LOS ANGELES – Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard was encouraged when the turmoil and upheaval of the transfer portal process finally settled, allowing him to step back and analyze what was lost and what was added.

The Badgers had lost three starters and depth on their roster, but the summer workouts and seeing multiple players make significant jumps in their own games told him that his roster was going to be OK.

“I started to see things come together,” Gard said. “We were very intentional with how we put this team together in today’s era … We were very selective to have depth at every spot.”

Saturday afternoon’s 84-69 victory over USC further supported that initial thought. Carried by John Tonje throughout good portions of the season’s first half, No.24 Wisconsin won a Big Ten game on the road by double digits on a night where their leading scorer didn’t score and attempted only three shots.

“That tells me the depth, the versatility of this group, and how it continues to grow and find different guys,” Gard said. “We score 84 points and John doesn’t score. There’s been so many nights he’s carried us. He’s helped us. I think that’s what makes this team really, really good is we have a lot of pieces and a lot of weapons.”

Putting four players in double figures, averaging 1.254 points per possession, and answering USC’s second-half surge, Wisconsin showed it doesn’t need to depend on only one or two players.

Here are my takeaways from the Galen Center.

UW’s first three offensive possessions were a mess. Disconnected passing, sluggish movement, and three consecutive turnovers. Call it a little California hangover, because Wisconsin started humming soon after.

The Badgers found a rhythm on possession four with Max Klesmit’s jumper, starting a run of UW making nine of 13 shots to build a 15-point lead. Its offense was again sparked by John Blackwell, who is quickly becoming one of the conference’s best guards. The sophomore got physical on drives, finished at the rim, and was dialed in from beyond the perimeter.

UW’s point guard had eight points in the game’s first five minutes, a flashback to Tuesday’s 70-68 win over Ohio State when his ability to attack and spot up gave UW its first nine points.

“It’s just showing how good of a player he is and how good his mind is,” senior Kamari McGee said. “His basketball IQ is very high for how young he is being a sophomore. We trust him in those moments.”

After scoring 99 points and averaging 1.456 points per possession against Iowa, USC found scoring harder to come by against Wisconsin.

The Trojans couldn’t score on more than two consecutive possessions in the first half and appeared easily bothered by UW’s length and physical style. The cold start led to a handful of rushed perimeter shots that barely drew iron, missing point-blank looks at the rim (2-for-5) on layups, and settling for mid-range shots.

Assisting on 59.7 percent of its shots on the season, USC managed only four assists with UW cutting down passing lanes.

“We knew that we were going to have to be a more physical team coming in here, especially on the road,” McGee said. “That was key for us to have the most physicality, being the aggressors early on just so we could set a tone right away, so we weren’t playing from behind.”

With a 15-point halftime lead and dominating in all areas, Gard said Wisconsin spent halftime talking about not falling into the same trap the Badgers did earlier in the week. UW led Ohio State by 17 before the Buckeyes cut the lead to four by the 10-minute mark. The Badgers never trailed but the game never felt comfortable until the Buckeyes turned the ball over on the final possession with a chance to win.

UW didn’t want to allow USC to “thrust back” into the game, according to Gard, but the Badgers did just that by lacking ball pressure in the opening minutes. The only difference this time is UW caught itself defensively and regained composure offensively.

“The moxie of the group, they didn’t panic,” Gard said. “We had different guys step up and do some things.”

Those guys Gard alluded to include five-men Steven Crowl and Nolan Winter. Crowl was limited by foul trouble but finished with nine points, three rebounds, an assist, and a block, while Winter had 13 points (6-for-7), five rebounds, three assists, one steal, and no turnovers.

The Badgers had no big surge to throw at Ohio State to extend the lead back, but Klesmit extended the lead back out when he found a gap in the defense and drove for an uncontested layup, making it 57-52.

Blackwell doubled the run with his drive to the bucket, and Klesmit drilled a jumper off a steal from Blackwell. With the momentum back on its bench, the Badgers delivered a 15-5 run, giving them a 70-57 lead with 6:13 remaining.

