INDIANAPOLIS — Luke Recker was the story of the day Friday as the senior Hawkeye guard scored 24 of his 28 points in the second half to help the Hawkeyes overcome a first half deficit to edge the Badgers in their opening game of the Big Ten tournament, 58-56.
The Badgers, who had led the majority of the contest, found the game tied after a Duez Henderson put-back and free throw with 41 seconds remaining. The Badgers called a timeout to set a play to allow Penney or Harris to take the shot near the end of the shot clock. Harris had the shot but attempted a tough pass to a cutting Wilkinson that resulted in a turnover for the Badgers.
“We were looking for just what we got, Devin got to the free-throw line wide open,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “He felt that [Wilkinson] had an easy layup, but the problem was that Reggie Evans was between he and Mike. He felt he could get the ball over Reggie’s arms instead of taking the jump shot. If he had the decision to do it over again, he would take the wide-open jumper. Devin was more wide open that Recker could even come close to being on the last shot.”
Unfortunately for the Badgers, Iowa made good on its last possession. Recker was able to take the ball the length of the court, drive into the lane and hit the game-winning jumper with just over a second remaining in the game.
Recker, who had already scored 22 points in the second half, was guarded man-to-man by Devin Harris. The decision for the Badgers not to double Recker was one that he questioned after the game.
“I was surprised the way that it developed,” Recker said. “We just wanted to get a good look, but I didn’t think that they would allow me that good of a look. I thought they might send another guy at me, so I told my teammates to be ready so I just went by what they gave me.”
Alford said that the play was for Recker to take the ball and hope Wisconsin would continue its single coverage.
“I probably haven’t been the brightest guy all year long, but he was 18 of 23 in the last two days,” Alford said. “So I was hoping and praying he would get the last shot.”
The Badgers decided they had to respect the other shooters on the floor and felt that Harris would be able to make the shot tough for Recker. Ryan stood by his decision after the game.
“We had help there, it was just on the penetration, by going left and going hard on the pull-up, it doesn’t matter whether you run two guys or not,” Ryan commented. “That was a tough jump shot and he put it in.”
Turnovers plague team: While Recker provided the lasting memory of Friday’s game, the Badgers were also plagued by turnovers throughout the game. UW averaged just 13 turnovers in the first two meetings with Iowa this year, but turned the ball over 20 times Friday afternoon.
Iowa played inspired defense down the stretch. Alford credited his team’s tough defense for the Wisconsin turnovers and the team’s victory.
“Wisconsin is a team that takes care of the basketball, and for us to force them in 20 turnovers and hold them to 42 percent shooting in the second half was key,” said Alford. “I thought our defense was the big difference in the whole game.”
Dave Mader turned the ball over five times in limited action and point guard Travon Davis, who has had an excellent assist to turnover ratio all season, turned the ball over four times. However, the Badgers felt that the turnovers were a result of their own poor play rather than anything that was forced on them by Iowa.
“I think they were sloppy turnovers on our part,” said Charlie Wills. “I don’t think it was due to their pressure so much as us being sloppy with the ball.”
A large number of the Badger turnovers came attempting to get the ball into the post past Iowa’s long arms. According to Ryan the team may have been trying to make tougher passes than they had tried to make in the course of winning the Big Ten title.
“I think we tried to make some really tough passes that maybe weren’t there,” said Ryan. “Coming off from a championship, maybe in somebody’s mind they think now they can make that pass. They are young men, maybe they had forgotten about what it took to get where they were. I just think we tried to make too many really good passes, and over-penetrated a couple of times.”
