After getting bounced early in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, the Wisconsin coaching staff spent a lot of time pouring over its roster's shortcomings, where it faltered on both ends of the floor, and how to fix things through the portal.

The first step was to build its offense with shooters at all five positions on the court. The second was to fortify the depth to better handle injuries, shooting slumps, and add bursts of energy. Both were on full display to begin Wisconsin's NCAA Tournament run.

Leaning into its depth, No.3 Wisconsin got solid production from its eight-man rotation in an 85-66 victory over No.14 Montana at Denver's Ball Arena, delivering its best postseason shooting performance in a decade.

"We were trying to get that taste out of our mouth of last year," said senior Steven Crowl, referring to last year's 72-62 loss to James Madison. "I think this game did it. Everyone contributed, which almost feels better when everyone gets on the box score. I saw it as a great team win."

Winning an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 2022, Wisconsin (26-9) put five players in double figures, got 23 points from its bench, and shot 55.4 percent. The latter number represents the Badgers' best NCAA Tournament shooting since the 2015 Elite Eight against No.2 Arizona (55.8).

Appearing in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament for the 18th time in the last 25 tournaments, the Badgers will face No.6 BYU for a spot in the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Newark, New Jersey.

Here are my takeaways.

A deep dive into the game tape wasn't required to know that Montana didn't have the size to match Wisconsin in the interior. The Badgers start two 7-footers and the Grizzlies have one rotational player above 6-5. UW didn't waste any time exploiting its advantage.

The Badgers' first seven baskets were layups or points in the paint, a mixture of forwards Crowl and Nolan Winter taking advantage of undersized matchups and guards John Blackwell and Kamari McGee slashing to the rim and using their first step to get ahead of the Montana defense

Ten of Wisconsin's 18 baskets in 34 first-half possessions came in the paint, as the Badgers went 8-for-11 on layups. That production made up for UW going 4-for-12 on threes and attempting four free throws in the first half, as the Badgers led by eight after averaging 1.176 points per possession.

Wisconsin's 38 points in the paint are tied for the seventh-most it has scored in the lane this season, but there was no doubt of the impact in constantly wearing down Montana.

The Grizzlies have three rotational players with four fouls in the second half - leading-scorer Money Williams, leading rebounder Joe Pridgen, and senior leader Kai Johnson.

"Foul trouble was a problem for us in multiple areas," Montana coach Travis DeCuire said. "The four fouls backs you off. One of the things we talked about going into this game was try to keep them off the free-throw line. You can't have a guy score 19 points on five attempts and think you're going to win a basketball game. We needed to do a better job of defending without fouling. I thought that was one of the things that killed our momentum."

While Montana prevented John Tonje from making a two-point basket (the ball slipped out of his hands on a dunk attempt that represented his lone two-point field goal), Tonje drew fouls and converted from the line. His 9-for-9 free throw afternoon joins Kammron Taylor (9-9 vs. UNLV in 2007) as the only Badgers to go perfect from the line (min. 9 FTAs).

Crowl scored in the paint the old-fashioned way. The senior went 6-for-7 from two and 8-for-10 overall, the best single-game FG percentage by a Badger in an NCAA Tournament game (Min. 10 FGAs).

With an NCAA Tournament career-high 18 points, Crowl has scored in double figures in eight of the last 11 games, averaging 11.8 ppg and shooting 53.6 percent (15-28) from 3-point range.

"I've got to give credit to my coaches and teammates for being on my about staying aggressive," said Crowl, as UW went 12-for-15 on layups and also got 10 points from Winter. "Second half, got it going a little bit in the inside. Obviously we knew we had the size advantage. Wanted to take advantage of that. Like I said, credit to my teammates and coaches for giving me the ball.

As he's become more comfortable within the Wisconsin system and the physicality of high-major basketball, junior Xavier Amos has seen his minutes and production steadily become more impactful. In his first NCAA Tournament game, Amos looked exceptionally comfortable.

A huge lift off the bench, Amos scored 11 points, four rebounds, and two blocks in 12 minutes.

"I definitely just felt the energy, the atmosphere of being here, playing with these guys all year," said Amos, his third double-digit outing of the season. "Come here, try to do big things in this March Madness. It's just a blessing here. I'm happy to be a part of it."

Amos' 6-7 frame makes him an offensive weapon, which is what jumps out with his stat line: 5-for-9 shooting and 4-for-5 from two, cleaning up an offensive rebound with a paint jumper or slamming home a dunk in the second half immediately after checking in.

What stands out to Gard is Amos' defense, using his long frame to block shots (two), covered up and rotated to shooters, and brought energy as soon as he checked in. .

"I think that's been a growing area for him," Gard said. "Defensively continuing to get better and understanding when you can help, how to help, what your assignment is, who you're guarding, is it a shooter, not a shooter, then how you can help your team.

"I thought defensively he got punch drove once by Pridgen in the second half where he helped a little too long and took a bad angle. Other than that, defensively I thought he did some good things."

Whether it was a career-high 15 points at Northwestern or his 10 points and critical block in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, Carter Gilmore has delivered in some of Wisconsin's more pressure-packed moments. His second half on Thursday will qualify

With Montana building momentum, cutting the deficit to 51-47 with 15:47 remaining, Gilmore promptly hit a three-pointer from the top of the key on a post pass from Crowl. Shushing the crowd as he went back on defense, Gilmore was only getting started.

He stood his ground to draw a fourth foul on Pridgen, altering how the senior played the rest of the game, and scored inside coming out of the timeout to push the lead to nine.

"He's a major key to our team," Blackwell said of Gilmore. "He's a sparkplug off the bench. He's a vet. He knows his role and excels in his role. He's a guy that is always going to give us energy, zero points or 15 points, his energy is not going to go down. We love him for that and are going to keep going."

Gilmore's buckets kickstarted a 14-3 run for Wisconsin that extended a lead to 12 that didn't dip below nine the final for the final 12+ plus minutes. Including those five points, Gilmore finished with eight and tied a team-high with six rebounds.

"They know I don't want them to be bashful," Gard said. "I don't want them to be passive. I want them aggressive when they come in. Obviously, Carter took advantage of his opportunities there. Then we went right back to him on another little post play and he scored on that, too. When he's got some confidence going, it's good that his teammates find him."

19 - The Badgers' 19-point win is their second-highest margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament since 2015, trailing only the team's 85-62 win over North Carolina in the opening round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

27 - With 27 wins, the Badgers have their most wins since 2016-17 and have matched the fifth-highest win total in school history. UW has also equaled the most single-season wins under Gard.

40 - UW out-rebounded Montana, 40-29, matching the second-highest rebounding total in an NCAA Tournament game in program history.

73.1 - The Badgers are now 19-7 all-time in the Round of 64, including a mark of 5-2 under Gard.

85 - Wisconsin's 85 points are its third-most in an NCAA Tournament game and the most since an 85-62 win over North Carolina in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

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