3 quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s Big Ten opener vs. Northwestern: Fast starts are a good sign

The Wisconsin Badgers pulled off an 85-73 victory over the Northwestern Wildcats to open up Big Ten play on Wednesday in a game that was not nearly as close as the score indicated.

The Badgers had 55 points in the first half, which was the most they’ve had in a first half this year, and led by as many as 27 in the win.

It was a career night for a couple of players, while the Badgers notched their fifth straight win over Northwestern, improving to 6-2 and 1-0 in the Big Ten.

Here are three quick takeaways from the Badgers 85-73 win over Northwestern.

It was an amazing first half of basketball from the Badgers. They played well defensively, holding Northwestern to under one point per possession. But, it was the offense that was just beautiful, as Wisconsin had 55 points while averaging 1.72 points per possession.

Wisconsin was successful in every way. They shot 50 percent from the field, 42.9 percent from three (on 21 attempts), and 12 of 13 at the free throw line. But, what really stood out was the team’s ball movement that led to a lot of those three-pointers.

The Badgers have been streaky this year on threes, but they’ve created a lot of looks for catch-and-shoot opportunities. Those were going down in the first half, especially for star John Blackwell, who had 23 first-half points and reached the 1,000-point mark as a Badger.

Wisconsin had 15 assists on 17 field goals in the opening period. That’s ridiculous. Andrew Rohde was a big creator, both in transition and in the half court, going for seven assists in the first half. He finished with a career-high nine assists.

But, the ball movement was everywhere. Wisconsin has found a way to really move the ball well early, despite a ton of transfers, which gives good hope for growth as the season continues.

Not only did Wisconsin move the ball really well, but it also had no turnovers in a half for the sixth time in school history.

Their first turnover didn’t come until the 13:45 mark of the second half.

A big part of averaging a ridiculous 1.72 points per possession in a half is not having wasted possessions. Meanwhile, Wisconsin forced seven turnovers in the first half and was incredibly efficient with them, scoring 18 points.

That’s a big turnaround there.

The Badgers were sloppier in the second half, having seven turnovers in the period alone, which allowed Northwestern to cut the lead a bit, but they allowed only seven points off turnovers during the entire game.

Coming into this one, Wisconsin needed to find a way to limit leading scorer Nick Martinelli, who has seen some success against them in the past.

Well, Martinelli was 50 percent from the field, but he had just (I know, just!) 14 points on 4 of 8 shooting. The best defense for Wisconsin was getting the ball out of his hands and forcing the rest of the team to beat you.

That meant Northwestern would have to hit some threes, but they were just 4 of 19 in that department. They weren’t much better inside the arc, shooting under 50 percent on twos.

Arrinten Page had a great game with 21 points, but taking Martinelli out of the equation for the most part was a big factor.