Which Badgers team will show up Thursday?
MADISON – For two days in the Big Ten tournament, Wisconsin resembled the team that won 17 of 18 games after returning from the Maui Invitational.
The Badgers shared the basketball, finished at the rim, ran shooters off the three-point line, defended ball screens well and closed off the lane.
“I thought we played well for two days,” Gard said. “I thought we played really well Friday and Saturday.
“So we’ve got to take the positives from that.”
The Big Ten title game, a 71-56 loss to Michigan, brought a return of issues that plagued UW in February: too many miscues on defense, particularly defending the pick and roll; the inability to finish offensively in the lane and inconsistent ball movement.
“We’ve got to quickly get past this and get ready for what is next,” Gard said. “We can’t dwell. Whether we won or lost, we have to quickly move on. Because the team that you’re playing doesn’t care what you did over the weekend.”
UW (25-9), seeded No. 8 in the East Regional, opens at approximately 8:40 p.m. Thursday in Buffalo against No. 9 Virginia Tech (22-10).
That gives UW’s players and coaches two-plus days to address the issues that led to the loss to Michigan.
“There were times one guy thought we were switching and the other guy thought we were fly-trapping,” senior forward Vitto Brown said. “So our communication was the main thing, and that’s why they were able to get some of those easy rolls to the basket or Zak Irvin was wide open at the free-throw line for a jump shot.”
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UW hit 48.6% of its two-point shots against Indiana (17 of 35), 53.6% against Northwestern (15 of 28) and only 39.0% in the loss to Michigan (16 of 41).
“We couldn’t finish around the rim,” Gard said. “That was very obvious. There were times we looked like the team that was playing four games in four days, not three in three days.”
UW had a combined 28 assists and 16 turnovers in the first two tournament games. Five players scored in double figures in the 70-60 victory over Indiana. Three players scored in double figures and three others scored at least six points in the 76-48 victory over Northwestern.
The numbers against Michigan: 10 assists and 15 turnovers. Nine of the turnovers came in the second half when UW shot just 26.7% and scored only 24 points.
"When we're at our best, we share it really well," Gard said. "It's not dominated by one person. Compare Friday and Saturday to other games, how we shared, how we moved the ball. Types of shots are more important for me than volume. Obviously, the efficiency that comes with those types of shots is important.
"We'll continue to work and try to play like we played Friday and Saturday."
CHAT: Matt Velazquez Q&A at 10 a.m. Friday
CHAT: Jeff Potrykus Q&A at noon Thursday
BRACKETS: USA Today Bracket Challenge | Printable bracket (with times/TV)
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Virginia Tech, which finished 10-8 in the Atlantic Coast Conference in Buzz Williams' third season as head coach is not a strong defensive team.
The Hokies, who have been off since losing to Florida State in the ACC quarterfinals on Thursday, finished 10th in the ACC in field-goal percentage defense (44.5%) and 14th in three-point shooting defense (36.0%). They also finished last in the league in rebound margin at minus-2.1.
However, they led the ACC in three-point shooting (40.3%), overall shooting (49.0%) and have victories over Duke, Virginia, Miami (Fla.) and Michigan, all NCAA Tournament teams.
"We had two really good games," Ethan Happ said, "and then take a step backward."
One more misstep and UW's season will be over.
Jeff Potrykus can be reached at jpotrykus@journalsentinel.com or twitter.com/jaypo1961.