Ready to be road warriors?
Zak Showalter believes Wisconsin’s non-conference schedule has left the team prepared for the road ahead.
That road is a tough one: at No. 25 Indiana (10-4, 0-1 Big Ten) and at No. 20 Purdue (12-3, 1-1) in a span of six days.
The 11th-ranked Badgers (12-2, 1-0) face Indiana, which is 9-1 at home, at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Hoosiers saw their 26game home winning streak snapped by Nebraska, 87-83, last week.
UW then faces Purdue at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. The Boilermakers had won 25 of their last 27 home games before suffering a stunning 91-82 overtime loss to Minnesota on Sunday. Purdue plays Thursday at Ohio State before hosting UW.
UW has played five games away from the Kohl Center this season — road games against Creighton and Marquette and three games in the Maui Invitational.
“Games like Marquette and Creighton — going into atmospheres like that — really help,” said Showalter, a fifth-year senior guard. “Especially when your first Big Ten road game is in Assembly Hall.”
And your second is at Mackey Arena.
“We’ve got be ready to go,” Showalter said.
UW’s players didn’t handle the intensity of Creighton’s players and
the home crowd and suffered a 79-67 defeat.
The Badgers didn’t play well in the championship game of the Maui Invitational and suffered a 71-56 loss to then-No. 4 North Carolina.
UW dominated the second half and silenced the BMO Harris Bradley Center crowd in a 93-84 victory over Marquette.
“Creighton was really a hostile environment and North Carolina was on a neutral court,” UW assistant Lamont Paris said. “I think it was great for guys just to be in that atmosphere, an NCAA Tournament-type atmosphere early on in the season. We’ve learned how you have to compete and how mistakes are magnified and what you have to do to climb out of a hole if you’re in one. It is different when you are in the comfort of your own building.”
The UW staff has also seen a team that has won eight consecutive games since the loss to the Tar Heels and is more cohesive offensively than it was after 14 games last season, when Greg Gard had only two games on his résumé as head coach.
“We are so far ahead in a lot of different aspects,” Paris said. “We’ve had more consistency and continuity in everything we’ve been doing.”
Compare the 14-game numbers from last season to this season.
Last season: UW was averaging 69.4 points per game and shooting 41.6%. Opponents were averaging 64.7 points per game and shooting 42.0%.
This season: UW is averaging 77.6 points per game and shooting 48.5%. Opponents are averaging 58.8 points per game and shooting 38.8%.
UW’s assist total is up to 214 from 169 at this point last season.
“We’ve had the same coach for over a year now,” redshirt sophomore Ethan Happ said. “We’re making reads on offense now that we wouldn’t have made last year. Last year we would have to call things that we’re doing instinctually now.”
Turnovers continue to be an issue. UW suffered 13 turnovers in the Big Ten opener against Rutgers, most unforced, and is averaging 11.7 per game.
“It was a lot of self-inflicted decisions that we made,” Gard said, “specifically in the first half.”
Free throws have been an issue, too, with Happ shooting just 48.9%. However, UW in the last two games has shot a combined 79.5% from the line (31 of 39).
“That is one of the things that we know can kill you down the stretch,” said Showalter, who is shooting 82.6% from the line. “If you look back through the years, teams that shoot free throws do well at closing out games.
“I think we understand that . ... We don’t want that to be a weakness.”