After only three minutes and 15 seconds had elapsed in UW’s game against Rutgers, Mike Wilkinson had already committed three turnovers, resulting in an unusually early trip to the bench to regain his composure. Instead of keeping his head down and going through the motions, Wilkinson came back out and redeemed himself on the defensive end of the court.
The junior forward dug in with his tenacious play, mixing things up well enough to keep the Badgers in the game despite the team’s shooting woes.
“He didn’t have any turnovers in the second half and basically had only one after he sat out and went back in; a bounce pass into the post,” said head coach Bo Ryan. “We try to hit the post, so at times the defense is going to get around and get a hand on some of those if we’re not careful. We just have to make better decisions and he (Wilkinson) did make better decisions.”
Not only did he make better decisions, but he also tormented the Scarlet Knights with his quick reactions by anticipating enough passes to disrupt what Rutgers was trying to accomplish on offense. In addition to hurting the Knights’ offensive game plan, his three steals in the remaining 7:21 of the game led to four points on the other end of the court, giving the Badgers some of the much-needed offensive spark they were searching for.
“As you noticed, my shot wasn’t particularly falling early, and I made a couple not so smart decisions, but there’s more to a game than just being on the offensive end,” Wilkinson said. “I wasn’t having the best offensive game so I tried to do what I could to help the team on the defensive end. Once you get something to change your momentum, like on the defensive end, it changes things on the offensive end too.”
The momentum did change for Wilkinson in the second half as he nailed his first shot of the game, a three-pointer, at the 17:12 mark. He went on to add a layup and three free throws to finish the game with eight points, second only to Devin Harris’ 18 points.
“It might not show by total number of rebounds, but he made sure at the other end his guy wasn’t going to get a lot of rebounds,” Ryan said. “If you aren’t shooting the ball well, there are so many other things in basketball you can do to help the team. Mike certainly did that.”
Defense is the remedy. The Badgers are off to a 3-0 start, but those wins have been far from pretty as the team has combined to shoot a disappointing 38.1 percent from the field through the first three games. However, the team remains unconcerned as long as at the end of the night they get the “W”.
“We’re not concerned; they’ll fall eventually,” said Harris who shot 5 for 13 from the field, scoring his only baskets on lay-ups and dunks. “As long as we play good defense, we can still get the win.”
The team has been doing just that, as opponents are quick to give the Badgers credit for disrupting the flow of the game and taking them out of their offensive sets.
“They are going to compete in the Big Ten because of the way they play defense,” said Rutgers head coach Gary Waters. “They compete pretty hard, but they are going to have to have some guys step up and hit some shots to go deep in the Big Ten.”
The only Badger who has seen success with his shooting game this far is senior guard Freddie Owens who had 24 points against Eastern Illinois and 12 points in the season opener at Penn. The remainder of the team has struggled in its jump shooting, and Owens is one of the few Badgers shooting consistently from behind the arc. UW’s year-to-date average in three-point shooting is a dismal 17.2 percent.
