The Badgers had a tough loss on the road on Saturday.
It’s been almost 24 hours since I processed the ending of the Wisconsin Badgers’ 78-77 overtime loss to the Indiana Hoosiers. Yet, I remain angry, disappointed, upset, etc. about what transpired at the end of that game.
The flat-out truth is that the officiating crew of Michael Irving, Mike Reed, and Larry Scirotto made calls that directly influenced the game. The two most notable were an offensive foul called on Nick Boyd while being guarded by Conor Enright. It’s the first time I can remember a player with the ball being called for a charge going away from the basketball, and neither could Greg Gard.
The second, and perhaps most controversial, was the last foul on John Blackwell guarding Lamar Wilkerson, where Blackwell was clearly backing down as Wilkerson fell to the ground.
With all that stated, I am not going to blame this loss on the officials.
Going forward, Wisconsin CAN NOT put itself in that position. The Badgers, who had problems starting off games well before the week hiatus, once again found themselves down double-digits in the first half in Bloomington. Wisconsin deserves credit for coming back down 13 in the second half to even send the game to overtime, but the Badgers must start off games better.
Here are three things that stood out from Wisconsin’s overtime loss at Indiana:
Points in the Paint
One reason the Hoosiers came away with the victory was their dominance in the paint. Indiana finished with a 44-28 advantage in points in the paint, taking advantage of the Badgers’ lack of physicality on defense.
The Badgers have to do a better job down low and take away open layups because Illinois will feast on Wisconsin next Tuesday if that continues.
Lamar Wilkerson
Many college basketball fans will talk about Wilkerson’s late free throws in overtime, but he was the Hoosiers’ biggest difference maker before that. The transfer guard was stellar on Saturday with 25 points, including a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe.
Wilkerson was the man to stop on Indiana’s team for Wisconsin, and that did not happen.
Nolan Winter
It stinks that it came in a tough overtime loss, but Winter had arguably his best game of the season. The junior forward had a career-high 26 points on a highly efficient 9-of-13 shots from the floor.
In addition, Winter collected another double-double with a team-high 12 rebounds. It’s Winter’s 11th double-double of the season.
Category: General Sports
