No time to wallow with Northwestern up next
January 12, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
Badgers look to prove Tuesday they can bounce back from close losses
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
EVANSTON, Ill. — Wisconsin's Alex Illikainen, like any freshman, is going through an expected transition to the way that the game is played at the collegiate level.
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What was unexpected was the reemergence of the Swing offense shortly after Greg Gard took the reins of the program from the Swing's creator Bo Ryan who retired in late December.
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At Grand Rapids (Minn.) High School, the offense revolved around Illikainen.
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"It was pretty basic,'' said the 6-9, 220-pound Illikainen. "I would stand in the post and they would throw me the ball. If I got double-teamed, I'd kick it out.''
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Simplicity is often the best way to go. Illikainen averaged 26.5 points and 15.2 rebounds as a junior to become the school's all-time leader in scoring and rebounding.
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Last season, he made a basketball decision to leave home and enroll at Brewster Academy whose campus is on the shoreline of Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
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"At times, we didn't really have an offense,'' said Illikainen. "Our team was so stacked; we had so many good players, it was, 'Get the ball and go and try to make a basket.'''
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Illikainen is now in the process of adjusting to the Swing, especially the nuances of the offense.
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"When you're out there with Nigel (Hayes) and Bronson (Koenig), they're going to do their own little things within the offense,'' he said. "It's kind of tough to know when they're doing that.
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"I could be following what we're supposed to be doing (within the Swing) but they could change it up to get open or something like that. But I'm starting to learn it and it's going to get a lot easier.''
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Illikainen has already provided a lift off the bench. Not only did he score 10 points against Purdue in the Big Ten opener but he played a season-high 23-minutes against Maryland last Saturday.
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His numbers were modest: five points and five rebounds. But he was the only sub to score.
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"I like the emergence of Alex Illikainen and what he's done,'' Gard said. "I joked yesterday (Sunday) with him that he couldn't jump over a Grand Rapids phone book.''
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(The population of Grand Rapids is 10,869.)
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"But I find him on film. He's a rooter, he's always got his face in there, you rarely find him missing a block out and he's blocking out guys that are way more athletic than he is.
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"But he gets into them and he's got a bloody nose here and there. But those are the type of guys that understand that 90 percent of the game is played with your feet on the floor.''
Those are the players that execute the little things without attention and those are the players according to Gard that "will always sit well with me and will get a chance to prove what they can do.''
The Badgers must prove Tuesday night that they can bounce back from their latest one-possession setback; the result of Melo Trimble's 3-point dagger in the closing seconds of a 63-60 loss.
By contrast, Northwestern is coming off a high. The Wildcats' 25-point margin of victory (77-52) at Minnesota on Saturday was their largest in a Big Ten road game in merely 72 years.
Road warriors? Indeed. The 'Cats are 4-0 in true road games this season. The win over the Gophers was particularly critical after back-to-back home losses to Maryland and Ohio State.
Gard has great respect for the backcourt duo of sophomore Bryant McIntosh and senior Tre Demps. Â By averaging 15.4 and 14.4 points, respectively, they've become a dangerous one-two punch.
McIntosh, one of just four college players to attend Stephen Curry's select camp in August, has twice scored over 30 points. He had 32 against Columbia and 33 against Loyola (Md.).
As it is, the Wildcats have had six players score 20 or more points in a game – McIntosh, Demps, Aaron Falzon, Scottie Lindsey, Dererk Pardon and Alex Olah who's out indefinitely with a foot injury.
The loss of Olah, a 7-foot, 275-pound senior, has been noteworthy. He was averaging 12.8 points and 6.5 rebounds through the first 12 games. He's the school's all-time leading shot-blocker.
The Wildcats have also been forced to get along without sophomore forward Vic Law who underwent shoulder surgery in November and will miss the season. He had 19 starts as a freshman.
Without Law and Olah, they have relied even more heavily on the 3-point shot. Northwestern is 8-0 when making 10 or more triples and five different players have already made at least 21.
Falzon, a 6-8, 213-pound freshman, has the most 3-point makes with 39, including six at Minnesota – 100 of his 122 field goal attempts have come from beyond the 3-point arc.
Gard referenced Falzon's emergence during his Monday press conference noting that the Newton, Mass. native took an unofficial visit to Wisconsin.
Falzon, who played at a prep school last season, is the second 4-star recruit that Northwestern coach Chris Collins has landed. Law was the other. Falzon picked the Wildcats over Harvard.
"Falzon stepping up has helped them replace what they lost with Olah,'' Gard said. "They played through Olah a lot earlier in the year and now they're obviously relying on the 3.
"They're shooting a fair amount of 3's and when they're on, they're really, really good. You just try to take them out of their comfort zone.
"Chris (Collins) knows what he's doing and those guys are buying in. You can tell how hard they play and how they like to play together. It's a team that has grown.''
Gard knows that his team is still in need of nurturing. So he has tried to lead by example.
"If there is a sliver of 'Whoa is me' in the room and if I smell any of that, I'll stomp it out quickly,'' he said. "I think they understood where I was coming from because I got a lot of nods.''
He was encouraged because "all 17 guys' eyes were big and they were focused.''
Earlier, he warned them about dwelling on the Maryland loss.
"I said, 'Hey, the moment you're feeling sorry for yourself and you want to have a pity party,'' Gard said, "go over to University Hospital and sit at the valet for about 30 minutes.
"If that doesn't sink in, then go to the American Family Children's Hospital and go up to the cancer ward where all the cancer patients are …
"… where the kids are fighting for their lives and trying to get to the next birthday, to get to the next Christmas. Then come back and tell me how tough you have it.''
He shared with his players how he had recently visited a young lady in hospice. This past week, she passed away. Gard, who lost his dad to cancer this summer, was putting adversity into context.
Cognizant of the fact that freshman Khalil Iverson lost his dad to a heart attack last year, he also said, "These are things that are real – that's real life adversity.''
No further interpretation was needed. Move on from the Maryland loss. That was his message.
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