As the rest of his teammates filed out of the Nicholas Johnson Pavilion Friday evening, freshman guard D’Mitrik Trice stayed behind. Trice, who started in place of injured point guard senior Bronson Koenig Thursday in Wisconsin’s loss to Michigan, was working on his offensive repertoire less than 24 hours after finishing 2-of-15 from the field.
Trice played a career-high 35 minutes in No. 11 Wisconsin’s (10-3 Big Ten, 21-5 overall) loss to the Wolverines, and while he struggled from the field, he impacted the game in other ways, finishing with five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
“I thought he did a good job of being poised and really running the team in Bronson’s absence,” senior forward Vitto Brown said. “They were good shots. They were within the flow of the offense. It’ll help him moving forward.”
Night after night, though, the Badgers have struggled from the field. In the second half against Michigan, UW shot just 30 percent from the floor. For the game, they shot a paltry 18 percent from three.
But amidst their shooting woes, the Badgers continue to hark on the importance of good shot selection. Assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft remains adamant that UW continues to take quality shots and, as a result, he remains confident that the shots will start to fall.
“The next one’s in. That’s the mentality the best have,” Krabbenhoft said. “That’s what we keep telling them.”
The Badgers face No. 23 Maryland (10-3, 22-4) this Sunday in a game that will break the tie atop the Big Ten conference. But while Wisconsin has struggled of late on offense, the Terrapins are coming off one of their better offensive games in the conference season.
Junior guard Melo Trimble resembled his younger self last Wednesday, finishing with 32 points on 12-of-17 shooting in the Terrapins’ 74-64 victory over Northwestern. The Terps shot 50 percent from the field and 44 percent from three against the Wildcats, as Trimble snapped out of a four-game shooting slump.
And while Trimble and his young teammates will come to the Kohl Center with confidence, the Badgers are reeling, having lost two straight games in conference play.
Koenig sat out Thursday night’s game nursing a calf injury he sustained against Penn State earlier this year.
In his absence, senior Nigel Hayes failed to pick up the slack.
“I just need to be more assertive, be more aggressive,” he said. “Dominating the game like I have the capability to do.”
Hayes finished with only six points on just seven field goal attempts in UW’s loss to Michigan Thursday night.
Hayes has had success in the past against the Terrapins, but the Maryland team playing the Badgers this Sunday looks nothing like the teams that UW has played in the past.
“They’re real young, but they’re pretty advanced for how young they are,” Brown said. “They got a lot of shooters, that’s probably the biggest difference … I think they’re more deadly this year.”
Brown has struggled as much as any Badger on the offensive end during conference play. Through 13 Big Ten games, Brown has been held to five or fewer points seven times.
He added that, against the Wolverines, he did a poor job responding to his missed shot attempts early in the game. As a team, he pointed out that the Badgers are struggling to attack the rim, both as a result of poor spacing and not recognizing available advantages.
The Badgers will look to fix some of those offensive woes Sunday, fully aware that poor offensive play helped them squander their lead atop the Big Ten conference.
“What better time to play the team that we’re tied with to immediately break the tie,” Brown said. “Somebody has to go down to second, somebody’s gonna stay in first. It’s pressure, but at the same time, this is what we want.”
The game tips off from the Kohl Center is at noon Sunday.
