The Wisconsin Badgers beat the Delaware Blue Hens 73-64 on Friday, overcoming some early struggles to pull away in the second half behind good contributions from the bench.
Owen Foxwell had 16 points, while all five starters hit double figures. Defensively, the Badgers held Delaware to 36 percent from the field.
After the game, head coach Greg Gard broke down the performance, pointing out where the team needs to improve, while highlighting some of the main positives.
Opening Statement
As always, we’ll
pull the film apart. Some good things. I thought the energy and production of Victory [Onuetu] and [Jack] Janicki was terrific. I thought [Braeden] Carrington was really good, just the activity of him. And I thought [Owen] Foxwell got into a rhythm.
Obviously, we have 19 assists on 25 baskets. So just continuing to try to get into a rhythm, specifically offensively, I felt like we have sputtered. Some of it’s finishing around the rim. Took pretty good care of the ball tonight. Some good things, but obviously a lot of things we’ll continue to get better at and work at and help guys continue to get into a better rhythm offensively. That’s been probably the biggest thing.
We practice better offensively than what we have played. So, like I said, I can’t speak enough positively about Janicki and Victory, what they gave us. It was fun to watch.
On Jack Janicki’s impact during the second-half run and his role on the team…
Yes, it is. I think the three guys that I mentioned, Carrington, Janicki, and Onuetu, played really hard. And when you play really hard, it’s amazing how lucky you get or good things happen.
Jack created things by just playing really hard. He was active. He was on the floor. He was knocking balls loose. We were able to make a couple feeds within the middle of the zone. He’s really good in there. He does a good job of finding soft spots.
And the same thing for Victory. You get 11 rebounds, you have to play like your hair is on fire. And he definitely did that. I thought BC did some of that too. His activity level, you can tell guys when they get hands on passes, hands on rebounds, the activity level of those three was, I thought, exceptional.
On Wisconsin’s three-point shot selection and offensive efficiency…
I’ll go through them and break them down. I don’t think there was any — that one of Victory’s, did that make it to the backboard or not? Did it come up a little short? So there’ll be some that, but I don’t want to micromanage that in a negative connotation. I don’t want to micromanage it.
So I’ll evaluate it. How did we get them? Were they inside-out? We got some of those. Foxwell getting into the paint, creating, drawing some attention, and then being able to find people was good. So I’ll grade those out as I go through and break down the film.
On Victory Onuetu’s energy and ability to stay out of foul trouble…
Yeah, how about that? Apparently sitting on the bench is a great motivator because he plays without any fouls, right? And he had been in foul trouble every single game until I decided to make him another assistant coach in the last game and sit.
And I thought he didn’t take the bait. First half, they were trying to get him in the air, and he blocked a couple. But trying to get him in the air, he didn’t get out of position very much. He didn’t jump unnecessarily. He played defensively with just more discipline, and then obviously his activity level. He’s a very emotional, energetic person anyway. But then when you get the ball rolling a little bit, it snowballs for him in a good way.
And I was happy to see that because we’ve coached him pretty hard. And I know it’s been an adjustment for him. But it just shows what he can do. You can be really productive when you’re on the floor. It’s hard to do it when you’re sitting on the bench in foul trouble.
On coaching Victory Onuetu to play with more discipline without limiting his energy…
You have to pick and choose. Specifically, I try to coach him in practice and in film. And then, a little bit here and there, his teammates and the assistant coaches more in games.
I don’t want to be overbearing in a game. If we’re not addressing it in practice, then that’s my fault. And maybe there’s a little adjustment here or there in a game, but by and large, the improvement has been based on what we’ve talked about in film and what we’ve worked on in practice.
And he’s embraced that and has worked on the things that he had to get better at to keep himself out of foul trouble.
On how Nolan Winter and Austin Rapp working their way back has affected the offense…
I think it’s a part of it. I think there’s times when the ball sticks. I think we over-dribble at times. We don’t do a good enough job yet of the timing of releasing bigs when they come back up after a ball-screen roll. We’re rolling sometimes, or we’re releasing too high too early. We’re not working on the flow.
We kept talking about flashing short and getting a high-low, which we didn’t get very many of them. Just the timing of it and the reading of that, I think that’s the biggest thing. We can be much better in that and just help our perimeter players out by timing that up better.
We worked hard on our perimeter players on getting open and working with their tandem on a loaded side of getting better catches. Now our bigs, we’ve got to raise their level of play. And it really revolves around the side we’re going to. We’re getting good position for the ball screen and the roll. And we’re getting there, but we’re either way up, too high, too early, not in position where we can play on that high-low before we go back to the other side of the floor.
So that’s a timing thing. We’re going to have to break that down even more, show them on film. Now we’ve got some more video to be able to teach them and help them. We’ve got to continue to help improve that part because that’ll be big if we can get more at the rim. And we’ve got to finish better too. We left some points there where we’ve got to play through contact much better than what we did tonight.
On the contributions of the bench beyond Jack Janicki…
I thought Jackson Ball, even though he was 0-for-4, gave us some good minutes. I’ve seen enough in practice to know how good a player he is. We put him on the scout team, we can’t stop his butt. He scores at will. He’s so powerful on his shot. He’s just got to get some game experience, be comfortable with the lights on, and he’ll finish better.
But I thought positionally, defensively, he was in the right place. He plays physical. He’s smart in terms of communicating and when it becomes specific on the perimeter when we have to exchange or switch things. So he just needs more under-the-lights experience. And the growth there will continue. If you can get freshmen experience, usually their growth rate will be pretty good.
On helping Eian Elmer develop his scoring ability inside the three-point line…
The transition is one thing. He got there a couple times. He lost the ball right in front of me in transition or tried to drive it into gaps. Just decision-making and ball handling. I think that’s one thing, even during the recruiting process with Eian, that we noticed he had to improve upon was the ball handling, specifically in traffic, and decisions in traffic.
I’ll break down specifically that possession because it was right in front of me. There was nowhere to go. So you don’t go when there’s nowhere to go. And if you do, you’ve got to usually use a retreat dribble or back it up because if they’ve sent two or three guys towards you, you’ve got teammates open. So just those decisions and being more comfortable with playing in tight spaces with bodies around him. That’s the next phase of his development.
On the team being further along defensively than offensively compared to last season…
They have listened and embraced how much better we have to be defensively. And then this team is different. This team is built different. There’s different people on the roster. People are in different roles.
I know last year’s team could really score. This year’s team will score. I think we’ll be better offensively. What’s that number going to be? I don’t know. But I like the fact that we’ve addressed the fact that we have to take care of the ball. I think the first one out, we were at 15 turnovers. That has since come down. It’s going to need to continue to be efficient that way.
And we’ve really harped on and emphasized the defensive end. And I think they understand that. They embrace that. This team was also built a little different defensively. We’ve got a shot blocker inside, so we’re more physical on the perimeter. It should be better defensively because we have different pieces. And I think the guys that are back, that are returning, understand how important that is.
And Jack is obviously a key part of that. He’s really kind of a quarterback when he’s out there because he’s seen so much and he has experience. And then when you get the energetic plays that he makes tonight, that’s a bonus to how he helps this team. And he plays his role to a tee.
