Takeaways from No.23 Wisconsin's 74-69 Win At No.3 Purdue

The world is running out of adjectives to use to describe Johnny Davis.

The sophomore and steady offensive cog in Wisconsin’s attack has delivered many memorable performances for the Badgers this season, but none could be described as more special or timely than what the All-American candidate did in Mackey Arena on Monday night.

Against No.3 Purdue, a nemesis of the Wisconsin program for the last two decades because of their frontcourt size and style, Davis delivered a career-high 37 points in a 74-69 upset by No.23 Wisconsin in a hostile, sold-out arena.

“This was one of the better games that I’ve played,” Davis said. “I would say for our team, as well. I hit some shots, but I didn’t do it all myself.”

Davis scored 27 of his points after halftime when Purdue (12-2, 1-2 Big Ten) made its charge to create a back-and-forth affair with five lead changes and four ties in the final 10 minutes. He made Wisconsin’s last three field goals in the final two minutes – a 3-pointer and deep two-pointer on consecutive possession to put Wisconsin (11-2, 2-1) up seven with just over a minute to play and delivered a statement dunk with six seconds left to seal it.

And if his scoring wasn’t enough, Davis finished with a career-high 14 rebounds for his second straight double-double, three assists, two blocks, and two steals against only three turnovers in 38 impactful minutes.

“He’s got a special talent,” head coach Greg Gard said. “he’s able to use that. Fortunately, he’s got very unselfish teammates that help him. When things aren’t going well, (they) put him in good positions. When things are going well, he’s always the first one to give his teammates the credit.”

In addition to Davis, here are my takeaways from the upset victory in West Lafayette, Ind.

There are a lot of impressive stats and notes to come out of Davis’s performance, but how about this one? In leading the team in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocks, and steals, Davis is the first player to lead his team in those categories in a road win over an AP Top 5 team since Wake Forest's Tim Duncan did it at No.5 Maryland in 1997.

It felt like Davis scored in every possible way for Wisconsin. He delivered on catch-and-shoot opportunities, like when Brad Davison flung a pass in his direction to the top of the key from the corner and Davis knocked down for a timely 3-pointer with 1:53 remaining. His work off the ball screen and creating extra separation with the step-back jumper was deadly in the second half.

He was 11-for-19 on 2-point shots, including 5-for-6 on layups and dunks by going at Purdue 7-4 center Zach Edey.

“Being that big has some disadvantages,” Davis said. “His feet are a little slow. I thought we moved the ball around really well, too.”

Attacking in traffic is what Gard credits to Davis’s improvement this season– perhaps the one thing that stands out among all the other things that have taken off in the guard’s game.

“He’s bigger, stronger, faster,” Gard said of Davis. “I think he can continue to get stronger. If you look back, even watching film from last year, he has more explosiveness. Compare him to a running back getting through the hole, the pop he has off the floor, a lot of that is him improving himself physically.”

Having scored at least 20 points in five straight games and eight of nine, showing confidence that he can do whatever he wants with the basketball, Davis should be in the conversation for All-American after 13 games.

In the lone meeting between the two programs last year, Purdue’s youngsters outplayed the oldest team in the Big Ten in crunch time, scoring 21 points on its final 13 possessions to win by four. Purdue had those same beastly forwards and centers, but the new wave of Wisconsin’s frontcourt personnel answered the challenge.

Purdue did win the rebounding battle, 40-34, but the Badgers matched them with 28 points in the paint. This was virtually the same group – Steven Crowl, Tyler Wahl, and Chris Vogt - that was outrebounded by 21 at Ohio State less than a month ago.

“It’s not easy guarding a guy who has a four-inch advantage over you (Edey), but I thought (the frontcourt) did really good,” Davis said. “They played physical, which is how we need them to start playing, and I’m proud of them.”

For comparison, going against Micah Potter and Nate Reuvers in the low post last year, Purdue dominated scoring in the paint (36-20) and on the glass (37-27). Edey scored a career-high 21 points and had seven rebounds last season, while 6-10 forward Trevion Williams matched Edey’s rebounding total with seven points of his own.

Edey set a new career-high with 25 points but a bulk of that work came after Vogt fouled out with 8:39 to go. Edey scored eight in the next five minutes without Vogt guarding him and six more in the final 52 seconds.

Vogt played just 13 minutes and scored six points, but the Badgers outscored Purdue by 15 when he was on the court with his pesky defense and keeping possessions alive. Vogt had three of UW’s nine offensive rebounds that led to 12 second-chance points, also matching Purdue's total.

“(Vogt’s offensive rebounds) kept the game tight when we needed to keep it within a one or two-possession game,” Gard said.

