It has not been a good week for the now 6-5 Badgers. After falling to UW-Milwaukee 68-67 this past Wednesday, the Badgers dropped back-to-back non conference games for the first time in 25 seasons with today’s 57-55 heartbreaking loss to the Marquette Golden Eagles. The Badgers shot a dreadful 24-66 (36%) from the floor, and only stayed in the game because of their 14 offensive boards and hustle late in the game. Marquette provided numerous opportunities for the Badgers to get back in the game, but by the time their shots started going down Marquette’s 14-point lead proved too big to overcome.
The only bright spots of the game were Zak Showalter and Vitto Brown. Showy once again provided much needed consistency to a Wisconsin team who has been anything but that this season. He recorded his first double-double, racking up 10 points in addition to pulling down 10 rebounds. While Showalter had yet another great game, the biggest contributions came from Vitto Brown. The junior forward scored a team high 15 points going 7-15 from the field, as he stepped up when Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig were struggling.
Hayes followed up his 32 point game against UW-Milwaukee with a lackluster performance in today’s game against Marquette. Hayes started the game missing his first 8 field goals, but gained some rhythm back in the second half shooting 40% in the last 20 minutes. As a leader of the team, Hayes has seen more defensive attention than he is used to and today he was quite simply outmatched by Henry Ellenson and Luke Fischer in the paint. As the season roles on, however, I think Hayes will mature into his role and start passing on more of his long-range two pointers, at least until he gains more confidence.
While Koenig was understandably uncomfortable with a powerful Marquette defense swarming him before he could get any open looks, he needs to fill a bigger role than he has so far. Koenig is the best ball handler on the team and has controlled the ball fluently this season by limiting his turnovers, but in order to elevate the Badgers to a Big 10 contender, he needs to at least have more than 2 assists in a game.
If we have learned anything from these past two games it is that the Badgers are clearly still going through some growing pains. We have seen flashes of years past in the Syracuse and Temple games, but questions still remain about just how good this Badger team can be. In the future, I expect the Badgers to adjust to the increased pressure Hayes and Koenig are facing by running more off-ball screens and hopefully starting to get more of a contribution from our transition offense.
Ellenson was impressive for Marquette, and proved again why he will be a lottery pick in the NBA Draft this season. He scored 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Golden Eagles, and he wanted to prove a point today at the Kohl Center: “This is bragging rights. I wanted to show who’s the best team in the state.”
The Badgers will look to rebound from this loss when they face Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Tuesday December 15th at 8 PM at the Kohl Center.
Notes
The Badgers played well defensively in the paint today, but could not score it themselves. They were outscored in the paint 36-16 and could not get to the line when they drove inside.
The Badgers once again did not receive any help from the bench. Charlie Thomas, Khalil Iverson and Alex Illikainen combined for 19 minutes and accounted for 0 points. The Marquette bench scored 15 and provided a boost of energy that the Badgers could not match.
The biggest difference in today’s game came from Marquette’s ability to score in transition. The Golden Eagles scored 17 fast break points compared to the Badgers’ 2. In close games like today, these easy layups were the difference between a win and a loss.
Bo Ryan has now lost 25 games at the Kohl Center ever, with three coming in the last month.
Wisconsin out-rebounded Marquette 35-33, as the Badgers have out-rebounded every opponent this season.
Photo courtesy of Marquette University Athletics.