MADISON, Wis. – The unofficial Big Ten preseason media poll signaled the lack of belief. Picked to finish in a tie for 12th, 33 writers evidently felt Wisconsin would be crippled by the loss of Chucky Hepburn, A.J. Storr, and Tyler Wahl.

There’s still a month of Big Ten basketball to be played, but the 21st-ranked Badgers continue to make fools of those media members pretending to be prognosticators. It’s become an annual rite of passage to ask the players how they defy preseason expectations to the point they simply don’t care what others think.

“I feel like a lot of people just go based off of names,” point guard Kamari McGee said. “Some people see a lot of names leave and see names come in they don’t really know. A lot of people didn’t really know the names of people we had here, too … Everybody can have those opinions off those names, but you never know what you have. We knew what we had.”

What Wisconsin has is a solid basketball team, as evidenced by the Badgers’ dismantling Indiana on both ends of the floor in a 76-64 victory Tuesday night, a final margin that was not indicative of just how dominant the game was.

Leading the entire way, Wisconsin (18-5, 8-4 Big Ten) picked up its 11th Quad 1/2 win on the season, tied for the fifth-most in the country, on a night where four players reached double figures, six players combined to hit 12 three-pointers, and the defense was locked in against a loaded frontcourt.

It also further separated the chasm between the Badgers and the Hoosiers (14-9, 5-7), a program the writers picked to finish second in the league but currently sit in 11th.

“We’re resilient,” center Nolan Winter said. “We honestly didn’t care at all (where we were picked). We knew what we had in that locker room.”

Here are my takeaways from the Kohl Center.

Wisconsin’s offense couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn in Saturday’s first half at Northwestern. Three days later, the Badgers couldn’t miss.

After scoring 25 points in 20 minutes on Saturday, UW eclipsed that mark in a little over seven minutes during an elite-level start that included points on its first seven possessions. Most of that offense came from the perimeter against an Indiana defense that held No.10 Purdue to 2-for-13 from three.

Even on the possession during that opening stretch where Wisconsin missed a shot, the Badgers found a way to generate points via an offensive rebound, and John Blackwell drew a foul, which led to two free throws.

By the time Indiana coach Mike Woodson had to burn his second timeout to settle his group, Wisconsin had scored 24 points on its first 11 possessions, going 8-for-11 from the field and 6-for-7 from three.

“We learned from last game at Northwestern,” senior Max Klesmit said. “It was a little bit of a flatter start. Teams are just going to go hand it out and give it to you. We had to make sure everyone was ready off the rip.”

Badgers were as in sync defensively as they were offensively. Indiana’s possessions at the start were a mess: 2-for-10 from the floor, 0-for-5 from three, and three turnovers. Considering that defense has been an on-again, off-again struggle for Wisconsin this season, that’s the area that head coach Greg Gard pointed to as the catalyst for the start.

“We set the tone early,” Gard said. “Obviously, making threes early and we moved the scoreboard fast, but I thought we were really dialed in and making good decisions defensively. We turned our defense into offense.”

What senior Oumar Ballo did to Wisconsin in the desert wasn’t pretty for Steven Crowl, Winter, and the rest of the defense. Playing at Arizona, Ballo controlled the low-post and bullied Crowl and Winter in a 25-point defeat last December, going 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting that included many stress-free dunks.

Ballo transferred to Indiana for a reported million-dollar NIL deal. Crowl and Winter went to the weight room to get bigger and stronger. It was evident which move yielded the results.

A 65.5 percent shooter, Ballo didn’t come remotely close to his season averages of 14.5 points and 10.0 rebounds. He scored only three points, managed just three shots and six rebounds, and looked clearly frustrated with the officials for the lack of calls and how he was being defended in the low post.

It was clear from Klesmit’s first answer in the postgame news conference that the plan was to push tempo to get Ballo running up and down the floor. Listed at 7-foot and 265 pounds, Ballo had averaged close to 37 minutes over Indiana’s last five games, so the Badgers wanted to try and keep up by playing UW’s faster clip.