Crowl is coming off a career-high 21 points against Illinois State, but the sophomore forward has struggled in games when he’s not the biggest body/most physical forward on the floor. In games against Power-Five schools and the Big East this season, Crowl is 17-for-50 (34 percent) and averaging 6.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.

However, primarily guarding Williams, Crowl did some nice things defensively to help hold him to nine points on 3-for-8 shooting and only five rebounds in 20 minutes. Playing with two fouls, Crowl even stood in and took an elbow near the face from Edey for an offensive foul.

“It was a battle,” Gard said. “A lot of it was very physical. We were able to mix and match for the most part of how we wanted. We didn’t want to foul that much, but Edey and Williams do such a good job and they spread you out. It’s not a team you can send a double team at because of their ability to shoot the three because of how they space you and spread you out prior to the entry.

“Guys competed, and that’s one thing we talked about coming in here. Let’s compete and see what happens.”

Purdue came in shooting 51.6 percent from the field but the Badgers held them to 41.4 percent, as the UW forwards and centers kept the forwards out of rhythm.

Gard alluded to the fouls in the answer above, which forced him to get creative throughout the game and managed the game masterfully between Vogt, Crowl, and Wahl. Vogt had three fouls in the first half but Crowl and Wahl each had two. All three players did not sit after picking up their second foul, usually an automatic at Wisconsin. Part of the problem was a lack of depth, as forward Ben Carlson had not practiced in 10 days and was only going to be available sparingly.

Wahl picked up his third foul just over a minute into the second half but stayed in the game for another two minutes for defense and gave up nothing at the rim. After returning at 14:14 and getting his fourth on an offensive foul at 13:15, Wahl played until being subbed out at the media timeout and was inserted back from 3:15 until his fifth foul at 2:11.

Crowl was subbed out after picking up his fourth at 13:58 and was put back in at 8:17 for roughly two minutes and then again at 3:44 until fouling out in the final minute. In total, Wisconsin had 22 fouls but only saw Purdue go 15-for-24 from the line.

With all those musical chairs, Gard leaned on Carter Gilmore at the five, Lorne Bowman, and Carlson for short bursts to stem the tide and try to maximize possessions, inbound the ball, and get to the free-throw line late in the game. It even got to the point where he admitted to diagraming things during the timeouts for players playing unfamiliar positions.

The result? The Badgers won their ninth win over a top-10 team under Gard, four of which have come on the road.

Cutting a seven-point lead down to three, Purdue called timeout to draw a play with Isaiah Thompson handling the ball near midcourt. Thompson had only 10 turnovers in the last 29 games, but he hadn’t played against Chucky Hepburn. The UW freshman picked his pocket, beat him to the ball on the floor and flipped the pass to Davis, who was running by and toward the hoop for a one-handed dunk just before halftime.

Hepburn was only 2-for-7 from the floor, but he had three assists to one turnover (twice finding Brad Davison for 3-pointers in the second half) in 33 minutes. That pales in comparison to that steal – his only one – that created a lift in the halftime locker room.

“It was absolutely huge,” Davis said of the steal. “Him being a freshman, coming in here, plays like that, that’s one of those key moments that help us win games like this.”

Purdue is one of three teams (Kansas, Houston) to average at least one point per possession in every game played this season. Thanks in part to Hepburn, Wisconsin held Purdue to just .828 on 29 possessions in the first half. The Boilers barely finished over 1.0, finishing at 1.045 on their 66 possessions, still impressive considering Purdue was rated No.1 in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency entering the night.

Purdue came into the season with high expectations, picked by many college basketball analysts as the team to beat in the Big Ten. Minus a strange loss at Rutgers, the Boilermakers have delivered on that promise and even reached a No.1 ranking in the AP poll for the first time in school history.

Even with the impressive resume the Badgers have built with six wins over KenPom's top-100 teams, Wisconsin – picked 10th – is missing that experience that only comes from playing games. While it’s obvious this team is still going to have peaks and valleys from game to game (or within the game), the Badgers need to be taken seriously.

Consider how many really good Wisconsin teams have one on the chin at Mackey Arena. Since 2001, Wisconsin teams that won a Big Ten title or went to a Final Four are 1-4 at Purdue. Now, after once being 4-42 all-time in the arena, the Badgers have a two-game winning streak in West Lafayette with a tournament win over North Carolina and a victory over the third-ranked team in the country.

“We can be in the conversation for Big Ten champions,” Davis said. “Everybody on the team, at some point, everybody is going to need to step up. I thought the people who played tonight did a really good job. They didn’t come in playing scared at all.”

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