Fresh off a 74-53 win over the Chicago State Cougars, the No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers lost their first game of the season, dropping a 67-64 contest to the Michigan Wolverines on Tuesday night.
The Badgers struggled with their efficiency all night long and struggled to guard Michigan’s duo of seven-footers, leading to a tough defeat in the final seconds, moving them to 8-1 on the year.
Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 67-64 loss to the Michigan Wolverines on Tuesday.
Bigs battle
Through the first eight games of the season, Wisconsin had a pretty strong size advantage in most of their matchups starting Nolan Winter at power forward and Steven Crowl at center.
That worked in their favor in certain games, while certain undersized opponents looked to take advantage of that matchup with smaller players.
However, on Tuesday, the Badgers finally got a matchup of similar size to them, as Michigan started the duo of Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin together, providing a battle between two seven-footers on both sides.
Well, that matchup went in favor of Michigan on Tuesday, as the Wolverines were able to have a solid pick-and-roll game between the two bigs, while attacking Wisconsin’s bigs on the offensive end consistently.
Wolf starred in the first half with nine points and six rebounds as a primary scorer, leading the way for Michigan, while Goldin had seven points, struggling with his efficiency, but getting to the free-throw line multiple times.
In the second half, though, the duo started to really see success with the big man pick-and-roll. Wolf was the primary ball-handler, scoring 11 points, while dishing out five assists in a productive half.
Goldin began to feast here as well, drawing a number of fouls on center Steven Crowl, while scoring 17 points and grabbing four rebounds. When Crowl fouled out, the duo attacked Winter, be it on the boards or in 1-on-1 situations. They were the catalyst for Michigan’s offense, keeping them in the game throughout in Wisconsin’s most competitive game of the year.
Winter was a factor early on the offensive side, as he had six points in the paint in the first half, while Crowl was unproductive, scoring just two points on 1/4 from the field, including a missed wide-open three. But, the former struggled defensively in the second half, while the latter had limited minutes due to picking up three fouls in the period, completely negating his impact.
This was supposed to be a Steven Crowl game, as he prefers the matchups against the bigger centers where he can have 1-on-1 opportunities. But, that didn’t materialize in a disappointing outing on Tuesday.
Tale of two halves
While the shooting numbers weren’t great throughout the game, Wisconsin had a completely different outlook offensively in the first half and the second half.
Foul trouble was an issue in the opening frame, as star guard John Tonje had to sit with two fouls, playing in only 13 minutes in the half. That led to a much more balanced offensive attack for the Badgers.
Four different players had six points in the half (Tonje, John Blackwell, Max Klesmit, and Nolan Winter), while eight different players scored in the half, resulting in 32 first-half points for the Badgers.
In the second half, however, with the team’s offense reeling, Wisconsin looked to their two top offensive players, leaning on Tonje and Blackwell to handle the load. As a result, Tonje had 12 points in the half, ending with 18 for the game. Blackwell, on the other hand, had 10 points in the second, finishing with 16 on Tuesday.
Both players got their scoring in different ways, as Tonje was the main shot-taker for Wisconsin, which led to a forced shot or two, but also a pair of threes and a perfect 4/4 from the free throw line.
Blackwell worked the boards instead, capitalizing on three offensive rebounds that each led to a putback or a foul. As always, a majority of his points came in the paint, and he was highly efficient in the area, shooting 5/7 from the field in the half.
Max Klesmit had another rough night from the field, which included a few misses late, shooting 3/14 from the field and 1/9 from deep. The Badgers went to him on a couple of possessions with the game on the line, but the senior guard had a pair of misses, including on a potential game-tying three, shooting just 1/9 in the second half.
Ultimately, the Badgers went to their trio of guards to try and close this one out after a balanced, yet inefficient approach to begin the game, and they couldn’t end up with the victory.
The Finish
Time and time again this year, the Badgers have found a way to finish games after slow starts, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case on Tuesday.
The Badgers actually held a 32-24 lead at halftime in this one, despite shooting poorly from the field, but really struggled defensively in the second half, allowing the Wolverines to shoot 61.5 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from deep to come back and win.
Offensively, it was much of the same for Wisconsin in the second half, as they shot just 35.3 percent from the field and 17.6 percent from deep, really struggling to end the game, as they finished with a scoring drought of over 2.5 minutes.
With the back-and-forth action in the second half, it was clear that this one was going to go down to the wire. Max Klesmit had a sweet turnaround jumper with the shot clock winding down to give Wisconsin a 64-61 lead with 2:37 left.
But, that’s where the struggles began.
Wisconsin wouldn’t score from there, while Michigan got themselves a few buckets to pull off the victory.
Michigan went straight back to their big man duo, as Danny Wolf hit Vlad Goldin for a dunk to pull the Wolverines within one on the ensuing possession.
Goldin got a layup off a John Blackwell turnover on the following possession and suddenly, Michigan had a 65-64 lead with 1:34 left.
From there, the Badgers went to Klesmit heavy. He missed a tough layup on the team’s first possession out of a timeout, but Wisconsin got the ball back after Roddy Gayle stepped out of bounds on the sidelines. Once again, Wisconsin went to their senior guard, who missed a quality three-point look, giving the ball back to Michigan.
The Wolverines got a switch and were able to capitalize as Goldin found himself on John Blackwell deep in the paint, resulting in an easy layup to put Michigan up three with 22 seconds left.
Klesmit got a third chance at redemption with another three-point attempt, but couldn’t connect, which ultimately sealed the deal for Wisconsin, giving them their first loss of the season.
Wisconsin’s experience has been a big factor in their explosive second halves and comebacks this year. They just couldn’t deliver enough on Tuesday, resulting in a tough defeat.