Wisconsin basketball picked up a 76-53 win over Detroit to finish off the 2024 calendar year.
Wisconsin basketball completely outmatched Detroit Mercy in a Saturday matinee matchup. The Titans managed to hang around for the first ten minutes of the game, as five straight points pulled them to just a 13-16 deficit. However, the Badgers would rattle off a 14-0 run over the following five minutes, and the game was never competitive after that.
Takeaway #1: It is officially Winter-time in Madison
Nolan Winter had a team-high 18 points to go along with a career-high 11 rebounds, five of which came on the offensive boards. Winter has now scored 53 points over his past three games and is averaging 10.6 points per game this season. The big man has been playing with a lot of physicality and has shown why he was promoted to the starting lineup entering his sophomore campaign.
Saturday’s matchup saw a heavy dose of both Nolan Winter and Steven Crowl, who enjoyed a considerable size advantage over Detroit Mercy’s 6’10 forward Miles Mitchell. Crowl had an efficient 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor.
Sorry for the pun.
Takeaway #2: Orlando Lovejoy and Grant Gondrezick II were great for Detroit Mercy, but their supporting cast was abysmal
Lovejoy and Gondrezick II had 20 points each for Detroit. The rest of the team… just 13 combined points. Gondrezick II has now scored at least ten points in his last six games after being promoted into the starting lineup. Gondrezick II had not started the first seven games of the year, and did not eclipse five points over his first seven games.
Detroit Mercy has struggled all season long, falling to 5-9 after the loss to Wisconsin. Leading up to the game, the Titans had played against two quality opponents, Wake Forest and Loyola Chicago, and did not fare well in either contest.
Takeaway #3: Wisconsin basketball still has some work to do entering 2025
Do not get me wrong… the Badgers did not play poorly against Detroit Mercy, but they were by no means firing on all cylinders. Max Klesmit was 0-for-5 from the field in a scoreless performance. John Tonje had just 9 points and has not had a 20-point performance since they played Chicago State on November 30th. As a team, Wisconsin went just 7-for-35 (20 percent) on their three-pointers. These mistakes may not hurt them against Detroit Mercy, but it will when they resume conference play.
There are still a lot of questions for Wisconsin entering the new year. They began the season 8-0 with marquee wins over Arizona and Pittsburgh. They reached as high as No. 11 in the AP Rankings, before suffering three straight losses. Was Wisconsin’s 8-0 start a fluke? Can they recover from a tough December stretch (2-3)? We shall find out in 2025.
Next up for Wisconsin (10-3, 0-2): vs. Iowa (9-3, 1-1) – Jan. 3, 6 p.m. CST
Next up for Detroit Mercy (5-9, 1-2): at Youngstown State (8-5, 3-0) – Dec. 29, 2 p.m. EST