Takeaways from Wisconsin's 103-88 Victory On No.9 Arizona

MADISON, Wis. – University of Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard knew the mindset of playing lockdown defense would have to take a back seat for at least one night. When he saw what was coming into the Kohl Center, Gard knew his Badgers would have to score – and probably a lot – to keep up with No.9 Arizona.

“They can score with the best of them in the country,” Gard said. “We knew that we were going to have to score to win. It wasn’t going to be one of them where we hold them to 65 points. We were going to have to put some points on the board.”

And score they did. Led by John Tonje’s career-high 41 points, Wisconsin never trailed and controlled long portions of the game on its way to a signature 103-88 victory over No.9 Arizona Friday night.

Wisconsin (4-0) rewrote numerous records with its point total. It was the first time Wisconsin reached the century mark against a Power-Four team since 1993 and the most points scored against a Power-Four team since 1975. Its points are also the most scored by a Big Ten team in a non-OT game against an AP Top-10 opponent since the 1992 Elite 8, when Indiana beat No. 4 UCLA, 106-79.

Here are my takeaways from what was a raucous Kohl Center.

There was a list of problems last season in Wisconsin’s loss at Arizona that was hard to pick one being the most offensive. In one night, the Badgers seemed to correct a majority of them.

While the Badgers still struggled to keep Arizona’s size and athleticism off the glass, Wisconsin did a better job on Arizona’s shooters, made the Wildcats’ perimeter shooting go ice cold, and didn’t play passively, attacking Arizona’s low-post defense aggressively and consistently. That lack of aggression at the rim resulted in only eight free-throw attempts. The Badgers settled for mid-range shots, didn’t finish on the limited chances they had up close, and shot 41.4 percent.

With new personnel on the roster and those returning having more battle scars, Wisconsin shot 48.1 percent, limited Arizona to 37.8 percent from the floor and 17.4 percent from three (4-for-23) and routinely drew whistles on drives into the paint.

It took Wisconsin five-and-a-half minutes for Arizona to commit two fouls last year. John Tonje equaled that mark in 67 seconds, all on drives inside.

“I always felt we were pretty efficient and diverse offensively,” Gard said. “We have a lot of pieces who can score.”

The Badgers’ ball movement was crisp, especially from Steven Crowl. While he only scored eight points on four shots, Crowl battled with forward Tobe Awaka (9 points, 3-for-8) and had six assists. He delivered the perfect bounce pass to John Blackwell (14 points) after he dribbled toward the middle to open Blackwell’s driving lane along the baseline and passed calmly out of double teams to find open cutters. UW finished with 17 assists on 25 baskets.

A choppy first half kept the pace slow, which was perfect for the Badgers because it helped neutralize Arizona’s speed in the frontcourt and allowed them to play a style not uncommon to them. Besides Jaden Bradley, the Wildcats didn’t have another player score more than seven points in the first half.

“We came into a mini huddle every time talking about we can’t control (the whistles) anymore,” said senior Max Klesmit (13 points). “We can only control what we control, and we can’t determine if a ref is going to call a foul or not. It’s the next play … The team that is going to complain about all the foul calling first is going to lose. That’s the team that is going to fade and give in. Our ability to keep our head down, not let outside noise infiltrate what we have going on, that’s a credit to everybody.”

Whistles were plentiful all game on both sides. Arizona was called for 32, Wisconsin for 31, and the two teams combined to shoot 87 free throws. UW went 41-for-47 from the line, tying a school record set in 1955. Arizona was only 28-for-40.

“They were in the bonus the whole game; that was tough,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We got to play smarter. We got to play better. I warned our guys that they are adept at drawing fouls certain ways, and we just didn’t play smart enough.”

“I don’t love how the game is being called but that’s how the game is being called. Wisconsin was definitely much smarter in how they approached attacking the game, and their players adjusted to the new rules better than we did.”

While the Badgers saw Bradley take advantage of some of the same calls Tonje was getting, UW sent a steady stream of defenders at Caleb Love, a preseason All-American who hurt the Badgers with 20 points, seven rebounds, and five assists last season.

Tonje, Klesmit, Kamari McGee, and Jack Janicki all took a turn against Love, who was limited to 12:40 in the first half after getting a foul and a technical for shoving Blackwell. He never found rhythm in the second half where he went 1-for-8 from the floor and 0-for-4 from the perimeter. When he fouled out with 4:57 remaining, Love had missed his last seven shots and scored six points on 2-for-13 shooting.

