UW basketball: Koenig, Brown look to rebound.
Koenig, Brown look to rebound
Madison — Bronson Koenig left Mackey Arena dispirited by his performance and disturbed that Wisconsin had suffered its first Big Ten loss.
But despite his quiet night in UW’s 11-point loss to Purdue, the senior guard also was strangely upbeat.
“I was as optimistic as I’ve ever been after a loss,” Koenig said after practice earlier this week. “I wasn’t super beat up that I only had nine points or that we lost the game, like I usually would have been. “We’ll be just fine.” Senior forward Vitto Brown, who suffered through arguably his worst game of the season, shared the same outlook.
“It was just an overall very bad performance,” Brown said of his contributions (zero points, one rebound, two turnovers and four fouls in 12 minutes). “I’m not going to say that I’m happy that it
happened. But I think I’ve been able to reflect on what happened and I think I’ve learned a lot already.
“There are some things I want to try to implement in the next game.”
Next for No. 17 UW (13-3, 2-1 Big Ten) is struggling Ohio State (10-6, 0-3) at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Kohl Center. The Buckeyes have lost by five points at Illinois, by one at home against Purdue and by 10 at Minnesota in league play.
Koenig’s No. 1 goal is to be more aggressive on offense than he was in the loss to Purdue.
The Boilermakers were determined to keep Koenig from getting open shots, particularly early. Guard P.J. Thompson shadowed Koenig from the opening tip. As a result, Koenig finished with only eight field-goal attempts. Four of those came in the final 3 minutes 47 seconds, with UW trailing by double digits. He entered the game averaging 11.7 field-goal attempts and 14.3 points per game. He made 1 of 4 three-pointers — with one second left in the game — and 3 of 8 shots overall.
“He didn’t leave me and he pressured the (expletive) out of me and I had a 7-footer running at me off a ball screen,” Koenig said, “but NBA guards can make something out of nothing.
“There were a lot of times where it seemed I didn’t have anything, but I’ve got to push the envelope a little bit more.”
Brown, who came in averaging 7.8 points and 4.1 rebounds, grabbed his lone rebound 15 seconds into the game, missed both three-point attempts and was called for a double-dribble after dribbling to the wing, stopping and inexplicably resuming his dribble.
UW associate head coach Lamont Paris noted Brown has to stick to his strengths: attacking the glass, being ready to shoot from the perimeter when he is open and avoiding dribbling into trouble.
“More than anything,
just play within yourself,” he said. “Some of these turnovers — putting the ball on the floor. ...
“You’re not focusing on the things you’ve been the best at, the things that have really highlighted how good you can be.
“It is not because he was attacking gaps off the dribble and making things happen.”
Brown is in a shooting slump, however.
After not attempting a three-pointer in his first two seasons, Brown shot 40% from beyond the arc last season (38 of 95).
Brown hit 4 of 5 threepointers against North Carolina in Maui to push his season numbers to 10 of 19 (52.6%). In the last 10 games, however, he has made just 10 of 41 attempts (24.4%)
“That’s a confidence thing,” Brown said. “It slipped a little bit. I wasn’t quite sure what I should be doing in the offense. I think I’ve got a clearer vision of that now.
“I’ve just got to let fly and not worry about the misses.”
Koenig might say the same about his game.