Traveling is tough on a team. Sometimes even a solid squad who has won their last five of six games will take a road trip and stumble. These losses are tough and need to be learned from and forgotten quickly. Such is the case for the Wisconsin Badgers.
Heading into Minnesota for Saturday's border battle, the No. 19 Badgers (6-3 Big Ten, 15-5 overall) had suffered only one loss in their last six games. It was a tough loss to No. 1 Illinois-a game the Badgers were in until the final minutes. Saturday's 60-50 loss was not quite the same.
The Gophers (6-3, 16-6) came out swinging, going into a full-court press early in the game. The press disrupted the Badger's usually smooth half-court game plan and forced Wisconsin to rely on big men handling the ball-something most big men are not especially good at.
The usually sure-handed Badgers average just 11.9 turnovers per game, but Wisconsin was unable to run an effective press break and, as a result, turned the ball over 17 times. The miscues led to 23 points for the Gophers.
The game opened with Minnesota cruising out to a 15-5 lead on the strength of Wisconsin giveaways. A few possessions later, the Gopher offense completely fell apart. Minnesota missed its last 11 field goal attempts and was held scoreless for the last 7:43 of the half. The Badgers finished the half with a 14-4 run and a two-point lead.
The Badgers could have managed to survive despite the turnovers but the back breaker was the play of junior guard/forward Vincent Grier. Clearly the Gopher's superstar, Grier was held to eight points in the first half but exploded in the second half.
While Wisconsin's top scorers were senior forward Mike Wilkinson, who had 14 points, and sophomore forward Alando Tucker, who added 10. Grier dropped 32 points on the Badgers.
In fact, Grier's 32 points matched Wisconsin's total second-half output.
The Gophers may have struggled at the end of the first half, but the shooting woes switched teams at the break. Wisconsin was held to 32.8 shooting percentage compared to Minnesota's 45.5 percent. The Gophers, marshaled by Grier, put a 15-4 streak together. With 8:25 remaining to play, the Gophers had erased the Wisconsin lead and turned it into a 10-point lead of their own.
In the end, Grier's 14 of 21 shooting was too much for the Badgers.
\As a player, that is one of the best feelings,"" Grier said. ""You just feel like you can't miss and you can't be guarded. And that's what just happened.""
The Badgers will look to rebound against the Iowa Hawkeyes Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Kohl Center.
-The Wisconsin State Journal
contributed to this report
