Where is the Badgers biggest area of improvement?

The Wisconsin Badgers have turned things around over the last month, winning seven of their last eight games, including a win over the Ohio State Buckeyes last Saturday.

In the win, Wisconsin was on a heater offensively, scoring 92 points with great efficiency at the rim and at the free-throw line. The Badgers did give up 82 points, but I thought their defense was fine for the most part. They held Ohio State to just 41 percent from the field and forced the Buckeyes to hit some threes (10/29 from deep).

There were definitely still some lapses, but the Badgers have been starting to show some improvements on the defensive side of the court. On Saturday, one of the biggest positives was how well Wisconsin guarded at the rim. Big men Christoph Tilly and Ivan Njegovan were a combined 0/11 from the field, as Nolan Winter and Aleksas Bieliauskas were both active defensively.

“He’s been pretty consistent all year long,” head coach Greg Gard said about Winter. “I mean, there’s not a lot of downtrend with Nolan. I think the improved strength and weight and endurance helps that. I’ve always said he has a little edge to him. And he needs to continue to do that.

“And he can impact the game in a lot of ways. You know, even though he didn’t hit a 3 today, I thought he had really good looks. And his activity, I mean, when you get 11 rebounds, that was important. Especially down the stretch there, I thought him and [Aleksas] Bieliauskas did a good job of minimizing second shot opportunities for Ohio State.”

Wisconsin was also quite good on the perimeter, specifically on John Mobley Jr., who struggled early and finished with just nine points on 4/12 shooting, including 1/8 from deep.

“For the most part, we talked about being velcroed and just being attached,” Gard said postgame about guarding Mobley. “And if there was going to be some exchanges, we couldn’t be late to the recovery on an exchange. And just like getting him in some foul trouble helped, obviously.

“[Jack] Janicki got the assignment when he replaced [Andrew] Rohde. And Jack’s an experienced physical defender, and he’s guarded guys like that before. So it was obviously a team effort, and I thought, with BC (Braeden Carrington), it’s like guarding yourself, right? It’s like him guarding himself. And I thought they did for the most part. We stayed attached.”

The guard play defensively was more up and down in the beginning of the year, with Wisconsin struggling against dribble drives and allowing the ball to reach the paint. Now, their guard group has been better, with the Badgers also finding some success playing small ball.

“They understand our rules better,” Gard said about the guards defensively. “The rules have become more instinctive for them. They’re not having to think about it. They understand how we chase shooters, how we guard ball screens. I think we’re playing more physical than we did. And I thought we played really physical inside today with our bigs.

“I thought we did a really good job on both ends. Offensively, we were physical around the rim, too. But I think it’s a combination of experience with how we need to do things. Combination of just flat-out being tougher and having a mindset that you’re not really going to let guys score and taking that personally when that happens. And, like I said, they understand how important that end of the floor is. As much as everybody likes our offense and giggles about that and everybody talks about that, the other end is very, very important.”

Wisconsin’s defense still has to improve. They’re the No. 63 team in KenPom defensive efficiency and are allowing 75 points a game. But they’re starting to stack some quality defensive performances together over the last four games.

Now, they’ll get the big test of having to defend Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan State in their next three games.