MADISON, Wis. – As the Wisconsin student exited the court and gleeful fans poured out of the Kohl Center following the Badgers’ 75-64 victory over No.3 Marquette, Golden Eagles coach Shaka Smart shared an opinion of what many who watched his team get dismantled by the unranked Badgers probably realized: “Wisconsin is a lot better than people know.”

Those who left Wisconsin for naught after two ugly losses within the first eight days of the season have not realized the Badgers could be as good as advertised.

Save for a sloppy stretch to begin the second half, the Badgers (6-2) were the more physical, efficient, and tougher team Saturday afternoon, a reason why they’ve pushed their win streak to five games.

“I talked to this group a lot about believing how good they can be,” head coach Greg Gard said. “Sometimes I intentionally need to feed that because they hear so much negative from the outside that I have got to counter the negative with a lot of positive. I think now they believe. They believe in what our coaches have been talking about, the vision of what we laid out way back in the summer for what we thought this team could be and how good they could be.”

“There’s growing belief with how good this group could be together.”

Here are my takeaways from what was a raucous Kohl Center Saturday afternoon.

There’s no denying that Max Klesmit entered December in a slump. While the junior was shooting better than he was a year ago (43.2 percent compared to 42.3), Klesmit’s three-point numbers were slumping (7-for-23), his points per game were down, and his minutes were decreasing because of foul trouble.

The only starter not averaging double figures, Klesmit was signaled out on social media as someone who should see a further reduction in their minutes, perhaps even lose their starting spot to freshman John Blackwell. Safe to say those opinions aren’t being said Saturday.

Klesmit awoke from his early-season slumber with a bang, scoring a UW career-high 21 points to lead all scorers, doing all his damage in the first half when the Badgers built a lead as large as 16 points.

Smart said Klesmit plays with a “chip on his shoulder.” Klesmit couldn’t agree more.

“For sure,” he said. “I think that helps me out. I’ve got to play with a chip on my shoulder, a little bit of an edge sometimes. Other guys on the team feed off that, play off me well, which is just pouring yourself into the team.”

Klesmit nearly traveled before collecting himself to make his first basket, a mid-range jumper. That appeared to ignite the Neenah, Wis., native. He intercepted an Oso Ighodaro pass to lead a fastbreak, attacked the rim and drew contact from guard Kam Jones (leading to two free throws), and hit a rhythm three-pointer to put UW up 11-7.

Averaging 6.9 points per game, Klesmit had seven points 4 minutes, 30 seconds into the game, and was just starting to heat up.

On a designed action off the inbounds, Klesmit hit an open three-pointer from the corner. He hit another in rhythm with Stevie Mitchell defending at an arm’s length and dropped another one when his pump fake got Kam Jones out of position, allowing Klesmit to take one dribble to the left for another corner three.

Klesmit's 21 points in the first half were the most for a UW player since Johnny Davis poured in 27 points in the second half against No. 3 Purdue on Jan. 3, 2022.

“Off to a hot start like that? It’s been a while,” Klesmit said. “Maybe even back to high school? It’s fun to be out there with these guys.”

The junior was neutralized after halftime with Marquette paying more attention to him, resulting in some poor shot selections, three turnovers, and no points, but the junior continued to play controlled defense. In a game with plenty of whistles, Klesmit only picked up one personal foul.

A team that possesses a bevy of perimeter shooters, Wisconsin went 5-for-20 from three-point range to shoot 25 percent or worse from the perimeter for the fifth time this season. The Badgers didn’t make a three-pointer in the second half, yet the Badgers leaned heavily on their low-post players to neutralize a Marquette push that threatened to erase all of UW’s 16-point lead.

Marquette started the half on a 14-2 run to cut the lead to 48-47 and thrice answered a UW bucket with one of its own to cut the lead to one. That’s when Steven Crowl delivered two low-post buckets in a four-possession stretch to push the lead to 60-53.

Crowl’s offensive rebound and putback put UW up 62-55 with 6:36 to go and he had a front-row seat for A.J. Storr fighting through contract to deliver a powerful dunk and convert a three-point play that pushed the lead to 10. Marquette never got closer than five the rest of the game.

