It’s only been a few days since the Wisconsin basketball season surprisingly ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Greg Gard and the Badgers were successful in the transfer portal last off-season by getting AJ Storr after he left St John’s. It was a great first few months of the season, but a really bad February haunted this team for four weeks. They played much better the first two weeks of March, but it did not matter they fell to James Madison in a game they were not overly competitive in.
There were thing this team did well at this past season, but there are improvements they need to make if they are going to go further in the NCAA Tournament next season. Here are three things Wisconsin basketball must do better at next season.
Wisconsin Basketball Must Take Better Care of the Basketball
The struggles with turnovers was obvious Friday against James Madison. Wisconsin basketball was not strong with the basketball and the Dukes got their hands on the ball in what felt like every possession. For a program that prides itself on taking care of the ball, it was a brutal showing.
To make matters worse, this was an issue for a lot of the season, especially in February. In particular, when the Badgers were blown out at Rutgers, they turned the ball over on three of their first four possessions. I’m sure every team, especially James Madison, had in their scouting report that you can make Wisconsin uncomfortable when pressuring them.
Early turnovers result in slow starts. Slow starts result in playing catch up early. That happened far too often this year. Going into next year, I would love to see Wisconsin basketball put their foot on the pedal right away instead of easing into games.
Wisconsin Basketball Must Be Committed to the Defensive Side of the Ball
Just like turnovers, I never thought I would say Wisconsin basketball has to be committed to defense. it has been their calling card since the Dick Bennett days.
I have no idea what happened to the defense on this team. Last season, they brought defense with them every game. Despite the struggles on offense, they were in every game because of their defense.
Part of this could be the amount of minutes being played. In particular, Chucky Hepburn was not good in the pick and roll defense and Max Klesmit was beat to the rim far too many times. Steven Crowl, despite being a seven footer, was non-existent defending the rim at times either.
Whether they were tired or not, once the ball got the the paint, it was over. This team showed they are not good enough to win a shootout every game. Next season, the defense has to change and be better as a whole.
Greg Gard Needs to Utilize His Bench More
It’s clear Greg Gard values his starters and puts a ton of trust in them. When you have players like Chucky Hepburn, Max Klesmit, Tyler Wahl, and Steven Crowl, I would put my trust in that group every day.
However, it began to show in conference play this group needs more help. Gard and his staff need to get more talent on the bench. The exception to this was John Blackwell and Nolan Winter. Both were really good coming off the bench as true freshmen.
I don’t think the depth was an issue, but there wasn’t as much talent as we thought there would be. Maybe Gard was hoping players like Carter Gilmore and Markus Ilver would take that jump. They did not. At the end of the day, I think Gard could only use what he had, but he needs to get more talent on the Wisconsin basketball bench and not be afraid to use them. You can’t use them in November and December and then abandon it in conference play. That’s asking too much from starters.
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