As the threes flew in one after another for the Wisconsin Badgers on Friday afternoon in Indianapolis, an uninitiated observer might have wondered if they were watching the right team.
But truthfully, the Badgers’ record-setting outburst of 19 made threes against the UCLA Bruins in the Big Ten tournament was only surprising if you hadn’t watched Greg Gard’s team yet this season. “New Wisconsin” plays fast, fires away from three at one of the highest rates in the country and is capable of putting up points with just about anyone in college basketball. It’s quite the modernization for a program that has long been known for its grind-it-out ethos, ranking 300th or slower nationally in tempo in eight of Gard’s first nine seasons as coach in Madison.
