Wisconsin Basketball: Badgers look to bounce back against Chicago State
In the Wisconsin Badgers’ first real test of the season on Tuesday, the team fell short on the road in Omaha, losing 79-67 to a very talented Creighton Bluejays team. While it was not the result fans were hoping for or expected, we were able to find holes in both the Badgers’ offense and defense, which is much preferred in November rather than later in the year.
Coming in at 1-1, the Badgers will return home Thursday night to take on the Chicago State Cougars from the Western Athletic Conference. The Cougars enter the meeting with the Badgers currently sitting at 1-0 after their lone victory came at home against Division 3 school Illinois Tech. Chicago State finished the 2015-16 campaign with just four wins, only one of which came against a Division 1 team. Ironically, the Cougars defeated Western Illinois last season for their only D1 victory. Western Illinois defeated Wisconsin last year in Madison in the season opener.
Wisconsin will look to improve on outside shot selection and ball security from their Tuesday night loss. Shooting just 28 percent from behind the arc on 39 attempts and committing 16 turnovers, the Badgers were lucky to even be in the game for as long as they were. Luckily for them, there is plenty of season left to get it right and return to the normal Wisconsin basketball we know and love- taking care of the ball, sound defense, and timely perimeter shooting.
“I thought at times we showed some very uncharacteristic handling of possessions where we got disheveled at times,” head coach Greg Gard said following the loss to Creighton. “But I thought coming here to start the year would be good, that we’d learn a lot from this. We definitely will.”
The ninth-ranked Badgers will have this one game at home before taking flight to Hawaii and the Maui Invitational next week where they will continue their tough schedule by taking on Tennessee in the tournament opener.
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