MADISON, Wis. – It’s here.

After dispatching Western Illinois, 71-49, at the Kohl Center on Monday, the Badgers can finally turn their attention to a week of games that present great challenges and opportunities.

Having talked from the onset of putting the veteran roster to the test, head coach Greg Gard is seeing the Badgers (5-2) play seven of KenPom Top-100 opponents in its first 10 contests, with five coming away from home. Moreover, UW played three ranked teams all last season but the Badgers' next three opponents are all ranked, two in the top three starting with No.3 Marquette Saturday.

“We know we’ve got really good teams coming down the road here, starting with Saturday," Gard said. “But it’s still about making sure we’re trying to play the game as well as possible. I think the Florida trip was good for us (beating No.24 Virginia and SMU). I think we did some really good things there. And then you have to carry it over and grow it. That will continue to be the challenge going forward."

Here are my takeaways following Wisconsin’s fourth win in a row, the longest for the program since Jan.3.

The first two mid-major opponents on Wisconsin’s schedule this season were overwhelmed by the Badgers’ size in the paint. Western Illinois became the third.

All three of UW’s post players have moments of dominance. A.J. Storr scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half, including five on the first three possessions. Tyler Wahl added seven in the first half, as Wahl and Storr combined 18 points was one fewer than Western Illinois scored in the first half.

Steven Crowl was consistent in both halves with 13 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and two steals, all of which led the team or tied for the team lead.

“He’s a good weapon to play through,” Gard said of Crowl.

UW finished with 26 points in the paint and was plus-6 on the glass. Those numbers weren’t as staggering as the 56 points UW scored against Arkansas State on Nov.6 or the 42 points the Badgers scored on Nov.17 but playing through the post generated open looks and an efficient offense.

Although Gard said Western Illinois did a good job of switching and “gumming some things up,” UW shot over 50 percent and averaged over 1.3 points per possession in each half.

“When teams switch and jam things up, there’s no flow to the game, which I felt we never got into a consistent flow where we could get continuous rhythm offensively,” Gard said. “You got to find other ways to get things done, and we were able to find other ways to do that.”

Whether it was the one-sided score or Western Illinois’ desire to stage the upset, Wisconsin to start the second half looked nothing like the group that made 10 of its first 16 shots.

Wisconsin gave up two points off an offensive rebound to start the half, saw the Leathernecks hit 4 of 6 shots, and committed two turnovers in its first six possessions. A game that looked destined for a blowout was reduced to a 10-point margin with 15:36 left and eventually cut to eight with 13 minutes left.

Attacking the post early, Gard thought the Badgers got too impatient with their shot selections and started settling for perimeter shots, instead of getting the ball into the lane. UW attempted seven three-pointers in the first half and eight in the first 8:25 of the second half.

The Badgers were also sloppy defensively. Western Illinois attempted only six free throws in the first half but had eight in the first seven minutes of the second half. That doesn’t include freshman John Blackwell fouling James Dent Jr. (game-high 17 points) on a three-point make that yielded a four-point play as UW started to make its move.

“I just feel like we weren’t as aggressive on both sides of the ball,” Wahl said. "On defense, we were kind of letting them get to wherever they wanted. We hit a little – I don’t know what it was – but we finally got our rhythm back again at the 12-minute mark … In games, you are always going to have ebbs and flows. It took us a while in that second half.”

Wisconsin will host No.3 Marquette on Saturday, travel to No.25 Michigan State on Dec.5 for the Big Ten opener, and travel to Tucson to face No.2 Arizona on Dec.9. Suffering lulls like that against those teams will be much harder to recover from.

Veteran forward Carter Gilmore was listed as questionable by Wisconsin on the team’s injury report with a lower-body injury. Usually the first forward off the bench for Wisconsin, averaging close to 12 minutes per game, Gilmore went through warmups but did not appear in a game for the first time since the 2021-22 season. The Badgers didn’t need him, thanks in large part to fellow forward Markus Ilver.

Having played no more than four minutes since the season opener, Ilver played 14 minutes off the bench (second most among reserves) and scored three points, five rebounds (second-most behind Crowl), tied for the team lead with two steals, added an assist, and had no turnovers.

“Markus has practiced well,” Gard said. "He has played well when he has been in. To get him some minutes and get him in there, I thought he did a good job. I didn't see any defensive breakdowns. He is much improved defensively. He is much more physical … Someone that gives us a little different dimension off the bench with a bigger guy who can really shoot it.

“It’s a good luxury to have. When you have somebody banged up, you can go to the next guy and he’s ready to go.”

7 - Shot attempts by Connor Essegian, a season-high shots. Playing a season-high 14 minutes, Essegian finished with six points.

39:39 - Other than the 21 seconds after Wisconsin won the tip, the Badgers never trailed.

5 - Points by John Blackwell, breaking his run of four straight games in double figures.

3 - Number of 20-point wins for Wisconsin this season. The Badgers only had two such games all last season.

4 - The number of players who scored at least 10 points for Wisconsin, the fifth game this season the Badgers have put at least that many in double figures.

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