“We made looks hard for him,” Gard said. “He didn’t have many easy ones. That’s a credit to our players.”

During the brief time when the officials decided to tone down the whistles and let the offense flow, Wisconsin saw its lead evaporate. Arizona scored the first seven points of the half (all at the rim) and recorded its first 21 points either at the rim or on fouls from the paint.

UW had no counterpunch last season when Arizona’s 20-2 run broke open the game but responded aptly this time when the score was tied at 65. Locking in defensively to force a pair of turnovers, a travel on Bradley, and a three-second call on Awaka, Blackwell attacked the rim for a layup to retake the lead and hit Xavier Amos on the next possession for a three to push the lead to five.

The Badgers never relinquished the lead after that, but a 9-2 run a short time later pushed the lead to nine by the halfway mark of the half, where it mostly stayed.

“That showed me the guts and the toughness that is starting to develop with this group,” Gard said.

Gard equates recruiting out of the transfer portal to speed dating, which means needing to analyze and make quick decisions before the player is on to the next option. When he started looking at Tonje, Gard bypassed the wing’s senior season at Missouri where injuries limited him to eight games. Instead, Gard looked back two years to Tonje’s time at Colorado State and saw glimpses of things that could benefit Wisconsin.

“That told me enough in the five minutes of film that I watched,” Gard said. “There was a lot there to work with.”

Tonje’s night was spectacular, yet not surprising considering how he plays. Starting with the opening two possessions, Tonje put his head down and charged right to the rim looking to finish or find an open teammate. With how the game was being called, Tonje got the benefit of the whistle a lot, drawing 13 fouls and making a school-record 21 free throws on 22 attempts.

“Our mindset mentality was just bring it to them and not let them hit us first,” said Tonje, as Arizona had started its first two games on an 11-0 and 13-0 run. “It really showed with how many times I got fouled.”

Tonje was 4-for-8 from two-point range but 4-for-6 from three, the most he’s hit in a game in 23 months. His 41 points on 14 shots represent the fewest number of shots for a player to score that many points since at least 2011.

“He’s strong, he’s a down-hill guy, he made threes, and he’s experienced,” Lloyd said of Tonje. “I’m sure he’s hungry. He was awesome … Dude scores 40 on you, you tip your hat to him.”

He was balanced across both halves with 22 in the first (the most by a Badger in a half since Brad Davison’s 23 in 2018), 19 in the second, and eclipsed his career-high 31 points with 9:16 left in the game.

“Last year was huge,” Tonje said. “I never had time to sit down and reflect on my game and what I wanted to be and where I can improve. I think it was great for me to learn the game, take hours of film, and self-reflection (to) figure out where I wanted to get better at and where I see myself going. As far as (coming to) Wisconsin, I wanted to be a part of a night like this.”

Amos impressed the coaching staff with his 12 minutes on the court Sunday, resulting in 10 points and six rebounds. The film was just as good going against Arizona’s length, as he chipped in eight points, two rebounds, and a steal.

The only redshirt freshman on the team, Janicki impressed during fall practices with his ability to create offense from his defense and hit outside shots. After failing to score in the first three games of the season, Janicki had nine points by covering a reverse layup at the rim after cutting hard to the rim, attacking the glass to draw a foul, and hitting three-point shots in rhythm

“He just plays the game the right way, and as you can see gets rewarded for it,” Blackwell said of Janicki, who also had two assists and one steal. “He plays the game hard, makes the right reads, and makes the open shots.”

With the number of fouls being called, Gard also called on Chris Hodges and Markus Ilver to log minutes late in the first half to try and get UW into the locker room.

1.321 – Points per possession for Wisconsin, which scored on 55.1 percent of its possessions, including a seven-point possession in the first half.

15 – Wisconsin’s margin of victory was the largest over a top-10 team since a 67-49 win (18 points) over No. 5 Michigan State on Feb. 2, 2010.

16 – Arizona shot 4-for-25 from the floor (16.0 percent) in the final 12:31 of game time.

21 – Tonje posted a 21-for-22 clip from the line, good for the most makes in school history. The previous high was 17 by Dale Koehler (Dec. 6, 1975) and Nigel Hayes (Jan. 26, 2016).

41 – Wisconsin’s 41 makes at the line tied UW’s program record – 41 at Illinois, Jan. 1, 1955.

103 – Wisconsin’s 103 points were its most against a ranked opponent in program history. The Badgers broke the century mark for the first time against a ranked opponent since Feb. 10, 1970 at No. 14 Iowa (L, 100-119).

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