Wisconsin Basketball: 2018-19 keys for Badgers to beat Maryland at home

2. Wisconsin has to make shots early

Wisconsin can’t start the way they did at Maryland. They should never begin a game like that ever again. That was pretty embarrassing. Maryland does have a pretty decent defense, but only scoring 15 points in the first half isn’t right. Somehow they still finished with a better shooting percentage than the Terps. A big reason was because they couldn’t shoot to save their lives in the second half. Wisconsin just dug themselves that big of a hole that it was pretty impossible to win the game.

But it was certainly Nate Reuvers coming out party in the second half. Ethan Happ had four fouls for most of the second half, so it was up to the sophomore to lead the front court. Aleem Ford did play 18 minutes, but he’s more of a win player than anything. Charles Thomas was only the court for seven minutes. But the young big man knocked down four-triples to try and save Wisconsin.

That can’t happen again. It would probably be easier to come back from that kind of a deficit at home, but the Kohl Center will get quiet awfully fast and that’s not a good thing. They need that place rocking like it did against Michigan. They’re already calling for a white-out on Friday night. The snow and brutal cold will be just clearing up by then so expect a packed house.

The good thing is that D’Mitrik Trice and Brad Davison seem to be in a stride now. When those two and Happ are all on in the same night, Wisconsin is scary good. Kobe King is still trying to work out the kinks off the bench and Brevin Pritzl is a streaky scorer. Greg Gard needs to tell his club to just keep doing what they have been since the Maryland loss and it will be a different result.