Whereas venting on social media hasn’t been an issue, I’ve simply now summoned the need to put in writing in any depth about Wisconsin’s unhappy debacle towards James Madison on Friday night time.
Whereas JMU was an attractive upset choose, it’s honest to say that only a few individuals had issues pegged to play out as poorly for Wisconsin as they did.
Over-matched. Uninspired. Unprepared. All three of those come to thoughts to explain the intestine punch Greg Gard’s squad suffered in Brooklyn (as does “Poorly Officiated” if we’re being totally trustworthy). However I’m going to dive in a bit deeper to flesh out how this unthinkable end result got here to fruition.
1. Wisconsin was typically overconfident: This doesn’t imply that the Badgers swaggered into March Insanity pondering they had been infallible. Each coach and participant in that locker room knew the workforce had defensive shortcomings, and some on the offensive finish, as properly. And these guys don’t strike me as an excessively cocky bunch. However, an objectively spectacular run by means of the Huge Ten Match (and the No. 5 seed and High 25 rating that it yielded) might need put the workforce in a mindset, nevertheless subtly, that they had been a little bit of a shoo-in to face Duke within the Spherical of 32. Oops.
2. Wisconsin badly underestimated JMU: That is an offshoot of the earlier one. Positive, James Madison had misplaced solely three video games all season and had bested Michigan State in East Lansing, however that recreation again in November was their lone High 100 win and so they had completely feasted on Quad 4 groups since.
Positive, they handed the attention check, however had been now enjoying a KenPom darling (#17 coming in) with sterling offensive effectivity numbers.
Absolutely, a smallish mid-major wasn’t going to pose too daunting of an issue for the Huge Ten’s Badgers coming in on a little bit of a heater. Flawed, flawed, flawed.
Each Badger fan who was being trustworthy with themselves knew how a lot hassle Wisconsin was in by the 16:00 trip of the first half. The workforce appeared shell-shocked at how laborious their opponent was bringing it and, though they closed it to six factors within the second half, Wisconsin by no means appeared like a lot of a menace to JMU all night time.
A crestfallen Chucky Hepburn might need mentioned it greatest in a really troublesome presser: ”They kinda shocked us to begin the sport.”
3. Wisconsin wasn’t wholesome: There’s a giant distinction between enjoying wholesome in March and enjoying by means of accidents in March, and whereas each Badger was on the market, it was pretty apparent that some guys had been harm and never able to enjoying their greatest.
Tyler Wahl is one of the best instance. He was clearly gutting it out and was, at numerous occasions, a shell of his greatest self. That’s not a reduce on him, it’s a reality. He confirmed every kind of guts merely being on the court docket, however the Badgers wanted a wholesome Wahl to be their greatest.
There have been actually others who weren’t 100%, together with John Blackwell, and the Badgers would have been rather a lot more durable out for JMU with a totally wholesome workforce.
However, each squad faces accidents this time of 12 months and the very fact is that Wisconsin had fairly good luck with accidents this season.
4. Wisconsin Didn’t Make Changes: And right here we now have arrived on the Greg Gard portion of this overview.
Whereas Gard had a job within the first two classes above, for my part, these points had been totally on the gamers. However this class—in-game teaching and changes—wasn’t Gard’s most interesting hour. From the tip, it was clear what JMU needed to do with their press and defensive depth.
The Badgers appeared each shocked and ill-prepared to cope with the onslaught and, worse, had been unable to drag out of the tailspin by adjusting till the second half when the sport was already near the purpose of no return.
This one is on the teaching employees and is deeply disappointing. In two hours Friday night time, “Fireplace Gard” gained again all the momentum that it had misplaced throughout Wisconsin’s magical Huge Ten Match run.
The trustworthy fact is that each one 4 of these items mixed in an ideal storm to sink the Badgers. It was a uniquely troublesome approach to finish a typically optimistic season crammed with ups and downs, and whereas it beat a gut-punch loss to Duke within the ache division, it was nonetheless laborious to see Wisconsin embarrassed by a 12-seed mid-major on the most important stage.
What this loss means within the massive image remains to be unclear. It appears seemingly that the Badgers’ roster is about to endure extra losses than simply Tyler Wahl (a number of individuals have AJ Storr already out the door). However, what’s crystal clear is that ‘24-25 will probably be a referendum 12 months for Gard in a approach that not one of the others have been.