Takeaways from No.6 Wisconsin's 75-69 Loss to No.2 Purdue

MADISON, Wis. – University of Wisconsin graduate forward Tyler Wahl and head coach Greg Gard believe the Badgers are on the cusp of something special, needing to sharpen only a couple of things to be in the conversation of being one of the best teams in the nation.

The problem was the Badgers faced one of the nation’s best teams and those areas in which UW is lacking cost them a chance to control its path to a Big Ten title.

No.6 Wisconsin saw its offense fall into a similar trap of attempting tough shots instead of quality shots, one of the downfalls of the Badgers’ 75-69 defeat to No.2 Purdue at the Kohl Center.

From leading the Big Ten to falling 1.5 games behind the Boilermakers in four days, Wisconsin (16-6, 8-3 Big Ten) was good defensively against a loaded offense and limited turnovers but made it hard for themselves to put the ball into their own basket.

“When you’re playing at this level, you’ve got to check every box, not three of five or five of seven,” Gard said. “You have to be elite in a lot of areas, and we weren’t enough.”

Here are my takeaways from the Kohl Center.

Purdue head coach Matt Painter laid out his team’s defensive game plan in his opening statement. He didn’t want UW’s Steven Crowl to back down players in the low post with his dribble, wanted to limit UW’s three-point attempts, load up on A.J. Storr when the sophomore was at the top of the key or on the wing, make sure Max Klesmit didn’t catch fire in the second half, and not be susceptible to Indiana native Connor Essegian’s ability to catch and shoot.

Check. Check. Check. Check, and Check.

Other than struggling to contain Tyler Wahl’s ability to score, Purdue met its goals of making life challenging for some of Wisconsin’s core pieces.

Crowl attempted only two first-half shots (six overall) as he faced consistent double teams. Storr finished with 14 points but needed 15 shots to get there and missed all four of his perimeter shots, as he was chased by senior guard Lance Jones (20 points). Klesmit was a perfect 4-for-4 in the first half but missed all three second-half shots and the front end of the bonus. Essegian was 3-for-3 on shots inside the arc but 0-for-4 beyond the arc, which ended up being a team-wide problem shooting a season-worst 3-for-19 overall (15.8 percent).

More frustrating than the three-point shots was the fact that Wisconsin got suckered into the mid-range jump shots for the second straight game. UW took too many of them (making them early and missing a lot of them late) in blowing a 17-point lead in Thursday’s overtime road loss at Nebraska and forced them again Sunday.

UW scored 44 points in the paint (most in a Big Ten game thus far and third most on the season), but only attempted 14 free throws, a sign that they were too inconsistent in attacking the low post.

“It’s great when they are going in, but it’s Fool’s gold,” Gard said of the mid-range shots. “It’s not going to last and it’s not going to work over the long haul against really good teams.”

Gard was adamant that the Badgers must do a better job of not just settling for pull-up jumpers but resisting the temptation to shoot three-pointers early in the shot clock. UW had a handful of those and didn’t hit any of them in the second half, going 0-for-11 from the perimeter.

“We got to get better at some of the simple things of efficiency offensively,” Gard said. “Decision making, shot selection, those things that can take us to another level.”

“There’s a difference between playing basketball and playing winning basketball,” he added later. “We got to continue to grow in those areas and help guys understand. Against the best of the best, you got to be disciplined in those areas and make sure as many possessions as possible are high quality.”

Gard believed his players mostly followed the defensive game plan, making Purdue All-American center Zach Edey work and running the Boilermakers – a team that shoots 40.4 percent from three – off the line. Purdue is the nation’s most efficient offense and the Badgers – despite letting the Boilermakers guards get down the lane to the rim too often – held them to 1.17 points per possession.

But keeping Purdue and the 7-foot-4 center off the glass is hard to do, and it ended up being a costly factor down the stretch.

A year after finishing +14 on the glass in a two-point win in Madison, Purdue finished +13 in rebounds (42-29) and turned 14 offensive rebounds into 21 second-chance points.

