While you would be hard-pressed to find a Badger player or coach willing to admit it, Wisconsin has had this weekend’s matchup with No. 3 Michigan circled on the calendar for quite some time. Despite losing last weekend in Bloomington, Ind., the Wolverines (8-2 Big Ten, 21-2 overall) could easily be the best team in the nation and remain very much in control in a Big Ten race that is just about as tight as gets.
Although there is certainly a talent gap between Michigan and Wisconsin, the Badgers (7-3, 16-7) figure to be a difficult matchup for a Wolverine team that has relied heavily on the three-point shot all season. Michigan’s reliance on perimeter play has been exaggerated even more since an injury to junior forward Jordan Morgan on Jan. 27, limiting the Detroit native to just six minutes of playing time over the course of the team’s past three games.
While freshman forward Mitch McGary and sophomore forward Jon Horford, returning from injury himself, have done an admirable job in place of the injured Morgan, Michigan at times lacks depth in the front court and is susceptible to foul trouble because of its bigs. Still, McGary had arguably the best game of his young career in Tuesday’s win over Ohio State (14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals) and comes to Madison as confident as any big man in the conference, freshman or not.
“He is a grown man,” UW redshirt senior forward Jared Berggren said of McGary. “He doesn’t look like a freshman and he doesn’t play like a freshman. He is as physical as anyone.”
Against Ohio State Tuesday, the Wolverines had to make 14 three-point shots just to make out a 76-74 overtime win at Ann Arbor. With the Badgers holding opponents to just 30.6 percent from three-point range for the season, a repeat performance does not appear likely.
Michigan has ridden the backs of its guards en route to its 21-2 start to the season. Sophomore guard Trey Burke figures to be a leading candidate for National Player of the Year, entering Saturday’s game No. 2 in the Big Ten with 18.1 points per game while also dishing out a Big Ten-best 7.2 assists in the process. Junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr., a former conference freshman of the year, comes in at No. 5 among conference scoring leaders with 16 points per game, leaving the two starters in the Wolverine backcourt accountable for nearly 44 percent of Michigan’s scoring this season.
“They are one of the best or the best in the country as far as a backcourt duo goes,” Berggren said. “They are both extremely talented and they are both playing really well right now.”
Michigan’s perimeter attack isn’t limited to Burke and Hardaway. The freshman duo of Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson III are each averaging double digits on their own and shoot greater than 40 percent from beyond the three-point arc, with Stauskas coming in at No. 2 in the Big Ten, hitting 48.7 percent of his shots from long range.
“They shoot the ball really well,” junior guard Ben Brust said of the Wolverines. “They are going to make tough shots because they are a good team, and they have proven they can score. But we have to keep them taking as many tough shots as possible.”
On paper it looks like this should be yet another mid-level test for a Michigan team whose talent is really unmatched by anyone else in the nation’s best basketball conference. But not a single Wolverine has tasted victory at the Kohl Center, with the last Michigan win in Madison going way back to 2001. But Michigan’s 59-41 win last season in Ann Arbor was a low point in the Badgers’ season, leaving memories that will certainly resurface come Saturday morning.
“After that game is when we came together and realized we needed to do something,” Brust said. “I definitely think there are going to be some learning points from that game that we can all look back on and take from.”
Although the Wolverines were solid in a road win earlier this year over Minnesota, the young squad has struggled in two other marquee road games at Indiana and Ohio State, losing both games after facing an early deficit that proved too much to overcome. Facing a team with the defensive integrity and disciplined offensive approach of Wisconsin, Michigan will have to avoid another sluggish start if it wants to snap a string of 10 straight losses at the Kohl Center. Having found a way to escape with a victory against Iowa, the Badgers now have a chance to once again make a splash on the national stage, and in the process perhaps jumping right back into the middle of the Big Ten title hunt.
“Every night is going to be a grind in the Big Ten,” Berggren said. “We look forward to the next challenge.”
