It was obvious that defense was the key to Wisconsin’s 86-55 victory over Penn State Saturday. And having a sound defense in basketball is like having a sound platform in politics. As flashy as a team might look, its lack of substance will soon be exploited.
Against the Lions, however, the Badgers showed that they contain plenty of substance. When center Jan Jagla and forward Robert Summers, 7-feet and 6-foot-11 respectively, took the floor, UW forwards Mike Wilkinson and Alando Tucker looked a little like dwarves lost in a redwood forest.
Yet when the Lions tried to exploit this size advantage by employing a high-low technique with their towering big men, Wilkinson and Tucker refused to be intimidated. By the end of the game, with Dave Mader and Andreas Helmigk coming in to play some defense down low as well, Jagla and Summers had combined for just nine points.
“I’m sure there were people going, wow, look at those matchups, we’re going to get killed inside,” said UW head coach Bo Ryan, who is accustomed to coaching smaller teams. “I think our guys showed that positioning and heart had something to do with the difference in the total number of inches. So was I worried or concerned about [the size difference]? Not really, because we’ve been in those situations before.”
If the Wisconsin big men play their defense with positioning and heart, then the guards seem to play their defense with three arms apiece. Devin Harris seemed to be constantly pestering the ball on the defensive end, winding up with three steals. He also had the assignment of guarding Brandon Watkins, Penn State’s leading scorer. Watkins finished with only two points on 1-8 shooting and did not get to the free-throw line once.
While Harris finished with 14 points and seven assists on the offensive end, Ryan was much more impressed with what he did on the other end of the court.
“Just look at his line (offensively). He got it done,” Ryan said. “But the coach sees his matchup on the other end. What does it say for his matchup, 1-8? So I thought all around he played a great game.”
“I just wanted to take away his ability in transition,” Harris said of defending Watkins. “He likes to score a lot in transition. If we got back and got set, (we knew) he wouldn’t be as effective as he normally is.”
Freddie Owens is also known for his tenacious defensive play. Owens drew the assignment of guarding Sharif Chambliss, Penn State’s other explosive guard. Although Chambliss wound up with 20 points, it took him 17 shots to do so. Many of his points also came late in the game when the outcome was already decided.
Yet despite the defensive effort, Ryan was clearly unhappy with the way his team played in the last five minutes of the contest, during which the Lions scored 15 points.
“I reminded them that 15 points in the last five minutes, that’s a 120-point game we just played defensively,” he said. “They hit some threes at the end and you don’t get real excited about it, but you just say things like this can happen. You hit two or three of those at the end of an 18-point game, all of a sudden, if it gets under 10, we all know what can happen.”
Nonetheless, it’s easy to see why Wisconsin (15-4 overall, 5-2 Big Ten) has been so successful when looking at their defensive stats. Heading into last week’s games against Northwestern and Penn State, the Badgers led the Big Ten in scoring defense, allowing just 59.8 points per game. They were also second in the conference in turnover margin, at plus 3.76. There’s no doubt those numbers improved after Saturday’s game, during which they held the Lions to 34 percent shooting and forced 15 turnovers, 11 of them off steals.
The Badgers also added a little style to their substance, with three second-half fast-break dunks created directly off steals. While it was the dunks and not the defense that brought the crowd to its feet, it is clear that the defense will keep this team on the winning track.
