The Wisconsin men's basketball team will try to break its four-game losing streak against No. 16 Purdue at the Kohl Center Tuesday night.
After a loss to Illinois Saturday, the Badgers fell to 3-4 in Big Ten conference play, and need a win against the Boilermakers to avoid losing consecutive home games for the first time under head coach Bo Ryan.
Ryan noted the similarities between Purdue and Illinois, saying they are two teams that are well-coached and play hard and are playing very well at this point.""
The Badgers' current skid started in West Lafayette with a loss to the Boilermakers Jan. 11, and Ryan said it is affecting his team's confidence, especially in shooting from the floor.
Wisconsin made 36 percent of their field goals against Illinois and 38 percent the last time they played Purdue.
""Nobody that I've ever seen can tell me that they've known a good shooter who wasn't very, very confident about the ball going in,"" Ryan said. ""When you have people who shoot it and hope, that's when you run into problems.""
Although the team has been struggling, Ryan thinks they have made good decisions about what shots to take.
""You just have to get good looks, you have got to knock them down, you have got to play with that confidence,"" he said.
Against Purdue, the Badgers will need to get back to Ryan's style of basketball, namely disciplined play that lets the team make more free throws than their opponents can attempt.
The slump, and the situations Wisconsin has found itself in, have often kept the team from playing that way.
Because the Badgers have recently been trailing more often than leading late in the game, they have needed to foul opponents to conserve time and shrink deficits, the opposite of Ryan's strategy, which involves holding the late advantage and consistently making free throws when fouled.
""In our last couple of games, we're not playing with an open lead [where the other team would have to foul],"" he said. ""You have got to try to get a lead and you have got to put people at a [disadvantage] defensively,"" for that style to work.
The Kohl Center has not been a friendly environment for Purdue recently - they have won just once in their past nine trips to Madison. However, the Boilermakers have a three-game winning streak against Wisconsin overall.
""They played better than we did, at both ends,"" Ryan said about their most recent contest.
To earn a win Tuesday, the Badgers will need to contain sophomore forward JaJuan Johnson, who posted 19 points in Purdue's 70-62 win over Minnesota Thursday and scored 20 points against Wisconsin the last time they faced each other, which was just a few weeks ago.
Overall, Ryan said Tuesday's game would be a fairly even matchup between two teams he believes play a similar style of basketball.
""[Purdue] will get after you,"" Ryan said. ""That is something we have hung our hat on, too.
