Reliving Wisconsin vs. Creighton in GIFs

As we prepare for what figures to be a less-than-epic battle against Chicago State Thursday night, there’s time for one more look at what went wrong in the Creighton game. And there’s no better way to look back than GIFs.

After fighting back from an 8-0 deficit and taking a 26-20 lead night, the Badgers went very cold from the field, missing 11 straight threes. It started with D’Mitrik Trice missing an open three after a great find from Khalil Iverson:

At least that play ended with an offensive rebound that was eventually converted into a layup by Ethan Happ. The Badgers led 28-20. It would be their biggest lead.

The Badgers continued to play patient, frankly beautiful offense against an overly aggressive and shaky looking Creighton defense. Here, Creighton aggressively doubles Charlie Thomas in the post, and a second later Nigel Hayes gets a wide open three thanks to a clever Zak Showalter screen:

Again, a ludicrous doubling of Thomas leads to crisp ball movement and an open three for Alex Illikainen:

Showalter breaks down the D off the dribble and drops it back to Illikainen for another wide-open three:

Now things get a little nutty, with Thomas hanging out on the perimeter. But still, an open three for a capable shooter after an ineffective double-team in the post:

Koenig breaks down the D off the dribble, gets triple-teamed, wide open three for Thomas again:

The only really questionable shot (as opposed to questionable shooter) in this sequence is Bronson Koenig off the dribble. My guess is he was sick of watching other people miss:

Showalter gets into the lane and dishes to Illikainen for another open three:

Creighton’s defense running around aimlessly leads to an open three for Showalter:

A wide-open three for Hayes after Jordan Hill draws a lot of attention down low:

Vitto Brown also missed an open three in this period but my recording of the game flaked out for that.

That's 11 open threes, all missed, most of them great shots, most of them the result of nice offense against ineffective defense.

Hit four or five and the game is probably won. Oh well. Keep shootin', boys.