Over the past month, the No.7 Wisconsin Badgers (10-2 Big Ten, 21-4 overall) have grown numb to their poor offensive performances, surviving close game after close game.
But Sunday, the anesthesia wore off, as yet another poor offensive performance finally did the Badgers in. Turnovers, inconsistent shooting and poor transition defense plagued UW during their eight game winning streak. Sunday, the same issues presented themselves. There were no surprises—only frustration in Wisconsin’s 66-59 loss to Northwestern (8-4, 19-6).
Since Wisconsin’s overtime victory over Minnesota in mid-January, the Badgers haven’t shot better than 50 percent from the field. They needed overtime against Rutgers to score 61 points. They limped to 57 points against Illinois. Every possession was crucial for UW to scrape together 65 points against Indiana. And it was only the extra five minutes this past Thursday that allowed the Badgers to score 70 points against the Cornhuskers.
Those were all wins. Sunday’s loss to Northwestern makes their problems more real.
“Experience has been a great teacher,” senior forward Nigel Hayes said. “Apparently we have to lose in order to learn the things that we’ve already been saying.”
The last six games all felt like loses to Hayes, yet time and time again, they exited whatever arena they were playing in with a victory.
The turnovers, missed shots and poor transition defense finally caught up to them.
“Nothing that happened in this game is surprising in terms of areas that we need to improve upon,” head coach Greg Gard said.
Eight first-half turnovers led to nine Wildcat points.
Having only three made field goals in the final 13:13 of the first half, the Badgers allowed Northwestern to turn an early deficit into a nine-point halftime lead.
Wisconsin came out firing in the second half as a 10-0 run in the first 3:28 gave UW the lead back. But the Wildcats quickly answered with an 8-0 run of their own to regain the lead.
“When we made our run we really touched the post,” Gard said. “And then we went away from it and weren’t able to get back into that position again. By the time we got to it, they had rattled off a few points on the other end.”
The Badgers touched the post early in the game as redshirt sophomore forward Ethan Happ scored seven of the Badgers’ first nine points. Happ, though, would score only two more points in the remaining 34 minutes.
Bronson Koenig scored only two points the entire night as a lingering leg injury sustained in UW’s win over Penn State slowed the senior guard.
“I think the injury is a factor,” Gard said. “His acceleration off screens has obviously diminished a little bit.
Gard added that Koenig had some decent looks, but time and time again he didn’t take advantage of them.
“You’re gonna give up some open shots,” Northwestern head coach Chris Collins said. “So if you’re going to try to get it out of Ethan’s hands and get it out of Nigel’s hands, you’re probably gonna live with Vitto [Brown] shooting some open shots. [Zak] Showalter getting some open ones …You just hope maybe that they’re not hitting them all.”
The Badgers hit very few shots Sunday; they finished the game shooting 38 percent from the field.
Hayes compared the loss to putting his hand on a hot stove. The Badgers have inched closer to the burner in the past month, but they finally touched the flame Sunday.
“We’ve been having the same conversations,” Hayes said. “But for some reason, unfortunately, people listen more, we listen to each other, we listen to our coaches when we lose a game.”
Hayes led the Badgers with 13, but he received little offensive help from the rest of Wisconsin’s big three.
The Badgers closed the gap to four with 6:12 to go, but Northwestern answered on their ensuing possession.
UW was unable to muster a late run in the game’s final minutes. The loss puts the Badgers just half a game ahead of Maryland in the Big Ten title race.
Hayes said it best: “For some reason, you just don’t really touch the stove anymore.”
