Max Klesmit was willing to take the media behind the curtain.
It was less than 24 hours after Wisconsin came up mostly empty on its final three possessions, resulting in a frustrating 54-52 defeat to Northwestern Sunday. Social media and talk radio were full of criticisms on point guard Chucky Hepburn’s shot selections, the lack of passing, and the lack of execution in what was an eighth loss in 10 games.
The plays were fresh in Klesmit’s mind after film study and a practice focused on such situations, so the junior had a clear answer on what the players talked about to improve the odds of success in high-stress situations.
“I don’t think we’d want the ball in anybody else’s hands besides Chucky at the end,” he said. “I know everybody is pretty comfortable and trustworthy of Chucky having the ball in his hands late in the game. Every Badger fan would have loved for a better outcome, in terms of stuff we would have changed, the ball is in the hands of who we want to have it.”
Hepburn wasn’t made available to the media Monday, a day after missing those two critical shots late, but both Klesmit and senior Tyler Wahl were poignant in their messaging: Hepburn is our guy, and he has our trust.
And wouldn’t you know it, three days later when Wisconsin was in a similar situation, tied at 65 with Penn State in the final minute on the road, Hepburn had the ball in his hands at the top of the key. The result was a squared-up, set-back three-point shot that hit nothing but the bottom of the net.
“We’ve got full faith in Chucky,” Wahl said. “He’s got the ball in his hands at the end of the game. When the ball is in his hands, we feel safe with that. He had the ball in the end (on Sunday), pick and roll, we got two good looks, two looks where he could have gotten better looks, but we trust him to make good decisions. We’re growing here, work every day, and I know he does that same thing. He looked at himself, and we’ll be good to go moving forward and trust that he’ll have it in his hands in crunch time.”
Owner of one of the more memorable shots in recent history, a banked three-pointer to lift Wisconsin to the 2021-22 conference title, Hepburn has spent the year transforming from freshman facilitator to sophomore scorer. The path has been bumpy.
From a purely statistical standpoint, Hepburn is playing some of his best basketball. Not only has he improved his perimeter shooting by more than 13 percentage points from where it was a year ago (48.1 percent), Hepburn entered the week averaging 13.5 points, 3.6 assists, and 1.8 steals per game over his last 10 games. In Wednesday’s 79-74 overtime win at Penn State, Hepburn had a game-high 19 points in 40 minutes.
But as he enters Saturday’s game at Nebraska (11-14, 4-10), Hepburn has been sporadic with his shot. He’s either missed a lot (14 at Northwestern, 10 at Penn State), taken few attempts (three at Maryland), missed early (0-5 in the first half vs. Illinois), or missed late, which was the case Sunday.
Hepburn attempted four shots in the final 90 seconds. He made the second one, a step-back jumper that put UW ahead 51-50 with 45.4 seconds left. His last two were misfired, a block in traffic on a drive into the lane and an off-balanced fading jumper that fell well short of the rim that he and head coach Greg Gard said needed to be better attempted.
All three of the shots were possessions in which only Hepburn possessed the ball. After making the go-ahead three-pointer Wednesday, Hepburn had a chance to hit the winning shot. But with Wisconsin in the double bonus, Hepburn dribbled over 10 seconds off the clock before attempting a deep, open three that hit the side of the rim.
“He’s put in work in the offseason to have the confidence to be able to make these plays down the stretch,” assistant coach Sharif Chambliss said. “He’s watched a lot of video. He knows what he needs to do and just stay confident with it, just know you’ve put in the work.”
Hepburn is the quarterback when the offense simulates its late-game situations in practice on a weekly basis, repetitions that have been repeatedly put to use this season. Fifteen of UW’s 23 games have had single-digit final margins, including three in a row and seven out of the last 11 decided by six points or less.
Recent history said UW will be in that position several more times over the final month of the season. When they are, the Badgers are confident that Hepburn’s decisions will be the right ones.
“His effort, his attitude in practice every day is awesome,” Klesmit said. “He comes in ready to work, ready to go. Everybody is held accountable, and it starts with him at the top. His role on this team as a point guard, he’s done a really good job and he’s improving. Moving forward, I don’t see anything different with that.”
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