MADISON, Wis. – Down 16 points to a lowly mid-major is less than an auspicious start just seven minutes into a season. For the University of Wisconsin, that small sample size could prove to be a call to action to fix a problem that was never fully corrected a season ago.

It pays to have an effective offense, but the players know the defense that will ultimately carry the Badgers as far as it takes them.

“Every day we’re trying to get better,” graduate senior John Tonje said. “We’re learning from the last game and building every day. We’re going to learn from the film and try to get better every single day.”

A lot went wrong during the start of Wisconsin’s 85-61 win against Holy Cross on Monday. The Badgers started 2-for-13 from the field, not taking bad shots per se but perhaps not taking the right ones. Wisconsin players have said it will be a team that shoots more from the perimeter, which was evident when 10 of those shots came behind the arc. UW rebounded three of its misses, but the Badgers settled for jump shots instead of attacking the rim or generating free throws.

However, head coach Greg Gard has repeatedly said over the years that Wisconsin’s best offense is its defense, which was virtually nonexistent early in the first half.

Part of it was first-game curveballs like guard Gabe Warren scoring 13 points while he surpassed his previous season’s three-point total of two in the first four minutes. The bigger problem was the Badgers lacked intensity with their closeouts on shooters and their inability to cut off driving lanes proved it. The Crusaders started 9 of 11 from the field against an offense that ranked 322nd in adjusted offensive efficiency last season.

It also irritated Gard that the Badgers weren’t using their size and physicality to their advantage, going the first 7 minutes, 36 seconds without a defensive foul.

If the start seemed familiar, it was a script that played out more than its fair share a season ago as Wisconsin started to evolve its offense.

Having a veteran point guard in Chucky Hepburn and adding a talented wing in A.J. Storr, Wisconsin began to change from a plodding, low-possession attack to one willing to push the pace and take the open shot regardless of the number on a shot clock.

The evolution was easy to see. Wisconsin’s 74.7 points per game was the team’s highest scoring average in two decades (77.9 ppg in 1993-94). The Badgers were also efficient, ranking 17th in the NCAA in offensive efficiency per KenPom.com, an adjusted mark of 119.2 points per 100 possessions that ranked the fourth highest in school history.

The problem for Wisconsin was the Badgers sacrificed their defense at the expense of the offense. UW opponents saw plenty of quality looks against them throughout the season, as players struggled to defend the low-post in early-season losses to Tennessee and Providence, couldn’t consistently run shooters off the perimeter, and failed to match physicality.

Opponents shot 45.7 percent against UW (the highest mark since 2017-18) and 36.9 percent from three (worst since 2016-17. UW’s 36 opponents averaged 70.0 points per game (the highest since 1994-95) and had an adjusted defensive efficiency of 99.2 points, the most points per 100 possessions UW had allowed since KenPom began tracking in 1999.

Everything came to a head in the humbling NCAA Tournament first-round exit to James Madison, where the Badgers didn’t defend well around the rim (13-for-22), fouled too much (21-for-30), and were outscored by an undersized team in the paint (30-22).

UW losing Hepburn (a Big Ten All-Defensive Team selection) leaves a gap, but the Badgers have pieces that understand the philosophy, like seniors Carter Gilmore and Kamari McGee. Primed to be Gard’s top two reserves, both Gilmore and McGee keyed on bringing energy defensively. Slowly but surely, the Badgers brought physicality, ran shooters off the line, and threw their hands into passing lanes to stop post-entry passes.

“We had to be more physical,” Gard said. “Crank it up. Get into them more. As we did that, we were able to get them back on their heels a little bit and shut off the hot start that they had.”

It spilled over into other players after that, with John Blackwell pestering Warren and rotating to the rim to block and alter shots, Max Klesmit knocking or poking the ball loose to disrupt the offensive flow, and Nolan Winter using his 7-foot frame to alter things inside.

Once UW locked in defensively, the Badgers went from allowing 21 points on their first 11 defensive possessions to only 40 on their final 52. The Crusaders shot just 33.3 percent in the second half and were outscored, 80-40, over the final 33:33 as players were worn down under UW’s pressure.

“We're learning,” Winter said. “Practicing every day, open gyms in the summer, that helped a lot. I think this game was a step in the right direction, for sure.”

Wisconsin knows the challenges will only get tougher, starting with Montana State tomorrow. The Bobcats have three starters back from last year’s NCAA Tournament team and got older through the portal.

Chasing a fourth-straight conference title, the Bobcats will boast one of the most experienced teams in the country with seven seniors and five juniors in the fold.

UW is banking on its experience and can use Monday’s Jekyll-and-Hyde first half to drive home its core strengths as the Badgers’ new group starts to build its rhythm.

“As you go through a season you grow from half to half,” Gard said. “This group understands we can score. How we continue to grow defensively will be extremely important.”

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