Badgers Escape in OT Thriller

It had been nearly two full years since Wisconsin had beaten Iowa and with six minutes left still facing a nine-point deficit, it looked as if the Badgers were going to add yet another year to the drought. But this time UW responded to the adversity, tying the game on the strength of an 11-2 run and eventually heading to overtime after a Traevon Jackson three knotted the score at 58 with 20 seconds left. Although the Badgers managed just a single field goal in two overtime periods, they eventually outlasted the Hawkeyes by making 13 of 14 free throws in the 74-70 double overtime victory.

To say the Badgers (7-3 Big Ten, 16-7 Overall) escaped on Wednesday night would be a massive understatement. The Hawkeyes (3-7 Big Ten, 14-9 Overall) forced 12 turnovers and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, converting them into 17 second-chance points and15 points off turnovers. After Wisconsin built an 11-point first half lead, Iowa took control for most of the duration, following a technical foul by head coach Fran McCaffery with a 34-14 run that appeared to be enough for yet another upset in Madison.

Once again, the shots simply weren’t falling for Wisconsin. UW started the 2^nd half 5-for-20 from the field and managed to shoot just 12-for-45 in the 2^nd half and overtime. But after being outrebounded at one=point by 12, the Badgers started to control the glass and makes shots, doing just enough to get into overtime. Once there, Wisconsin made just one field goal in 10 minutes, winning the game at the foul line to the surprise of many in the Kohl Center crowd.

“To close that gap after we were down 9 and send it to overtime, “ UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “That was really gutsy by our guys.”

Although at times shaky, the senior core ultimately came through in the clutch for the Badgers. Senior forward Jared Berggren broke out of a mini-slump with 16 points , 7 blocks, and 14 rebounds for his 2^nd career double double. After struggling at the free throw line again during regulation, Berggren made all four of his free throws in the two overtime periods.

“You get things rolling a bit…” Berggren said of the free throw success. “It’s a free throw, its an easy shot and it should be automatic.”

Wisconsin’s comeback was fueled by a quick stretch that in essence woke up a sleeping giant. Down 9 in the closing minutes, junior guard Ben Brust hit an open jumper for 3 of his game-high 18 points. Junior forward Ryan Evans then found Berggren inside for a traditional three-point play just seconds later, immediately putting the Badgers within a bucket.

“We had two breakdowns immediately…” McCaffery said. “That changed everything because it makes it a one possession game really quickly.”

“It was good that we got something positive, “ Brust said. “Offensively we were in a bit of a slump there.”

While it seemed UW might have dodged a bullet by getting the game into overtime, things did not get any easier heading into the extra frame. Wisconsin failed to notch a single field goal in the first overtime, sending the game to a second extra frame on the backs of a 4-for-4 effort at the free throw line. Once in the second OT, Wisconsin continued to assert itself at the charity stripe, making 9-of-10 while hitting just a single shot from the field. Fortunately, that shot was a three-point bucket by freshman Sam Dekker with just 1:37 left, giving the Badgers a three-point lead they would never relinquish.

“We just kept working…” Berggren said. “We just kept working, showed a lot of fight, and did just enough to get the win.

One of the reasons Wisconsin was able to overcome another poor shooting effort was the defensive effort on Iowa’s leading scorer, Aaron White. Having dominated UW in the past, White did not have as much of an impact on Wednesday night, finishing with 13 points but just a 3-for-13 effort from the floor.

“Overall we did a good job…” Dekker said of the defense on White. “He almost brought them back at the end.”

The Badgers now continued a brutal stretch of play with three straight games against ranked opponents starting with Saturday’s game against No. 3 Michigan. Still squarely in the midst of a tight Big Ten title race, the Badgers know this was an important victory.

“Its a win that hopefully gives us confidence against Michigan coming up…” Dekker said. “Hopefully we can ride this wave and get a streak going.”

Badgers Have Plenty of Holes And Yet Plenty of Promise

Tonight I write not as a journalist but simply as a Wisconsin fan, a Wisconsin fan still unable to comprehend what exactly the Badgers have for a 2012-2013 team. After knocking off No. 2 Indiana on Tuesday, it seemed as if the sky was the limit. UW was 4-0 in Big Ten play and in the midst of a 7-game winning streak with Iowa the final opponent on a three-game “road trip”. The Badgers were alone on top of the conference standings and poised to move into the rankings and potentially into the top 15 or 20.

