The Wisconsin Badgers secured their second victory of the 2024 season in as many games after being defeated State of Montana.
The Badgers still haven’t had the dominant performance that fans are really expecting, and the Bobcats have clearly put up a tough fight. However, the Wisconsin Badgers ultimately defeated the Bobcats and that’s what counts as the team moves on to its next opponent.
Montana State was largely a question mark heading into the 2024 season due to the majority of the team consisting of inexperienced players. Guards Max Agbonkpolo and Jabe Mullins came into the program after finding success elsewhere, but only in circumscribed roles. The Bobcats have proven to be a hard team for the Badgers to beat and certainly appear to have the more offensive identity that many believed.
Guard Max Klesmit was the main offensive presence for the Wisconsin Badgers against the Bobcats, making six three-pointers. Klesmit scored 26 points and looked solid while doing so, but the best offensive player was probably Kamari McGee. The defender added to this with attacks from the bench that energized both the team and the team.
McGee is someone who could continue to carve out a bigger role for himself off the bench in the absence of defender Camren Hunter. The defender missed game time with a lower body injury, which resulted in McGee playing a significant amount of minutes for the team. McGee looked a little tentative against Holy Cross, but seemed much more confident and prepared against Montana State.
What went right, what went wrong for the Wisconsin Badgers against Montana State
While the Wisconsin Badgers were able to secure a win over the Montana State Bobcats, that doesn’t mean everything went according to plan.
Starting on the defensive side of the ball, the Badgers made 26 three-point shots, which was slightly more than the team would have liked. The Wisconsin Badgers have looked to score a ton of three-pointers this season themselves, but allowing them to score the exact same number of points negates outside success. Moving forward, the Badgers will need to focus on finding ways to close down and prevent open looks from long range.
On the offensive side, the Wisconsin Badgers turned the ball to the basket 11 times, allowing Montana State to keep the score. Last season, the Badgers struggled with turnovers and lost games because of it, which should create a different sense of urgency to fix the problem this time around.
What the Wisconsin Badgers did really well was move the ball and control the offense throughout the game. The Badgers didn’t force shots or try to cause anything on offense that they didn’t have to. If the Badgers continue to show a similar level of smart shooting of the basketball, the team could find more offensive success in the future.
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