Badgers Beat Themselves in Senior Day Defeat

The old adage goes something like: “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again”. Unfortunately, the Badgers bought into that sentiment a bit too much on Sunday afternoon, missing their final 17 attempts from three-point range in a 69-56 loss at the hands of Purdue.

“For it to come to an end playing at the Kohl Center like this, its an emotional moment, especially after a loss,” UW senior forward Jared Berggren said. "This is a pretty big loss for us so it hurts.”

The Badgers (11-5 Big Ten, 20-9 overall) have no one to blame but themselves for their first Senior Day loss in 12 years under head coach Bo Ryan. After starting out 6-for-10 from three-point range building a 36-24 lead, UW was only able to take a 5-point lead into halftime, failing to score over the final 4:24 of the first half. That lull allowed the Boilermakers (7-9, 14-15) to score 7 straight points heading into the break and erase any thought that this would be an easy Wisconsin victory.  

“We had them down,” senior forward Mike Bruesewitz said. “We just didn’t step on their throats when we needed to.”

Early on, it looked as if the necessary adjustments had indeed been made; with Berggren being fed underneath for 6 straight points to give UW a 42-33 lead with just over 17 minutes left. But after the quick start, Wisconsin once again began to settle for and miss jump shots. In the end, UW finished just 6-of-28 from three-point range and seemed unwilling to make an effort at getting the ball into the post in order to give Berggren a chance to wear down Purdue’s inexperienced front line.

“We really talked about {Sam} Dekker and {Ben} Brust and trying to get them out of rhythm,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. “We know Jared Berggren is able to make shots but he has struggled this whole year and we were willing to live with that.” 

Entering Sunday, the Kohl Center had been the lone Big Ten arena in which Boilermaker seniors DJ Byrd and Dru Anthrop had yet to win. Byrd made sure he checked Madison off the list, blitzing the Badgers for 22 points on 6-of-9 from three-point range. Between Byrd’s shooting from the outside and Purdue’s seeming invincibility in the two-man game, Purdue was able to exploit the Wisconsin defense unlike any other team during the Big Ten season.

“They were getting {those shots} in the first half too and they weren’t exactly hitting them,” Ryan said. “When they start getting the drives going and you start squeezing a little and the three-point shot comes open. They took advantage of that like we have against teams.”

Coming off three straight wins by a combined total of 81 points, Sunday was a massive let down for a Badger team that seemed to be hitting its stride just at the right moment. Sophomore guard Traevon Jackson took another big step back in his development, especially in the 2^nd half. Although he made 3 of his 4 field goal attempts and finished with 6 points and 3 assists, Jackson committed 4 costly 2^nd half turnovers, the first two igniting a 19-3 Purdue run that transformed a 9-point UW lead into a 7-point deficit.

“When you are missing shots, the basket gets smaller, you get a little tighter and we maybe forced a few passes that we shouldn’t have trying to make a great play instead of a good play…” Ryan said. “For us to get in that kind of hole, that’s pretty tough to come back from.”

Generally Wisconsin can live with 6 made three-point shots. The problem Sunday was the 27 attempts. During Big Ten play, UW has averaged 26.8 3-point attempts per game in its 5 losses and just 20.5 attempts in 11 wins. While they have been able to squeak out wins despite hot and cold shooting, what has gotten the Badgers in trouble has been the inability to show patience when the shots aren’t falling and to instead work the ball into the interior.

“We’ve had games like this before that we have found ways to come out on the winning side when shots aren’t dropping for us,” Berggren added. “You would like to be able to rely on your defense on nights like that when shots aren’t dropping but tonight we weren’t able to do that.”

Wisconsin has never finished outside of the top-4 in 11 years under Bo Ryan and while that streak looked safe heading into Sunday, this latest Badger defeat has brought the possibility of a fifth place finish very much back into the picture.  UW is currently in a four-way tie for 2^nd place that will ultimately settle the 2-5 seeds in the Big Ten Tournament, with just three of the four teams being given all-important byes in the opening round (Wisconsin sits tied with Ohio State for third place in the Big Ten, just a game ahead of Michigan and a game behind Michigan State, UW’s next opponent).

Last season it was a road loss at Iowa that took Wisconsin out of contention for the Big Ten title. Back then, UW responded with a road upset of Ohio State to begin a run of three straight wins to finish out the regular season. After Sunday’s loss, the Badgers can only hope for a repeat performance.