MADISON, Wis. – Tyler Wahl may have found a winning formula.

The graduate senior scored half of his 16 points in the first five minutes of Wisconsin’s 75-60 victory over Jacksonville State Thursday night, accounting for all the Badgers’ offense in that opening stretch. The secret? Wahl forgot to take care of his five o’clock shadow for the first time in 11 games.

“Honestly, this was the first game I haven’t shaved the day of,” Wahl joked. “I think that could be. Maybe I won’t shave from now on?”

Wahl could turn into Rip Van Winkle as long as the production continues, which was a key catalyst in the Badgers winning their 41st consecutive home game over a mid-major team, the fourth-longest stretch in the Big Ten.

Here are my takeaways from the Kohl Center.

Steven Crowl brushed off the notion that he was coming into Thursday’s game with a chip on his shoulder after UW went 12-for-23 on layups in Saturday’s loss at No.1 Arizona, giving the company answer that the Badgers want to attack the paint and finish at the rim every game.

His answer was believable. How the frontcourt played from the beginning of the game looked more determined.

Facing a starting five without a forward over 6-9, Crowl and Wahl flexed their strength around the rim.

Wahl scored Wisconsin’s first eight points by delivering a layup, a paint hook shot, and a second-chance bucket. His presence inside drew two fouls in forward Juwan Perdue in the first 114 seconds, taking the team’s leading rebounder off the floor for most of the first half. Wahl was an efficient 6-for-9 from the floor while securing three of UW’s eight first-half offensive rebounds.

“We just started off going inside, and we never really left it,” Wahl said. “Me, Steve, a couple other guys did a good job getting in there and making good decisions.”

Crowl was a model of efficiency in both halves. He was 4-for-6 with seven rebounds in the first 20 minutes and 3-for-5 with a pair of rebounds in the second half. If he didn’t struggle from the free-throw line (4-for-8), Crowl would have had his first 20-point game of the season and first since he scored 36 points in the first round of last year’s NIT.

The first Wisconsin points not scored by Crowl or Wahl came at 10:06 and the first bucket from a guard came with 9:17 remaining, as the pair combined for 23 of UW’s 38 first-half points and finished 13-for-20 on shots inside the arc.

“(Scoring inside) didn’t work very well against Arizona, but come back today and try to do it,” Crowl said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s me, Tyler, A.J. (Storr), Chucky (Hepburn) trying to post up sometimes. We’re just trying to get the ball in there and make plays.”

With A.J. Storr (13 points) also taking an aggressive approach and going 4 of 6 on two-point shots, Wisconsin finished with a 40-to-20 edge in the lane, the fourth time the Badgers scored at least 40 in the paint.

“We knew we wanted to pound the ball inside,” head coach Greg Gard said. “When you have a size advantage, you don’t want to get into a jump-shot contest all the time and let them neutralize what our advantage is of not playing through our bigs. Steve’s demand of the ball for the most part, Tyler in their really set the tone that we were going to pound it at them."

Picked to finish last in Conference USA, Jax State's identity nearly one-third of the way through its season has been its defense. The Gamecocks ranked in a tie for 12th nationally in scoring defense, giving up 61.1 points per game.

To be fair, the Gamecocks haven’t played a murderer’s row of opponents. The Badgers were only their second Power-Five opponent of the season, a reason why their Kenpom ranking was 215 and had a NET ranking of 226.

Still, Jax State held five straight opponents under 68 points, has a 25-year veteran coach in Ray Harper at the helm, plays at the 351st slowest adjusted tempo of the country’s 361 teams, and was willing to gummy up the paint.

With large thanks to the post play and getting to the free throw line 26 times, Wisconsin averaged 1.20 points per possession – right around its season average – when the performance didn’t look aesthetically pleasing.

“I don’t think we give them enough credit for how they tried to play us,” said Gard, as UW’s 75 points the most Jax State has given up in a regulation game this season. “Watching film, we were going to have to really work to get things offensively … When you get in those types of games when they want to slow it down and go possession by possession, you have to be disciplined enough to not to alter from what your plan is.”

For comparison, Virginia ranks second in scoring defense (53.2) and the Badgers dropped 65 on them in a wire-to-wire victory in the Fort Myers Tip-Off semifinals.

