Rhode Island Basketball: 3 reasons why Rams fell to Wisconsin Badgers

Did not generate enough turnovers

If I had to describe Wisconsin’s ball club in two words, I would probably go with “well coached”. While it helps to have veteran players such as Brad Davison and D’Mitrik Trice running the show, Greg Gard (Wisconsin’s Head Coach) does a terrific job of getting his players to execute the sets that he calls out during games.

I think that because Rhode Island wasn’t able to thrive in their half-court offense on Wednesday, and couldn’t force the Badgers to make more mistakes, they didn’t get themselves a chance to succeed in the contest. Generating nine turnovers is okay if you are able to put together one solid offensive possession after another, but if you look lost on that end of the floor repeatedly, you’re going to have to rely on steals and transition buckets, if you wish to win the game.

As I stated in a previous article, I understand that a college basketball game is not finished after the first 20 minutes of play, but when you are only able to score 16 points in those first 20 minutes (and you give up 33 points), you need to ramp your defensive intensity up in the final 20 minutes. While there are a few players on Rhode Island’s roster that could’ve helped turned the Badgers over more often, Fatts Russell is the one player that I expected to come up with more steals (he finished with 1).

He was already having a pretty rough offensive game going into halftime, so by collecting 3, 4, or even five steals, Russell could have converted some easy buckets, that would’ve helped him build his confidence back up.

I am not saying that Russell or any other Rams player should have been overly aggressive on the defensive end, but they certainly needed to try and make the Badgers uncomfortable, and look for opportunities to poke the ball away (like when D’Mitrik Trice had his back turned for instance).

If the Rams can make sure that their half-court offense improves as the season progresses, they may not need to force a bunch of turnovers in order to come away with victories. However, if you were to sit down and talk to David Cox right now (who is Rhode Island’s head coach), he would probably tell you that his team performs at a higher level when they can make teams play on their heels, by playing an up-tempo style of basketball (which is achieved by getting teams to surrender the ball more often and making sure that guys fill the correct lanes, and are sprinting down the floor).

I think that this was a good test for the Rams because it showed them that when their offense begins to look dreadful, they need to do what they do best so that the game will be easier for them. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if Rhode Island is able to rebound on Sunday when they face off against Western Kentucky (a team that was picked to finish first in the C-USA).

Hopefully, the Rams will start playing Rhode Island basketball again, so that they can get quickly get back on the winning trail.