The Badgers had one of their best shooting days of the entire season in a commanding win over UCLA.
The Wisconsin Badgers avenged their regular-season loss to the UCLA Bruins, cruising to an 86-70 blowout victory to reach the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, where they’ll play the No. 1-seeded Michigan State Spartans on Saturday.
Three-point shooting was the story of the day, as the Badgers connected early and often, finishing the day with 19 triples in an impressive offensive showing against a top-15 defense in the country.
Defensively, Wisconsin was stellar, limiting the Bruins inside the arc and keeping up their intensity from Thursday’s win en route to one of their better performances of the year.
Now, the Badgers will move forward to Saturday, where they take on the No. 1-seeded Spartans, with tip-off set for noon on CBS.
Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 86-70 win over UCLA.
Fast start
Wisconsin had a sluggish start against Northwestern on Thursday that they had to overcome, as they weren’t aggressive enough, while allowing the Wildcats to hit on a few threes.
Well, they started off hot from three and didn’t look back. John Blackwell and John Tonje opened the scoring with two threes a piece, despite hands being in their faces.
Steven Crowl then started to get aggressive with back-to-back layups, which forced UCLA to start double-teaming him quicker. The Badgers used that to their advantage, creating some more three-point looks off post touches by moving the ball around until they found the open shooter.
Wisconsin was up to 26 points over the first nine minutes, shooting 6/7 from three. But, their defense was equally as impressive, as they settled down, forcing some tough looks on UCLA inside the arc, where the Bruins usually like to feast.
There was also increased urgency from head coach Greg Gard, who quickly went back to his starting five midway through the period after a short stint for the backups, looking to keep the intensity up early in the game.
But, even with the second unit, the pace and shooting did not stop, as Xavier Amos had a pair of triples and a monster block, while Kamari McGee had six points in his eight first-half minutes, drawing a pair of fouls while hitting one of his coveted corner threes.
The Badgers needed to come out hot on Friday and they did exactly that, igniting both the team and the fans in attendance en route to their blowout victory over the Bruins.
Threes can’t stop
Wisconsin was due for a shooting game. Entering the NCAA Tournament, they had shot just 25.8 percent from deep over their last five games, despite shooting 28 attempts per game during that stretch.
The Badgers had some life against Penn State last weekend, starting off 6/7, but proceeded to finish just 4/24 in one of their uglier second halves of the season.
Well, the Badgers let it fly early and often from deep on Friday and finally got the results they’d been accustomed to earlier in the season.
John Blackwell and John Tonje got the party started with a pair of threes each, and the team fed off that energy, proceeding to make 12 threes in the first half alone. For reference, Wisconsin entered Friday having made over 12 threes just four times this whole season, and that came over 40 minutes.
Tonje was the sparkplug, hitting each of his first four shots, which were all triples, even drawing an and-1 off an impressive stepback on the final one. Besides him, three others (Blackwell, Xavier Amos, and Steven Crowl) had multiple threes in the first half alone, as the team shot 12/19 from distance.
It wasn’t like Wisconsin was outright hunting for threes either. They looked to be aggressive, sometimes starting off possessions with a post touch before trusting their ball movement to find open shooters, which paid off.
Even if the twos weren’t falling at a high rate, the Badgers were still attacking the paint, which helped open up their offense.
In the second half, Wisconsin drew fouls quickly, getting into the bonus for the final 15:49, which led to more looks inside the arc. But, they still let fly from deep, hitting seven threes in the half on 53.8 percent from the field.
The 19 threes were Wisconsin’s second most of the season, falling just short of the 21 triples in their 116-85 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes in January. Additionally, the 59.4 percent from deep was their second-best of the season.
In the end, John Tonje led the way, hitting all six of his threes, while John Blackwell was a respectable 4/8 from deep. But, Steven Crowl took advantage of open shots, hitting all three of his threes, while Kamari McGee hit a trio of corner triples, leading to an overall sound shooting day for the team.
Add in the two from Xavier Amos and a triple from Max Klesmit and it was one of the more well-rounded shooting performances of the year for Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s three-point shooting has been their strength and their kryptonite at times this year. When they’re falling, they’re one of the strongest offenses in the country. When they’re not, the offense can be sporadic, putting more pressure on their defense.
On Friday, it rained from deep and Wisconsin had one of their best offensive outputs in recent games as a result.
Defense inside the arc
After a fun afternoon like Friday’s, the attention will be on the offense, as it should be.
But, it shouldn’t be understated how well Wisconsin defended inside the arc, which was a big key to them winning against the Bruins.
In the first game, UCLA shot over 60 percent inside the arc, while taking twice as many twos compared to threes. That, combined with their 10 offensive rebounds, led to 85 points for the Bruins, which was the third-highest output of their Big Ten schedule.
That was shut down on Friday, as the Badgers limited the Bruins to 13/38 (34.2 percent) inside the arc and 9/30 (30 percent) from deep in an excellent defensive performance. That came even with UCLA getting 20 offensive rebounds, as Wisconsin shut down top scorer Tyler Bilodeau (2 points, 1/7 from the field) in the paint.
Wisconsin’s defensive intensity was there over the final 30 minutes against Northwestern, where they were able to limit star Nick Martinelli enough and take away his supporting cast, holding the Wildcats to under 40 percent from the floor.
Wisconsin has really improved defensively over the final two months of the season, getting their KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency rating inside the top 35 nationally. Friday’s performance showcased the improvements they’ve made, and could very well catapult them inside the top 30.
The Badgers’ defense will be key because they’re heading into a physical matchup with the No. 1-seeded Michigan State Spartans in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals on Saturday, looking to avenge their 71-62 loss from earlier this month.
Wisconsin didn’t have Max Klesmit in that one, and they ended up shooting 5/32 from deep in a closely contested loss. Now, the Badgers have Klesmit back, are coming off one of their best shooting days of the season, and have still maintained their defensive intensity.
We should be up for a good one on Saturday, where tip-off is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. central.