After narrowly avoiding what would have been a devastating home loss to Illinois this past Sunday, Wisconsin heads back out on the road for another opportunity to bolster its NCAA Tournament résumé.
The Badgers (9-5 Big Ten, 17-10 overall) will take on No. 8 Iowa (11-3, 20-6) Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Much like last week’s road game against Michigan State, a loss wouldn’t do much, if any, damage to their NCAA Tournament prospects, while a win would go a long way in helping solidify their spot on the right side of the bubble.
The Hawkeyes are a team that caught much of the country by surprise this season. Expectations weren’t particularly high heading into the year (they weren’t even ranked in the preseason top 25), but thanks to a core group of upperclassmen, they’ve excelled and find themselves in the hunt for a Big Ten title.
“We know Iowa is a very good team, very experienced with four seniors. The development of [junior guard] Peter Jok has been terrific, how he's evolved. Obviously, [Adam] Woodbury, [Mike] Gesell, [Anthony] Clemmons and [Jarrod] Uthoff being the other four that are seniors,” UW interim head coach Greg Gard said during a press conference Monday. “It's a team that's had a terrific year. They're still in the hunt. We're obviously chasing them, but they're right in the mix for the league title. They're well positioned for postseason play.”
Uthoff and Jok have been the engines of the Iowa offense, averaging 18.8 and 16.3 points per game, respectively, with Uthoff, a former Wisconsin transfer, catching a lot of attention. The senior forward is also averaging 6.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 41.6 percent from 3-point range. Not surprisingly, he’s considered one of the frontrunners in the Big Ten Player of the Year race.
“He's turned into a terrific player,” Gard said. “That's why we recruited him. He's gone on to have a fantastic career at Iowa and done really well. I'm not surprised. He really showed signs of that the year he redshirted here.”
But despite their success this season, the Hawkeyes have struggled a bit over the past couple of weeks. Iowa has dropped two out of its last three; losing on the road to Indiana and Penn State, with the one win being a 75-71 victory at home against a dismal Minnesota team.
One glaring reason for the recent slump has been declining production from their bench. In the Hawkeyes’ first 10 games of conference play, their bench averaged 17.1 points per game. Over the previous four games, their reserves are scoring 6 points per game, including a zero-point showing in their loss to the Hoosiers.
Sophomore forward Dom Uhl, Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery’s most-used reserve this season, has been front and center during the slide. Uhl went 27 of 60 (.450) from the field and averaged 19.9 minutes of playing time in the Hawkeyes’ first 10 conference games, but has gone just 4 of 15 (.267) and is averaging 12.8 minutes over the last four.
While Uthoff, Jok and the rest of Iowa’s experienced starting five can match any starting rotation in the Big Ten, the bench’s recent struggles have forced them to shoulder more of the load, which in turn may be part of the reason why the starting five hasn’t looked as sharp over the past couple of weeks.
If the Badgers are to go into Carver-Hawkeye Arena and pull off the upset, they’ll need to do a better job of defending at the perimeter. Iowa ranks third in the Big Ten in 3-point field goal percentage (38.5 percent) during conference play, while Wisconsin is dead last in the conference in opponent 3-point field goal percentage (40.1 percent).
While the exact reasons for the Badgers’ struggles in this particular area are tough to pinpoint, a couple players have theories on what they could be doing better while guarding the perimeter that may help.
“Keeping a hand high,” junior forward Nigel Hayes said. “A lot of times, we’re out there guarding the person, but our hands are kinda either down or to our sides, and that allows for a comfortable look for someone out there. So we’re going to have to do a better job of, when we’re on the ball, keeping a hand up and discouraging the shot.”
“Just contest shooters,” redshirt junior guard Zak Showalter said. “I thought we did a better job [against Illinois] of forcing them to take tough twos. They made a lot of the tough twos, but it’s just something where we’ve got to run them off the line and hopefully improve in that area.”
Like last week, Wisconsin will be heading into a hostile environment looking for another road win over a ranked opponent. But whereas Michigan State entered its matchup with UW playing arguably its best basketball of the season, Iowa comes in having looked as vulnerable as any point in the year over the past couple weeks.
Given the Hawkeyes’ recent struggles, Wednesday night might be the Badgers’ best opportunity to pick up one more marquee victory in the final stretch of the regular season.
