Advertisement
basketball Edit

Takeaways from Wisconsin's 87-79 Overtime Loss at Michigan

The University of Wisconsin has found a variety of ways to lose games over the last 50 maddening days: cold stretches, defensive lapses, double-digit blown leads, failed execution down the stretch, failed execution on the final possession or suffering the good-old-fashioned blowout.

On Sunday, the Badgers found another way to suffer defeat and it might have been the most excruciating of them all.

Wisconsin’s 87-79 overtime loss to Michigan won’t go down as the 17th game for the program decided by five points or less this season, but it came down to failed execution in the closing seconds of regulation that set the stage for the Badgers’ fuel tank running on fumes as it was steamrolled by the Wolverines in the extra session.

Instead of picking up an all-important Quad-1 win to close out February, the Badgers (16-12, 8-10 Big Ten) finished the month 4-4 after alternating wins and losses, falling into a tie for 10th place in the league and are guaranteed to finish no better than .500 in league play. That doesn’t sound like a strong NCAA Tournament profile to me.

Here are my takeaways from the latest Wisconsin defeat.

Wisconsin guard Kamari McGee (4) drives on Michigan guard Kobe Bufkin (2)
Wisconsin guard Kamari McGee (4) drives on Michigan guard Kobe Bufkin (2) (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Advertisement

To Foul or Not To Foul

Greg Gard has struggled to get this year’s team to foul when up at least three and time ticking down. The Badgers struggled with that same problem in the final seconds of Sunday’s loss to Michigan but got lucky when, after Kamari McGee couldn’t get the foul call as the ball was dribbled up the court, Max Klesmit blocked Kofi Bufkin’s three-point shot from the corner.

They weren’t lucky on the final possession. Gard said he instructed his players not to foul due to the catch-and-shoot opportunity that would likely occur with 2.1 seconds on the clock, instead telling his players to stay between the shooter and the basket. Even if he ordered the foul, Hunter Dickinson would have got off a wide-open shot after Jordan Davis’s contesting of the inbounds pass caused him to land off balance and fall into the Michigan bench.

The open alley for Dickinson allowed him to take a dribble, collect himself and hit a 30-foot three-pointer to force overtime.

It represented a huge break for Michigan, which was out of timeouts but had time to draw up a play while the officials checked the clock, and crushing for Wisconsin in its failed execution in crunch time.

“You’re risking catch-shot and you’re risking, or you foul on the floor,” Gard said. “We made a play on the ball we shouldn’t have made.”

That play Gard alluded to was Davis jumping to contest the inbounds pass instead of staying square and contesting Dickinson’s three-point attempt. Davis was subbed in during the dead ball for Connor Essegian for his defense.

Wisconsin Lost the Game Late in the First Half

While Wisconsin failed to execute in a critical moment of the game, what the Badgers did over a prolonged period of the first half doomed them in the end.

It didn’t start out that way. The Badgers picked up from where it left off on Wednesday against Iowa by being efficient on both ends of the floor. UW started 8-for-13 from the field, prevented Dickinson from getting post touches, and limited the Wolverines to 4-for-12 from the field.

Entering the under-12 media timeout, the Badgers were averaging better than 1.3 points per possession and led by eight points. As things have repeatedly gone for Wisconsin this year, however, things went cold.

The Badgers went 6-for-22 over the final 12 minutes and missed a whopping nine shots, going 5-for-14 on attempts deemed as layups in the first half. They also didn’t draw any fouls, something the Badgers should try to do when they go through cold stretches but have proven unable to.

It wasn’t just the offense that was the problem. Klesmit failed to rotate over a Dug McDaniel three, resulting in a wide-open make, Essegian bobbled the ball on a drive to the rim and the Badgers didn’t stop Bufkin in transition on the other end, leading to a shot at the rim.

The biggest problem was allowing Dickinson to find momentum by letting him get to his left hand too often and/or giving him too much space to thwart double-team attempts. Those missteps from Wisconsin allowed Dickinson to score 12 points in the first half, 10 coming on a 19-4 run where the Wolverines went 8-for-8 from the floor.

Too often these scoring droughts have created unnecessary stress on the Badgers, who continue to give off the impression they are playing with a razor-thin margin for error in these Big Ten games.

The Second Half Was Really Good Until the End

Gard lamented that he’ll find the positives in the film and move forward to Thursday’s home finale against No.5 Purdue. He should find a lot of them, especially in the final 15:42 after Chucky Hepburn limped to the locker room with what was ruled as a lower-body injury.

But while UW has seen its offense sputter without Hepburn running it (vs. Iowa State last March, at Marquette in November), the Badgers actually played better without their leading scorer on the floor.

UW scored 37 points in 38 possessions with Hepburn on the floor and scored 31 points on its final 24 possessions of the second half, finishing 55.2 percent in the final 20 minutes (16-for-29).

A lot of credit for that must go to McGee, who has seen his role grow larger as he has stacked better performances off the bench on top of each other. Gard said McGee “came in with a presence” and “wasn’t afraid of the moment,” which was evident during a season-high 25 minutes, including 16 turnover-free minutes in the second half.

Essegian went just 1-for-8 from the perimeter but still managed to score a career-high 24 points on 10-for-21 shooting. The freshman had 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting after halftime, as he looked to be more aggressive off the dribble and attacking the rim as opposed to being a simple spot-up shooter.

Klesmit has grown his vocal presence in huddles to make up for others and delivered with his scoring (19 points, team-high five three-pointers), clutch shots (a layup to put UW up 61-59 with 3:03 left and a banked three-pointer to put UW up 64-61 at 1:53), and his defense (two blocks in the final nine seconds).

Steven Crowl and Tyler Wahl were not overpowering but effective. Crowl had 14 points (6-for-12), six rebounds, three assists, and stayed out of foul trouble, while Wahl went 5-for-6 from the line and finished with a double-double (10 pts, 11 rbds) for the second straight game.

“These guys battled their butts off,” Gard said. “I can’t ask any more from them … There’s a lot of good things that happened today. The final two seconds of regulation is not one of them, and we’ve got to learn from them, not make those same miscues in a crucial time.”

By The Numbers

61 - Three-pointers on the season for Essegian, breaking Brad Davison's school record for three-pointers made by a freshman.

11:52 - Wisconsin's first free throw attempts came near the midway point of the second half.

11-12 - The Badgers shot 91.7 percent from the line, a season-high.

22-26 - Michigan shot 84.6 percent from the line, including 8-for-9 in overtime.

83.3 - Michigan went 5-for-6 from the field in overtime.

6 - Overtime games for Wisconsin this season (3-3), setting a new school record.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @pete_brey12, @seamus_rohrer

*Like us on Facebook

Advertisement