The Wisconsin Badgers are taking on the UW-Platteville Pioneers in their second exhibition game on Wednesday. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Kohl Center on Big Ten Plus.
Wisconsin faced off against
the Oklahoma Sooners in a big exhibition match last Friday in Milwaukee at the Fiserv Forum. That one went down to the wire in an exciting finish, with the Sooners coming out on top 84-83.
In that one, the Badgers struggled to shoot efficiently, hitting only 43.5 percent of their shots, including 32.3 percent from deep. But, they still managed to score 83 points in a fast-paced game, losing by one despite Oklahoma shooting over 50 percent from the field and 55 percent from deep.
John Blackwell led the way with 20 points, while Nick Boyd and Austin Rapp poured in 19 and 17, respectively. Wisconsin was three-heavy early on, shooting only 3/14 from deep in the opening period. They looked to come from behind with an efficient second half, but fell just short.
After the game, head coach Greg Gard pointed out the team’s defense as an area to improve, which makes sense given Oklahoma’s shooting percentages.
“That is exactly why we do those things,” Gard said. “To play in this type of environment, and get a lot of things exposed, areas that you can’t maybe learn about as in-depth in practice, and to get to do this and see a team that can challenge you in different ways, I think, is great for us. We will take a jump from this, specifically defensively. I thought we were not good enough there in the first half, but especially on the back half of the second half, I thought we started to get our feet under us a little bit. Some of it is communication, I thought some of it was, like the guys said, being newer to playing with each other. So, just things that we will continue to improve upon as we get more chances to get reps.
“I think what excites me the most about this group is more about what they were not tonight, in terms of they were not good enough on the defensive end specifically. And being more efficient offensively on every possession. That tells me we have a long way to go. But that is the exciting part. We better have a long ways to go in October. That is good. That means the ceiling is high for this group. But, I like what I saw from this group down the stretch, defensively doing some things that we were better with. And, like I said, just things that you can’t just simulate in practice. We need to get more bite and teeth defensively. So, we will learn more from this than the last 10 days of practice. This will help us because we can break things down on film, and really dive into how they see themselves against other competition, and where we made mistakes, and keep moving forward.”
Now, the Badgers take on UW-Platteville in their final exhibition match on Wednesday in a game where Gard faces off against his brother, Jeff Gard, who is the head coach of the Pioneers.
Wednesday’s game has more meaning beyond the court, as it is Wisconsin’s ninth-annual Garding Against Cancer game, which began in 2015-16 against UW-Platteville.
According to the Badgers, since December 2016, the Garding Against Cancer initiative has raised more than $9 million for cancer research and patient care across Wisconsin. The goals of the initiative aim to make a difference in the lives of researchers, patients, and families throughout the state.
Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. on Big Ten Plus. Join us as our gameday thread is officially open!