Then the game started in Iowa City.

From the opening tip, well I guess more like from the opening defensive possession, the Badgers lacked energy. It would have been one thing to see UW shoot 22% from the field during the first 20 minutes (which they did), but it is an entirely different and far less excusable issue when that poor shooting is accompanied but a lack of hustle and defensive intensity. Ultimately that lethal cocktail of awful put the Badgers in a 30-10 hole that proved simply too deep even for George Marshall to climb out of.

Despite fighting an illness I thought Bo Ryan and his staff coached a Brad Stevens-esque game in Bloomington. The game plan for the Badgers was flawless and the in-game adjustments made, especially with regard to keeping Cody Zeller at bay, were off the charts good. But when it came time to face Iowa Saturday night, the coaching staff did not seem nearing as well prepared.

First and foremost, Ryan allowed the deficit to reach 30-10 without calling a timeout. Now I recognize that Coach Ryan’s style is to let his players, specifically his seniors, work themselves out of funks, Iowa was running them out of the gym before they even realized they were inside. There was zero rhythm offensively, the ball control was shaky at best, and the defense lacked any ounce of integrity when it came to rotations and to stopping penetration. A timeout was just begging to be called and unfortunately it was simply too late by the time Ryan finally pulled the trigger.

Second, and I hate to beat a dead horse here; George Marshall needs to be on the floor, especially when UW begins to struggle. Marshall is going to make mistakes, after all he is a freshman and freshman have a tendency to do that. But for every mistake Marshall makes he makes two plays. He is by far the most dynamic player UW has in the back court and except for flashes from Brust and Jackson, is the only guard capable of creating penetration any time he touches the ball.

After the win at Indiana, Jackson was getting plenty of praise. Don’t get me wrong he was worthy of that praise for sure. Though he didn’t exactly light up the box score like many came away believing (3-for-9 from the field, 2 assists, 2 TO), Jackson hit clutch free throws and was stone cold on a big jump shot late when the Badgers were looking to put the game away. This was the 2^nd straight solid performance for the once-maligned sophomore and seemed to mark the beginning of the end of UW’s backcourt inconsistency.

Saturday Jackson took regression to a whole new level. Against an energized Iowa defense the Westerville, OH native fouled out with just 3 points on 1-for-10 shooting, adding just 1 assist and 2 rebounds. Meanwhile Marshall, his counterpart in the backcourt, nearly brought Wisconsin back all the way from that early 20-point deficit. Getting consistent playing time in large part thanks to significant foul trouble up and down the UW roster, Marshall took advantage and played without fear for the first time all year. That allowed him to open up his game and knock down 20 second-half points on 7-of-10 shooting, adding an assist to the stat line as well. So let the Rob Wilson comparisons commence.

Yes, once again we are seeing one of Bo Ryan’s most glaring weaknesses on full display. Ryan is one of the best coaches in the country but he has an almost unavoidable tendency to lock in on his rotations early in the season, becoming unwilling to change things up when certain players fail to perform. Certainly Ryan will ride the hot hand, but it just seems that with some on the roster he does so reluctantly. Wilson was that guy last year and unfortunately it appears like Marshall has stepped right in and taken his place.

The problem isn’t that Marshall doesn’t get his chances; it is that his leash is DRAMATICALLY shorter than Jackson’s. Marshall is an aggressive player and is set up for failure each and every time he is forced to come into the game and remain mistake-free in order to avoid being sent right back to the bench. The disparity between Ryan’s leash on Marshall and his leash on Jackson is quite honestly holding the Badgers back at this point, stunting not only their development as individual players but also stunting the development of the team as a whole.

Having said that, this senior class is every bit as culpable as Ryan when it comes to the failure to develop any semblance of consistency in the 2012-2013 UW season. Tuesday night that senior class led the way in the upset of Indiana. Mike Brusewitz brought the energy from the beginning and both Evans and Berggren followed suit, making plays when UW needed them most. Although Bruesewitz brought that same energy again in Iowa City (fouled out with 7 points and 9 rebounds), Berggren was nowhere to be found the entire first half and Evans was largely non-existent the entire game. When Wisconsin needed its seniors to step up, they just flat out didn’t do it.

Thankfully I am sitting here ranting while UW sits atop the Big Ten standings at 4-1. That being said, the next month consists of nothing but NCAA Tournament-caliber opponents and UW’s good start to conference play means nothing if the Badgers are unable to keep it up. This team has talent, has fight, and has a coach who is better than anyone else on this planet at maximizing talent and getting a team to play to the best of its ability.

