In winning one of the most prestigious nonconference tournaments in the country, the University of Wisconsin survived by playing its brand of basketball. It didn’t have to be pretty, but it was a 61-55 victory over St. Mary’s in the Maui Invitational finals that relied on the pillars of the program – defense, rebound, ball security, and free throws.

“I started to see some of that (grit and resilience) last spring in the weight room with how they attacked that and the mission they were on,” head coach Greg Gard said. “I saw a lot of that this summer. I thought we had a lot of good pieces. How was it all going to come together? Obviously, we’re nowhere near the end of that story, but the one thing that has helped is their resiliency, their toughness, and their togetherness, knowing that we’re going to make some mistakes but, man, they are going to play hard.”

Wisconsin wasn’t efficient by any means, but the Badgers’ reliance on their program’s core principles has suddenly put the spotlight back on the program. Picked to finish 10th in the Big Ten at the onset of the season, the Badgers beat three quality opponents in three days to show they have the potential to make some noise in the months to come.

Here are my five takeaways from the Maui Finals in Las Vegas.

This will be a theme this year for Wisconsin, which won’t be the most talented team on the floor very often but won't be outworked by many. The Badgers found a way to win three games in three days when adversity struck – down 16 early in the first half against Texas A&M, nearly losing a 20-point lead against Houston and Wednesday when their offensive struggles forced them to fight uphill for most of the game. The Badgers only led for 5 minutes, 30 seconds of game time, a number that includes the final 5:12.

The 10-point second-half deficit was the largest by the program since coming back from 12 down against N.C. State in 2018. It’s the first double-digit comeback away from home since the 2015 Big Ten tournament championship game against Michigan State.

“it’s just the fight we have,” forward Tyler Wahl said. “We compete. When we get down, that’s something we can hang our hat on, and that showed the last three days, whether it’s Texas A&M or Houston when they were coming back or today.”

For all the talk this season about how young the Badgers are, Wisconsin has basically put that conversation on the backburner, or as he put it, they are no longer the young kids on the block.

It was evident by St. Mary’s defense that the Gaels weren’t going to let Johnny Davis or Brad Davison get much room to shoot, forcing one of the other players on the floor to be the ones to hit shots. Wahl answered that call.

He scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half, registering four paint buckets and going 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. His clutch jumper with 51 seconds left was the dagger, putting a little post shimmy on defender Dan Fotu to put the Badgers up six points.

“The first couple of games, I didn’t need to score a whole lot,” Wahl said. “We were able to get the wins and guys being confident scoring their buckets. This tournament, when we needed a little spark, I was able to provide that and be a leader that I was trying to be.”

As important as his offense was, Wahl was critical to Wisconsin’s defensive effort in the second half to set up the comeback. Fotu – the Gals leading scorer - had 11 points but only two in the second half and didn’t make a field goal. He tried shooting against Wahl with 30 seconds left, only to see the Wisconsin junior register his fourth block of the second half, secure the rebound and make two free throws after Fotu fouled him.

“Critical,” Davis said of Wahl’s play. “His defense in the low post was amazing. His ball-screen defense but his fadeaway with a minute left is what really sealed it for us.”

Wahl talked leading into the season about the urgency he felt to become a reliable leader for this team. He’s backed up those words with 33 points in the tournament, including 27 in the final three halves.

After a hot start, scoring UW’s first six points and nine of its first 11, Davis was collapsed on by St. Mary’s defense. The Gaels held Wisconsin’s leading scorer to only two shots over the final 12:59 of the first half and only three shots (all misses) in the first 12 minutes of the second half. Although he had more turnovers (three) than made baskets (one) over 25+ minutes of game time, Davis still was hunting and looking for an opening in crunch time. That mindset was a reason he was named tournament MVP.

Davis scored 11 of his game-high 20 points in the final 7:49, attacking off the dribble and finishing with his left hand, taking advantage of space to hit a 3-point shot to give the Badgers their first lead since the early first half, and facilitating the offense.

“He can do everything,” Wahl said of Davis. “He’s a competitor. He plays good defense. He’s an offensive weapon, and he just gets the job done.”

Playing three games in three days, Davis averaged 23.7 points and 6.7 rebounds per game and became the first Badger to score at least 20 points in three straight games since Ethan Happ in 2018. He is also the fourth Big Ten player to earn the MVP award of the tournament, joining Michigan’s Glen Rice (1988), Indiana’s Bracey Wright (2002), and Illinois’ Brandon Paul (2012).

“These three days were pretty exhausting,” Davis said. “It’s not every other week you play three games in a row.”

And yet, Davis made it look easy.

Lost in the excitement of Wisconsin’s victory Tuesday was the Badgers going 0-for-9 from 3-point range in the second half, something that certainly played a factor in nearly blowing a 20-point halftime lead. In the first half Wednesday, Wisconsin went 0-for-3 from the perimeter. Basically, as Gard put it, Wisconsin couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean standing on the boat deck. But the Badgers hung around because it stayed locked in on defense and rebounding.

“You can’t really control if the ball goes in or not, but you can control how hard you play (and) your effort on defense,” Davis said. “We used that and turned it into offense.”

The Badgers won the rebounding battle (34-33, 12-9 offensive), went 16-for-18 from the free-throw line compared to 9-for-12 from St. Mary’s, and made the adjustments defensively on the pick-and-roll. The Badgers were caught out of position in the first half and the Gaels took advantage, scoring 20 of their 31 first-half points in the lane on their way to shooting 52.0 percent.

Limiting those drives in the final 20 minutes, the Gaels could only score 24 points and just 14 came from the lane, finishing at 32.0 percent (8-25) shooting in the second half.

“We were trying to figure it out the entire first half,” Wahl said of the ball screens. “They were able to get it early. The guards did a good job when they got switched on to them, just digging in and competing. That’s the identity of this team, and we’re not going to give up.”

Wisconsin only got nine points from its bench, but the five points that Lorne Bowman delivered might have been the turning point offensively in the second half.

Going scoreless in the first half after attempting just two shots in five minutes, Bowman checked in at the 15:41 mark and immediately boosted the offense. He hit a 3-pointer on his first possession to make the deficit seven and converted a second-chance bucket two possessions later to cut the lead in half. Suddenly, Davison hit his first bucket – a 3-pointer – at 12:51 and Steven Crowl hit a turnaround jumper in the post a possession later for his only basket in the second half.

From the time Bowman entered, the Badgers went on a 10-2 run and started putting the pressure on the Gaels.

“That was huge,” Davis said of Bowman’s production. “When you’re on the bench, you never know when your number is going to get called. He came in, he was ready, prepared, and gave a big boost for us to eventually win the game.”

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