Over the course of Bo Ryan’s tenure, Wisconsin has been one of the most consistent programs in America.
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Several young Wisconsin fans delivered the banner to center court as last year’s team members joined them for the presentation.
Behind Garret Covington’s tie-breaking free throws with 10.2 seconds remaining, the Leathernecks stunned the No. 17 Badgers at home on Friday night, 69-67.
While this could be just the first bit of craziness in the world of college basketball for this year, this could also be the ramifications of losing two great players who carried the team the past few years in Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker. They were the two key pieces in making sure the Badgers challenged for the national title and they’re no longer there anymore.
Hayes scored all of his 17 points in the first half, with seven of those coming on Wisconsin’s 9-0 run to go up 38-30 with just more than four minutes to go in the half. “I think you see now”. “But I think you see now”.
Koenig and Nigel Hayes each had 17 points for Wisconsin. “I just thought offensively we could be a little better and we could handle not being good defensively at this point”.
The NCAA rules committee installed a 30-second shot clock and placed a major emphasis on promoting freedom of movement for the offense this season, but the Badgers took that point of emphasis a little too literally. Iverson’s rebounding was just one part of his life-injecting 12 first-half minutes where he scored five points, grabbed four rebounds, had two steals and blocked a shot. They allowed Western IL to drive to the basket time after time after time.
Wisconsin missed a couple chances to take a late lead, and Western’s Garrett Covington hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left to give the Leathernecks a lead.
“We talked as a team, as a program, it’s not who you play, it’s how you play”, Western IL coach Billy Wright said.
Followed by a reenergized Kohl Center crowd, Wisconsin made one last run in the last six minutes of the game after falling behind by eight points, but the Leathernecks held off the Badgers as Bronson Koenig’s jumper rimmed out as time expired. Covington finished with 16 points.
“It’s upsetting knowing that we had control of the game and we let it slip away”, Badgers forward Vitto Brown said. “That’s something we’re going to have to keep working on”.
Throughout the game, the Badgers struggled defensively.
“If you just look at the free throw numbers, we did what we were trying to do, but when you get there, you’ve got to shoot in the 70s, at least”, Ryan said.
With an abysmal 25% team shooting percentage and a combined 0-10 field goal shooting from starters Hayes and Zak Showalter, the Badgers simply could not find their offensive rhythm that they had in the first half and failed to make enough adjustments on defense, which allowed the Leathernecks to outscore the Badgers 32-23 in the second half.
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“Primarily our defense with our bigs, we knew that was something we needed to work on”, said the 6-foot-8 Hayes.
