How Wisconsin Lost the Game

Before I get going into the post, I want to start off by saying hats off to Davidson. They made great plays both defensively and offensively whenever they needed and once again Stephen Curry was sensational. They are a great team.

I watched almost the entire game and it wasn't very good for Wisconsin right from the start. I think they came out way too confident. Their trademark hard-nosed M2M defense was absent. Their offense was too stationary. They got some offensive rebounds to stay even through the first half, which I thought they were extremely lucky to be tied. But you could tell Davidson wanted to win a lot more.

The second half was just a disaster for Wisconsin, especially offensively. They started the half taking some questionable shots and then they started with the excessive and unnecessary fouling. Here are a few of the bad sequences from early in the second half where they basically lost this game,



It was as if a completely different team showed up to play tonight. All the things you associate with Badger basketball, tough M2M defense, patient offense, instead gave way to soft slow-moving feet, panic 3-pointers with plenty on the clock, and the worst was of course the ridiculous fouls. This one from Stiemsma is unbelievable. This was a premeditated forearm to the head,


Summary:

It was so uncharacteristic of Wisconsin. The quick shots by Flowers and Butch, at a time in the game when they were behind by 2-5 points with 15 minutes. Then the cheap fouls, simply inexcusable. The irony in it all is that Wisconsin was supposed to be a model of discipline, yet they couldn't compose themselves when they needed to the most.

Now that most of you coaches are in the off-season, a skill development video you might want to take a look at is Kevin Sutton's DVD on 10 Drills For Player Evaluation. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's Basketball Forum to talk hoops with other coaches.