Taylor, Ryan recall 09 shot

MADISON -- Jordan Taylor remembers that shot. Bo Ryan does as well.

With only 3.1 seconds remaining and Wisconsin trailing 60-57 in Iowa City, Taylor caught an inbounds pass, took one dribble, and launched a 24-footer to send the game to overtime.

Just don't tell him that he banked it in.

"I will always remember it because it was the first three I made," Taylor said. "It wasn't banked, it was all net."

But in true Wisconsin style, Taylor and Ryan remember the shot a little less vividly than they recall the result of that game on Jan. 21, 2009, during Taylor's freshman season.

After Taylor had sent the game to overtime with his first career 3-pointer in 12 attempts, the Badgers could not ride the momentum into the extra period. Back-to-back threes late in overtime gave Iowa the 73-69 victory and Wisconsin its third of what would be six consecutive losses that season.

It also was the second straight overtime loss for the Badgers during that stretch.

"Alls I remember is we didn't get it done in overtime," Ryan said Monday on the weekly Big Ten coaches teleconference. "And that's probably what he remembers."

Sure enough, Taylor finished recalling the shot, "I remember that game. I remember losing that game, too. It was a tough game."

But while Ryan initially said he only remembered the outcome of that game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, he went on to describe the play in vivid detail.

Taylor being open and getting that opportunity did not come by chance.

"What we did was, off of our sideline out of bounds, we have a read that if a guy comes on the ball side of the screen, we throw it over the top," Ryan said. "During the timeout, that was mentioned. Sure enough, he broke back towards the other sideline. We threw it across, and he was open. But still the shot has to go down.

"So we felt pretty good for about two minutes during the timeout leading into the overtime, and just came up a little bit short. But [Taylor]'s a guy that's hit a lot of big free throws, a lot of big shots. He embraces the moment."

Those moments have been a common occurrence when Wisconsin makes the 180-mile trip southwest to Iowa City. In each of the two games Taylor has played at Iowa, the Badgers and Hawkeyes have gone to overtime, with the teams splitting the two games.

Ryan has made the trip to Iowa seven times during his tenure at UW, with the average margin of victory being seven points in those games. The Badgers own a 5-2 record in Iowa City during the Ryan era.

To make things even more interesting this season, Wisconsin heads to Iowa having lost to the Hawkeyes at the Kohl Center for the first time in Ryan's 11 years as UW head coach. Iowa will have a chance Thursday for its first season series sweep of Wisconsin since the 1994-95 season.

"Every time I've been there, we've gone to overtime," Taylor said. "They've got talent. … It's just a matter of going in and trying to find ways to neutralize their talent."