Let’s break down the issues from Sunday’s gmae.
The Wisconsin Badgers saw their five-game winning streak evaporate Sunday afternoon at the Kohl Center, falling 73-71 to a USC team that had no business walking out of Madison with a victory.
After an emotional road win at Michigan, this had “trap game” written all over it, and Wisconsin fell right into it. Despite a 29-point effort from Nick Boyd, the Badgers squandered a 12-point second-half lead and let an opportunity slip through their fingers.
Here are three reasons why things went south for Greg Gard’s squad.
Live by the Three, Die by the Three
We’ve seen this movie before. When the shots are falling, the Badgers look like Big Ten title contenders. When they aren’t? It gets ugly. Wisconsin hoisted a staggering 37 attempts from beyond the arc, connecting on just nine of them (24.3%).
While the “swing” offense is designed to create open looks, there comes a point where you have to stop settling. Too many possessions ended in contested triples early in the shot clock rather than feeding Nolan Winter in the post or letting John Blackwell attack the rim.
In a game decided by two points, even a marginal improvement from deep changes the outcome.
Failing to Close the Rebounding Door
On paper, Wisconsin won the rebounding battle 42-41, but the stats don’t tell the full story of the final four minutes. The Badgers gave up back-breaking offensive rebounds at the worst possible times. None was more painful than the final sequence: after Nick Boyd’s potential game-winning layup spun off the rim, USC’s Jerry Easter II snagged the board and was fouled with two seconds left.
The Trojans turned 11 offensive rebounds into second-chance points that kept them in the game when their half-court offense was stagnant. You can’t give an athletic team like USC extra bites at the apple and expect to win.
Gard’s End-of-Game Management
Greg Gard will face plenty of heat for his decision-making down the stretch. After USC tied the game, Gard opted not to call a timeout, choosing instead to let Boyd drive the length of the floor. While the “let ’em play” philosophy has worked in the past, the offense had been disjointed for the better part of ten minutes.
A set play to get Blackwell or Winter a high-percentage look might have been the safer bet. Furthermore, the defensive rotations during USC’s 17-2 run lacked the usual “Gard-ian” discipline, as the Badgers allowed Chad Baker-Mazara to get comfortable from deep.
Category: General Sports
