The Wisconsin Badgers won their fifth straight game to start the 2024 season after defeating UTRGV.
The Jeans entered the game hesitantly after the Badgers expected to survive a drop in competition. After previously defeating the Arizona Wildcats, the Badgers did not enter the UTRGV match with the same intensity and the team had that impression early in the match. The Vaqueros were in control for almost 35 minutes before the Wisconsin Badgers finally took the lead.
While UTRGV may not look like a threatening and competitive team from the outside, the Vaqueros are great outside shooters and can never really be counted out. UTRGV can turn a game around in an instant, and that was certainly proven against the Badgers.
For the Wisconsin Badgers, it was John Blackwell who was the man of the game as it was his turn to lead the offense. Blackwell scored a career-high 30 points for the Wisconsin Badgers when the team prioritized driving and getting to the foul line. John Tonje was also incredibly effective for Wisconsin once again, finding the back of the net at the Badgers foul line.
Defensively, Wisconsin really struggled to do both and close out the game against the Vaqueros. Particularly in the first half of the game, there were numerous situations where Wisconsin did not execute a transition properly and allowed an open basket. Wisconsin has struggled with this issue in all five games this season, but it hasn’t been much of an issue before because Wisconsin has scored more points than the opposing team.
What went right, what went wrong for the Wisconsin Badgers against UTRGV
For the Wisconsin Badgers, there were a few things that went right for the team, but overall, a lot went wrong on the defensive end.
Wisconsin’s defense was unable to keep up with the fast-moving basketball in the first half against the Vaqueros. As mentioned earlier, the Badgers failed to convert their offense several times and left open shooters, which the Vaqueros took advantage of. Wisconsin could never feel comfortable against the Vaqueros, and neither could the fans, as they felt UTRGV would score every time they had the ball.
Going forward, the Wisconsin Badgers need to work on effective perimeter defense to avoid another similar situation. The Badgers struggled with physical players last season, but they’ve done a good job in that category this season. If the Badgers can fix some of their current perimeter defense issues, then Wisconsin could be a really hard defense to play.
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