For the entirety of Wisconsin’s (3-7 Big Ten, 10-13) practice Tuesday afternoon, freshman point guard Brad Davison graced the Kohl Center floor without wearing the usual brace he straps around his banged-up left shoulder. The only problem was that Davison was resting after a sub-par 31 minutes in UW’s 74-63 loss to Nebraska just over 12 hours earlier and was not participating in normal activity alongside his teammates.
Davison was held out of Tuesday’s practice solely for rest purposes, according to multiple members of the program including Davison himself. Yet both Badger players and coaches openly acknowledge that Davison, for all intents and purposes, is playing with one arm. The freshman point guard refuses to use the injury as an excuse for his recent struggles, but head coach Greg Gard notes that Davison’s shoulder injury can help to explain his recent dip in production.
“That has a lot to do with it. That affects shooting, there’s no doubt,” Gard said after a recent practice. “That’s something we have to live with and that’s not gonna change right now. So we have to make sure we are within what we want and within what he’s comfortable with.”
Thursday night, Wisconsin welcomes the veteran Northwestern Wildcats (4-6, 13-10). Davison will likely spend the duration of the game chasing either senior guard Bryant McIntosh or Scottie Lindsey. Davison will be joined in the backcourt by redshirt sophomore Brevin Pritzl and junior Khalil Iverson, as all three will try and stop one of the Big Ten’s best wing lineups. Having lost six of its last seven games, UW’s resilience will be put to the test.
With sophomore point guard D’Mitrik Trice still not cleared to return to practice and the prospect of his return this season becoming more and more unlikely with every waning game, the Badgers are continuing to experiment with various lineup combinations and rotations.
Redshirt senior Aaron Moesch played 17 minutes against the Cornhuskers and entered less than four minutes into the contest. Redshirt freshman Aleem Ford entered with him at the 16:29 mark of the first half, but the forward who has started more than half of Wisconsin’s 23 games played only nine minutes.
“Whatever the minutes is, I just gotta make sure I keep a positive attitude and stay ready,” Ford said. “This is my freshman year so it has its ups and downs. So just learn from it so as the years have on I can look back at this as have a little bit of experience and use this as motivation.”
Remembering the struggles of this season as they achieve success in the future was one of former Badger head coach Dick Bennett’s main messages to this group of Badgers Sunday afternoon. After Monday’s disappointing second half loss, Wisconsin’s ability to respond to adversity will be on full display.
“It’s extremely frustrating because Wisconsin, we’re used to winning. That’s what we try to do every time we step on the floor, it’s what we expect to do,” Davison said. “But you know, we’re gonna use that frustration as fuel to continue to improve, continue to get better and finish the season strong.”
Come the offseason, UW has plenty of room to grow on both ends of the court. But Thursday night against the Wildcats, assistant coach Howard Moore said its gameplan on offense will stay true to the program’s principles: move the ball on offense from inside out. Touch the post, touch the paint, get to the free throw line and convert. Davison adds that as a collective unit the Badgers need to be more aggressive making plays and creating better scoring chances.
With Davison clearly less than 100 percent and redshirt junior forward Ethan Happ likely going to face double-teams all night long, their will be plenty of opportunities for Wisconsin’s depth to be put to the test.
“Part of [our struggles] are personnel,” Gard said following UW’s 74-63 loss to the Cornhuskers. “But that’s not going to change, so we have to improve and make the best of the position we’re in.”
Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT.
