tfw u troll the trohl [Patrick Barron]
The Trohl Center wouldn’t give it up easily, but Michigan was able to get a win against Wisconsin to push its record to 20-7 (9-5) and take one step closer to locking up an NCAA Tournament bid. A Badger team that has been shorthanded for several months got a season-high in points from star center Ethan Happ, who scored 29 on 26 shot equivalents, but were unable to complete what would have been a massive comeback. A Jon Teske dunk gave Michigan a 25-point lead with under fifteen minutes left in the game, and even though Wisconsin mounted a furious comeback effort, they were unable to get it to anything closer than a three-possession deficit.
The Wolverines were nearly unstoppable in the first half, and a hapless Wisconsin offense helped turn the game into a blowout early on. Michigan scored seven points before the first Badger basket - a tough contested two from Brad Davison - and responded with eight straight points, forcing a Greg Gard timeout just five and a half minutes into the contest. Happ kept Wisconsin afloat from there, but the Wolverines made seven of their first nine three-point attempts as a cold shooting stretch over several games quickly evaporated. Duncan Robinson has been struggling all season; he hit four threes in the first half and led Michigan in scoring during that opening half. He played well in his first start since being supplanted by Isaiah Livers about a month ago, as Livers missed the game with the ankle sprain sustained in the Northwestern loss.
The first half was close to perfect. Michigan scored over 1.5 points per possession, hit over half their threes, and rebounded almost half their misses - and held Wisconsin to below 0.8 points per possession. That would prove to be important, as the Badgers scored an unbelievable 50 points in the second half; it would wind up being Michigan’s worst defensive performance in a win this season. Nothing could go wrong in that first half though (aside from Happ’s rather inefficient scoring): Jaaron Simmons was the first point guard off the bench and splashed a three in Davison’s eye, Ibi Watson had two offensive rebounds, even Austin Davis made an appearance and gave his customary fouls.
Eventually Wisconsin would get things going in the second half. They responded to going down 25 with a three from seldom-used wing Aaron Moesch (his second of the season), a few points from Happ and Aleem Ford, then consecutive baskets by Nate Reuvers, a freshman who was destined for a redshirt before the injuries. A long jumper from Brevin Pritzl, Wisconsin’s second-leading scorer, capped a 19-5 run that cut the deficit to 11 with nine minutes left in the game. Wisconsin labored for bad shots in the first half, but dissected Michigan’s defense in the second.
From there, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman kept the Badgers at arm’s length. He took Ford to the basket for one of his signature contested layups and found Moritz Wagner for a dunk off a ball-screen on consecutive possessions. After Wisconsin got the lead back down to 11, he got a long two to roll in off an iso against Reuvers - only to have Reuvers answer on the other end. Charles Matthews, who had an uneven game (scoring in double figures but turning it over four times), silenced the crowd by driving to the rim for an and-one; Zavier Simpson stole a post entry on the Wisconsin possession following a Davison three and dished to Matthews for a layup.
Rahkman’s solid free throw shooting was much-needed down the stretch; Wisconsin decided to intentionally foul Simpson with three minutes left in the game, and he missed the front end of two one-and-ones. The second miss was rebounded by Michigan after Wagner seemed to get away with a foul and tipped the ball to Matthews - the possession resulted in two made free throws from Rahkman. Wisconsin prolonged the game with fouls - and Michigan was called for two fouls on three point attempts (one was a Reggie Miller flop by Davison) that gave Wisconsin a glimmer of hope down the stretch. After those Simpson misses, Michigan ended the game with 12 made free throws on 14 attempts. Over half of those makes were by Rahkman, though Jordan Poole and Watson also chipped in. Simpson spent the end of the game on the bench, and his poor free throw shooting is a major concern heading into March.
Michigan’s best player on the afternoon was Wagner: he eventually fouled out of the game, but put up a 20 point, 11 rebound double-double and made Happ work for his points inside. He made some threes during Michigan’s first half barrage, and took advantage of mismatches against defenders other than Happ. With Livers injured, he played alongside Teske at the four - a rarity - and scored on an alley-oop from Matthews off a nice staggered double-screen action with the two bigs. Michigan’s two seniors - Robinson and Rahkman - combined for 31 points, and Poole chipped in eight points against his home-state team. Happ was a workhorse for Wisconsin (he consumed almost half of Wisconsin’s possessions while on the floor, and was -5 on the game per SCACC Hoops), but their role players were unable to contribute enough to get the win.
It wasn’t a straightforward win, but it was a double-digit victory on the road in the Big Ten. There was a meltdown on defense in the second half (Wisconsin scored 1.44 points per possession despite being the third-worst team in conference play on that end entering the game), and there was some shaky free throw shooting from Simpson, but otherwise, there were a lot of positives: Wagner’s play against Happ, Robinson’s shooting, and Rahkman’s leadership down the stretch. Michigan now enters a two-game home stretch against Iowa and OSU; it’s unlikely that the Wolverines will get a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament (so they could possibly face Wisconsin again), but wins in their next two games would effectively clinch a spot in the tournament.
[Barron]
Box Score after the JUMP
