Whether you are a Wisconsin fan or simply a fan of the game, Tuesday night’s 49-47 Badger loss to Michigan State was about as frustrating as it gets. The game slugged along with neither team hitting the 40 percent mark from the field and a combined 6 points being scored over the final 6:56.
Wisconsin put itself in position to come away with a victory. Despite shooting just 29.6 percent from the field, the Badgers had every opportunity to scratch out a win until missing their final five free throws in the closing minutes. Yes, UW scored just 4 points in the final 7:37 of the game—3 of which on a miracle shot by none other than redshirt senior forward Ryan Evans—and still had a chance to send the game to overtime with two free throws in the final seconds.
“It’s cost us the game before, and obviously it cost us the game tonight,” senior forward Mike Bruesewitz said of the free throw shooting. “We’ve got to get in the gym and start knocking them down, plain and simple. It can’t be an excuse anymore.”
Tuesday night was textbook Wisconsin basketball and the Badgers still couldn’t come away with the win.
That is why Tuesday night’s loss to Big Ten-leading Michigan State is even more worrisome than Saturday’s “upset” loss in Iowa City. Iowa has always been a difficult matchup for the Badgers, and the Hawkeyes were able to dictate the pace throughout a blistering first half run that gave them an insurmountable 20-point cushion before UW could even blink.
On the other hand, the Spartans are a team Wisconsin can handle. Having successfully neutralized Michigan State’s strong front-court duo of junior center Adreian Payne and senior center Derrick Nix (4 points, 8 rebounds combined), UW put the game on the shoulders of the sometimes-inconsistent MSU guards. Though senior guard Keith Appling and sophomore guard Branden Dawson each crept close to the 20-point mark, their combined 37 points only left the Spartans with 49 points on the night.
Wisconsin was 78-2 under head coach Bo Ryan when holding opponents under 50 points, so you had to like the Badgers’ chances given that effort on the defensive end. But Michigan State also had those statistics in front of them and paid no attention, instead choosing to accept it was going to be in for a rough game and to embrace it—something many teams struggle with when playing Ryan’s Badgers.
“I think some teams make a mistake by trying to make Wisconsin turn up the speed of things,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “[The Badgers] don’t turn it over, I don’t care who they are playing. So we said we need to make sure we play a little like them in that respect.”
Though UW has shorn up its defense to this point in the season, this remains a formula that will get the Badgers beat in conference play. No longer blessed with a talented point guard the likes of Jordan Taylor to create penetration, Wisconsin is going to be largely at the whim of its sometimes inconsistent outside shooting. That is a given and no matter what Ryan and his staff try to do, the Badgers will have a tough time scoring when the shots aren’t falling.
But more importantly, Wisconsin has to do the little things well. Michigan State beat them in this respect Tuesday night, something very few teams have been able to do during Ryan’s decade at the helm of the UW program.
The Spartans did turn the ball over 10 times, but UW turned it over nine times itself, with each team capitalizing on those turnovers to the tune of 9 points. Wisconsin needs to have an advantage in that regard in order to win. MSU dominated in the paint, outscoring the Badgers 20-10 despite the poor effort from its vaunted front line.
But above all, Michigan State shot 75 percent from the line, making 9-of-12 chances at the charity stripe. Wisconsin was just 7-of-18 at the line, including a dismal 5-of-13 effort in the second half.
These are the little things that used to put UW teams over the top, allowing Wisconsin to compete at the highest level against teams with a distinct talent advantage. Say what you want about the guard play and the loss of leaders like Taylor and injured guard Josh Gasser, these little errors are really what have put the Badgers in such a precarious situation.
But in the absence of Taylor, perhaps Wisconsin needs a change in mentality. The backcourt resources available to UW do not include anyone with the experience of a player like Taylor but perhaps include one player with even more pure talent and certainly more athleticism.
Redshirt freshman guard George Marshall has had an up-and-down season after being named the starting point guard in Gasser’s absence. Thanks to some early struggles, not surprising for a freshman, Marshall was replaced in the starting lineup by sophomore Traevon Jackson after just six games.
Since the change was made, Marshall has seen his minutes drop dramatically and his “leash” shortened infinitely, to the point where even a single off-the-mark pass can mean an immediate and often prolonged benching. On the other hand, Jackson has been given the reigns and has been provided with a far more consistent opportunity to play through his mistakes. During the Badgers’ two-game slide, Jackson is just 3-of-19 from the field with 4 assists and 3 turnovers (I would add at least two more, according to my scoring).
Despite his struggles, Jackson has continued to stay on the court. Against Iowa he fouled out in 31 minutes of play, and against MSU he was pulled with four fouls in 28 minutes. By contrast, Marshall, who scored a game-high 20 points in the second half against Iowa, has tallied just 32 minutes in the two games combined.
Both Jackson and Marshall are going to have to contribute in order for Wisconsin to make its 15th-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. In the process, both Jackson and Marshall are going to have their ups and downs, a product simply of their inexperience at the college level.
But in the end, Marshall’s athleticism and pure talent as a guard and simply as a basketball player make him the man who will be of the most help for UW long-term. Even now, Marshall has the ability to take over a game, evidenced by his performance in Iowa City, that Jackson simply doesn’t have.
For Wisconsin to get back to the top of the Big Ten ranks, Marshall is going to have to be leading the charge. The Badgers will likely get back to the NCAA Tournament, but if this program is to take the next step, it has to prove it can utilize talents like Marshall. He is going to make mistakes in the process, but if he can make two plays for every one of those mistakes, a ratio he is more than capable of sustaining, Wisconsin will be better off both in the short-term and even more so going forward into next season and beyond.
