoring a point. The good news is that the Yellow Jackets only turned a two-point deficit into a two-point lead over that stretch between Badgers field goals.

UW was able to bust Tech out of its zone in the second half by shooting 69.2 percent to begin the second.

“These are the games that get you prepared for March,” Davison said. “The ability to bounce back, the ability to be tough and resilient, but also your ability to find a way to win.”

Michael Devoe was fifth in the country in points per game and had scored 63 points over the 67 minutes he played the last two games. He showcased why he was on the ACC All-Tournament team last year and why he’s one of the best guards in the country, pouring in 33 points on 11-for-20 shooting.

While the Badgers had trouble with Devoe’s shiftiness and athleticism in creating his shot, they faired better by holding the rest of his supporting cast in single digits scoring.

Jordan Usher – GT’s second-leading scorer at 15.8 points – had five points and four fouls. Guard Kyle Sturdivant had 11 points in his previous game but was held scoreless and committed three of GT’s 10 turnovers. Forward Khalid Moore had eight points in the first half but picked up four fouls, making him a non-factor in the second half.

After coming off flu symptoms in his previous game, Devoe had to play all 40 minutes with his teammates struggling against the Wisconsin defense. That paid off down the stretch with him going without a field goal over the final 5:27.

“We’ve seen the Princeton (offense) a lot and always one of the goals was not to give up any backdoor (baskets),” Gard said. “I don’t think we did. I thought our guys did a good job of adhering to the rules and staying true to what we needed to do. We forced them to kind of break off and make plays on their own. All in all, pretty good defensively guarding the initial actions.”

Cincinnati transfer Chris Vogt has hurt himself a lot with foul trouble forcing him to the bench in games this season. That wasn’t a problem in the first half. The Badgers were +13 in scoring in Vogt’s 10 minutes in the first half. He didn’t score a bucket, but he registered six rebounds and an assist. A sign of his impact was Tech only had one of its five first-half offensive rebounds with him on the floor.

Freshman Chucky Hepburn didn’t score in the first half either (he only took one shot) but he scored seven with a 3-pointer and four free throws. His best stretch came between 5:08 and 4:19 remaining, drawing a foul that helped him make two foul shots and followed that with a block on the defensive end on Smith to preserve a two-point lead, maintaining a solid base with his hands extended.

“I thought he got better,” Gard said of Hepburn. “Davion Smith was giving us trouble. Chucky was playing a little too far back on some of those ball screens, and (Smith) got us in transition. I thought he got better down the stretch. Knocking down the free throws is huge for a freshman. Stepping up when the place is going bananas is always a good sign.”

Georgia Tech entered Friday ranked 18th nationally in three-point percentage (41.1). Over the last five games, the Yellow Jackets were even better at 44.4 percent (40-for-90). It looked dicey in the first half with Georgia Tech going 6-for-10 from beyond the arc to trail 32-31 at the break.

Without harping on it at halftime, the Badgers held the Yellow Jackets to no perimeter buckets on six attempts. This came even with Georgia Tech trailing for over 19 minutes in the second half.

“We just wanted to make it difficult for them,” Davison said. “In the first half, they got a couple offensive-rebound-kick-out threes and transition threes, which are no-nos. Things that we don’t want to give up.

Devoe leads the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (62.1 percent) and went 5-for-7 in the first half. Guard Johnny Davis, who was slightly off his game offensively (15 points, three after halftime), did his part to hold Devoe to only three attempts in the second half.

“Johnny did a great job in the second half, especially at the end of the game from locking up their guy (Devoe) with a couple big blocks at the rim," Davison said. "Trying to get (Devoe) off the 3-point line, because he had a couple step backs in the first half, and make him finish over bodies inside.”

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