Wisconsin men’s basketball is 3-0, and Tuesday night’s 89-42 win over Fairfield was the kind of performance Greg Gard had been looking for through the first week of the season.
After grinding through wins over Denver and Delaware, the Badgers overwhelmed Fairfield at the Kohl Center, delivering their largest margin of victory since beating Florida A&M by 53 points in December 2016.
Wisconsin led 52-20 at halftime, held Fairfield to 19.4% shooting, and had four players score in double figures. The competition level matters, obviously. But a few meaningful developments are worth discussing beyond the final score.
“I think we set the tone defensively really well early,” Gard said postgame. “I thought our ball pressure was really good. We played off one another in terms of when we did have to exchange. We covered for each other for the most part really well, and that allowed us to get out and transition, getting some stops and getting going with the passing that we have.”
Here are three thoughts from Wisconsin’s win over Fairfield.