Wisconsin basketball finally scored its first win in Big Ten play in the 2024-25 season after the Badgers defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes in Madison on Friday, 116-85. It was also the Badgers’ third win in a row. 

Wisconsin shot the ball incredibly well in that contest, as the Badgers made 64.5 percent of their attempts from the field. They were particularly lethal from behind the arc, hitting 21 of their 31 attempts from deep. In the words of Wisconsin senior guard Kamari McGee, the Badgers simply took advantage of Iowa’s leaky defense.

“Once we realized that they were just coming in here to try to outscore us and–they didn’t really care much about the defensive end –  we took advantage of that just because we knew what we like,” McGee told reporters after the game (h/t Andrew Bandstra of News 3 Now / Channel 3000).

“We didn’t know we would shoot this great tonight, but we know we trust our teammates. We trust the players, so we know we can score the ball in bunches. And we just knew that they didn’t want to play defense and all we had to do is play a little bit more defense than them and the game is ours.”

Wisconsin basketball punishes Iowa’s faulty defense

McGee scored 12 points on the strength of a fantastic 4-for-5 shooting from the 3-point region. Meanwhile, John Blackwell led the way for Wisconsin with 32 points on 11-for-18 shooting, including six 3-pointers. 

The Hawkeyes’ defense is not the best asset of Iowa this season. Fran McCaffery’s team is just 126th in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency and only 17th in that area in Big Ten play, per KenPom.

As for the Badgers, they improved to 11-3 overall and 1-2 in the conference standings. They will next take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on the road this coming Monday..

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