Wisconsin Basketball Narrowly Avoids UTRGV Upset

The game opened with perhaps the worst 20-minute defensive performance I have seen in my lifetime. In the first half, the Badgers allowed UTRGV to notch an astonishing 1.444 points per possession, shoot 62.5% from the field, and make eight of 17 attempts from three.

Wisconsin made nine of its ten shots from the field during one first-half run. Nonetheless, failure to defend dribble penetration, stop drives to the basket, get over screens, and win battles for loose balls caused them never to hold a first-half lead other than at 2-0. 

Perhaps worst of all, against a team whose tallest players are six-foot-eight or six-foot-nine, the Badgers scored two more points in the paint in the first half. Gard's frontcourt duo of Steven Crowl and Nolan Winter was insufficient to stop the bleeding. 

Greg Gard Goes Small to Hold Off Vaqueros

Not only were Crowl and Winter unable to fend off the Vaqueros, but they appeared severely mismatched against UTRGV head coach Kahil Fennell's lineup of four guards. Early in the second half, and during the final four minutes, Wisconsin basketball head coach Greg Gard adjusted his rotation and removed his staple seven-footer from the floor. 

"I wish they kept their bigs on the floor," Fennell joked in his post-game press conference. Despite his wishes, Gard made the wise adjustment as Crowl and Winter finished with the worst plus-minus figures of any Wisconsin players—the only two who finished in the negative.

With Crowl and Winter seemingly unable to handle the Vaqueros' lateral quickness, Gard employed a four-guard platoon of his own. Kamari McGee, Max Klesmit, John Blackwell, and John Tonje took the floor, with Carter Gilmore as the lone forward. 

Both Fennell and Gard praised Gilmore's defense in their post-game press conferences. Gard said the team intended to have Northern Illinois transfer Xavier Amos play more minutes at center, but Gilmore's experience, particularly playing defense at Wisconsin, led him to get the bulk of the minutes down the stretch of the game.