MADISON, Wis. — The No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers (23-8, 13-7 Big Ten) wrapped up their regular season in embarrassing fashion, suffering an 86-75 loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions (16-15, 6-14) on Senior Day.

Inside a sold-out Kohl Center on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the game couldn’t have begun better for the Badgers. But the Nittany Lions kept their heads down and kept making shots, slowly coming back to defeat Wisconsin in a major upset.

It’s now the Badgers’ third loss in the past five games, creating far more questions than answers as the team looks ahead to the Big Ten Tournament.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from Wisconsin’s loss to Penn State.

Saturday was Wisconsin’s final home game of the season, and thus their Senior Day.

Six Badger seniors were honored before the game — Markus Ilver, Kamari McGee, Carter Gilmore, John Tonje and Steven Crowl.

The game that was to follow almost felt secondary; somewhat due to the importance of this class, but also because of the opponent. Penn State is near the bottom of the Big Ten with a 16-15 record, having only won four of their past 16 games.

The Badgers, meanwhile, are having one of their best seasons in years and entered Saturday with some extra motivation. A win would’ve guaranteed them a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

Early on, the game looked about as expected. The Badgers got off to a 26-16 lead, making 10 of their first 13 shots. But as the game continued, it became hard to tell which of these two teams was playing for something.

The energy began to shift after about 10 minutes, once the Badgers stopped making every 3-pointer they took and the Nittany Lions kept making theirs. They chipped away at the lead, stayed in the game throughout the second half, then finally outpaced the Badgers by the end.

There were individual issues, which I’ll expand on later. But there’s a greater problem with this group. It really showed up against Oregon and has only festered since then.

This team has an intensity issue. They fall into dry spells too easily and have no idea how to find their way out, often looking sluggish and dour. It's as if each player found out their dog died during a timeout.

“I thought they [Nittany Lions] were, specifically in the back part of the first half and whole 20 minutes of the second half, a much more aggressive team, much more physical team,” coach Greg Gard said after the game.

“[I’m] disappointed in our response to it. How we didn’t have bite to us. We probably did early, and for whatever reason, it dissipated. Obviously, we gave them so much confidence at the end of the first half. We were up 40-27, don’t score for 10 straight possessions, and they go on an 8-0 run.”

Add Saturday to the list of Wisconsin’s meltdowns over the past two weeks. It began with the stunner against Oregon, then reappeared against Michigan State. There was also some risk in the win over Minnesota.

On a stage like the NCAA Tournament, even a five-minute slump can end your season.

“I told them, ‘We’re lucky we get to play again. But from here on out, if you play like this, you won’t play long,’” Gard said.

“So we know how good we can be. But we’ve got to be able to respond from this because this is obviously not how you want to have a Senior Day. I feel bad for those guys because that’s not anything anybody wanted.”

We’ve seen the Badgers experience cold shooting nights. Those happen to every team.

The far more worrying outcome from Saturday was on defense, and how they allowed Penn State to walk into a loud Kohl Center and score 86 points on 57.9 percent 3-point shooting (11-for-19).

“Today, it wasn’t as much about the aggressiveness offensively. It was the defensive bite to us that we didn’t have,” Gard said.

“That back half of the first half, and specifically the last five minutes or so, set the tone. We were just pouring confidence into what they were doing. That’s where the tide started turning. When we had a lead at halftime, I didn’t feel good about what was happening.”

D’Marco Dunn finished with 25 points on a remarkable 10-of-12 shooting night. He played well the entire game, but turned on the NOS when his team needed it most (something that couldn’t be said for any Badger player).

Thirteen of his 25 points came within five minutes, between the 8:09 and 3:09 marks of the second half. Three 3-pointers and two layups, zero misses. This is a player who entered the Kohl Center averaging 7.9 points per game, with a career-high of 18. Times like this are when Max Klesmit’s absence stings the most.

They could’ve done a much better job of pressuring him on the perimeter. But when it comes to shooting performances like this, sometimes there isn’t a lot you can do.

It was the performance of Penn State’s other best player on Saturday — Yanic Konan Niederhauser — that will likely create more sleepless nights for Gard.

He preyed on an issue that’s plagued Wisconsin all season — their inability to limit aggressive big men.

Niederhauser treated the Kohl Center paint like it was his. The Badgers had no answer for Penn State’s pick-and-rolls, leading to endless alley-oops. He scored 10 points in the second half, all from dunks.

“He was the recipient of our defensive breakdowns. We got spread out too much,” Gard said.

“Too many gaps. Too much dribble penetration.”

The Swiss senior began to really heat up after the departure of Nolan Winter, who suffered a minor injury after a putback dunk. He eventually returned, but never looked the same.

This left Crowl to mostly defend Niederhauser by himself, which is an obvious problem to anyone who’s watched the Badgers play good centers this season.

“We just never got our footing after the first 10, 15 minutes defensively,” Gard said.

“I felt like we were kind of walking on ice. We just couldn’t get them under control.”

The first 10 minutes of the game felt like a much-needed return to form after some recent shooting blunders. The Badgers shot 25% or worse from distance in three of their previous four games, going a combined 27-for-112 (24.1 percent).

So, after starting 6-for-7 from 3 to take a 26-16 lead, it felt like they had shaken this bug.

They then proceeded to miss 16 of their next 17 attempts. After Tonje hit a 3 to put the Badgers up 40-27 with 4:15 left in the first half, their next make came when the score was 59-58, with 9:39 left in the game. They went 0-for-13 from 3 over a 15-minute span.

Oddly enough, this wasn’t even their biggest issue on offense.

Things began to feel truly dire once the Badgers could no longer score inside, mostly due to the presence of Neiderhauser, who finished with five blocks and looked like prime Hakeem Olajuwon at times.

“[On] some of them we drove too deep, where we just t’d him up for him to block,” Gard said.

“You got a seven-footer who’s got arms for seven-and-a-half feet. You’re not gonna win that. He’s gonna pin that against the glass… We went too deep and tried to go through him at times.”

Shooting slumps are common for any team, but Wisconsin is typically able to find success in the paint with its slashing guards. Nothing was working on Saturday.

The Badgers are going to face better centers in the postseason than Neiderhauser. If they continue to struggle in the paint, they may have to rely on shooting, which doesn’t seem like much of a promising venture either.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @_Perko_, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook