The Badgers senior guard has struggled in Big Ten play, leading to questions around minutes.
The Wisconsin Badgers suffered their fifth loss of the season on Wednesday, dropping a 76-68 game to the Maryland Terrapins on the road, as their offense waned in the second half, leading to their second defeat in three games.
Wisconsin was able to get good production from John Tonje, as he scored over 20 points and hit five threes for the third straight game. But, he didn’t receive enough help, as the Badgers shot only 37.3 percent from the field as a whole while hitting only 9/27 of their threes.
Without Tonje, the Badgers struggled in a big way, shooting 14/43 (32.6 percent) from the field and 4/19 (21 percent) from three in an ugly performance across the board.
One of the players who struggled the most of the bunch was senior guard Max Klesmit, who shot 1/8 from the field and 1/6 from three, ending with just five points in a rough performance.
Wednesday’s struggles overlie Klesmit’s inconsistent 2024 season, as the Badgers guard has failed to score in double digits in seven of the past eight games, while shooting poorly from the field in that stretch.
Overall, through nine games of Big Ten play, Klesmit has averaged 8.3 points per game, while shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 26.4 percent from three. He’s even struggled a bit at the line, shooting an uncharacteristic 61.1 percent at the charity stripe during the stretch.
Seen as an elite three-point shooter throughout his career, Klesmit hasn’t been able to get going this season, as he’s taken a much bigger reliance on his threes, which hasn’t panned out for the guard.
Shooting 4.6 threes a game a season ago, the Badgers guard hit 39.8 percent of his triples, which was the best of his career. Expected to take on a higher volume role this season, Klesmit has amped up those attempts to 6.4 a game, constituting 71.7 percent of his overall volume from the field.
But, that has come with a serious decline in efficiency, as the guard has connected on only 28.3 percent of his threes, with that number declining in conference play.
Klesmit has proven over his five-year career that he not only can be a volume scorer, but can also take over games when necessary. There’ve been times even this season when Wisconsin has gone to the combo guard in late stretches of games, but the effectiveness hasn’t been there as much.
How does Wisconsin get more production from Klesmit, which they’ll need if they’re to make a late-season push and make a run in the tournament?
It all starts with shot selection.
Klesmit has been prone to taking a number of threes this season, sometimes looking to bail his team out when the offense is stagnant with a deep look from distance. Those aren’t high-quality shots, which the Badgers have been capable of producing when initiating their offense.
Now, he’s also missed some high-quality looks, but if he’s able to mitigate those shots, the efficiency should increase.
Additionally, Klesmit needs to get into his slashing skills more often, which have proven to be effective throughout his career, be it getting to the rim and scoring, facilitating, or getting fouled and heading to the free throw line.
A known quality free throw shooter, having hit 82.4 percent of his looks last season and 83.6 percent of his free throws in 2024, Klesmit has the capabilities to create efficient looks at the rim when he’s not shooting low-quality stepback threes.
Now, the Badgers guard has been hampered by a few ankle issues this year, initially dealing with an ankle sprain late in the offseason before also facing one in the Rutgers game. A fierce competitor, he’s only missed one game this year, but perhaps he’s dealing with a lingering issue stemming from that injury.
Nonetheless, the senior is currently in a slump and needs to find his way out of it. One solution? Getting better looks with his shot selection and taking out a few of those threes for more slashes to the rim, working around ball screens.
If Klesmit can get going, the Badgers will have a strong trio of guards that they can rely upon heading into the final stretch of conference play, where they’ll look to get a top-four seed in the Big Ten Tournament in March.