The Wisconsin Badgers lost their second straight game at the Kohl Center as the Northwestern Wildcats completed the season sweep.
The Badgers came into Sunday with hopes of clawing their way back to .500 among a vicious Big Ten conference schedule. After dropping their first matchup with the Wildcats, the second matchup proved to be a key midseason game for a young Wisconsin squad.
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The play was slow on both ends of the Kohl Center, with many of Wisconsin’s points coming from drives to the basket and resolution in cross-court passes zipped to 3-point shooters. In contrast, Northwestern continued the trend of catching the Badgers looking, leading to easy baskets in the paint and an eight-point lead out of the gate. A lead Wisconsin was unable to overtake, even with holding Northwestern to just over four points in the final ten minutes of the half.
Multiple times throughout the season the air has been sucked out of the Kohl Center as fans seem to be waiting for the wheels to come off. This feeling hung in the air as a silent student section saw the Badgers open the half down three. Even with a pair of early threes to take the first lead of the game, the Wisconsin faithful were sluggish — a lethargy that oozed into Wisconsin’s offense.
For the first 10 minutes of the half, players on both sides walked through the game with slow cuts leading to turnovers. Northwestern coach Chris Collins marked on this in a press conference saying that in a small conference such as the Big Ten teams get to know one another, and it shows on defense.
The final ten minutes of the game were dominated by Wisconsin’s most productive 3-point shooters Chucky Hepburn and Connor Essegian, with Hepburn and Essegian producing 61% of the team’s 50 points. Quintessential paint touches by Wisconsin, lead to more open threes yo-yo-ing the game down to the final three minutes. With the game up in the air, Gard and company went to Hepburn, as the guard found the ball in his hands all the way down the stretch.
While Hepburn finished with a team-high 17 points, his questionable shot selection gave away three separate opportunities for the Badgers to take the lead. Wisconsin found itself in yet another tied game in the final minutes. In the clutch, Gard continued to move away from the post and open up space for Hepburn — a decision that ultimately came up as a loss.
The Badgers look to make a push to grow their slowly dissolving NCAA resume in a two-game road streak against both Penn State and Nebraska.
Game notes:
The Glue Guy:
During Wisconsin’s recent slip into the losing column, a weakness displayed itself in the composition of the roster of a young Badger team. While players like Hepburn and Essegian filled up the points column on Sunday, there was a bleak lack of overall efficiency among the team. The Badgers are currently a team of glue guys, and it reflects how Gard has recruited. With players like Tyler Wahl, who has the same number of rebounds as Kamari McGee and Steven Crowl, leading the squad in assist, a need for more multidimensional players is evident.
Steven Crowl:
One bright spot of a shaky Big Ten season has been Crowl’s performance, from a points perspective. Crowl is averaging double-digits in conference play while being the team’s second-leading assist man. Even with this productivity, Crowl, a seven-footer, is far beneath rebound numbers fans expect as he is often seen slapping at offensive rebounds rather than reaching the apex of the rebound.
