[media-credit name=’GREG SCHMITZ/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ? When looking for reasons why the Wisconsin men?s basketball team lost its first game in a month and a half, you could look at a lot of different things.

You could look to the stat sheet and the rebounding column, where the Badgers ? one of the best rebounding teams in the Big Ten ? were outrebounded for the second consecutive game.

You could look at the assist-to-turnover ratio. The Badgers gave the ball up two times more than they set up their own made baskets (13 turnovers to 11 assists).

You could also look at the shooting percentages. Wisconsin made just 38.5 percent of its shots for the game, including shooting worse than 35 percent in the second half.

You could even look at intimidating Mackey Arena, where a packed house of wild Boilermaker backers proved once again why the Badgers have won there just once since Richard Nixon was serving his first term as president.

You could look to all of those for answers, but the underlying reason is very simple: execution.

?It?s such a tough place to come in and win, we practiced hard, we were ready,? forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. ?We just didn?t execute.?

It was a problem for the Badgers on both ends of the court.

?We did some very uncharacteristic things that we usually don?t do,? forward Brian Butch said. ?We got away with it [against] Michigan, but you don?t get away with it all the time.?

Several times late in the second half, Purdue players were able to separate from Wisconsin defenders for open 3-pointers to stem Badger assaults on the Boilermaker lead.

?Bodies on bodies, and just following our rules,? Butch said. ?There were a lot of open guys on a lot of 3-pointers that just seemed to put them on a run. We could have done a better job as a team defending that, it would have helped out everything.?

Playing in front of a hostile road crowd for the first time since the loss to Duke, Trevon Hughes seemed to let the atmosphere get to him. Straying from the more controlled game that he displayed since returning from a late December ankle injury, Hughes turned the ball over three times in the first half on forced passes, including one in which he tried to make a decision about where to throw a pass in midair.

?The one time [Hughes] jumped up in the air and threw it to Brian slipping, he jumped up in the air, and you don?t jump up in the air and make a decision,? Ryan said. ?The decision has to be made.?

Hughes also picked up a blatant intentional foul near mid-court early in the second half that gave Purdue two free throws and possession of the ball.

But even when the Badgers did execute offensively and get an open shot, the ball just wasn?t going in.

?If you look at [Michael Flowers] and Marcus (Landry) and some of the looks they had, maybe take four of those shots out and those other shots ? are very makeable,? Ryan continued.

Down the stretch the ball didn?t bounce the Badgers? way either. On two shots in the final three-plus minutes of the second half ? once on a nine-foot baseline jumper by Butch and a second time on a wing 3-pointer by Jason Bohannon ? the ball was seemingly halfway through the cylinder before it popped out.

?We got good looks, I thought, they just didn?t fall,? Krabbenhoft said. ?Like I said, the game plan was there, and in the second half, I thought we executed a lot better. But they hit some shots and as a team, we really didn?t.?

For the game, the Badgers averaged only 0.89 points per possession, well below their target mark of 1.0.

?There?s so many other things that we could?ve done, but they?ll see it on the tape,? Ryan said. ?Just fundamental things.?