Wisconsin Basketball: 3 takeaways in from Badgers loss to Ohio State

A battle of top 15 teams in Madison turned out to be not all that competitive, as the Ohio State Buckeyes ended their 3-game losing streak against the Badgers on Saturday. Coming into the game Wisconsin Basketball had won 18 of 19 games at home, but they came out flat and Ohio State wasn’t really challenged until the final minutes of the game.

It’s certainly not a bad loss but this was definitely a game the Badgers were expected to win at home against a team battling some injuries. E.J. Liddell led the way for OSU with 20 points and seven rebounds and was too much for the Badgers to overcome. The top Big Ten teams will continue to trade wins with each other throughout the rest of the year, but here are some takeaways from today’s matchup.

1. Pace of play is a double-edged sword

Wisconsin basketball is notorious for being slower-paced and routed in fundamentals, normally giving them a significant edge in the turnover margin. While this can certainly play to their strengths at times, a slow start from Wisconsin (just 1-8 from the field in the first few minutes) can be hard for this team to make up. Even with multiple wide-open shots throughout the game most of them just didn’t look natural and there was no rhythm for the first 30 minutes.

The Badgers will use just about the entire shot clock during a possession, but a cold-shooting day caught up with the team quickly and just couldn’t overcome a second-half deficit as high as13-points. The team started to press and committed an uncharacteristic amount of turnovers and mental mistakes down the stretch.

2. Get back to the basics

For whatever reason today this was just not a traditional Wisconsin basketball performance. Entering the game shooting about 40% from behind the arc, at one point the team was a mere 2/16 from deep. They kept shooting and eventually got some to fall, but it was too little too late and could have benefited from more looks in the paint and getting to the line. A bigger effort to drive and get to the rim would have helped build some confidence and get higher percentage shots and chances to get to the line.

After some halftime adjustments, the Badgers slowly crept back into the game, cutting the lead to four late in the second half. Some miscommunication and not being set on the defensive side gave throughout the game OSU some easy transition looks. Credit to the Buckeyes for moving the ball well and getting Wisconsin out of position but they made it look too easy at times.

3. The offense needs a spark

This can be put in the “intangible” category but this did not look like a top ten team for most of the game today. There were multiple times where players were visibly frustrated and the Buckeyes just looked more prepared and wanted it more. On a tough shooting day with airballs coming from multiple players, the Badgers could have used someone to get into takeover mode.

That might have been what Greg Gard was hoping to get out of Micah Potter against his former team with, but a tough day overall shooting from the Badgers proved to be too much to overcome. Wisconsin hasn’t scored more than 70 points since their double-overtime win against Indiana on January 7th and will need to be a point of emphasis heading deeper into conference play.

Wisconsin gets two bounceback opportunities against Maryland and Penn State in the next two games.