Brevin Pritzl has tried just about everything to get on the court. At the end of last year, the redshirt freshman began growing out his hair, hoping a “new year, new me” mantra would help him see the floor. He didn’t take a scissors to his hair until he had flowing blonde locks, sometimes containing them in a man bun. But basketball isn’t modeling; aesthetics don’t always matter.
Pritzl, who missed almost all of the 2015-’16 season with a broken left foot, has since cut his hair, channeling a similar look to what he donned on the pine last year. Until Sunday the sharp-shooting guard still struggled to find consistent minutes.
But Sunday afternoon, looks didn’t matter much. For extended stretches, No. 10 Wisconsin (9-1 Big Ten, 20-3 overall) struggled on the offensive end of the floor, yet UW had no problem grinding out a 65-60 victory over Indiana (5-6, 15-9). And Pritzl played the game’s final 12 minutes, not because he was prolific from behind the arc, but ironically, as a result of the effort he provided on both ends.
Sunday was certainly not the Brevin Pritzl show. The redshirt freshman received plenty of help from his teammates; specifically redshirt sophomore forward Ethan Happ and senior forward Nigel Hayes.
Happ led the Badgers yet again in scoring, finishing the game with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting. And Hayes chipped in 15 points and ten rebounds of his own, with some stellar defense to match.
Wisconsin never trailed Sunday, but there was nothing perfect about its performance.
“I’m not going to claim that it was our most intelligent display of basketball at times,” head coach Greg Gard said. “But we were able to do enough good things at the right times … We found another way to win yet again.”
With 12:19 to play in the game, Gard literally found another player to help his team to win, as he inserted Pritzl for the first time all night. 12 minutes later, the Badgers seemingly stumbled upon another key contributor.
“Today, I just kept liking what I was seeing,” Gard said. “He stayed in his lane, he didn’t try to do too much. He didn’t try to make up for lost time. He was just a solid contributor.”
Nothing about a six-point, 12-minute showing will jump off the stat sheet, but Pritzl, known mostly for his three-point range, did all the little things that Coach Gard has been looking for.
Over the past six to eight weeks, Gard has seen Pritzl take on a larger role in practice. He has occasionally worked out with the first team and has impressed the coaching staff with his increased effort level.
Gard noted that he’s diving on the floor more, taking charges, rebounding and taking better care of the basketball. In many ways, those qualities, along with his shooting touch, were why the Badgers recruited him a few years ago.
“I was just trying help out,” Pritzl said. “These guys get the offense moving, allow them to get open whether it’s cutting, screening, just trying to move and make their jobs easier by making other people pay attention to me.”
While Pritzl made a layup with just over ten minutes to play, ending a 7-0 Indiana run, it was his unselfishness minutes later that helped UW extend their five-point lead to eight.
With just over eight minutes remaining in the game, Hayes drew a double-team in the post, looking to make a play. The senior forward found Pritzl open at the top of the 3-point arc, but sensing a defender, Pritzl made the extra pass to redshirt senior guard Zak Showalter. Showalter then swung the basketball over to senior guard Bronson Koenig, who buried a triple in the right corner, giving UW what would turn out to be its largest lead of the second half.
Down the stretch, Gard stuck with Pritzl instead of senior forward Vitto Brown, as the redshirt freshman joined the other four Wisconsin starters during crunch time.
When the Badgers needed baskets, it was usually Happ or Hayes who provided them. But Pritzl converted all four of his free throw attempts in the final 4:34 to help seal UW’s victory.
At the end of Friday afternoon’s practice, Pritzl, Happ and redshirt Aleem Ford were forced to run eight sprints, sideline-to-sideline, after being the lone Badgers to miss their free throw attempts in Gard’s final drill.
Because Pritzl missed not one, but two free throws, it also doubled the amount of sprints the trio would have to run, from four to eight.
“I mean, I kind of messed up for Ethan on that one, made him run,” Pritzl said. “So I just had to get him back by making all four of these today.”
