Wisconsin is a delight appreciated best by the aficionado or the coach doomed to face it. The casual observer cannot relish its work, and even those performers who must play it rarely comprehend fully just what they are about to confront.
The Badgers are rife with nuance and subtleties, with basic fundamentals and old-fashioned rules. They do not dazzle with flash nor lop off a head with a broad axe. They just go about their business and stick an opponent here, nick an opponent there, jab an opponent until its blood is drained and all life has seeped from it.
That was their pattern throughout this season and that was their pattern again Saturday in the 72-55 victory over 11th-seeded Kansas State that moved them on to the NCAA tournament’s Midwest regional semifinal in Detroit. Point guard Trevon Hughes, who finished with 25 points, was brilliant, as was running mate Michael Flowers, who chipped in 15.
They outscored the Wildcats’ starting guards by a staggering 36 points, and that was one obvious reason for the third-seeded Badgers’ triumph. Another was their care with the ball, which resulted in a mere 10 turnovers. A last was their nine three-pointers, which were nine more than the Wildcats managed on 13 attempts.
A look at the stat sheet reveals all that, but the root of their victory ran far deeper. It ran back to defensive drills in October, even ran all the way back to defensive philosophies coach Bo Ryan formed when he was working at a junior high school.
“We haven’t changed anything,” he declared.
But here they were applied with staggering effect on the Wildcats, who were built on the twin constellations of Michael Beasley and Bill Walker. The former would get his 23 points and the latter would get his 18. But none of their teammates had more than one field goal until just 6 minutes 40 seconds remained and, at the end, the seven other Wildcats who played meaningful minutes had scored just 14 points.
They were too young and too inexperienced to recognize and combat the nuances in the Badgers’ defense, which turned the game their way in the first six minutes of the second half. Beasley, who had scored 17 points in the first on 13 shots, put up just two in that stretch and made one.
That helped push Wisconsin’s lead to 11. Then nicked by its double teams and jabbed by the way it was constantly fronting him, Beasley simply disappeared with no shots for more than 11 minutes.
“We made it hard for him to get the ball,” explained Badgers forward Marcus Landry, one of those doing the fronting. “I think, after they passed him up the first time, a shot was going up. … They looked at him that first time and were kind of done. The fact that we made it tough for them to find him worked.”
“Our rules and our system, coach Ryan’s defense came through,” Joe Krabbenhoft said. “We stuck with it. We didn’t get away from it. We didn’t try to be any other team. We did what Wisconsin does.”
None of this was esoteric. All of it was basic. But with their driving lanes clogged, with their star shackled and with their shots not falling, the freshman-laden Wildcats didn’t know what to do and slowly unraveled.
“I couldn’t get the shot I wanted,” Beasley said of his struggles.
“We may have pressed a little bit too much offensively,” coach Frank Martin admitted.
The Badgers, of course, did just the opposite. They simply went about their business, remained true to their rules and just bled the life from yet one more opponent.
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smyslenski@tribune.com
