Grinding The Tape: Wisconsin's three-point defense vs. PSU

The Badgers held the Nittany Lions to fewer three-point attempts than normal. Was their perimeter defense that good? Let's go to the video tape!

This is a very long email, but mostly because there are a number of screen shots, not because I am too verbose. You’ll probably want to open this one in the Substack app or in your preferred web browser as many email clients will cut it off before the end.

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“All week we were practicing switches, they were running off those…so late down the stretch we just stuck to our man and stopped switching and that kinda took away a couple of shots, I think they were good looks, they just didn’t go in. The ball went our way,” Chucky Hepburn said in the postgame presser.

I have a few nits to pick with Hepburn’s statement above, but Penn State is a great three-point shooting team and Wisconsin didn’t let them shoot as many threes as they usually do. Was it good defense? Bad shooting? Knowing when to switch? All of those things? Let’s dive into the film and see if we can figure it out!

FIRST HALF

19:05: open corner three for Cameryn Winter; contest by Tyler Wahl after double-team on Jalen Pickett; make (1-for-1)

17:17: open above the break three for Winter; pump faked Chucky Hepburn who was recovering after doubling Pickett; miss (1-for-2)

15:01: wide open three for Pickett; UW got lost in rotation after Isaac Lindsey (No. 10) originally doubled on Pickett (No. 22, white headband), who kicked it out to Kanye Clary (No. 0), who then attacked Lindsey closeout and got into the paint where Jordan Davis (No. 2) had left Pickett to stop Clary…who kicked it out to wide open Pickett; miss (1-for-3)

Let’s take a look at that play because writing it out was kinda confusing!