Swagger? Mojo? Wisconsin basketball believes it has both back and are ready for 2024 NCAA Tournament
MADISON – As they left Purdue’s Mackey Arena on March 10, saddled with their third loss in four games, the Wisconsin players and coaches insisted the team was back on track.
Disappointed to end the regular season with an eight-point loss to the Boilermakers? Of course.
But encouraged because other than a poor three-point shooting performance, they believed they played well against the best team in the Big Ten.
Greg Gard, players believe their run in the Big Ten tourney showed the Badgers are again playing well
Fast-forward to Sunday in Minneapolis.
As they left the Target Center after falling to Illinois in the title game of the league tournament, Greg Gard and his players expressed confidence they can make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
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“We’re playing great,” Tyler Wahl said. “We’ve got a lot of momentum coming from this tournament. Guys are playing well. The vibes are good. So, this is the time when you want to be playing your best basketball and we are.
“We know what we’ve got going on here. We showed it here this weekend. We’re just playing really good basketball.
“We’ve made it through the ups and downs of the season and we’re playing really good right now.”
UW (22-13), seeded No. 5 in the South Regional, faces No. 12 James Madison (31-3) at 8:40 p.m. (Central) Friday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
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The Badgers appear to be a popular pick to be ousted by the Dukes but the numbers reveal Gard’s team played as well in the Big Ten Tournament as it did in racing to a 16-4 start this season.
UW in four Big Ten Tournament games shot 40.4% from three-point range (40 of 99), shot 46.8% overall (117 of 250) and 75.4% from the free-throw line (46 of 61).
Chucky Hepburn and AJ Storr were named to the all-tournament team.
Hepburn averaged 17.3 points per game, hit 50% of his three-pointers (3 of 6) and 69.0% of his shots overall (20 of 29). He averaged 5.7 assists per game and had more steals (six) than turnovers (three).
Storr averaged 22.5 points per game, hit 38.5% of his three-point attempts (10 of 26) and 81.8 of his free-throw attempts (18 of 22). He averaged 5.5 attempts per game, an increase from his regular-season mark of 4.1 per game. UW’s offense is more efficient when Storr attacks the rim early.
Steven Crowl played four solid games, averaging 14.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.
Perhaps more important is the fire Crowl showed against Purdue’s Zach Edey. The not-so-friendly banter that led to double technical was uncharacteristic of Crowl, who did not back down from Edey.
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Will injuries play a role for Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament?
The Badgers are battling injuries.
Wahl (knee), Max Klesmit (groin), John Blackwell (ankle) and Chucky Hepburn (knee) all need time to heal.
Blackwell hit 4 of 6 three-pointers and 6 of 11 shots overall for 18 points in the opener against Maryland.
He suffered an ankle injury early in the quarterfinals against Northwestern and hit just 1 of 8 shots. He was a combined 0 of 6 against Purdue and Illinois.
Opening on Friday instead of Thursday should benefit the injured players. More important, is that the players are in a better mental state than they were during the 2-6 run in February.
“We’ve got our swagger back, our mojo,” Klesmit said. “You can just feel it in the locker room, when we come in the gym to shoot, work out, whatever it is.
“The last two or three weeks you could really see the strides we made. You could feel it. We’re going to use that to propel us.”
UW also took care of the basketball, posting 75 assists (18.8 per game) and only 35 turnovers (8.8 per game).
The defense was also tighter. Illinois, which shot 52.6% in the title game, was the only team to score at will on UW.
“They’re so hard to guard,” Gard said.
How did Gard feel about his team after four games in Minneapolis?
“We’re a better team walking out of here today than when we showed up on Thursday,” he said, “and I’m looking forward to these guys have more ball coming up.
“Now we get to go chase another championship. All of us will start from the same starting block. We’re primed and ready to go now.
“You want to be playing your best basketball in March and we are.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Badgers banged up but confident heading into March Madness
