Tensions flare, Wisconsin basketball falls to 'elite' Purdue
A heated exchange between a pair of Wisconsin Badgers showcased the frustration of inconsistent play
Madison, WI — While Braden Smith, starting point guard and national player of the year candidate for the No. 5 Purdue Boilermakers, became the Big Ten’s new all-time assists leader, showcasing his penchant for taking care of the ball at a consistently high level, Wisconsin basketball struggled to do the same. After his team suffered an 89-73 loss in a game the Wisconsin Badgers trailed by as many as 25 points, UW head coach Greg Gard said his team is close to where it needs to be, but has “things to get more consistent at.”
“When you get a little off track, the really elite teams are going to make you pay for that,” Gard said after the Badgers’ record fell to 9-5 (1-2 Big Ten). “So, for us, it’s gotta be at a higher level, a more consistent level for obviously longer stretches of time.”
With Smith at the helm of an elite offense, ranked first in the country in adjusted efficiency according to KenPom, Purdue has no doubts about its offensive identity and prowess.
His head coach, Matt Painter, said Smith puts us in positions that really makes the defense vulnerable.”
Gard added that Smith “makes everybody better on that team.” The Boilermakers have the nation’s ninth-highest assists-to-field-goal ratio.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s inability to produce consistent play was on full display Saturday. Lacking its program-defining penchant for taking care of the ball and without its newfound mastery of three-point shooting, the Badgers faltered at the hands of one of college basketball’s great players and teams.
A second-half flare up between two UW players put the frustrations of Wisconsin’s inconsistency on full display.
Badgers struggle with turnovers, Blackwell slump
Wisconsin led for a majority of the first half, but Purdue walked off the court at the intermission with a seven-point lead. With John Blackwell sitting on the bench for most of the opening frame and the Badgers losing the turnover battle by a significant margin, the score certainly could have been more lopsided.
Blackwell sat on the bench for nearly nine minutes to close the first half due to foul trouble. The preseason All-Big Ten honoree committed a pair of personal fouls 39 seconds apart while Wisconsin struggled to take care of the ball offensively.
The junior committed his first foul while trying to prevent Purdue guard Omer Mayer from taking the ball out on the fast break. Mayer jumped into the passing lane, intercepting Wisconsin forward Nolan Winter’s feed intended for Blackwell. It was the third in a stretch of three turnovers in as many possessions by the Badgers.
Even when Blackwell was on the court, he struggled at times to be effective. On 11 field goal attempts and two free throws, the Michigan native scored only nine points. Blackwell was averaging 16.5 points in Big Ten play coming into the night. Since returning from injury, he has missed seven consecutive attempts from three.
“When your best guy is having a tough night, that’s hard,” Painter said of Blackwell. “And like, you know, he’ll bounce back. He’s too good of a player, too good of a scorer.”
As Blackwell checked out of the lineup, Purdue took the lead as UW continued its struggles maintaining possession. Between the time Blackwell went to the bench and intermission began, Wisconsin committed four more turnovers for a total of eight in the opening 20 minutes. The Boilermakers scored 13 points off the Badgers’ first-half giveaways.
“When you’re playing a team this experienced, elite, composed, with a terrific point guard, the margin for error, and, as I call them mulligans, are non-existent,” Gard noted to begin his post-game press conference.
Painter said he thought his team “did pretty good job taking care of the basketball. We had a couple sloppy turnovers late, but, for the game, only having seven turnovers on the road, it’s a good number.”
Wisconsin basketball ‘got some good looks; they didn’t make them’
Although Wisconsin took better care of the ball in the second half, committing only three additional turnovers, UW’s inability to make shots, and some timely Purdue offensive rebounds, put the game quickly out of the Badgers’ reach.
In 4:05, the Boilermakers doubled their lead from seven to 14, thanks, in part, to a flurry of four offensive rebounds in under two and a half minutes. In one possession, Purdue grabbed three consecutive offensive boards, prompting a fiery moment between Badgers point guard Nick Boyd and forward Austin Rapp.
“It’s been a dream of mine to play in these type of games in these environments. I want to win so bad and, I mean, you get emotional out there and you have that urge to just, you know, get some certain messages across to each other,” Boyd said of the on-court exchange. “When you’re in a battle like that, most importantly, you gotta stay composed. But I know Aussie and we have a good relationship, so, you know, sometimes I can get on him and he gets on me. We’re just gonna keep building.”
“Nick’s one of our leaders. I’ve said to him out there, I need somebody to yell at me if I’m in the wrong,” Rapp added. “I feel like I can take criticism well. And he’s looking out for me and I’ll do the same for him. So, if he gets on me, I take it as a compliment. He believes in me and he knows I can do better, so I take it as a compliment when he gets after me like that.”
On the evening, Purdue attempted 71 shots to Wisconsin’s 57.
Although Wisconsin only allowed one more offensive rebound the remainder of the evening after that exchange, the Badgers struggled to make shots of their own. After leading the Big Ten in made three-pointers a season ago, UW struggled from deep on Saturday, making just four of its 25 attempts from beyond the arc.
Gard pointed to that, plus Wisconsin’s shooting performance from deep against the Milwaukee Panthers, acknowledging his team’s slump.
“We went four for 22 the other night, so my math tells me that’s eight for a lot,” the two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year figured.
“Everyone on our team can really shoot the ball,” Rapp said of UW’s recent woes. “We just got to stay confident in ourselves. We’re getting really good looks. It’s not like we’re shooting bad ones.”
While Wisconsin struggled to make shots, Purdue connected on 37% of its three-point attempts, including a 6-13 performance in the second half to pull away. Painter acknowledged and appreciated the impact of that dynamic.
“I thought the difference for us was the defense. And then, when you face a team that gets them, because they got some good looks; they didn’t make them,” Painter said. “You know, things always look better when you make shots and things always look worse when you miss shots. And I though like, if they could have made some of those threes, that could have got them some momentum.”
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