This is not the way the Wisconsin men's basketball team wanted to head into post season play.
Afer dropping Thursday's contest at Michigan State, the Badgers (9-7 Big Ten, 19-10 overall) headed into Iowa City, Iowa on one day's rest looking for a victory and some momentum heading into the Big Ten Tournament. However, what they produced was arguably their worst all-around performance of the season with a resounding 59-44 loss to the Hawkeyes.
Despite losing by 15, it could have been much worse just by looking over the stat sheet. The Badgers recorded a season-low 44 points and shot 29.4 percent from the field, their second lowest performance of the season. The team also recorded 16 turnovers, their second worst mark in Big Ten play and 4.5 more than their season average and found themselves out rebounded 39-32 as well.
The whole Big Ten season for us with the loss of our players early and having to re-adjust, it was a big challenge,\ said junior Alando Tucker, who finished with 10 points and six rebounds. ""I think it made us tougher and stronger. We stayed tough. I'm not disappointed with the effort we put in each night.""
As they did against the Spartans, Wisconsin jumped out to an early lead after junior guard Kammron Taylor (11 points) and sophomore guard Michael Flowers (seven points) hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Badgers a 16-7 advantage. But Iowa, behind a Senior-Day sellout crowd of 15,500, quickly ripped off nine straight on Wisconsin to tie the game, and would head into halftime leading 24-22.
In the second half, Iowa (11-5, 22-5) found their shooting stroke, while the Badgers went as cold as they had been all season. After Tucker made a lay-up to cut the Hawkeye lead to 37-30, Iowa would go on an 11-0 run over the next 4:37 that gave the Hawkeyes their largest lead of the game at 48-30.
The visibly fatigued Badgers made repeated pushes to cut into the lead, but ultimately the timely shooting of Iowa senior guard Jeff Horner (22 points) and the team's lack of energy proved to be too much, and the Badgers never closed the gap to within single digits.
""I think anybody who has seen our guys knows that that was way too quick a turnaround,"" head coach Bo Ryan said of the team's lack of rest between games. ""In all fairness to them, I just wish they could have had some more time, but they didn't.""
Tucker pointed out the Badgers' woes did not come from their tired legs, but rather an inability to stay focused.
""Physically we could have kept going, but it was the mental thing,"" Tucker said. ""They got on a run and it seemed like things weren't going our way at all. We weren't taking control of what we had to do and I think that is what really tired us out.""
—The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
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