What options do the Wisconsin Badgers have to shake up their struggling defense

MADISON, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin spent the offseason overhauling its roster, adding pieces to continue enhancing the Badgers' new offense that relies heavily on ball screens, motions, and perimeter shooting. The moves have yielded the desired result. UW is averaging 85.1 points per game, the highest for UW since 1970-71, and the team is tied for 26th nationally in three-point makes at 10.9 per game.

The problem is the other end of the floor, as the Badgers have been a mess defensively when the competition is at its greatest.

In Wisconsin's two Quad-1 games this season (vs. BYU on Nov.21 and Wednesday at Nebraska), the Badgers have given up 94 points. In six games against power-conference opponents, UW is allowing 82.3 points per game.

UW's 28-point loss to BYU tied the worst margin of defeat in Greg Gard's head coaching tenure. The 30-point loss to Nebraska 19 days later was the program's worst in over 23 years, when Gard was an assistant and Hall-of-Fame coach Bo Ryan was in his first season.

"Everyone gets all 'rah-rah' about our offense," Gard said, "but it's the other end of the floor that has caused us the trouble for the most part."

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It doesn't take a pile of metrics to confirm that the Badgers have been poor on the defensive end. KenPom has the Badgers ranked 54th in adjusted defensive efficiency, giving up 100.4 points per 100 possessions.

Evan Miya calculated its defensive efficiency rating (DER) based on how a defense would perform against other similarly ranked teams. The higher ranking the better. UW's team DER is 4.2, putting them 73rd in the country.

UW has allowed opponents to shoot 44.8 percent from the field, ranking 248th in the country, and 35.3 percent from the three-point line, 288th nationally. UW's effective defensive field goal percentage of 51.9 percent is 213th in the country, according to Bart Torvik.

A year ago, with a roster full of program veterans and some new transfers sprinkled in, the Badgers finished 12th nationally in Torvik's power rating, a formula that calculates the odds of beating an average Division-1 team. Through 10 games this season, the Badgers rank 36th.

"It's new guys, and sometimes it's old guys," Gard said. "That's the challenge every year. It doesn't carry over from year. You start over with what you're doing and what you're building every year, because roles have changed."

Gard bemoaned Wisconsin for playing individual defense against Nebraska instead of collectively. It's a reason the Huskers shot 54.1 percent from the field and had 42 points in the paint. UW was consistently too spread out, late on shutting down driving lanes or boxing out, and missed backside cutters going at the rim.

One-on-one defense can work if a team has elite defenders, which the Badgers don't. Wisconsin has only one player ranked in the top 25 in the conference in Evan Miya's defensive performance rating, which assigns value a player brings to his team when he is on the court (Nolan Winter).

John Blackwell (49th), Nick Boyd (71st), Andrew Rohde (78th), and Austin Rapp (92nd) round out the UW's top five players in terms of minutes. Boyd and Rohde were consistently beaten off the dribble by the Huskers guards, Blackwell got caught watching the basketball that allowed layups at the rim, and Rapp was late rotating to the rim to stop dribble penetration.

Boyd, Rohde, and Rapp all transferred to Wisconsin this past offseason, Boyd played at San Diego State, which made the NCAA Tournament last season as a No.11 seed with a team that was 20th in Torvik's power rating but 60th in adjusted defense.

It likely didn't help that Rohde (Virginia) and Rapp (Portland) played on poor defensive teams. Virginia was 97th in Torvik's power rating and 133rd in adjusted defense while Portland was 313th and 248th in the two categories, respectively.

"We don't have a defensive identity, haven't had one all year," Gard said. "So, we'll search to find one, and I'll find guys who want to play defense."

Gard has already shaken up his starting lineup once this season, benching Rapp at the start of Big Ten play for freshman Aleksas Bieliauskas. His options to make more changes are limited.

Redshirt sophomore guard Jack Janicki is third on the team in steals but is shooting poorly (11-for-33 overall, 7-for-24 three). Analytics give him a -0.23 value when he's on the court, ranking him 153rd overall in the conference.

Senior Braeden Carrington was brought in to help the bench with his experience and defensive abilities, but his defensive performance rating is -0.53, putting 161st out of 171 ranked players. Like UW's other transfers, Carrington is coming from a Tulsa program that struggled a year ago, ranking 212th in power rating and 243rd in adjusted defense.

The other five players on the roster play fewer than nine minutes per game, three averging fewer than two, although the only player Gard praised for defense on Wednesday was Hayden Jones. A 6-6 freshman from New Zealand, Jones played the final five minutes and was the only Badgers player with a positive plus-minus ratio (+3).

"He did what we wanted him to do and handle screens," Gard said of Jones.

Gard hinted that he'll sit guys to get his message across. How serious he is won't be known until the Badgers play again, which is still a long week away.

"We got nine days here to work on things," Gard said.

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