MINNEAPOLIS — Physically dominated.
Those are not words often associated with head coach Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin basketball team.
But the statistics, final score and even bruised egos will bear out that this is exactly what happened to the Badger basketball squad Thursday night in a 68-52 drubbing against Minnesota in Williams Arena.
The “U” pounded UW 41-28 on the boards, attempted 21 more free throws than their Badger counterparts and drew 24 fouls against Wisconsin’s 11.
Any follower of Badger basketball knows Wisconsin’s goal is to make more free throws than its opponents attempt — a target the team missed by 23 Thursday night.
“You have to get a lot more free throws,” senior guard Jason Bohannon stated bluntly.
“We certainly haven’t been doing that the last couple games, and it tells us we need to get the ball in the paint, pump fake, get the guys in the air and do a better job of that.”
Bohannon had 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including 4-for-7 from 3-point land.
Possessing a height advantage nearly across the board, Minnesota consistently attacked the lane with deep post touches and the Gophers dropped in 22 points in the paint while holding the Badgers to a mere 11.
Playing as they have every game since forward Jon Leuer was sidelined with an injury, Wisconsin was content to swing the ball around the perimeter against both zone and man defense and fire up 3-pointers. The Badgers attempted 30 from beyond the arc — opposed to 29 two-point shots — and connected on 11. The much more aggressive Gopher offense took merely nine shots from deep, burying five.
Ryan, however, is not buying that UW settled for any outside shots.
“I would love to have those shots. I would love to have them,” Ryan said.
“We didn’t finish on some shots inside.”
Having trimmed the Minnesota lead to 45-42 on a Bohannon 3-pointer with 9:40 left in the game, UW seemed poised to come back as they have against Northwestern, Penn State and Michigan this season.
Instead, what followed was a nearly eight minute scoreless stretch where the Gophers extended the lead to 16, sealing their third straight victory over the Badgers. During the stretch, UW hucked up three-pointer after three-pointer, coming up empty most of the time.
Sucking both the momentum and energy from the Badgers was a series of missed 3-pointers and offensive rebounds just 30 seconds after Bohannon’s deep bomb. In comically sad fashion, The Barn exploded as Leuer missed from deep, was rebounded by Mike Bruesewitz, followed with misses from Bohannon, Tim Jarmusz and Trevon Hughes as well as rebounds from Nankivil and Hughes.
Hughes was 7-for-17 from the field, finishing with 19 points. He also added four steals.
The empty possession deflated UW and primed Minnesota for a game-clinching run.
“We had an open look, and we got another open look and that third one was an open look too,” Bohannon said. “Anytime you get those open shots and keep getting those offensive rebounds you have to make them pay somehow. We got to get some points out of that possession.”
Unwilling to criticize his team in almost any facet, Ryan gave away perhaps a hint of frustration in his praise of freshman rebounding fiend, Mike Bruesewitz.
On the floor for only 20 minutes, the St. Paul, Minnesota native pulled down four boards — three offensive — and kept numerous other possessions alive with his activity under the glass. Though inconsistent with the ball in his hands (zero points to five fouls), Bruesewitz was the only Badger to match the intensity of the Gopher team digging in for rebounds.
In the post game press conference, Ryan made sure his freshman’s hard work did not go unnoticed.
“Mike Bruesewtiz was again all over the place,” Ryan said. “If he wasn’t getting the rebound he was getting his hand on it. He is so active. We need more of that.”
“He is just hungry,” Ryan continued when asked if others needed to follow Bruesewitz’ lead. “You have to be hungry to be a good rebounder.”
