MADISON, Wis. – A little bit of human nature injected itself into the University of Wisconsin’s film sessions over the last five weeks.

While head coach Greg Gard and the staff point out clips and pointers of the negative, the games the Badgers kept adding to the win column made some of the teaching points hard to fully grasp.

“Things are always good, the vibes are always better after you win,” graduate forward Tyler Wahl said. “They may get pointed out, but they may not hit as hard.”

The film session packed a wallop on Wednesday, seeing their six-game win streak end after a defensive dud at Penn State. Playing a team that came in shooting under 30 percent from three-point range and under 44.0 percent overall, Penn State made 8 of 20 three-pointers (40.0 percent) and 32 of 60 shots overall (53.3 percent), as the Badgers lack of ball screen defense and inability to help and recover on screens allowed Nittany Lions guards Kanye Clary and Ace Baldwin to combine for 47 points.

“After a loss, it exposes certain things you don’t see after a win when stuff kind of gets brushed under the rug,” forward Steven Crowl said. “It’s about team defense and helping each other, not relying so much on one-on-one. After you lose, everything is magnified. It’s a bigger deal.”

A common thread in UW’s losses has been the inability to slow quicker guards. Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht had 24 points, Providence guards Devin Carter and Jayden Pierre scored 34 points on 11-for-15 shooting, Arizona guards Pelle Larson and Caleb Love combined for 41,

All four teams ran different offenses, but all averaged over a point per possession because their guards were able to get downhill without a ton of resistance. Arizona and Penn State’s guards had 17 assists to three turnovers.

“It was a team effort,” Wahl said of the Penn State loss. “Me and Steve didn’t do a great job stopping the ball, and the guards didn’t do the best job of getting back in front. There were a lot of things we really could have done better. The thing with the film is you’ve got to take what Coach Gard says, learn from it, and move on to next.”

For all that has been made about the improvement in Wisconsin’s offense, averaging 10.3 points more per game than last season, the Badgers have given up an average of a three-pointer more than last year.

It’s a small margin, yes, partially due to playing a stronger nonconference schedule than last season, but a stat that emphasized to Crowl that the group still has a lot of growing to do.

“We brought back a lot of the same guys, so not a lot should change there,” Crowl said. “These losses help us reset, wake us up a little bit to what we need to work on, and hopefully correct that to get that number down.”

After suffering consecutive losses to Tennessee and Providence, the Badgers rebounded by winning six straight. Following a blowout loss at No.1 Arizona, UW peeled off another six wins. Starting another win streak will depend on how Wisconsin (15-4, 5-1 Big Ten) tackles a drastically different challenge tonight when it hosts Indiana (7:30 p.m./FS1).

While just 1.5 games behind Wisconsin in the jumbled Big Ten standings, the Hoosiers (12-6, 4-3) have been a mess offensively. Indiana ranks 125th in the nation in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric, 97 spots lower than it did last season when it finished second in the league and made the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

And unlike most teams on UW’s schedule, the Hoosiers are forward dominant with sophomore Malik Reneau (15.8), freshman Mackenzie Mgbako (10.4), and center Kel’el Ware (14.2). Indiana averages 37.7 points per game in the paint and shoots 52.9 percent (388-of-734) from inside the arc. The Hoosiers hold opponents to 27.8 points per night in the key.

Indiana’s guards are not as efficient. Sixth-year captain and point guard Xavier Johnson has had more flagrant fouls (2) than field goals (1) in the last three games and has committed 13 turnovers to nine assists in the five games since returning from a foot injury.

Freshman Gabe Cupps has seen increased time but is averaging only 2.7 points on 35.4 percent shooting.

In Tuesday’s 87-66 blowout home loss to No.2 Purdue, the Hoosiers were just 2 of 12 from 3-point range, shot 35 percent in the first half, and couldn’t contain Purdue center Zach Edey because Mgbako and Ware battled foul trouble.

“It’s a totally different approach,” Gard said. “It was a little helter skelter on Tuesday … (Indiana) is a team that plays through paint. Much like we do. Much like Purdue does. It is going to have a different feel in terms of the schematic and the approach to it. There might not be two more teams that are night and day different in terms of contrasting styles and approaches."

Indiana is 11th in the Big Ten in scoring (73.9 ppg) and ninth in the league in three-point shooting (33.0 percent), but both Crowl and Wahl know that the Hoosiers’ strength will directly challenge them around the basket for 40 minutes.

“The physicality that’s going to be played with, they’re going to bring it, we’re going to bring it,” Crowl said. “It’s going to be the battle of the bigs down low. Attacking them and making them play defense is a big thing.”

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