After storming through the Big Ten Tournament to the championship game, fans of the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team likely spent this week wondering which version of UW would show up in Brooklyn on Friday — the one that shined in Minneapolis, or the one that went 2-6 in February.
They were harshly greeted by the Badgers of February.
From the opening tip, it was clear UW wasn’t going to be able to cruise by the Dukes. James Madison came out buzzing with energy. flying around the court defensively and making UW work for every rebound, pass and shot.
James Madison’s physicality and intensity resulted in a season-high 19 UW turnovers, of which the Dukes turned into 27 points. In the first 10 minutes of play, the Badgers coughed up nine turnovers and went 2-for-9 from the field to place themselves down 18–5. Fifteen of the Dukes’ points came off Badgers’ turnovers.
On possessions where UW did get off a shot, they failed to cash in on the easy ones, finishing 6-for-16 on layups — including several open misses — and going 11-for-30 (36.6%) on shots inside the arc. At the charity stripe, they went 15-for-23 (65.2%) despite entering the contest shooting 75.9% on free throws.
From a defensive standpoint, UW was fighting an uphill battle throughout the first half with all its turnovers. However, the Badgers held its ground—keeping the Dukes to 33 points on 31 field goal attempts in the period.
But, putting up their fewest first-half points of the season (20), which was matched solely by James Madison’s points off turnovers and starting the game 6-for-21 from the field, the Badgers defensive efforts were all for naught.
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A hot streak from 3-point land in the second half gave the team an opportunity to comeback, making seven of its 15 three-point attempts in the period, with five makes coming from guard Max Klesmit alone.
After pulling the difference to six with 8:55 to play, Klesmit found daylight on a dribble-drive to the rim but had his uncontested lay-in roll out. Rebounded by JMU, the Dukes pushed the ball in transition and found Noah Freidel on the wing to bury an open 3-pointer. The five-point swing pushed the James Madison advantage back to nine instead of bringing the Badgers to within four and UW never recovered.
Klesmit’s second-half hot streak placed him atop the box score in points for the Badgers with 18. Guard AJ Storr finished with 13 points (5-for-14 FG, 0-for-3 3Pt) and forward Steven Crowl generated a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds. UW was outpaced 21-7 in bench points as the second unit combined to go 1-of-6 from the field. Forward Tyler Wahl was quiet in his last game for the Badgers, with the outgoing senior logging five points (1-for-5 FG), seven rebounds and three assists while he battled through a nagging knee injury picked up during the Big Ten Tournament.
Despite putting up 72 points, the Dukes didn’t have a single player hit 15 points, picking up 14 from Sun Belt Player of the Year Terrence Edwards Jr., 12 points and nine rebounds from T.J. Bickerstaff and 12 points from Julien Wooden. Michael Green III also accounted for 11 points off the bench.
The Badgers elimination meant that they would miss the Sweet 16 for a seventh consecutive season. Since the 2016-17 campaign, UW owns a NCAA tournament record of 2-3, having qualified for the Big Dance in five of those seven seasons, including the 2020 tournament that was canceled due to COVID-19.
All in all, UW ends its rollercoaster campaign with a 22-14 record and peaked as high as No. 6 in the AP Top 25 poll after beginning the season unranked. The team should be full of familiar faces for 2024-25 with Wahl being the only player set to graduate. Despite this, the transfer portal could result in some roster shake-ups this offseason.