UW players, coaches say team is on right path
Morale good despite King’s departure
MINNEAPOLIS – Eighty minutes of inspired play brought only one victory, not the two Wisconsin basketball coach Greg Gard and his players coveted.
Yet that victory – a one-point decision Saturday over Michigan State – allowed the players and coaches to survive a tumultuous nine-day run and could turn out to be a catalyst for success in the second half of Big Ten play.
“I think the camaraderie between the players, and between the players and the coaches is at an all-time high,” redshirt junior guard D'Mitrk Trice said this week. “I think the biggest thing we can take away from Saturday is that we played together as a team. We played for one another. …
“I think that is the biggest thing we took away from last week, not so much what we lost but what we gained.”
To review: Kobe King left the team Jan. 25, one day after going scoreless in a 7051 loss at Purdue and two days before the Badgers faced another daunting road test, against Iowa.
With King back home and all signs pointing to his transfer, it was understandable to question whether the Badgers would fracture and get run out of the gym by the Hawkeyes.
Instead, UW built a double-digit lead in the second half before faltering in the final seven minutes en route to a 68-62 loss.
Two days later, King announced
via Instagram he was transferring and the Big Ten slapped a one-game suspension on Brad Davison for his Flagrant 1 foul in the loss to Iowa.
“It was an emotional roller-coaster,” freshman Tyler Wahl said.
Despite the absence of King and Davison, UW’s players fashioned arguably their best overall performance of the season to hand then-No. 14 Michigan State a 64-63 defeat.
“We’ve got two games now where we have had that effort,” guard Brevin Pritzl said. “We were able to come out with a win in the second one. Now it is about: ‘Can we sustain that effort the rest of the games?’ ”
The first opportunity to answer that question comes when UW (13-9, 6-5 Big Ten) faces host Minnesota (11-10, 5-6) at 8 p.m. Wednesday on BTN.
“I think we’ve just got to come in with the same mindset that we did on Saturday,” Trice said. “Continue to stay together, play as a team, play for one another and believe in what the coaches are doing.
“If we continue to do that, I think we’re going to be a hard team to stop.”
The back-to-back road losses to Purdue and Iowa, coupled with King’s decision to leave the team, gave some fans the impression the locker room was dysfunctional and the season was on the brink.
Yet even after seeing his team waste a 12-point lead at Iowa, Gard insisted he was encouraged by the effort the players gave on both ends of the court.
That effort was lacking at Purdue as UW fell into an 18-point hole after one half and endured a 42-16 beating on the glass.
“I think that was encouraging to see that we could come out and battle against a really good Iowa team on their home court,” Trice said.
UW athletic director Barry Alvarez visited the players in the days leading to the Michigan State game.
“He was honestly just firing us up,” Trice said, “telling us that we’ve got to stick together, play for one another and go out there and fight until the buzzer sounds.”
The Badgers looked like a rejuvenated team against the Spartans. They built a 16-point halftime lead on 57.7% shooting and then withstood several second-half rallies.
Afterward, Gard stressed how proud he was of the players in the UW locker room, players who understood what it means to don a UW jersey.
“They understand they represent a lot more than themselves,” he said. “There’s a lot of former players that take pride in having worn that jersey and what that means.”
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo saluted UW’s play but cautioned he has seen other teams rally for one game in the face of adversity, only to struggle to maintain that effort and focus.
“Wisconsin’s challenge will be can they come back the next game,” he said.
“Because there is always the first game when you are going through adversity and you reach down and play at a different level.”
UW assistant Dean Oliver understands that line of thinking. Yet like Trice and Gard, he spoke confidently about the direction of the team and the mood in the locker room.
“We are together and guys are focused on the right things,” Oliver said. “Guys know we are starting to get to where we want to be as a unit and we’ve just got to continue on that path ...
“We understand social media and what people say. We also know what is going on here, what’s going on in our locker room. We like what we see and we are seeing some results now. That shows we are together. There is no hiding how guys are playing.
“I don’t know how people want to spin it or what is being said about us, but I am sure that we are together and we’re playing together and we’re having some fun.”