Wisconsin Basketball... Red Hot Once Again.

Many people went with the sky is falling technique with Wisconsin Badgers in late January. Badgers lost five of six games including losing three straight at home. After a wire-to-wire road victory against Michigan winning 75-62, it appears Wisconsin found its swagger once again and is prepared to make a push to a Big Ten title as the conference is wide open. Badgers received a great game from Frank Kaminsky, near turnover-free basketball and kept Nik Stauskas quiet.

This should be put near the top of Wisconsin's most impressive wins of the season. Even though Michigan is struggling a bit compared to earlier in B1G play, they have played well at home under head coach John Beilein. Badgers held the Wolverines to only 19 points in the first half and basically controlled the game minus one Michigan run in the second half where the Wolverines pulled it to three points with six minutes left. Wisconsin had a run of their own and put Michigan away. 

Kaminsky became a part of Wisconsin lore earlier this season when he had 43 points against North Dakota, but for the most part, he has been one of the most improved players on Wisconsin this season. Frank The Tank led the Badgers on Sunday afternoon with an impressive double-double where he had 25 points and 11 rebounds. Kaminsky was efficient from the field going 11/16 from there field. Many of his shots were high percentage ones and exactly what Badgers needed on Sunday afternoon. This is the second straight game where Kaminsky had 15+ points which makes one think he may have figured out how to be a big man in the Big Ten. With all of the other Wisconsin players, it gets overlooked Kaminsky is averaging 13 points a game.

One of the other big things with Kaminsky's big performance is how Sam Dekker shot the ball 10 times as well meaning Wisconsin had their post men shoot the ball 26 times and make 17 of them. Granted, Dekker and Kaminsky are not your prototypical big men where they stay inside for the whole game, but most of their damage on Sunday was around the the basket with a couple threes here and there including Kaminsky's dagger late in the second half to guarantee a victory for Wisconsin. 

Wisconsin had 2 turnovers in 60 possessions today, the lowest turnover percentage (3.3%) in a D-I game this season.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 16, 2014

Wisconsin is a team known for not turning the ball over much, but even this for them was stunning on Sunday afternoon. They only had two turnovers for the entire game. Also for whatever reason, Wisconsin recently struggled out of the gates with turnovers. The only two players to have a turnover were Dekker and Nigel Hayes meaning all Badgers guards played a perfect game when it came to turning the ball over.  This might be the pinnacle for Wisconsin, but if they can somehow keep their turnovers around zero to five plus forcing a couple in the process, they will be in a great shape moving forward this season. 

There is a blueprint to beating Michigan this season, taking away Nik Stauskas. The secret got out about Stauskas when Indiana held him to his Big Ten conference low six points. Since that game, the Michigan guard is averaging 10.2 points a game which is six points below his season average. Wisconsin applied the same strategy letting Caris LeVert go crazy with 25 points and cutting off everyone around him including Stauskas. He only had eleven points making four baskets including only getting up two 3-point shot attempts. This is the second game in the past three where Wisconsin shut down the top guard on the team. It does seem like Wisconsin's defense has turned the corner and that might be the biggest storyline developing with this team. 

Wisconsin gets a near week off before heading to Iowa City where the Badgers have struggled mightily in the past couple years. This game will likely be a battle for third place, but with both the top teams struggling of late, it could prove important to whom takes home the Big Ten title. Wisconsin's confidence should be back at their undefeated high. 

Charlie.