The Wisconsin men’s basketball team didn’t spend the days after its blowout loss at Nebraska pretending it was an anomaly that would fix itself with time. Greg Gard made that clear before the Badgers’ matchup against Villanova, framing the week as more of a gut check than a reset.
The numbers paint a team caught between identities. Wisconsin sits at 7-3 overall, rated No. 41 nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 49 in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom. That profile is solid, but it is not close to the version that Gard outlined back at Big Ten Media Day, when he spoke openly about chasing a top-10 ceiling on both ends.