Steven Crowl shares key to Wisconsin's success in the post against Jacksonville State

Wisconsin saw a tale of two games from its post players in the team’s last couple of contests, a 25-point loss to Arizona and a 15-point win over Jacksonville State.

Let’s start with the blowout loss at Arizona, which occurred last Saturday and featured a dominant performance from the Wildcat front-court. Oumar Ballo poured in 15 points while Keshad Johnson added 11, with both guys grabbing nine rebounds. The perimeter defense wasn’t much to write home about either, as Caleb Love and Pelle Larsson both splashed in 20+ points against the Badgers to lend a hand in the eventual 98-73 victory. A pure tail-kicking.

However, Wisconsin did rebound in their game this week against visiting Jacksonville State. Particularly, the veteran starting duo up front, Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl, came out with far more aggressive play against the Gamecocks as compared to the Wildcats, especially when it came to scoring the basketball.

Wisconsin didn’t actually score a ton of points against Jacksonville State, only 75, but Crowl and Wahl certainly helped lead the way in that department. Crowl totaled 19 points and pulled in nine rebounds for the evening, as Wahl scored 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished a couple of assists. That is the Badger front-court at its best, and Crowl said afterward performances like that are the goal,

“Yeah, I think for us bigs, that’s just the goal every game is just try to dominate the post, no matter who we’re playing,” he shared after the Jacksonville State win.

“Whether it’s, like you said, it didn’t work very well versus Arizona, but come back today and try to do it and doesn’t matter if it’s me, (Tyler Wahl), AJ (Storr), Chucky (Hepburn) posting up sometimes, we’re just trying to get the ball in there and make plays.”

That’s right, it’s not just Crowl and Wahl making all the hay down low. In Gard Gard’s offense, perimeter guys will even pop down into the post sometimes, especially Chucky Hepburn who is really physical for his smaller stature and can obviously see the floor and pass well out of it.

Perhaps the Badgers are finding another successful wrinkle for their offense. Going forward, Wisconsin has a three-game home stand with matchups against Chicago State and then lower-tier Big Ten clubs Iowa and Nebraska, though the Cornhuskers could be more competent than usual this season. Either way, Gard’s club needs to win two or three of those.