“That ended up to a lot of points, fouls, a whole lot of bad things,” Wahl said. “We didn’t match the physicality or check them as much as we needed to today.”

Thirteen second-chance points came in the second half, including buckets on consecutive possessions that proved damaging to UW’s comeback efforts. Cutting the Purdue lead to two with 4:46 remaining, Edey missed the front end of the bonus, but a rebound by forward Mason Gillis led to a driving layup by Lance Jones during a jumbled possession.

After Klesmit missed the front end of a bonus free throw on the next possession, Purdue regained possession after Gillis’ missed three, leading to Edey backing down Crowl and delivering a right-handed hook shot in the paint. That made the lead six with 3:40 to go, and UW never got the deficit back to one possession.

“He’s such a load to keep off (the glass),” Painter said of Edey. “What we have found over the years when you go down there and help, it opens up other guys to get in there and get some long rebounds to keep the basketball alive. He’s the best I’ve been around at tapping the ball back. You always think it’s over the back and you go back and watch, he’s just seven inches taller than the guy. His effort is amazing for someone carrying around that kind of cargo.”

The challenge most teams face with Purdue is how to guard Edey – the reigning national player of the year who averages 23.4 points and 11.6 rebounds per game. Guard him one-on-one and he’ll dominate most defenders. Double him and get exposed by Purdue’s three starting guards shooting a combined 40 percent from three.

UW decided on the latter and the plan was mostly successful sending post traps and quickly getting out of them after he passed and saw multiple players do well in isolation coverage.

Edey attempted zero shots through nine possessions and didn’t attempt his first field goal until his paint bucket with 4:54 remaining. Crowl was the primary defender, but freshman Nolan Winter earned high marks by drawing an offensive foul with aggressive defense and registering a steal against him when Edey tried to bully him in the post.

Edey finished with 18 points on 13 shots, but it was his six offensive rebounds (1.8 more than his average) that were possession killers.

“They are really complete,” Gard said. “They have a lot of pieces. We have a lot of pieces, but the difference maker is obviously Zach. You can’t replicate or simulate that. When they need a bucket, he hits a jump hook. When they need a bucket, he gets an offensive rebound.”

Wahl was called “a winning basketball player” by Painter, a nod more so to what Wahl has done to better his game than the fact he’s been a part of 100 wins.

The graduate forward was efficient in both halves for Wisconsin and responsible for a large portion of its offense. Wahl had 12 of UW’s 37 points in the second half and his 10 field goals (a career-high) were only two fewer than the other four starters.

Healthier now than last year’s Big Ten slate, Wahl’s development has given Wisconsin the ability to do more actions with him. He’s done more drives with the ball in his hands at the top of the key and more actions off dribble handoffs and ball screens, putting him in a position where he’s running at the rim instead of backing down defenders.

But he’s still really good around the rim, which he showed a handful of times when he used his footwork to get one or two steps ahead of Edey and convert underneath the basket.

Of UW’s 44 points, 18 came from Wahl on shots classified as layups.

“His offense was better than our defense on some of those plays,” Painter said of Wahl. “He does a good job working the baseline and getting those angles … He’s so good at looking like he’s stuck and he’s not because he’s got such a good step through and a shot fake.”

7 – Fouls drawn by Edey, the same number he drew against the Badgers last season in Madison but seven fewer than he drew Wednesday against Northwestern.

1-6 – Chucky Hepburn’s only basket came with 28.8 seconds left. The junior had made one basket or fewer in five of the last seven games and has seen his season shooting percentage drop to 37.3.

5 – UW tied its season low with five turnovers after committing a season-high 16 at Nebraska. Purdue scored only five points off Badgers turnovers.

5 – Of Wisconsin’s six losses this season, five have come in Quadrant-1. The Badgers are 6-5 in Quad-1 games and 10-1 in games outside Quad-1.

2-3 - Wisconsin's record against AP Top-25 opponents this season, including a 1-2 mark against teams in the top three.

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