“It’s a great challenge to come back out here and see what we can do,” Klesmit said. “Teams are going to put the ball in the hoop, especially in the game today. People play at a fast pace and shoot a lot of threes. Our guys not fracturing and coming together in every huddle shows the maturity, shows the resiliency of the group that we’ve got.”

Finishing with a game-high 28 points, Blackwell contributed only four points on the run but his maturity to not force things and stay levelheaded was evident.

“It’s part of basketball,” Blackwell said. “Teams are going to make runs and we’re going to make runs. We did a great job of weathering this storm when they came and made the run and (we) finished up the game right. It shows the maturity we got from the last game for today.”

The big issue for Wisconsin in both games was pressuring guards on the ball. Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton had two points on 1-for-3 shooting but had 19 points in the second half, going 5-for-7 from two and 6-for-6 from the line by attacking.

Wisconsin held leading scorer Desmond Claude scoreless in the first half, doing a solid job rotating pressure on and getting help from Crowl and Winter to keep him and ball screens out of the paint. He scored five points on the first two possessions of the second half when he took advantage of Wisconsin’s lackluster ball pressure to score at the rim.

As the half wore on, UW started to plug gaps around him better and limited him to nine points (3-for-7) and five turnovers, breaking a streak of 10 consecutive games in double figures.

“We didn’t have the same fight to us at the start of the second half that we did in the first 20 minutes,” Gard said. “They recognize that, and we got that back in the back half of the game. There's always things to get better at.”

Klesmit will be the first to admit his final college season hasn’t been an easy one. Limited in the offseason due to a lower leg injury, Klesmit scored in double figures four times in Wisconsin’s first five games and then hit that mark three times in the last 11. He missed a start because of an ankle injury and his shooting percentage from the floor and three-point range is a career worst.

His value to his teammates, however, can be summed up in one word by Blackwell: Leadership.

“He knows the game well,” Blackwell said. “He never gets too high or never get too low. He keeps us calm. He’s our leader. He’s our guy. He’s always talking on the floor and motivating. He doesn’t have a lot of physical tools that jump out the gym, but he has that dog in him.”

The dog came out when Wisconsin needed him in the second half. After a nondescript first half, Klesmit was 5-for-8 from the floor in the second half to finish with 18 points. It’s his first scoring output of the conference season and the most points he’s scored since December 7. He did most of his damage without his three-point shot, which is still struggling at 2-for-9, by attacking the rim and finishing in the paint.

His 5-for-5 shooting percentage from two was his best of the season (minimum three attempts).

“It feels good to see the ball go through the hoop, but it’s a credit to these guys,“ Klesmit said. “All 16 dudes in the locker room pumping me up, keeping me level-headed each and every day. I think the good thing is how we compete against each other and how we get the best out of each other in practice. Got a great sense of humor and great camaraderie off the court.”

That layup to make it 57-52 sparked Klesmit along with the rest of the roster. From that point forward, Klesmit was 4-for-6 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the line, scoring more points in that 10:31 than he’s scored in the last four games.

“He’s a competitor,” Gard said of Klesmit. “He’s a battler. We’ve always had guys like that in our program over the course of the 25 years I’ve been there who have some toughness to them, some grit, and help you win games in more ways than individual scoring.”

1 – Wisconsin beat USC in Los Angeles for the first time in school history. The Badgers lost to the Trojans in 1948 and 1982.

5 – Wisconsin’s string of shooting more free throws than its opponents ended at five, as the Trojans attempted 17 to UW’s 15. The Badgers still made more, an advantage of 13-11.

16 – Wisconsin forced 16 turnovers, the most since the Badgers forced 18 against Appalachian State. The Badgers scored 22 points off the turnovers.

16.7 – With his 28 points against the Trojans, Blackwell is averaging 16.7 points in his seven road/neutral site games this season, the best mark on the team.

54.0 – Going 3-for-5 from the floor, McGee is shooting 54.0 percent (47-for-87) this season. He’s even better from the perimeter at 56.0 percent overall and 64.7 percent in conference play.

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