Losing to Iowa is getting old but in splitting two difficult conference road games this is not a terrible week. Tuesday is the first day of class and hopefully the first time Wisconsin fans will see in person what I saw this week in Bloomington. Having seen what this team is capable of and knowing how adept Bo Ryan is at getting the most out of his players, I see no reason why Wisconsin should not find itself in the thick of the Big Ten title race and comfortable when Selection Sunday comes around. 

Badgers' Lack Of Depth Hurting Them In Conference Play

Wisconsin has never been known to have a team of superstars. The Badger men's basketball program has been resurrected out of the ashes of the 1940's powerhouse program by a philosophy first developed by Dick Bennett and then perfected by current head coach Bo Ryan; a philosophy that teams of quality, hard-working players that buy into the system can win regardless of talent level.

But chief among the tenets of that winning philosophy is the notion that depth is the best weapon against superior talent. Wisconsin has made its name as the thorn in the side of Big Ten powerhouses Ohio State, Michigan State, and Purdue by ensuring that each and every game there is someone on the Badger roster ready to step up. If the "marquee" player has an off night, someone will certainly be ready to pick up the slack and get the Badgers another ho-hum victory at home over a highly-ranked opponent. We've seen the Badgers struggle at times in this light away from home, but at the Kohl Center this mantra of depth trumping talent seems to hold true nearly every night.

Until this week. Until the Badgers followed up a shocking defeat at home to unranked and unheralded Iowa (although the Hawkeyes did validate their win by knocking off Minnesota on the road last night) by once again struggling to find consistency on the offensive end as they fell in heartbreaking fashion to #11 Michigan State.

Yes, the loss to the Spartans will be remembered by the disallowed three-point shot by Ryan Evans that would have sent the game into double overtime, but the reason that Wisconsin now heads on a two-game road trip facing the prospect of a 1-4 start in Big Ten play has nothing to do with the discrepancy in the clocks at the Kohl Center.

In fact, the reason Wisconsin has quickly gone from title contender to bubble team is fairly simple: depth, or lack thereof. The Badgers have no depth whatsoever, something that flies directly in the face of all that is Badger basketball.

They continue to bring guys in that fit the system, guys willing to work hard and listen to coaching and hopefully form the nucleus of a title-contending team their junior/senior years. But this year, Ryan and his staff have failed their players by failing to hold onto the traditions of the very system they themselves have so diligently used in order to take Wisconsin to 13 straight NCAA Tournaments.

They have failed to build depth not because they dont have depth, but because they didnt take the time to build it when they had the chance. In essence, Wisconsin didnt lose their first two Big Ten home contests this week, they lost them in blowout wins over Colgate, over Wofford, over Savannah State. They lost them by having three starters on the court with less than four minutes left and the Badgers clinging to forty-plus point leads.

Wisconsin has players that could have been ready to step up in the face of an off night by Ben Brust, foul trouble for Ryan Evans, etc. The problem now is that the UW coaching staff didnt allow them to see the floor in games that were decided well before their conclusion. By letting starters stay on the floor during blowout wins in non-conference play, Wisconsin's staff not only wore down those players just a bit more prior to Big Ten play, but more importantly failed to give that second tier of players the on-court experience they need to be ready when duty comes calling.

Right now, the Badgers need a spark plug. Before his recent cold spell, many would think that spark plug could be sophomore guard Ben Brust, but right now it doesnt seem Brust is in a position to take the lead, dealing with a sophomore slump that was bound to come at some point. Wisconsin needs Brust to start making shots again and that will happen eventually. But more importantly, Wisconsin needs more bodies to make an impact.

The Badgers cannot expect to compete in the Big Ten going just seven deep. Late in the losses to Michigan State and Iowa, it was apparent that even lock down defenders like Jordan Taylor and Jared Berggren were beginning to show signs of clear fatigue. Iowa senior guard Bryce Cartwright made a mockery out of Taylor in the second half last Saturday (Taylor finished the game having played all 40 minutes) and on Tuesday, Spartan sophomore Keith Appling did much of the same (Taylor played 44 minutes against Michigan State). While Taylor's offensive firepower finally reared its head and kept Wisconsin in the game literally until the final second, the impact that fatigue is having on what was the nation's top defense is clear as day.

