Wisconsin Basketball: Badgers Keys to Winning the Big Ten Tournament

The regular season is now over for Wisconsin basketball and postseason play is here. The Badgers will compete in the Big Ten Tournament that begins tomorrow in Minneapolis. Wisconsin basketball has a bye and will not play until Thursday afternoon. As the 5 seed, they will face the winner of 12 seed Maryland and 13 seed Rutgers. That game will be played at 5:30 tomorrow to kick off the tournament. Wisconsin has not won a Big Ten Tournament game since 2021.

If the Badgers were to win Thursday, they would face Northwestern Friday and then a likely date with Purdue should they beat the Wildcats. It will take four wins in four days, but here is what Wisconsin basketball needs to do if they want to win the conference tournament.

Wisconsin Basketball Needs to Star Games Faster and Cleaner

Throughout the February slide that saw Wisconsin basketball lose six of eight games, they started slow and poorly in just about every one of those games. It is hard to win in the Big Ten and even harder to win on the road, but it felt like the focus was not there, especially against teams they should have handled.

The start of the Thursday game does worry me because of this. Rutgers or Maryland will be playing loose as the Badgers will be favored to win that game. Whenever you are playing a team that is loose, it can spell trouble. Especially Thursday, I want to see Wisconsin basketball set the tone and make their opponents play their way instead of playing early catch up.

Build Off of Last Week

I thought the Badgers did some really good things in their last two regular season games. They started off faster on those games, kept the foot on the gas against Rutgers, and hung in with Purdue when they fell behind as much as 16. Even a few weeks ago, this team would have let that lead almost get away and would have folded. Practicing good habits then will pay off this week and next week in the NCAA Tournament.

I would not say Wisconsin basketball is playing their best basketball going into Thursday, but they re in better shape then they were a few weeks earlier. I think winning at least two games will help their confidence next week. Win two games and play loose against Purdue.

Steven Crowl and Max Klesmit are the X-Factors

The two Badgers that are clearly struggling right now are Steven Crowl and Max Klesmit. If Wisconsin basketball wants to make noise in Minneapolis, they need to get these two going. We saw what Klesmit can do when he’s at his best as he can be the best pure shooter on this team. He is battling a groin issue right now so that is worth monitoring. His minutes might be limited this week.

I feel like too many times this year we have talked about Steven Crowl and his inconsistent aggressiveness and at times poor paint defense. He won’t get much help moving forward. He has to find a ways to maintain the paint and be more aggressive with the ball in his hands. He will see either Julian Reese or Cliff Omoruyi Thursday, then Matthew Nicholson Friday, and potentially Zach Edey on Saturday. Right now, these are all better post players then him by a pretty wide margin. It does sound a little harsh, but the reality is Wisconsin basketball won’t get far in this tournament if he is unable to defend the paint. If he can, Wisconsin can beat any team in Minneapolis.

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