The Badgers have a major game on Friday against a top 10 opponent.
The Wisconsin Badgers are set to host the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night, looking to make a statement against a top 10 team in the country at the Kohl Center, with tip-off scheduled for 8:00 p.m.
Wisconsin has started the year 3-0, most recently beating the Appalachian State Mountaineers 87-56. On the other hand, Arizona has started off 2-0 with a pair of non-conference blowouts, leading them to Friday’s game.
With an early test for the Badgers, we brought back the roundtable to react to the first few games of the season, while previewing the matchup with the Wildcats.
Q: Reaction to the first three games?
Rohan: It’s been what you’d expect from a team having a ton of turnover: choppy starts led by strong finishes, thanks to a team filled with experience. While the product hasn’t necessarily been pretty throughout, I’d honestly say I’m more optimistic after seeing this team play out the first few games.
Wisconsin’s offense has the ability to put the ball in the basket from a number of sources. Max Klesmit, John Tonje, and John Blackwell are the bucket-getters, while Steven Crowl had his best game against Appalachian State. Klesmit, Tonje, and Crowl have all had a strong game, while Blackwell should settle in fine once he starts finishing better at the rim, as he did during the offseason and last year. They had an improved offense last year, and they’re more well-rounded this year, which Klesmit noted earlier this week, providing tougher outs for opposing defenses as they circle in on players like Crowl.
Defensively, they should sort things out as the season comes along, as they’re just late with rotations and communicating at times now. It’s more of the little things that the Badgers have usually done well under head coach Greg Gard in the past, leaving fewer worries there.
This team has good experience, which will be key in the new age of college basketball, and their start leaves me more optimistic than I expected, even with the choppy play at times.
Scary: My reaction has been generally positive, although starting games slowly will hurt the Badgers against stiffer competition. If they fall behind by 10 to Arizona early, it’s probably curtains. Greg Gard’s game plan this season will feature more three-point shooting combined with an improved focus on both offensive movement and defense from ‘23-24.
How that will play out is still up for grabs, but it appears that the brain trust is (finally) embracing modern basketball, which is a very good thing that will pay dividends if successful. But the bottom line is that I’m not too high or low after three games. There are some tangible positives, like John Tonje, but the reality is that we don’t know very much about this team yet.
Connor: I’m slightly more optimistic now about Wisconsin’s chances this season. I had them around eighth or ninth in my preseason Big Ten standings predictions and I feel like that spot is still warranted considering how some of the question marks on the team were answered.
The emergence of John Tonje as a de-facto new AJ Storr is huge for the Badgers. It’s also big how improved Nolan Winter has looked. Tyler Wahl’s lack of size hurt the Badgers in a few big games last year and it’s looking like Winter is shaping up for a nice sophomore season.
Q: Biggest area for improvement?
Rohan: To me, it’s pretty simple: the Badgers have to start games faster. While they’ve evened things out as games go along, Wisconsin has seen some really ugly starts, such as their 21-5 deficit to begin the game against Holy Cross.
Now, is it a long-term concern for me? Not necessarily when it comes to the offense. Wisconsin has seen open looks in each of their first few games. They just haven’t hit them at the clip they usually do. That should even out, as it’s just a matter of making shots. My bigger worry is on the defensive end and the energy level.
While other teams have just made good shots, the Badgers have come out flat on that end of the court at times, be it not fighting over ball screens or rotating late leading to an open shot. They need to improve there against better teams because it’ll be harder to climb back from early deficits when that happens.
Scary: Figuring out and deepening the rotation will be imperative as the season goes on. While it’s great to see players like Kamari McGee and Nolan Winter start to thrive, if this team is going to make March Madness, it will need substantially bigger contributions from its point guard room (Camren Hunter and/or Daniel Freitag, specifically) and from Xavier Amos up front.
I don’t think that a six or seven-man rotation often lacking a true point guard will get it done over the long haul, even if Gard feels like he’s rolling out his five best guys to start games. There are so many fun, intriguing pieces on this roster, and maximizing them will be a make-or-break challenge for the coaches as the campaign unfolds.
Connor: Defense. While the Badgers had the impressive 24-0 scoreless run for Appalachian State last week, they still haven’t looked as sharp on the defensive side of the ball as Coach Gard or the Wisconsin staff might have hoped.
A lot of the Big Ten is trying to replicate Purdue’s dominance with Zach Edey by adding stronger and taller centers from the transfer portal and as recruits. It will be important for Winter and Crowl to continue to mesh well together as they will have to take on lineups that essentially have two centers in them later in conference play.
Q: How important is the Arizona game?
Rohan: It’s not as important as fans will likely make it out to be, but it’ll serve as a good litmus test for where the Badgers currently are.
No team looks how they will end up in game four of the season. However, a tough challenge like the Wildcats will tell the Badgers where they need to improve early in the season, allowing them to make the necessary adjustments before the breadth of their schedule starts to hit.
However, getting a high-profile win like Friday’s would provide a major boost to the morale of the program, which has helped the Badgers in the past. Last year, after a slow start, Wisconsin really got going after seeing success in the Fort Myers tip-off, where they blew out Virginia and beat SMU.
That could be the case again this year if the Badgers defeat Arizona here at the Kohl Center on Friday.
Scary: Winning will be a bigger deal than losing will be, if that makes sense. A Top 10 early season upset would be a huge springboard for the program heading toward Big Ten play, and might even result in a national ranking in mid-November for a team picked to finish 12th in the Big Ten. If the Badgers lose, it won’t be any fun but very few pundits are picking them to win.
So, this seems like a house money situation for Bucky against a potentially elite opponent. My only caveat is if Zona takes Gard’s lads to the woodshed, the Wisconsin fanbase, already bruised by an underperforming Football team, will not look fondly upon being embarrassed, even if Wisconsin is coming in as a fairly meaty underdog. The “Fire Gard Army” will be in full throat if the Badgers get rolled. Let’s avoid that, please.
Connor: The Arizona game is a win-win for the Badgers, regardless of the outcome. So far, Wisconsin hasn’t really been able to gauge their level of play since the competition of their opponents isn’t as high as they might like. An early matchup against a top-10 team like Arizona helps the Badgers get early reps against tournament-level teams as well as try and bolster their resume early on in the season.
I’d say this game is pretty important just because of how much it could do for the program. A win like this would silence most doubters of Greg Gard, would most likely help Wisconsin become ranked in the next AP Poll, and show to recruits and transfers that Wisconsin is still a program that can compete with the big dogs.
They’ve shown that in their own conference recently, with a couple of recent wins against Purdue, but haven’t won a big non-conference game like this in quite some time. All hope isn’t lost if this game goes poorly, but a big win would turn around the expectations and narrative around this current Badger squad.