A No. 1 ranking put a very large target on the back of the UW men's basketball team, and it showed Tuesday night, as the Badgers fell to Michigan State 64-55 at the Breslin Center. Wisconsin kept it nip-and-tuck for 37 minutes, but went cold at precisely the wrong time to notch only their second road loss of the season.
As expected, the Spartans rode the coattails of junior guard Drew Neitzel all evening, and ultimately to victory. Neitzel came up with one of his best games of the season Tuesday, shooting almost 60 percent from the field and hitting six threes. Despite the efforts of defensive stopper Michael Flowers, Nietzel continually found himself open as Flowers could not fight through the double screens MSU threw at him all night. Despite early foul trouble, MSU sophomore guard Travis Walton also had his best game of the season, scoring 13 points to go with 10 assists and seven rebounds.
While Neitzel hit big shot after big shot in the waning minutes Tuesday, the Badgers failed to find any sort of offense in crunch time. Following junior forward Brian Butch's only field goal of the game with 7:08 left in the game, Wisconsin failed to hit a field goal until freshman guard Jason Bohannon got a garbage layup with 14 seconds left.
One of the few positives the Badgers can take from Tuesday's game was the offensive play of sophomore forward Marcus Landry. Although Landry missed two key free throws with four minutes left in the game, he had a career day, scoring 18 points. His hot hand kept Wisconsin in the game when the Badgers went cold, hitting a surprising four of six three pointers, a part of his game that had yet been undiscovered.
Poor shooting
Take Tucker and Landry out of the Wisconsin lineup Tuesday and the Badgers shot a horrid 7-of-29 from the floor for a paltry 24 percent. Flowers and senior guard Kammron Taylor had particularly off nights, combining for only seven points on 2-of-16 shooting. Usually one of the two steps up to contribute some offense, but not on this night and the Badgers paid the price.
Hit the boards!
Wisconsin was dominated on the boards Tuesday, as they were out-rebounded by 13 and gave up far too many second chances from offensive rebounds. On one play in the first half, the Badgers let MSU grab four offensive boards that eventually led to a Spartan score.
3-point woes
The Badgers had been improving in this area, as they have shot extremely well from behind the 3-point line the past few weeks. And for 26 minutes Tuesday, that trend continued as Wisconsin hit eight of their first 17 3-pointers for a percentage just below 50. UW spiraled downward from there, however, as they hit only one of their last 12 threes, including four misses each from Tucker and Flowers and two from Taylor. The Badgers ended the night with a 9-for-29 performance that cannot be replicated against Ohio State Sunday.
