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NCAA: Wisconsin Has More Problems Than Expected

By Nathan Giese

Nov 20, 2015; New York, NY, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Bo Ryan during a time out during the second half against the Georgetown Hoyas at Madison Square Garden. Georgetown Hoyas won 71-61. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 20, 2015; New York, NY, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Bo Ryan during a time out during the second half against the Georgetown Hoyas at Madison Square Garden. Georgetown Hoyas won 71-61. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Wisconsin Badgers have turned into one of NCAA Basketball’s big disappointments.

Wisconsin entered the 2015-16 season with just about the same expectations from the outside as they have every year.

Bo Ryan has never finished worse than fourth in the Big Ten, and while the conference has a number of solid-to-great teams sitting at the top, that narrative was pushed so the Badgers were the fourth team voted into the preseason top 25, naturally.

Of course, all that preseason talk took a quick hit. Well, very quick, actually.

Nov 29, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Wisconsin Badgers guard Bronson Koenig (24) shoots the ball in front of Oklahoma Sooners guard Dinjiyl Walker (2) during the first half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 29, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Wisconsin Badgers guard Bronson Koenig (24) shoots the ball in front of Oklahoma Sooners guard Dinjiyl Walker (2) during the first half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /

Opening up the season at home, Wisconsin, ranked 17th in the nation at the time, fell to Western Illinois, a team projected to finish near the bottom of the Summit League. The Leathernecks have shown great improvement this season, sure, but this is the Badgers. They don’t lose at home. They don’t lose to unranked teams at home. They don’t lose to unranked teams at home in non-conference play.

All of those things were proven wrong on Nov. 13. At the end of the first month of the season, Wisconsin as a lot of other problems that few expected for a Ryan-led team.

Losing Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker, Josh Gasser and Traevon Jackson, all upperclassmen, from a program that went to two straight Final Fours is something Ryan has never dealt with before. Everybody knew about the losses before the season, but this is Wisconsin and he’s still Bo. Death. Taxes. Bo Ryan, right?

In actuality, Wisconsin may be worse than everybody had anticipated. Though I wasn’t sold on the Badgers before the season, even I didn’t expect to see these problems with the Badgers.

First and foremost, the issues for the Badgers starts at the point.

Bronson Koenig had a great season in place of the injured Jackson last season. However, he had the luxury of not having to do too much. His job was simple: set up the offense, score when you have to but look for the future NBA players first and go from there.

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Now, Koenig is being asked to not only initiate the offense, but to also be a leading scorer on the team. The second part has not been a problem. Koenig’s averaging 17.3 points per game through the first six. However, he’s spent the majority of his time shooting the three-ball.

Of the 92 shots Koenig has taken this season, 50 of them have come from the three-point line, including taking 18 total shots on Sunday but having 14 of them come from beyond the arc. While he’s hitting 41 percent of those attempts, having nearly half of your shot coming from the outside doesn’t help initiate an offense, doesn’t help you attack and doesn’t do much good for a team without an inside game.

Then there’s the lack of ability to dominate in the paint. Wisconsin has never been a high-flying, outside shooting team. They’ve always had a good inside game that makes their outside shooting better.

This season, the Badgers have won the points in the paint battle twice in their first seven games, tied in two others and lost in the other three. Against Oklahoma on Sunday, the Sooners won the points in the paint battle by a final tally of 34-10.

A lot of new and moving pieces on this team have made the transition from last season more difficult than some expected, but these two things — Koenig’s reliance on the three-point shot and inability to protect the paint — prevail as the most glaring issues.

Wisconsin may not be as bad as their 4-3 record indicates, but they aren’t a lot better than it either. These are fixable issues, but if Ryan wants to (potentially) end his career on a high note and not in a transition period, they will need to be corrected.