Badgers news: 3 quick takeaways from 87-84 win over UT Rio Valley Grande

The Wisconsin Badgers avoided a major upset on Monday when they narrowly defeated the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros 87-84 at the Kohl Center in a game that was back and forth from the start.

It was a high-scoring affair in the first half as Wisconsin allowed their opponents to score 52 points, but things evened out more in the final period as the Badgers found a way to pull out the win against a tough opponent.

Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 87-84 win over UT Rio Grande Valley.

John Blackwell career high

Heading into Monday’s game, each of Wisconsin’s starters looked to have their breakout game with a strong offensive performance.

John Tonje had been great in every game, but really shined in a 41-point performance against Arizona. Max Klesmit had 26 points against Montana State in a big game. Steven Crowl had 17 and worked well against Appalachian State 1-on-1. And even Nolan Winter had a 15-point game in the season opener while shooting a perfect 6-of-6 from the field.

John Blackwell had three double-digit performances heading into Monday’s game, but it felt like a “breakout” performance was on the way as there were little things to clean up, such as better finishing at the rim.

Well, it all came into play on Monday as Blackwell had a career-high 30 points on 11/18 from the field and 2/5 from deep. After a strong first half that featured a team-high 10 points, the sophomore exploded in the second half, putting up 20 points on 7/11 from the field, and taking over as the team’s go-to guy.

Blackwell’s scoring came largely as Wisconsin looked to claw its way back into the game, scoring nine of the Badgers’ first 11 points in the second half. It wasn’t to be, however, as the guard had two separate stretches of back-to-back buckets that gave the Badgers the lead after they trailed for the first eight minutes of the second half.

Blackwell didn’t get many scoring chances over the final 10 minutes of the second half, but got the job done by getting to the line for a pair of free throws at the two-minute mark before closing out the game with two go-ahead free throws.

Ultimately, it was his best performance as a Badger as the sophomore found ways to constantly attack the rim, get to the basket or the free throw line for a 30-point performance.

Defensive problems

Wisconsin had a strong win over the Arizona Wildcats on Friday, but it was mainly due to an excellent offense that produced 103 points. They still allowed 88 points in the win, with the Wildcats going to the free throw line 40 times in the game.

On Monday, Wisconsin had their worst defensive performance of the season as they were beaten in a number of ways that allowed UT Rio Grande Valley to thrive on the night.

In the first half, the Badgers allowed a season-high 52 points as the Vaqueros shot 62.5 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from deep. It was ugly.

Wisconsin was beaten off ball screens, with too much separation allowing shooters to fire open shots and score points on catch-and-shoot opportunities. But they also consistently struggled to rotate, leading to a number of open threes, including a pair from the corner.

On the ball, Wisconsin’s defense was porous as UTRVG’s guards consistently found ways to attack and pressure the Badgers in the paint and set up other shots. The Vaqueros didn’t really chase layups at the rim against the two seven-footers for Wisconsin, but they created quality jump shots in the paint, as well as good looks from outside.

It was clear that UTRVG was going to be playing with pace as they had the nation’s 36th best going into Monday. And they did, excelling on that front while being efficient at 1.44 points per shot in the first half.

In the second half, a number of Wisconsin’s problems actually continued. However, the Vaqueros weren’t able to capitalize on the Badgers’ defensive mistakes nearly as much, they just lacked open shots, especially from deep. UTRVG got too triple happy in the second half and didn’t see nearly as much offensive success as a result, shooting just 5/16 from deep in the final period.

Then, as the game continued into the final 10 minutes, it seemed like the Vaqueros became too iso-ball dominant, which the Badgers were able to combat with solid on-ball defense. That led to a few cold stretches and UTRVG shooting just 34.4 from the field and 29.4 from deep in the final period.

Overall, Wisconsin’s defense needs to be much better, not just to start games, but throughout 40 minutes if they want to have sustained success.

Less rotations

When it comes to the Badgers’ rotations this season, Wisconsin has looked to deploy a nine-man rotation, with Kamari McGee, Carter Gilmore, Xavier Amos and Jack Janicki coming off the bench for the five starters.

However, the way they have allocated minutes to the group has changed depending on the team’s matchup, and that was certainly the case on Monday.

Against a smaller team, Wisconsin relied more on its wings and bench depth, as center Steven Crowl and power forward Nolan Winter played 21 and 12 minutes, respectively.

Instead, McGee and Gilmore each saw 20+ minutes, while Amos saw 13 and Janicki got 10 in the win.

The Badgers rode a certain group hard in the second half as John Blackwell played all 20 minutes while John Tonje saw 18 minutes and Max Klesmit got 16 minutes of second half action. To complement them, McGee got 15 minutes alone in the period, while Gilmore saw 14 minutes as the Badgers went with a lot of small balls to have better transition opportunities to combat the ball penetration.

Crowl saw just six minutes in the second half, while Winter played just three, while Janicki also got six minutes off the bench.

Now, Wisconsin will start facing bigger teams as they get into the breadth of their non-conference schedule, but it was exciting to see them deploy different lineups to try to combat a heady opponent on Monday.