MILWAUKEE – Greg Gard and his coaching staff can recite all the numbers and lay out all the math equations to try and convince his players what the analytics say. Sometimes a strong helping of live footage is the tipping point to make the light go on.
At least that’s the hope for Gard as the University of Wisconsin dissected its first loss of the season, a 67-64 defeat to Michigan in Tuesday’s Big Ten opener.
The Badgers took 37 two-point shots against the Wolverines, taking seven shots each half that would be classified as mid-range jump shots. UW made only four, and none of the 14 attempts drew a foul. Wisconsin leads the NCAA in free-throw shooting at 85.2 percent (179-for-210) but went only 14-for-19 from the line, their third fewest makes this season.
“We took the bait, so to speak,” Gard said. “We settled for a lot of non-rim twos. Over the course of 40 minutes of a 35-game season, that’s not analytically where you want to live. We’ll be better because of it because now we’ve seen it on film … Obviously, the result causes it to sting a little longer.”
It would be easy to attribute those longer-range twos to Michigan having two 7-footers in the low post, but Gard said the attempts are also attributed to poor offensive spacing. With tight spacing comes clogged driving lanes, resulting in players settling for tougher attempts or forced shots in traffic.
No guard was immune to settling for the jumper. A foreshadowing for what was to come, sophomore John Blackwell started UW’s first possession with an off-balance shot that went off the side of the backboard. Seniors John Tonje, Max Klesmit, and Kamari McGee all attempted pull-up jumpers, step-backs, or fadeaways that aren’t what UW is pushing for.
UW didn’t make its first mid-range jump shot until its sixth attempt with 3:56 remaining in the first half.
“We needed to go through that during the season,” said McGee, as UW averaged 0.93 points per possession in scoring a season-low 64 points. “Nobody is going to be perfect, so we needed that to see where we can still improve because there is always room for improvement. It didn’t sting. It was just something we can learn and go forward from.”
Wisconsin (8-1) won’t have to deal with the immense interior size of Michigan when it faces No.5 Marquette here at Fiserv Forum this afternoon. The Golden Eagles (8-1) have been started 6-8 David Joplin at the four and 6-11 Ben Gold at the five. Marquette doesn’t hold a commanding rebound margin (0.3) or shot blocking (3.8), but they smother the ball.
The Golden Eagles are eighth nationally in forced turnovers (17.3 per game) and sixth in turnover margin (7.4) and have three players – Stevie Mitchell, Chase Ross, and Kam Jones – who average at least 1.5 steals per game.
It could be the right matchup to shake Klesmit loose from a prolonged shooting slump. Averaging 17.0 ppg in his two games against Marquette, Klesmit is shooting 23.1 percent from the floor over his last four games.
In the second half alone, Klesmit did a step-back jumper from the free throw line that clanked off the backboard and tried to draw contact when he dribbled into three defenders. Not only did the wild shot miss everything, Klesmit attempted it with 12 seconds left on the shock clock and 1:13 remaining with his team down one.
“We need him to get going,” McGee said of Klesmit. “He’s one of the big leaders on this team for us. We got to find ways to get him going.”
Wisconsin has shown how effective its offense can be when it buys into the analytics. In the Badgers’ November 7 win over Montana State, Wisconsin scored 75 of its 79 points on free throws, at the rim, or from the three-point line.
Gard's message after the Michigan film session was all the offense's mistakes were correctable. Now it's about seeing how his team responds against Marquette's unit that is stout in multiple defensive metrics.
“We have to improve, tweak some things and get better in different areas,” Gard said. “That’s the challenge you go through, and the only way to get that out and push forward is to play really good competition and have some adversity.”
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