Wisconsin Badgers Hoops: Pros and Cons at Season's End

Although Wisconsin has exceeded expectations and posted big wins this season, the Badgers are not looking as formidable as they were earlier in this campaign.

After losing for the first time in 52 tries at home to an unranked opponent (Illinois), the Badgers seemed to bounce back with an 83-55 thrashing of the Indiana Hoosiers.

Things looked rosy indeed with the return of big man and second leading scorer, Jon Leuer, on Monday, Feb. 15. The Badgers headed into a pivotal battle with the Minnesota Golden Gophers last Thursday—still in the hunt for a Big Ten Championship.

The Badgers emerged from the "Barn" battered and bloody after a taking a brutal beatdown from their rivals.

Then Northwestern came to town last Sunday, and the Badgers got back on the winning track—but just barely.

With the postseason looming on the horizon, here are three areas for concern and three bright spots on which to concentrate:

Downside

Inside Depth— Head coach Bo Ryan has his rotation, I understand. But if forward Keaton Nankivil or Leuer were to get into foul trouble, it goes significantly downhill from there.

Mike Bruesewitz is not a viable scoring threat, nor does he regularly contribute solid minutes. For instance, check out this line against Minnesota: no points on 0-2 shooting with one turnover, four rebounds, and FIVE fouls in 20 minutes of playing time.

Leuer and Nankivil must play smart and not get into foul trouble.

Scoring droughts— What in the Sam Hill is with the ridiculous scoring droughts?

Against Illinois, the Badgers tied the game at 53 all. Then they proceeded to not score for five minutes of game time...

Against Minnesota, the Badgers went almost EIGHT minutes without a basket and went on to be dismantled by the Golden Gophers...

In their most recent win against Northwestern, the Badgers were ahead 57-44. They did not score for five minutes and allowed the Wildcats to get back in it. Jon Leuer's pivotal block sealed the deal, or the Badgers would have been looking at another loss.

At times recently, when trying to score, the Badgers have seemed like Ray Charles looking for a taxi.

Tim Jarmusz— Jarmusz is playing too many minutes, it is that simple. He consistently seems to be the chink in an otherwise formidable defense.

Repeatedly, we are subjected to having to watch teams isolate him (see the Northwestern game) and abuse him.

Both Rob Wilson and Ryan Evans are averaging more points and more rebounds in half of the minutes per game.

Now on to the brighter side of things:

Upside

Leuer's Return and Bohannon's surge— Jon Leuer's return to the lineup does several things for the Badgers. It gives them an inside scoring threat, helps stop the dribble drive, and helps stiffen up the defense.

Leuer's return, coupled with Jason Bohannon's ridiculous scoring of late, are a couple of things to be very excited about. If Leuer can return to pre-injury form and Bohannon can continue the hot shooting, the Badgers will go deep in March.

Getting defensive— Wisconsin is fifth in the country in points allowed at 57.1 per contest.

UW has held opponents to a season-low point total 11 times this year, including seven
occasions during Big Ten play. Here is the list of season-lows established vs. the Badgers:

                 46—IPFW (11/15)             50—N’Western (1/13)
                 42—Oakland (11/18)         48—Michigan (1/20)
                 42—Cal Poly (12/16)         60—Purdue (1/28)
                 43—UIC (12/27)               49—Mich. St. (2/2)
                 43—Ohio St. (12/31)         44—Michigan (2/6)
                                   54—Mich. St. (1/6)

Ball control— The Badgers have been particularly stingy with the ball this season, leading the country with only nine turnovers per game.

Notes:

Steals— Trevon Hughes has 167 career steals and needs just one more to tie Michael Finley for fifth on the Badger's all-time list. This season he has recorded 11 multi-steal games, including a season-high five vs. Arizona. Hughes ranks sixth in the Big Ten, averaging 1.67 thefts per outing.

Bohannon— Jason Bohannon has scored 15 points or more in each of the last six outings, leading the Badgers in five of those games. He scored a career-high 30 points vs. Indiana last Saturday, tying UW’s single-game school record with seven 3-pointers in the game.

Bohannon is shooting 60.3 percent (44-for-73) from the field over his last six games.
He is also shooting 52.2 percent (24-for-46) from 3-point range over that span.

On the Rebound— The Badgers are the only Big Ten team that hasn't lost consecutive games this season. Here is how they have rebounded from each one of their losses:

Loss                 Next Opp. (rank) Score
Gonzaga           Maryland (21) W, 78-69
Green Bay         Marquette W, 72-63
Michigan St.      Purdue (4) W, 73-66
Ohio State        Michigan W, 54-48
Purdue             Michigan St. (5) W, 67-49
Illinois              Indiana W, 83-55
Minnesota         Northwestern W, 70-63