Wisconsin Basketball: Biggest Lessons Learned in Big Ten Play so Far

Wisconsin has established itself as one of the top teams in the nation to this point, but there is still a lot of season to be played.

With an 82-50 blowout win over Iowa, the Badgers moved to 17-2 with a 5-1 record in the Big Ten. They are tied for first place in the conference and are the favorites to remain there for the rest of the year. 

Although there might have been a few surprises along the way, this is pretty much what we expected from this group when the year began.

So have we learned anything since the start of Big Ten play? Absolutely.

For one, Bo Ryan might be next on the long list of people who never want to go back to New Jersey after a loss to Rutgers. Besides that, here is a look at the top things we have learned about this team over the past few weeks.

When an opponent has to resort to gauging out a player's eyes and that still doesn't work, you know the team is good.

Although there was concern Wisconsin would slow down offensively without starting point guard Traevon Jackson, this is clearly not the case. With Bronson Koenig in the starting lineup against Iowa, the Badgers came through with one of the best offensive efforts you will ever see.

While the shooting was good (49.2 percent from the floor, 9-of-22 from three-point range), the real impressive part was the lack of mistakes. Wisconsin only turned the ball over one time—a shot-clock violation that wasn't even charged to a single player—82 points on 54 possessions.

This offense is based on great passing to find the open man, and the Badgers have done that almost perfectly throughout the year and now have the most efficient offense in the nation, according to KenPom.com.

You can obviously credit the individual talent on the roster, but these players are competing as a team to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

This is not an award in college sports, as organizations simply argue which player is the best. Whether Frank Kaminsky is the most talented player in the nation or not, he seems to be the most valuable.

Throughout the year, the senior has taken on whatever role is needed for that game.

Not only is he leading the team in scoring at 16.9 points per game with double-digit points in all but one game this year, he also ranks second in the Big Ten with 8.2 rebounds per game, totaling eight double-doubles on the year.

Additionally, Kaminsky can be a distributor when needed (team-high six assists versus Iowa) or an elite rim protector (seven blocks against Green Bay).

It should be no surprise that KenPom.com rates the center as the current National Player of the Year.

Of course, the biggest sign of Kaminsky's value came when he was unable to play against Rutgers and Wisconsin suffered its second loss of the season.

The senior is a major part of the team's success, but he will need to be healthy and playing at his best for this group to make a deep run.

Just about everything went right in the recent win over Iowa, and the game was never really in doubt. Still, the Hawkeyes were able to make 40 percent of their shots behind the arc.

When teams are hitting their shots from deep and Wisconsin isn't as sharp offensively, there could be problems.

The Badgers currently rank just 219th in the nation at defending the perimeter, allowing opponents to hit 34.9 percent from three-point range. At the same time, overpursuing sometimes leads to easier looks inside the arc.

Rutgers, Purdue and Penn State all shot better than 50 percent from the floor thanks to the ability to drive past the defenders. The best defensive effort in recent games probably came against Nebraska, but the Cornhuskers have had problems scoring all year long.

Wisconsin loves to switch on screens to limit open looks from deep, but it also creates mismatches all over the court. This strategy is fine as long as the players figure out a way to be more consistent on the perimeter and not let opponents either drive past or shoot over them.

The final score is obviously more important than any individual stats, but one area of concern for Wisconsin's defense is the ability for big-time players to have great games against it.

Terran Petteway of Nebraska scored 27 points on 11-of-20 shooting from the floor, and Penn State's D.J. Newbill scored 29 points on 18 shots. Purdue's Jon Octeus and Northwestern's Tre Demps also reached 15 points on at least 50 percent shooting from the field.

None of these backcourt stars had much help down low, but when Myles Mack of Rutgers combined his 21 points with Kadeem Jack's 20, it led to the biggest upset in the Big Ten season.

Wisconsin will face a lot more quick guards over the course of the year, including the talented freshman trio of D'Angelo Russell, James Blackmon Jr. and Melo Trimble. The difference is that these players all have teammates capable of helping them out on the offensive end of the floor.

All of a sudden, these big individual performances could end up coming back to bite this team.

Before you complain, yes, Wisconsin is currently 4-1 on the road. Head coach Bo Ryan showed a willingness to schedule three true road games during the nonconference season, a rarity for a major program.

That being said, Marquette is the only one of the four wins against a team currently in the RPI top 100, and the Golden Eagles stand at 98. The hardest game so far came at Rutgers—hardly a world-beater—and that resulted in a loss.

Wisconsin has had a fortunate conference schedule to this point, with four home games and two road battles in arguably the weakest opposing environments in the Big Ten. Things are certain to get a lot harder starting with road games at Michigan and Iowa and ending with battles at Maryland and Ohio State.

This isn't to say the Badgers are going to struggle when they leave the Kohl Center. This is a veteran team that knows how to stay unemotional in a difficult setting.

Still, this remains one more step where the squad must prove itself before it can be considered a legitimate national title contender.

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