“We knew they were a good team, a punch was going to come,” Crowl said. “It was just all about how we were going to handle that. We responded pretty well.”

Wisconsin finished plus-15 on the glass and secured 15 offensive rebounds off 31 misses from the field (23-of- 54 shooting). The Badgers outscored Marquette, 18-2, in second-chance points as UW’s three low-post players in Crowl (16 pts, 8 rbds), Storr (13 pts, 5 rbds), and Tyler Wahl (10 pts, 7 rbds) all had big days.

“It’s shown this season,” Crowl said. “We were just going to crash and do what we do.”

Added Wahl: “I think especially in the frontcourt, we’re doing a really good job of being physical, getting rebounds, finishing plays, and all that. It’s not just me and Steve. It’s guys coming in off the bench. It’s Carter Gilmore. It’s Markus Ilver. Even if they’re not really scoring, there’s not a dip in that physicality, which is really awesome for us.”

UW showed it can also thrive without one of its better plays. Wahl was whistled for a questionable second foul with 8:44 remaining and exited for the remainder of the half with UW holding a seven-point lead. With the Badgers turning to reserve forward Carter Gilmore and Markus Ilver, the Badgers increased their lead to as much as 16 points.

“It shows that every guy on the team really has no fear,” Wahl said. “They want to go out there, they want to play the best, and it’s for the team. It’s not really out there looking for points. You saw that today with Markus and (Gilmore) going in there, doing the dirty work, getting some rebounds, passing it out, setting good hard screens, and we couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Smart said Thursday that Marquette led the country in the distance between the shooter and the defender on three-point shot attempts. UW made sure the Golden Eagles weren’t given many practice shots.

Everyone from Wahl and Storr to Klesmit and Chucky Hepburn were running out or closing defending shooters, resulting in the Golden Eagles making a season-low seven three-pointers on 29 attempts. Marquette entered the afternoon with three players shooting better than 39 percent from three, and none of them could muster much.

The clip was the lowest for a Badger opponent since Wisconsin held Arkansas State to a 4-for-21 performance in the season opener.

Kam Jones (42.1 percent) went 3-for-7 on his way to a team-high 19 points, but All-American Tyler Kolek (52.4) was kept in check by Hepburn during a 1-for-5 afternoon and David Joplin was all out of sorts against UW’s bigs. Shooting 39.4 percent from three, Joplin finished 3-for-13 from the field and 1-for-9 from the perimeter.

When Marquette made its run at the start of the second half, most of the damage was done by the Golden Eagles attacking the rim, using backdoor cuts for easy lay-ins and not catching fire from the perimeter.

Jones, Kolek, and talented forward Oso Ighodaro came in totaling 43.6 points per game but the lack of perimeter shots and UW’s size inside held the trio to a combined 35.

“It shows (our player’s) belief in what we’re doing defensively, and how they are connected better defensively than what we were six weeks ago” Gard said. “They’ve taken pride in what we can be defensively.”

It’s the first time in Gard’s five wins over Marquette that the Badgers won when shooting less than 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range, largely because Marquette shot 41.4 percent and just 1.0 points per possession.

7 - The Badger win marked Wisconsin’s 11th top-10 win, and 7th top-5 win, under Gard. In the Big Ten, only Michigan State (8) has more top-5 wins in the Gard era (since 2015-16).

50 – Wisconsin collected its 50th victory over a Top-25 team since 2001-02, when former coach Bo Ryan and Gard (associate head coach) arrived at UW. The Badgers have gone 50-26 at the Kohl Center vs. top-25 teams over that span.

46 - Wisconsin's 46 points in the first half were the most first-half points by either team in the series since at least the 1999-2000 season (25 games).

3-0 – Wisconsin’s record when Klesmit reached double figures this season.

85.7 - Wisconsin shot 24-for-28 (85.7 percent) from the free throw line, the best clip in a game this season when attempting 20+ free throws. The 86 percent clip was UW’s highest when attempting 25+ free throws since going 23-for-26 (88.5%) in a win over Coppin State on Nov. 6, 2018.

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