They also wanted to be physical with him. Crowl’s only basket was his first attempt to open the scoring, but the senior was active in defending and bumping Ballo off his spots. Winter and reserve senior Carter Gilmore also took their runs at the Indiana graduate student with success.

“Steve took that personally what happened at Arizona last year,” said Klesmit on Crowl. “We all felt embarrassed by how we performed there. We knew he was a huge part of the game plan tonight slowing him down as much as we could.”

Winter said his work in the weight room with strength coach Jim Snider gave him the confidence to face guys built like Ballo, but Gard said it was more about hs experience, considering Winter has grown his footwork and technique after a year of Big Ten play.

“He’s had a year under his belt now,” Gard said. “He guarded really good post players. Obviously, he saw what Ballo was like firsthand last year at Arizona. He’s a more confident, aggressive, seasoned player … He can guard fours now. A year ago he couldn’t shift and move and keep up with mobile fours.”

It wasn’t just Ballo that the Badgers bothered. Two of Indiana’s top three scorers are in the frontcourt with Ballo (14.5) and Malik Reneau (12.5), and the Badgers swarmed the low post whenever the ball managed to find its way onto the low block.

The result was Wisconsin holding Indiana to 26 points in the paint and those two players to a combined 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting.

“I felt our ball screen coverage and our defense, to be able to hedge and shock and keep the ball going East-West and not allow them to get deep penetration was important,” Gard said. “They are really good when they can play 2-on-1 downhill … When the ball did go in, I thought we were really connected and active in digging, crowding the post player and firing out of that.”

Holding Indiana to 40.4 percent (23-for-57) and 7-for-27 from three, the Hoosiers’ 64 points were their third-lowest output of the season. UW had won 20 straight games when allowing fewer than 65 points.

Wisconsin has had bigs that can shoot for years, but a big part of the offseason planning and construction of the roster was bringing in fours who can and will shoot the ball from the perimeter. It’s partly why Xavier Amos was added from the portal after he shot 38.5 percent from three at Northern Illinois last season.

Amos has seen his minutes increase over the season but is still just a role player with Wisconsin’s offensive machine because Winter and Gilmore have been so efficient at the four spot.

Wisconsin typically asks its fours to set middle ball screens or roll out to the perimeter. It was the latter against Indiana, and Winter and Gilmore took advantage

Winter was Wisconsin’s leading scorer in the first half with eight points on a perfect 3-for-3 shooting (2-for-2 threes). He scored five points, including an impressive mid-range fadeaway, and had the offensive rebound leading to Blackwell’s free throws on UW’s game-altering 26-4 run to start the game.

After his career-high 15 points at Northwestern, Gilmore showed no signs of cooling off with six points and three rebounds in the first half and another four in the second half, Gilmore was a 3-for-3 from three.

Needing 121 games to reach double figures, Gilmore has done it in consecutive games and has started to turn into the student section’s cult hero, which serenaded him with ‘MVP’ chants in the second half.

“It’s part how we built this team, it’s part the system that we are in right now and evolving in,” Gard said. “Every day they get a little more confident and a little more assured of themselves in their roles. Gilly, his experience shows. Whether he makes threes or not, his experience and what he does on the floor … positively impacts the game. The crowd gets into it.”

5 – The number of Indiana coaches who haven’t won at the Kohl Center since Bob Knight last beat UW in Madison (1998) – Mike Woodson, Archie Miller, Tom Crean, Kelvin Sampson, and Mike Davis.

+7 – Wisconsin finished with 11 fast-break points to Indiana’s four.

+10 – The Badgers totaled 18 points off turnovers to Indiana’s 8. Wisconsin committed only six turnovers, the lowest total since committing four against Butler on December 14.

21 – UW’s 21 straight home wins over IU ranks as the Badgers’ second-longest home win streak against a single opponent, trailing only their active 22-game home win streak against Penn State.

40 – Wisconsin has scored 40+ points in the first half in seven of the last 13 games. UW is 10-3 over that span. The Badgers are now 14-3 this season when leading at the half.

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