Wisconsin coach Greg Gard likes to point out that he doesn’t exclusively rely on the Badgers’ side of the stats sheet with evaluating a players’ performance in any given game.

Sophomore forward Nate Reuvers provided a perfect example of that philosophy during Wisconsin’s stunning 64-54 Big Ten Conference victory against No. 2 Michigan on Saturday afternoon.

Michigan freshman forward Ignas Bradzeikis, who entered the game with a 14.5 points-per-game average, was held scoreless for the Wolverines, who dropped to 17-1 on the season. Reuvers and Ethan Happ were responsible for guarding the 6-foot-7 Canadian player.

“He’s growing in terms of his experience level,” Gard said. “I talked about that last year, how he picked up (our) ball screen plan, how we do that, as fast as any freshman that we’ve had here – as a big guy.“

"So now he’s starting to put those reps, those experiences he had a year ago to work. Nobody does a better job with ball screens than Michigan with (Zavier) Simpson, (Jon) Teske, and all those guys with it. It was a heck of a challenge.”

While Gard would like to see more rebounding and aggressiveness from the 6-foot-11 sophomore forward, Reuvers contributed important statistics that did show up on the scorer’s sheet in the statement win against previously unbeaten Michigan.

Reuvers drained a 3-pointer with 14 minutes, 26 seconds to go in the first half that gave Wisconsin its first lead at 7-5.He scored nine points on 4-of-8 shooting, had three rebounds, two assists and two steals in 31 minutes in the victory.

Happ said that he was pleased with Reuvers’ performance. He also credited Reuvers and Brad Davison for helping pump up the boisterous Kohl Center crowd.

“It’s obviously a team game and it’s huge when we have Nate stepping up and hitting those big shots,” Happ said. “His defense on Teske and being able to shot block around the rim, it was big for us."

“I can think of a couple visuals in my head with him blocking Simpson when we needed a stop.”

Fresh off a career-high 18 points in the Badgers’ 64-60 setback at No. 19 Maryland on Monday, Reuvers said he played a bit loose during the Michigan game.

Reuvers compared the atmosphere and excitement of the Michigan win to the Badgers’ 57-53 upset last season to No. 6 Purdue on Feb. 15, 2018.

“I was just having fun out there playing with my guys,” Reuvers said. “They’re an undefeated team and we were the first team to beat them, and they’re a top-ranked team at home.“I remember when we beat Purdue last year at home, (there was) kind of that same feeling after we won the game.”