Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Varsity - March 6, 2014

Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.

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18 // VARSITY March 6, 2014 BY MATT LEPAY // VOICE OF THE BADGERS THE VOICE A s the Big Ten moves through the final week of the regu- lar season, basketball fans will pay more and more attention to pundits across the country who project the NCAA tournament brackets (see: Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm). It is fun, and for many years those two bracketologists have done a good job of predicting the 68-team field. What seed will the Badgers earn? Will they play in Milwaukee? Whether Wisconsin gets a 1, 2 or 3 seed sure beats being on the bubble, doesn't it? As we enter one of the most ex- citing months on the sports calen- dar, there is little doubt the national scribes and talk show hosts will be chatting up the Badgers. From the very difficult schedule to the bal- anced scoring. On paper, the home team could be a very tough out. Of course, five bad minutes can change everything, but once again, Wisconsin finds itself in the conver- sation of teams many consider to be very dangerous in the postseason. This is a less than perfect team, but other than unbeaten Wichita State, who is perfect in college hoops? That said, a key statistic with Wisconsin is something that is not part of anyone's highlight pack- age, but is proving to be a major difference between winning and losing. Free throws. They take a lot of them. They make a lot of them. The ability to take and make their freebies is helping the Badgers to their best point production in two decades. Last season Wisconsin averaged 65 points per game. It had the Big Ten's lowest free throw percentage at 63 percent. On average, the Bad- gers scored 10.5 points per game at the line, and knocked down 23.5 shots from the field. Going into the final week of this regular season, the Badgers are averaging 73.3 points per outing. They connect on 75 percent of their free throws, second best in the con- ference. They get 17.3 of those 73.3 points from the foul line, and hit 24 buckets a contest. I am throwing a lot of numbers at you, but perhaps this helps explain a rather important reason why this bunch is keeping scoreboard opera- tors a little busier than usual. It should be noted that this year's team shoots at a much better clip from the floor ― nearly 46 percent this season compared to 42 percent a year ago. And throughout the sea- son, the Badgers' scoring balance has been terrific. Only four points separate UW's top scorer (Ben Brust) from the player who ranks fifth (Josh Gasser). After their victory against Indi- ana last week, Hoosiers coach Tom Crean pointed out that the Badgers' starting five not only shoots well, but also that all five can pass the ball effectively. That can make a team very hard to guard. As the excitement of March Madness builds, the Badgers will go about their day-to-day business of trying to get better every day. They will continue to work on their defense. They will keep stressing the importance of making hard cuts and sound decisions on the offen- sive end. For a number of years, this no- nonsense approach as served the Badgers very well. That includes free throw shoot- ing. It is not the type of thing that makes the SportsCenter Top 10, but the ability to get to the stripe and make three-quarters of their throws has helped the Badgers return to the Top 10 of the Associated Press poll and the NCAA's official RPI. Who knows? That important skill might allow the Badgers to keep playing deep into the postseason. Badgers' success product of a proven formula

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