UW believes it will play well in Indianapolis
MADISON – His basketball team has lost three consecutive games, five of its last six and hasn’t won consecutive games since the middle of January.
So why are Wisconsin Greg Gard and the players confident the sixth-seeded Badgers are capable of enjoying an extended stay in the Big Ten tournament this week in Indianapolis?
They believe that despite suffering four-point losses to Purdue and Iowa in the final week of the regular season,
they are playing better overall than they did in February.
“I like where everybody’s head is at,” said senior guard D’Mitrik Trice, who was named a consensus third-team, allBig Ten pick on Tuesday. “I think that we’re trending in the right direction at the right time.”
UW (16-11) opens at approximately 8 p.m. Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium against either No. 11 Penn State (10-13) or No. 14 Nebraska (7-19).
The Nittany Lions and Cornhuskers are scheduled to meet at approximately 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The Badgers placed five players in double-figure points against Purdue but suffered a 73-69 loss in large part because they allowed 21 points to freshman center Zach Edey and allowed a total of 36 points in the paint.
“Even though our offense has been clicking,” Trice said, “we’re still having lapses on defense.”
The Badgers placed three players in double figure points against Iowa, led by Micah Potter with 23, shot a respectable 37.5% from three-point range and shot 53.3% overall in the second half.
“We’ve gotten a lot better, specifically offensively,” Potter said. “You want to peak at the right time and we’re trending in that direction.”
UW wiped out a 12-point second-half deficit and led by four with 2 minutes 26 seconds left before Iowa closed with a 12-4 run.
“I think shot selection has improved,” Gard said Tuesday. “I think we’ve gotten better at screening, cutting…moving the ball via the pass and minimizing the dribble. Any really good offensive team, the ball typically flies more through the air than it does get put on the floor…
“They’ve given us great effort. They’ve given us great focus. They’ve done what we’ve asked. We haven’t been perfect, but they’ve battled and have played better basketball here.
“I’d like to see them get rewarded for it but we’ve got to continue to do things (better) for longer stretches and more consistently and clean up some of the mistakes that cost us, specifically against these teams that are playing at a high level or are high-level teams.”
Two missed box-outs in the final 2:16 at Iowa proved costly.
Freshman Jonathan Davis hit a three-pointer to give UW a 69-65 lead with 2:26 left but then allowed Keegan Murray to grab an offensive rebound after Luka Garza missed a three-pointer. Murray scored while being fouled by Brad Davison and hit the free throw to cut UW’s lead to 69-68 with 2:16 left.
Murray got the better of Aleem Ford in the final minute after Connor McCaffery missed the second of two free throws.
Murray grabbed the rebound and called timeout to give Iowa the ball with 44.8 seconds left in a tie game. That lead to Trice committing his fifth foul with 34.3 seconds left while guarding Jordan Bohannon, who made three free throws for a 74-71 lead.
The miscues contributed to the defeat but didn’t obscure the fact UW played better in defeats to Purdue and Iowa than it had in other recent games, including victories over Nebraska and Northwestern.
"You look across the league,” Gard said. “Every team has gone through what you may call a bottoming out.”
Top-seeded Michigan has lost two of its last three games. Third-seeded Iowa lost four of five games, from Jan. 21 through Feb. 7. Fourth-seeded Purdue was 1-3 after four league games.
Fifth-seeded Ohio State enters the tournament on a four-game losing streak.
“This league is so good that you can play well and still get beat,” Gard said. “You go up and down the list."
UW went 0-8 against the five teams that finished higher in the league standings -- 0-2 vs. Michigan, 0-2 vs. Illinois, 0-2 vs. Iowa, 0-1 vs. Purdue and 0-1 vs. Ohio State.
"Regular season is over with," Potter said. "We’re 0-0…We play Thursday night. That’s all we know. Guys are looking forward to it. We’re excited about it.
"That is the mentality in the locker room. Guys are ready for the Big Ten tournament."