The Arizona Wildcats high-scoring offense led the way to stay undefeated in the 98-73 win over Wisconsin to pick up their third win over a ranked opponent.
The Arizona Wildcats hosted the Wisconsin Badgers in a top-25 showdown Saturday afternoon in what was supposed to be an exciting basketball game that went down to the wire. Instead, Arizona piled another win onto their resume with a 25-point decision over Wisconsin.
Pelle Larsson led the way for Arizona with 21 points, a career-best for the senior guard from Sweden; Caleb Love was right behind him with 20 points. Oumar Ballo and Keshad Johnson were both just one rebound short of a double-double while Kylan Boswell was one assist shy of the mark.
Takeaway #1: Caleb Love deserves to be a first-round draft pick in June
Caleb Love continues to be impressive for Arizona in his senior season. The former North Carolina Tar Heel posted his second 20-point effort of the season against Wisconsin. Love is averaging 14.1 points per game so far this season, and he has stepped it up against ranked opponents where he averages 16 PPG. When this team needs a spark, Love is more than capable of providing it.
Love is more than just his shooting. Against the Badgers, he added 7 rebounds and 5 assists to his name. While he’s not small by any means, Love is willing to get physical with the big guys down low and has shown his ability to make the right pass and allow his teammates to connect on their shots. Coaches can teach X’s and O’s in practice every day, but this kid is averaging 4.5 APG. You can’t teach vision for the game.
Caleb Love is without a doubt a top-30 player in the country. Buy your stock now.
Takeaway #2: Wisconsin’s defense needs to be much stronger
Scoring 73 points can win you basketball games at the Division I level fairly often. Conceding 98 points, the most allowed by the Badgers in a game since 1994, won’t allow you to win much. Wisconsin certainly had their hands full, but winning at this level is hard to do when five players post 10+ points with three posting over 15.
Arizona’s shooting was strong the entire 40 minutes as they shot over 55% from the field in both halves and even went over 60% in the second half. This was on top of shooting well over 40% from behind the arc all game. Allowing your opponents to shoot often and get good looks while doing so is certainly a recipe for disaster from the Badgers. Wisconsin’s defense has been strong as of late, even against Marquette, but this Arizona group is at a different level of good. If Greg Gard wants to make a deep run in March, he has to get his team used to playing against strong shooters.
Takeaway #3: Arizona relies too much on its starting five to score
The Arizona Wildcats can score a lot of points, we all know that. However, they are playing a dangerous game of relying on their starting five too much. In the last three games, Arizona’s bench has produced less than 25 points. The bench scored 16 against Duke, just 12 against Michigan State, and 21 in this meeting with Wisconsin.
The bench has been significantly better in matchups against mid-majors and lower-level competition, and the argument could be made that it should be better against those teams compared to ranked Power 6 opponents. However, 12 points from your bench in March isn’t going to cut it. This is a group that needs no reminder about last season ending way too soon for the Wildcats. While things seem to be going very well for Arizona, this is the new challenge for Tommy Lloyd: find a way to get your bench going against the best of the best.
Next for Arizona: at Purdue (Dec. 16 – 4:30 p.m.)
Next for Wisconsin: vs Jacksonville State (Dec. 14 – 8 p.m.)