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Journalism professors tell their students to not fall into lazy habits or reflexively use the same words over and over again. One of the better examples is to not overuse the word “scrappy” or “gritty” when talking about a role player on a basketball team who doesn’t score a ton of points but works really hard.

Fair enough. We won’t overuse the words “scrappy” or “gritty” with Wisconsin’s Tyler Wahl… but we will use the words this one time. If you catch us using those words in future articles, let us know… but we can use this article to note that Wahl is giving the Badgers the energy and effort they need, part of their resilient identity and hard-hat approach to basketball.

There are few things fans like better than a role player who — everyone can see — is far from a finished product, but doesn’t allow his limitations to get in the way of his dedication to the team and the task. This is the player Tyler Wahl is, and it is why fans love him to pieces.

Wahl was not a dominant player on Friday against Ohio State, but Greg Gard entrusted him with 25 minutes off the bench, which is more than twice the number of minutes played by Micah Potter (11). Wahl scored only four points, which means that in terms of points per 40 minutes, Wahl averaged under seven points, a very modest showing on that part of the stat sheet.

However, Wahl — recognizing his role is not to score — made the hustle plays which are part of winning basketball. Wahl found his inner Draymond Green and collected five offensive rebounds and three steals while handing out two assists. Those contributions, plus 25 minutes of dogged defense, provided an absolutely essential piece of a winning performance.

No Tyler Wahl, no victory. No one would dispute this. Wahl significantly altered the course of the game, reminding all of us that a player doesn’t have to score big to carry a big impact.

If Wisconsin gets that kind of effort from Wahl every night, this team will be in decent shape. Any evolution from Wahl as a scorer will be gravy… and increase this team’s upside.