MADISON, Wis. – It’s not the tournament Wisconsin wanted to be in when the season began, or the one they probably thought they were going to be in when they were 11-2 and ranked No.14 in the country, but the Badgers made the best out of a tough situation Tuesday.

Led by a career performance by junior Steven Crowl, No.2 Wisconsin delivered a wire-to-wire victory over Bradley in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament in front of an intimate crowd at the Kohl Center.

It’s the first NIT appearance in 27 seasons for the Badgers (18-14), which was efficient on offense and effective on defense to deliver its biggest margin of victory since late December.

Here are my takeaways from Wisconsin’s opening-round victory.

Greg Gard has had a front-row seat to view some of Wisconsin’s best big men play the pick-and-pop game within Wisconsin’s offense over the last 20+ years, a list that includes players like Jared Berggren, Brian Butch, Keaton Nankivil, Mike Wilkinson, and 2015 national player of the year Frank Kaminsky.

Steven Crowl? Gard believes the junior could be up there, too.

“I think he can be right there with those guys that are on the Mount Rushmore of stretch bigs that we’ve had here in the last two decades,” Gard said of Crowl, who dazzled with a career-high 36 points and nine rebounds. “Getting him to believe, that has been the biggest thing. Tonight’s a big step in that. He played how I envisioned that he can play.”

Scoring just eight points on nine shots in Wisconsin’s elimination game in the Big Ten Tournament (effectively ending its chance at an NCAA bid), Crowl was called out by Gard for a “heavy-legged” performance.

With the offense running through him in the paint early, Crowl scored on three hookshot jumpers in the paint in a five-possession span and proceeded to hit two free throws. Crowl then had eight of Wisconsin’s 13 points coming out of the first media timeout,

“Coach has been on me all year about being aggressive, and I think I can do a better job at that,” Crowl said. “I don’t think it’s just the inside buckets getting me going but I think it’s also getting to the line and seeing a couple of those go in.”

Seeing his shots fall allowed him to start stretching the floor, which he did when he hit his first three-point shot on a pick-and-pop to put the Badgers up 26-13 with 9:45 remaining in the half. That started an avalanche of confidence for a forward shooting just over 28 percent from the perimeter this season, as Crowl made a career-high five three-pointers on seven attempts by taking advantage of Bradley having a more traditional big in the low post.

“You see a couple of threes go in, you just keep shooting them until you miss,” he said.

Even though Crowl was feeling it from the outside, the junior didn’t settle for perimeter looks as he maintained a presence in the paint to convert jump hooks and dunks. Crowl went 4-for-4 on two-point shots in the second half, including finishing a dunk through contact that resulted in a three-point play. That play ended UW’s longest field goal drought of the night (5:23) and kept the margin from dipping into a danger category.

Scoring his points on an efficient 16 shots, Crowl’s point total equaled the Wisconsin record for points in any postseason game, matching the 36 scored by Michael Finley in the NCAA tournament vs. Missouri on March 19, 1994, and was the most scored by a UW player since Johnny Davis’ 37 points at Purdue in January 2022.

“That’s the neat thing about this tournament, even though we understand what our goals were,” Gard said. “It’s another opportunity for us to get experience, play better, get better, and that was a good example of that with him.”

A 26-win team that was a win away from clinching the Missouri Valley automatic bid, Bradley was not some patsy team playing a “buy” game in early November, but the Badgers made them look like such through a fairly fundamentally sound performance.

A team that was top 60 in effective field goal percentage, the Braves shot 41 percent from the field and only 5-for-23 from three-point range. Bradley came in averaging 70.9 points per game on 46.3 percent shooting from the floor and 35.9 percent shooting from the perimeter but struggled to get into an offensive flow with the Badgers fighting through screens and defending.

“Disappointed that we didn’t make it (into the NCAAs), but this is just another opportunity for us to go out and try to win a championship in the NIT,” junior Max Klesmit said. “That’s how I think all of us are approaching it, taking it day-by-day, practice-by-practice with that same mentality going forward.”

Klesmit was a big benefactor of Crowl’s night as the extra attention the forward received opened up lanes for the guard to slash through and get open looks at the basket. The aggressive way UW played showed up on the stat sheet in the free throw column. UW was 10-for-12 in the first half from the line and 13-for-16 in the second half, 80 percent plus in each half. Both freshman Connor Essegian (9-for-9) and Crowl (7-for-7) made all their attempts.

It was the most free throws made and attempted by Wisconsin all season, resulting in the Badgers scoring their highest point total since the season opener four months ago.

“It’s nice to look down and see we got to the line 28 times,” Klesmit said. “Coach preaches parading at the free throw line, getting early looks to go down, seeing a few go in helps you later in the game and moving forward.”

Due to the lateness of the NIT Selection Show, Gard hadn’t had an opportunity to talk to his players about the Badgers’ selection, their seed, or their opponent. However, his address to the team the day after returning from Chicago about turning the page to the postseason gave him encouragement that they would embrace any postseason opportunity.

Their play reinforced that, as UW committed only three turnovers (its fewest since having three against Purdue on March 14, 2015) and played with the same type of fight that they’ve had for most of the season.

“To be in this position and approach it the right way and prepare the right way, I think you saw with how they played and came out tonight that they were in the right frame of mind,” Gard said. “That’s a credit to them and how they approached the days in leading up to tonight. I’m excited to be with them for another 40 minutes.”

4-1 – Record in the first round of the NIT for Wisconsin. In addition to Bradley, the Badgers have beaten New Orleans (1989), Bowling Green (1991), and Manhattan (1996) and lost to Rice (1993).

5 - Number of Wisconsin NIT records set by Crowl Tuesday: points, field goals (12), three-point field goals (5), three-point field goals attempted (7), three-point percentage (minimum six attempts),

6 – Number of double-figure scoring games from Max Klesmit in the last nine games. He had a total of six such performances in his first 21 games of the season.

12-9 – Offensive rebound advantage in favor of Bradley.

10-9 – Second-chance-point advantage in favor of Wisconsin.

3-18 – Combined shooting percentage of Essegian (2-11) and Chucky Hepburn (1-7)

3,919 – Announced attendance for the game.

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