After the Badgers (2-7 Big Ten, 6-13 overall) lost to Nebraska Wednesday, head coach Bobbie Kelsey was the most adamantly upset she has been all year. Generally, even after losses, Kelsey maintains a cool public demeanor. However, following the 75-62 loss, Kelsey exploded in the media room post-game, and her rant started trending all over the internet shortly thereafter.
Her main message? Hit your shots. This Badgers team, which is guard-heavy and projected to get most of their points off 3-pointers and pull-up jumpers, could not seem to hit any outside shots. In fact, the team shot only 11 percent from behind the arc in Wednesday’s loss.
Kelsey could not simply chalk this up to a bad shooting night. Instead, she knows that her team’s poor shooting is a result of not enough individual practice time in the gym.
“You gotta get your butt in the gym and practice,” Kelsey said repeatedly after the game. “Put the phones down. Stop FaceTiming. Stop Tweeting. And get your butt in the gym.”
Kelsey understands the demanding schedule her team endures, but still urges them to put any extra time they have into practicing their shooting.
“It doesn’t have to be an hour, or two hours. 20 minutes after practice every day. That’s it,” Kelsey said. “If people think they are going to get it on the pillow case, it’s not going to happen. You can’t nap your way to becoming a great shooter.”
Kelsey knows the potential her team has, but also knows this potential will be wasted if the team doesn’t put in extra work on their shooting. She even used NBA MVP Stephen Curry as an example to highlight the importance of shooting practice.
“Steph Curry will show you that. I saw him in high school. He looked like a two-year-old out there,” Kelsey said. “But the boy could shoot. So what did he do? He kept shooting.”
Going forward, Kelsey looks for her team to use that Curry-esque frame of mind in order to keep improving game to game.
The Badgers take on Michigan State (6-2, 15-4) for the second time this season Sunday. Kelsey knows that the team will have to come ready to shoot the ball if they hope to upset the No. 3 team in the Big Ten.
The Badgers played well in their first matchup with MSU this season, but ultimately lost 77-67. Wisconsin had one of its best shooting nights of the season that game, shooting 40 percent from both the floor and behind the arc. They will need to shoot as well again, if not better, to have a chance to pull this one out.
As per Wisconsin’s common narrative, it did not play well in the first half of that game. By halftime, the team had already dug themselves into a 15-point hole, which proved too deep to climb out of.
If the Badgers expect to pull out a win this time around, they are going to have to get up off their pillowcases, stop tweeting and find a way to simply shoot the ball well in all four quarters of the game.
