The Wisconsin Badgers are gearing up to face the Montana Grizzlies on Thursday, with tip-off set for 12:30 p.m. central at the Ball Arena in Denver.
Landing a No. 3 seed in the East Region on Selection Sunday, the Badgers are well-positioned to make a run and potentially reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017.
But, before that, they have to take care of business this weekend, starting with Montana on Thursday, where the Badgers are a 17.5-point favorite entering the game.
Looking back at last week, Wisconsin really came on the scene strong, overcoming a poor finish to the regular season with wins over the Northwestern Wildcats, UCLA Bruins, and Michigan State Spartans on consecutive days to reach the Big Ten Championship Game.
There, they ultimately fell short in a 59-53 loss, having their worst shooting performance from the field in the last 15 years.
It was a three-heavy game for the Badgers, who knocked down only seven of their 39 triples, pairing for their second-worst three-point percentage of the season.
After the game, head coach Greg Gard shared that he actually liked a good amount of the shots Wisconsin took, but would have to watch the film back to truly evaluate what the team could’ve done better to win the game.
Following a rewatch, what did Gard have to think about his team’s shooting, specifically from beyond the arc?
“We had more good shots than we took bad shots,” Gard acknowledged on Tuesday. “We missed more good shots than bad shots that we took. So I think part of that is catching ourselves when we do take them. I still want them aggressive. I mean, you can’t win in March if you’re not confident and aggressive. And I don’t want to micromanage shot selection, but we did take too many unnecessary [shots from three]. There was plenty of time on the shot clock and we took them in awkward positions back dribbling, you know, [with] 7’1’’ right in our face.
“Just shots that are tough shots. That’s why they’re tough shots because they’re not within the flow. And look at our assist numbers, we only had eight. Now you say, ‘okay, yeah, because you shot 20-some percent, you didn’t make baskets, so you’re not getting [them].’ The ball didn’t move. We pounded it too much. The byproduct of that is you end up taking poorer shots.
“And then the same thing of playing in the paint. When we did go there, we needed to play off two feet and spray it better. We had shooters open and we were trying to go through or over 7’1’’ at the rim. And that’s not a recipe for success.”
The Badgers seemed to settle a lot for threes early, with 12 of their first 14 shots in the game being from deep, with the team connecting on only two of those attempts.
As Gard mentioned, quite a few of those threes came early in the shot clock and seemed like solid looks, but unnecessary when they weren’t falling and better shots could be created in the offense.
Wisconsin has generally played off two feet this year, which is where you see the high free throw numbers, but they struggled to attack the seven-footer duo of Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf in the paint, trying to go straight up and being forced into tougher shots.
Ultimately, the Badgers can’t shy away from taking threes, especially when good looks are available. But, they can create more open shots with better ball movement and touches inside, as we saw in the UCLA game.
Otherwise, it’s too many straight-up threes or shots off the dribble early in the shot clock that seem unnecessary. While that may work against Montana, given the matchup, that strategy won’t get Wisconsin as far as they’d want to go in the tournament.
The Badgers have shown they can generate quality shots from deep and hit them at a high rate. They just have to do that more consistently now over their last few games of the season.
