The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team added an important game to its postseason r?sum? yesterday afternoon in a 60-55 home win against the Michigan Wolverines.
Going into the game, the Badgers were just one game ahead of the Wolverines (8-8 Big Ten, 18-11 overall) in the Big Ten standings with a record of 8-7 in conference play and 17-10 overall. With their win over Michigan, Wisconsin pulled into a tie with Penn State, whom they have swept this year, for the number four spot in the conference.
Despite getting the big win, the Badgers are not thinking about the postseason but solely concentrating on their next opponent, who happens to be Minnesota.
“We are taking the same approach I probably think coach [Bo] Ryan took and we are going to take it one game at a time, whatever’s next,” Wisconsin senior forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. “But, we are not blinded by all the talk of March Madness. We like it just as much as you guys. We are looking forward to the tournament, and we know we can really help ourselves here in the next few games like we did today.”
Coming into the game, the Badgers had a week off, as they did before the last time they played Michigan at the end of December, and it showed. They opened the first half on an 8-0 run, four of which came on layups from junior guard Trevon Hughes. In the first half, the Badgers had as much as a 24-15 lead in the first half with 8:45 left to play.
But, the Wolverines began to claw their way back, going on a 15-2 run to pull ahead of the Badgers by a score of 30-26 with 2:21 left in the first half. Two free throws by Michigan guard Manny Harris, who finished the game with 15 points and eight rebounds, gave the Wolverines a 34-32 lead going into the locker room.
“One thing you can’t do when you are on the road is get down then try to come back,” Michigan head coach John Beilein said. “But, we did come back in the first half, but we couldn’t get back out in the second half.”
To open the second half, the Badgers were able to get back in rhythm, going on an 11-2 run to take a 45-36 lead with 13:14 left to go in the game. During that stretch, the Badgers were able to hold the Wolverines’ scoring duo of Harris and forward DeShawn Sims to just 1-of-6 shooting.
Despite going cold in the beginning of the second half, Sims still had a great game, going 8-16 from the field for 17 points and seven rebounds.
“It’s always a 40-minute game,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “It isn’t that we changed anything. We did some things on the ball screens, try to do them just a little better, and sticking to our rules, and making our reads. Once we did that, it kind of gave us that run in the beginning of the second half. But, they had one [run] left in them. I’m glad they had one and not two.”
After Wisconsin opened up a nine-point advantage, Michigan managed to go on a 14-7 run to bring the game to within two points at the 3:57 mark, 52-50. However, despite only going 6-for-11 from the free throw line in the last three minutes of the game, the Badgers were able to hold off the Wolverines and win the game.
“There are so many facets to the game: rebounding, defense, free throws and taking care of the ball,” Ryan said. “In basketball, you have to have to be an athlete that is multi-talented to play this game. There isn’t just one thing that you do. In basketball, you have to do a lot of things — run the floor, position yourself properly. If one thing gets in the way a little bit, you have to hope you are strong enough in the areas and gets some stops in the other end.”
Michigan’s second-half run gave Wisconsin and its fans a scare, reminiscing about the six-game losing streak the Badgers had in January and February when they lost several games in the waning minutes.
But, as the team makes the push towards the conference and NCAA tournaments, they have their eyes focused ahead and not behind.
“Michigan is a great team,” Krabbenhoft said. “They were extremely confident coming into this game, played a great game the other night against Purdue, so we knew they were ready and their confidence was high. But, we just did a great job.”
