Focusing on error of their ways
Madison — Bronson Koenig hasn’t watched a recording of the game and has no plans to review the lowlights to relive how careless he and his teammates were with the basketball.
“Hell, no,” Wisconsin’s senior guard said after practice Monday. “It wasn’t my best game for sure.”
The game in question: Greg Gard’s debut as UW’s interim head coach last season against visiting UWGreen Bay.
After UW survived 26 turnovers and nearly blew a 30-point lead in the final 121⁄2 minutes, Gard was waiting for Koenig.
“I just remember Coach Gard in the hallway (saying): ‘You all right?’ ” said Koenig, who had seven turnovers in the second half and eight overall in the 84-79 victory. “I remember getting the ball stolen, just losing it when I’d try to go one-on-one. That never happens to me."
Gard and his players get to re-
visit that night at 8 p.m. Wednesday when No. 14 UW (9-2) hosts UWGreen Bay (4-5).
“Obviously I remember 26 turnovers,” Gard joked during the Big Ten coaches’ teleconference when asked about his debut.
The turnover total stood at 11, including just one in the second half, when the Badgers built their lead to 68-38 on two free throws by Nigel Hayes with 13 minutes 1 second remaining.
UW withered against UW-Green Bay’s fullcourt pressure and turned the ball over 15 times in the final 12:43.
Koenig had seven of the turnovers, followed by Ethan Happ and Vitto Brown with two apiece and one each by Zak Showalter, Jordan Hill, Khalil Iverson and Alex Illikainen.
UW turned the ball over on eight consecutive possessions, including six that resulted in no shot attempt.
“We couldn’t get out of our own way,” said UW assistant Lamont Paris. “It was decisions at times. Other times it was just skill and ability — something you’ve done 100 times — just not completing a pass or dribbling it off your own foot.”
UW-Green Bay enters Wednesday forcing 15.9 turnovers per game, a drop of one per game from last season.
UW committed 105 turnovers in its first eight games this season, an average of 13.1. That included a high mark of 18 in a victory over Tennessee in Maui and a low mark of 11, against three teams.
In the last three games, however, UW has committed only 24 turnovers, an average of 8.0. That is the best threegame stretch under Gard, who is 24-10 overall since replacing Bo Ryan last December.
The reasons, according to Gard: Wiser decisions, better angles when feeding the post and players understanding they will be asked to take a seat on the bench if they get too careless with the ball.
"If I turn the ball over I’m coming out of the game," said Happ, who has had just four turnovers in the last three games. "I’m trying to stay in the game as long as possible."
Gard wants to see the numbers continue to dwindle.
“We’re getting better, better than we were three or four weeks ago," he said. "But I’d like to cut it back even more if we can.”
So does Koenig, who committed 15.4% of his turnovers (8 of 52) in one game last season. Minus the game against the Phoenix, Koenig averaged 1.3 per game.
His roommates, buddies from high school, still tease him about that night.
"My roommates always give me crap about it," he said. "Whenever the word Green Bay is mentioned — eight turnovers.
"They are brutal to me. They won’t let me forget it."