It’s hard to label junior point guard Chucky Hepburn in a slump with everything he’s doing for the University of Wisconsin.
Captaining an offense that is averaging 76.0 points per game and shooting 50 percent in Big Ten play, Hepburn ranks among the Big Ten's top four in both assist-to-TO ratio (2.9) and steals (2.1). This season, he has more steals (40) than turnovers (26), often doing it guarding the opposing team’s best guard.
But when it comes to putting the ball in the basket, Hepburn is still struggling to find his shooting stoke, averaging career-lows in scoring (7.5 ppg), field goal shooting (37.1), and three-point shooting (27.7). It’s a head-scratching problem that he hasn’t firmly put his finger on.
“I’m always trying to find ways to get better and more efficient on the offensive part,” Hepburn said. “Once I find how to constantly be efficient, it will be a real positive. It’s all about getting more reps up, more shots up outside of practice. That’s what I’ve been doing the last couple of days, and I believe the shots will start falling.”
Finding field goals has been elusive since he opened the season with 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting. Despite starting every game, Hepburn has scored in double figures five times and hit over 40 percent of his shots three times. In 35 games last season, Hepburn was in double figures 24 times with shooting nights better than 40 percent 14 times.
Hepburn and assistant coach Sharif Chambliss have studied the shot chart from both practices and games. Even though Hepburn is averaging over four shots fewer per game compared to last season, his number of Grade-A shots has increased.
“Shot selection has been good,” Chambliss said. “It’s something he’ll work through. He’s been in this program for three years. He’s done a great job. It’ll work itself out because he’s playing the right way.”
Hepburn is a rare breed, a guard who has had to play a different way each season on campus. He started every game as a freshman on a team of veterans, acting as their offensive facilitator while earning their trust to hit big shots, like banking in the winning three-pointer against Purdue to clinch the Big Ten championship in 2022.
He was the offense last year, shouldering the team’s scoring burden while still trying to create opportunities for others in what was an up-and-down campaign. He’s willingly taken a step back this season while becoming an under-the-radar defender, pestering Michigan State leading scorer Tyson Walker on a night where he went 4-for-14 from the floor.
It reminded Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo of former point guard Mateen Cleaves, who willingly took a step back offensively his final two seasons in favor of others, resulting in the Spartans winning the Big Ten’s last national championship in 2000.
“When he came here, it was like he wanted to score, and now he just runs their team,” Izzo said of Hepburn. “He just does all the things. He’s a coach’s dream. He runs the team, he checks the best player, he’s never ever out of control … His whole demeanor and the change in his game in the three years has been something as a coach you envy and respect.”
It’s one of the reasons why alarm bells haven’t gone off with Hepburn or the Badgers staff regarding Hepburn’s shot, but it begs the question of whether Wisconsin needs Hepburn to be a bigger scoring threat to win the Big Ten and make a deep run in March.
That theory will be tested starting tonight for No.6 Wisconsin (16-4, 8-1 Big Ten), which could drop out of first place in the Big Ten with a loss tonight against Nebraska (15-6, 5-5 Big Ten) at Pinnacle Bank Arena, a venue where the Huskers haven’t lost to a conference team.
Hepburn knows the arena well, having attended games there as a fan and a recruit. As a prep standout at Omaha Bellevue West, he made two state championship appearances in the building with one victory. He won there as a college freshman with 13 points (5-for-9 FG), three rebounds, three steals, two steals, and one turnover. He scored a team-high 19 points in the building last season in an overtime loss.
“Chucky knows when he needs to be assertive and when he doesn’t,” Chambliss said. “As long as he keeps playing within himself and leading this team, especially defensively, I think we’re in a good spot.”
“I ain’t worried about it. Chucky is a gamer. When it’s on the line, we know what it is with Chuck.”
“What it is” is a point guard who has firm control over every aspect of his game except for seeing his shots go through the net. But if it doesn’t come, and he still gets the ball to the hot shooter, Hepburn is perfectly content as long as the wins keep piling up.
“When I see other guys, like Max Klesmit or A.J. Storr going off, I know to get them the ball,” Hepburn said. “It helps out really well for us because we’re winning. That’s all that matters right now. Once they get going, the whole team gets going and we get better on defense. That’s really what’s going to make us a great team.
“All I really want to do is win at the end of the day. I don’t care about the percentage. I do, but I just want to do whatever it takes to win. Whether it’s diving on the floor for loose balls or guarding the best defender, whatever I have to do at the end of the day, I’m going to do.”
