Five Takeaways from Wisconsin's 60-56 Win Over Indiana

For the 19th time in school history, the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team are regular season Big Ten Champions. How fitting they did it coming from behind on the road when the odds appeared to be against them?

Down as many as nine points in the second half against a desperate Indiana team, the Badgers delivered the comeback to pull out a 60-54 victory over the Hoosiers at Assembly Hall Saturday afternoon.

The victory guarantees the Badgers at least a share of the conference title for the first time since 2015, which could turn into an outright title by Sunday night.

Here are the takeaways.

What a godsend Micah Potter turned out to be for the Badgers during the second half of the season. Maybe that’s part of the reason why head coach Greg Gard decided to roll the dice down the stretch, a move that helped net UW a conference championship.

Potter caught fire in the second half to start sparking Wisconsin’s offense, scoring six of his points and getting his team back into the game. Problem was Potter couldn’t stay out of foul trouble. Picking up his third foul at 15:35, Potter was forced to the bench and Indiana took advantage with drives into the lane and second-chance rebounds. Seeing the deficit grow to eight, Gard put Potter back in with 8:52 remaining, only to see the junior pick up his fourth foul 37 seconds later.

But after Aleem Ford picked up his fourth foul after being out of position for an offensive rebound, Potter checked back in with 6:52 remaining. It turned out to be the right move, as Potter’s play helped Wisconsin take control of the game.

Potter picked up a steal after diving on the floor for a loose ball and then delivered a 3-point play on the next possession off an offensive rebound to tie the game. He helped put Wisconsin ahead for good when he secured an offensive rebound, fired the ball to Brad Davison on the perimeter and watched him knock down the go-ahead 3-pointer.

Combined with him cleaning up three straight defensive possessions with rebounds, Potter’s stat line down the stretch included his 3-point play, five rebounds (two offensive that led to six points), an assist and a steal. Potter finished with a double-double (14 points and 11 rebounds) and, most importantly, stayed at just four fouls.

Since going 6-for-10 from the floor in the road win at Nebraska, Nate Reuvers has spent the better part of the last three weeks fighting his shot. In the last five games, Reuvers has shot 33.3 percent from the floor (13-for-39) and attempted five or fewer shots in two of the last three games. He broke out from his slump at the most critical of times.

Helping carry the offense in the first half with eight points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal, Reuvers kept fighting in the second half when he got outmuscled for rebounds or missed looks around the rim. Finishing 7-for-14 from the field for a team-best 17 points, Reuvers’ biggest moment came on one of Wisconsin’s biggest weaknesses this season.

Leading 56-54, D’Mitrik Trice’s running layup just glanced off the rim, but the rebound came straight to Reuvers, who went up strong with the put back to increase UW’s lead to 58-54 with 21 seconds left.

UW only had six offensive rebounds, but five came in the second half and three in the final 5:09. The Badgers have won a lot recently without Reuvers being at his best. When he plays like he did Saturday, UW could be tough to beat.

The Badgers are a long shot to have any player named to the Big Ten’s all-conference first team next week, a sign of how balanced this group is. Reuvers and Potter made plays throughout the half, but it was Davison and Trice who delivered some clutch baskets.

Trice went just 2-for-10 from the floor and scored four points, but he scored his 1,000th career point on a driving layup with 1:18 remaining, giving UW its biggest second-half lead at five points.

In addition to his 3-pointer off the feed from Potter, Davison – an 86 percent free throw shooter who missed two earlier free throws - calmly sank two free throws with 7.1 seconds left to make it a two-possession game.

Of course, none of it would have mattered if the Badgers didn’t tighten up defensively. After the Hoosiers took their largest lead at 46-37, Indiana only made one more basket the rest of the game – a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left to cut the lead to two. Indiana also went nearly six minutes without a point, a drought that helped the Badgers go on a 12-0 run to take control of the game.

The Badgers were fortunate that six of their 13 3-point attempts fell, or it could have looked real ugly. UW’s offense took a lot of ugly looks from the perimeter and didn’t commit to the paint, scoring only two points in the lane. UW shot 37.5 percent in the first half but didn’t score in the final 4:28, missing its five shots and committing two turnovers.

The Badgers’ defense was good in the post, a problem at points during the season, but their overall team defense missed the mark, especially guard Devonte Green. Of Indiana’s 28 points, Green scored 16 of them and no other player scored more than four.

Of course, we all know how this turned out. The Badgers found a flow offensively and Green didn’t, going 0-for-7 from the floor in the second half.

Wisconsin will take its Big Ten trophy home to Madison and await its seed for the Big Ten Tournament. If the Badgers see Maryland lose at home to Michigan and Michigan State lose at home to Ohio State, Wisconsin will be the outright Big Ten champions and the top seed, playing the first game Friday morning.

UW will also be the No.1 seed if Michigan State loses and Maryland wins, or if Michigan State wins, Maryland loses and Illinois loses at home to Iowa (UW wins the tiebreaker based on record against No.3 seed, which would be Maryland).

The only scenario where UW will be the No.2 seed is if Michigan State wins, Illinois wins and Maryland loses based on the Spartans having a better record against Illinois and Maryland than UW (2-1 vs. 1-1).