The Wisconsin Badgers are struggling to be consistent this season, as they haven’t compiled two straight wins since January 3rd, while currently standing at 15-11 and 7-9 in the conference.
Why have the Badgers struggled to gain any form of consistency, despite the importance of the games down the stretch?
Prior to Wisconsin’s 58-57 loss to Rutgers, forward Jordan Davis was blunt with his answer: the Badgers are too overconfident when they win.
“I think after wins, we kind of like, get too full of ourselves. We kind of overhype ourselves, and that causes us to lose, which makes us feel even worse,” Davis said last Thursday.
That overconfidence has caused the Badgers to struggle to play consistently for 40 minutes, which guard Max Klesmit believes is a current issue.
“I mean, yeah, I think I think we just gotta be able to, you know, stay in the whole game, play a full 40-minute game having everybody locked in, ready to go and ready to play. You know, we’re just getting in spurts right now where there are lapses. It’s not the entire deal of the game where we got to clean up a few moments, and I think we’ll be a lot better.”
Steven Crowl agreed with Davis’s sentiment, pointing out the lack of consistency as well, which has been a talking point from head coach Greg Gard as of late.
“I think [the overconfidence] has been an issue. I just think we’d win a game, then we go lose the next game. We can’t put that consistency together. That’s what coach [Greg Gard] talked about,” Crowl said. “Consistency is one of the hardest things to have both as an individual and also as a team. So I think we got to have that. Yeah, we got to put two together if you want to make a run down here.”
Looking back at the early part of the season, it was certainly impressive that the Badgers got off to an 11-2 record, but it appears that the hot start instilled a form of overconfidence in them that has plagued the team over the second half of the season, where they’ve gone 4-9, while failing to win consecutive games since January 3rd.
The Badgers need to get out of their own heads, and it begins with focusing on the little things.
Additionally, they need to figure out ways to close out games, which has been a definite weakness as of late after serving as a significant strength early in the year and during stretches of last season.
There still is a slim chance of hope that Wisconsin can put it together. But, they’ve got to get out of their own heads and start focusing on the little things to form some level of consistency as the Big 10 tournament arrives.
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