Though many will point to the three-point shooting and say that the Badgers are going to have to both live and die by the three, the reality is that they are a team defined by defense. They are certainly going to need to shoot the three well enough to win, but they will live and die not by the deep ball, but by their defense. Against Iowa, they managed to put up 65 points, good enough to win all but one of their games thus far this season. The 72 points allowed on Wisconsin's home floor more than outweighed the 3-for-28 performance from beyond the arc in terms of leading to UW's demise.

With defense being the calling card of the 2011-2012 Wisconsin men's basketball season, it is fairly obvious that they have to limit the minutes being played by their starters. Including the many blowout victories UW had during non-conference play, two players are averaging over 30 minutes per game, with three more clocking in at 27 or more per contest. Starting forward Mike Bruesewitz is actually sixth on the team in minutes with just over 24 per game and beyond him, only senior guard Rob Wilson has notched a double-digit average, coming in at just 10.0 minutes per game.

So their is an argument to be made that Wisconsin only goes six deep but with Wilson playing a part in the past two losses, I will give it seven for the sake of the argument.

Now compare this to Michigan State. The Spartans have a star in Draymond Green. He is playing just over 32 minutes a game. Beyond Green, MSU has a full 8 players coming in a 18 minutes or more per game. And the Spartans havent had the cushy schedule of Wisconsin, with only 4 games thus far finishing with a margin of greater than 20 points.

At this point in the season, there is probably little that Ryan and company can do to alleviate the depth issue. They are going to face stiff competition from here on in during Big Ten play and cannot afford to throw unexperienced players into the fire. They had that chance and they likely missed it.

But if there is a staff capable of turning things around, the Badgers have them. Bo Ryan has yet to miss an NCAA Tournament while in Madison and has faced mid-season adversity on more than a few occasions during that run. But he is going to have to figure out how his thin roster can compete in the Big Ten and the answer to that problem will not be easy to find.

Badgers Sleepwalk Their Way To Home Defeat

After getting the conference season off to a promising start with a decisive road victory over Nebraska, 11th-ranked Wisconsin men's basketball (1-1 Big Ten, 12-3 overall) laid an egg on Saturday, losing their Big Ten home opener to Iowa (1-1 Big Ten, 9-6 overall) by a final score of 72-65.

While many will point to Wisconsin's 3-of-28 performance from beyond the three-point line, the Badgers' first losing conference home opener in 12 years was the result of poor transition defense. After making defense a hallmark of their game throughout the non-conference schedule, UW allowed Iowa to score 14 points on fast break opportunities, with the Badgers only managing to notch two of their own.

UW's lack of depth was on clear display as they struggled from the get-go and couldnt turn to a viable alternative on the bench. Sophomore guard Ben Brust, Wisconsin's leading bench scorer at just over ten points a game coming into Saturday, struggled mightily against the Hawkeyes, the school he originally signed with prior to then-coach Todd Lickliter's dismissal. While the Hawkthorn Woods, Ill. native did finish with 11 points, he was 4-of-13 from the field and just 1-of-9 from beyond the arc, those misses leading to several fast break opportunities for the opportunistic Hawkeyes.

As much as Wisconsin's bench play was non-existent, Iowa's was the key to their victory. Freshman guard Aaron White led three Hawkeyes in double digits with 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting, the lone misfire being followed up by an offensive rebound and putback that gave Iowa the lead for good. Senior guard Bryce Cartwright also came up big off the bench, finishing the game with 17 points of his own on 7-of-12 from the field.

But the bottom line was that Wisconsin's inability to build depth in the non-conference portion of the season came back to bite them on Saturday. With junior forward Ryan Evans in foul trouble and limited to just 15 minutes of floor time, the Badgers were forced to have five players play over 30 minutes, with senior guard Jordan Taylor staying on the floor for the entire 40 minutes. Ultimately, fatigue set in, as Taylor and others were caught a step slow on the defensive end throughout the second half, something Badger fans have not been accustomed to seeing from what was the nation's top scoring defense.

Wisconsin now has just two days to prepare for a much stiffer test at home as Michigan State rolls into town on Tuesday night. With a road date against another top-20 team in Michigan just beyond that and another at Purdue to follow, Wisconsin is now staring a 1-4 start in Big Ten play square in the face.

One bad performance and the conversation has immediately gone from final four to bubble hopes. Oh how quickly things can change.