The Wisconsin Badgers gave us our worst loss in 11 years last night. Final score read 87-to-48.
We shouldn’t feel too bad, right? Wisconsin has still not lost back-to-back games since January of 2009. And they are 70-and-5 at home against non-conference opponents in the Bo Ryan era.
But really, we should be disgusted. We allowed UW to turn what was a tight contest early on into a halftime blow-out. They held us scoreless in the last 6:36 of the first half and extended a ten-point lead into a 44-21 absolute laugher at the intermission. They continued that run to start the 2nd half and mounted a 23-0 run holding the Pack scoreless for over 10 minutes.
This same Badger team struggled mightily from the field in Orlando, shooting under 40 percent from the field and under 30 percent from behind the 3-point arc. Last night, their first home game in over 2 weeks, Wisconsin shot at a 50 percent clip (28 for 56) including 55 percent (11 for 20) from downtown.
The moment that really epitomized last night and how UW broke us down from the opening minute was when Taylor drove hard into the lane but, seeing he had no shot, passed out to Jarmusz near the top of the key. Jarmusz, who was off-balance and guarded, alertly passed to Bruesewitz. Bruesewitz, who had buried a three-pointer from the wing a few minutes earlier, buried another three-pointer to give the Badgers a 34-21 lead with 5:31 remaining in the half.
We were disjointed on offense and careless with the basketball in the pivotal half court set. The deficit was too much to overcome.
Of note, we entered the night averaging 27.4 free-throw attempts and 11.8 turnovers per game. Well, we only attempted three free throws and had 11 turnovers in the first half.
Update: Good news, Tracy Smith will be back in 10-12 days.