Wisconsin used four reserves in the first half – forwards Carter Gilmore and Nolan Winter and guards John Blackwell and Kamari McGee. A fixture in UW’s lineup last season, Conor Essegian didn’t take his warmup off until he checked in with 13:50 remaining in the game. His seat was barely cool before he was back in it, replaced by guard Isaac Lindsey after only 25 seconds and giving up an uncontested layup after being beaten off the dribble.

The crowd cheered when he entered, booed when he exited and erupted when he made his fifth three-pointer of the season playing out the final 3:32 of the game with the outcome decided.

Essegian finished with those three points on two perimeter attempts and had an assist in 3:57 on the court. For the season, Essegian is averaging 2.5 points and 7.2 minutes per game, a far cry from when he averaged 11.7 points and 27.4 minutes in a season where he started as the team’s sixth man before being elevated into the starting lineup. His 32.3 percent shooting is the worst among the team’s rotational players and his 23.8 percent three-point number is the worst among UW’s guards.

Essegian, who sustained a back injury in the season opener that plagued him throughout November, was not made available to reporters after the game and has spoken to the media once since the beginning of the season.

As the veteran of the roster, Wahl said he approached Essegian with positive reinforcement and always knows when to let the sophomore go it alone.

“You got to be there for him, but sometimes you got to let him go (figure it out),” Wahl said. “In practice, if he’s figuring it out, you got to let him figure it out. If you see something, (guys) aren’t afraid to speak up and give their two cents. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a good thing for our team and our chemistry that we have where we are able to communicate really well and just talk it out. I would say a little bit of both. Giving him words of encouragement are huge, especially right now. He’ll get it going. He'll get it going.”

Here is a transcript of what Gard said when asked about his sophomore’s lack of minutes.

Q: Connor didn’t play the first 19 minutes and then got subbed out. While he’s going through what he’s going through, how do you guys continue to help him? What does he need to show you to warrant more minutes?

Gard: Holding him accountable is the best thing coaches can do and continue to demand that you have to guard. He’s in a funk right now. I think he’s better than where he was two, three weeks ago. He understands it. He’s been very coachable, but he’s got to continue to be more physical defensively. We’re working on some things with him to try to help him with his feet, his balance, those types of things. Embracing it. He knows it, and we need him, but you got to continue to grow defensively as we’ve all seen.

Q: Is the depth you guys have this year make it at all more difficult to let him play through those defensive mistakes at all?

Gard: No. I’ll hold anybody accountable for the defensive (mistakes). He’s not the only one who comes out if there’s things we have to work on. As a coach, accountability and the teammates understand and want them because we understand what it takes to have success as a unit, as a team. Our guys want to win. In order to do that, we all have to be pushing towards the same goal. It’s not that he doesn’t. He’s in a funk right now defensively.

I think some of it’s to a year ago he playing on a team that was OK. We’re a much better team, we’ve got more depth, the scouting reports are out on him (and) film. You got to add layers to your game. You got to grow your game because they got all the freshmen film when you bang threes. They aren’t letting you get loose as much. I think that’s a big piece of it, continue to grow your game and accept the challenge. His teammates have continued to help him and coach him. Same thing with the coaches. We know he can do it, but it’s got to be …

It’s not one of those things where we can afford to let him play through, you know what I’m saying? Stakes are too high in terms of what this team wants to accomplish. We’re going to need him, and he’s going to get there. I told him I’ll keep coaching your defense. I’ll call you when you’re 45 years old, playing in a men’s league in the YMCA, asking how did you guard tonight. Until they shovel dirt on me, I’ll keep coaching you, and he knows it. He knows I’m not going to let up with what I expect defensively.

100 - Wisconsin tallies its 100th win at the Kohl Center under Gard, with a record of 100-31 (.763) in his nine seasons.

41 - The Badgers have won 41 consecutive home games over mid-major teams. That streak began in Gard's first game as head coach, an 84-79 win over Green Bay on Dec.23, 2015.

99 - The Badgers have played 99 games when it has attempted at least 20 free throws under Gard. The Badgers are 71-18 in those games. UW was 18-for-26 against Jax State.

8 - The Badgers matched a season-low with eight turnovers, lowering their season average to 10.1 per game (third in the Big Ten).

5 - Chucky Hepburn matched his career high with five steals. He also finished with four assists and zero turnovers. On the season, he has 43 assists to 14 turnovers.

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