The Wisconsin Badgers used a hot start to get a much-needed 80-72 win over the UCLA Bruins on Tuesday, improving to 10-5 on the season.
In dire need of some quality wins on their resume, the Badgers needed
to bounce back after an ugly loss to the No. 5 Purdue Boilermakers at home over the weekend. They got the opportunity at home again on Tuesday and made it count, getting a key Quad 2 win.
Here are three quick takeaways from the Badgers 80-72 win over UCLA on Tuesday.
Hot start
Wisconsin’s start was the difference in the game. Early on, the Badgers went on a 13-0 run to take a 16-4 lead over a three-and—-half minute stretch.. Nolan Winter got off to a good start with a pair of threes, Andrew Rohde hit a three, and the Badgers forced four misses and a pair of turnovers from UCLA defensively.
Wisconsin has shown they can go on these hot starts earlier in the season, but we hadn’t seen something like this in a while, and the home crowd bought into it.
The hot start didn’t end just there, though, as Wisconsin went on an 11-0 run after UCLA scored three points to get ahead 28-9 halfway through the first half.
They were hot from three, hitting five of their first eight from deep, while UCLA was ice cold. The Bruins would climb back a bit as their offense came back to life, but Wisconsin held a 45-31 lead at halftime.
Starter heavy day
Sensing the urgency, Wisconsin played its starters heavy minutes on Tuesday. John Blackwell and Nolan Winter saw 39 and 35 minutes, respectively, while Nick Boyd and Andrew Rohde played 33 and 29 minutes themselves.
That core four, paired with 24 minutes from Jack Janicki, were the Badgers top rotation players on Tuesday.
With Austin Rapp out, Janicki was the only rotation player to see more than seven minutes. Braeden Carrington played five minutes, Zach Kinziger played seven, Will Garlock played six, and Hayden Jones played six.
Starting power forward Aleksas Bieliauskas played just five second half minutes, with Jack Janicki on the court for 15 and every other starter seeing at least 15 minutes as well.
I wondered how early Greg Gard would shorten the bench minutes in January. It’s already starting to happen.
Ugly shooting day on both sides
As mentioned above, the Badgers shot five of eight from three to start the day, leading to their quick 28-9 start. They finished the first half three of eight, hitting eight threes in the opening period alone after entering the game averaging 10.5 threes a contest.
Well, the Badgers were awful from three in the second half, shooting two of 14 from deep and eight of 13 from twos. Wisconsin has struggled to adjust in their shooting ruts this year, and that continued in the second half.
Even when getting good looks, Wisconsin has to be more aggressive when the threes aren’t falling. The Badgers did get to the free-throw line 17 times in the second half, but they’ve got to figure out their three-point efficiency with how many triples they shoot every game.
UCLA, on the other hand, was even more awful from deep, shooting one for 17 on the day. The Bruins were actually quite efficient from inside the arc (27 of 44) and had 36 paint points, while connecting on 12 of their 15 “layups.”
They also got to the free throw line 23 times, but connected on only 15. Still, it’s really hard to win any basketball game hitting one three, and that was a huge reason why Wisconsin won.
Moreover, with how much of a lead Wisconsin mounted in the first half, it was tough for UCLA to overcome that without getting shots to fall from deep. The Bruins never trailed by fewer than seven in the loss.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Badgers got the job done on Tuesday. Next up? Wisconsin’s toughest match of the year: a road game against the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines. That’s quite the start to January for Wisconsin.
