Ben Brust grew up playing basketball in the driveway with his older brothers, and the only time he could get off a clear look was from the “square of relief” in the back of the driveway.
Whether Brust’s practice from those deep driveway shots benefited him at all in his half-court heave Saturday at the Kohl Center, only he can know. But one thing is for sure: The Hawthorn Woods, Ill., native’s game-tying shot was certainly more difficult than the square-of-relief shots.
“It was a little bit further,” Brust said of his half-court shot. “I got the ball off, it was contested—I thought maybe [Michigan freshman guard Caris LeVert] was gonna foul, but he didn’t—so I just tried to get it off and it went down.”
The junior guard’s contested, game-tying shot sent Wisconsin’s (8-3 Big Ten, 17-7 overall) game against No. 3 Michigan (8-3, 21-3) into overtime, both teams’ second-consecutive such game. The Badgers went on to outscore the Wolverines 5-2 over the extra five minutes, holding the visitors to 1-of-7 shooting, to come away with a 65-62 win.
The best part about the final play in regulation, according to head coach Bo Ryan, was the inbounds pass from senior forward Mike Bruesewitz.
“Right on the dime, on the run, [Brust] didn’t have to reach back for it,” Ryan said. “And he was able to catch that and all in one motion.”
Brust’s basket was surely a rarity in basketball—not just because of the distance from which he hit the shot, but also because the number of times a player shoots that shot with the game on the line is a seldom occurrence.
If that logic doesn’t suffice for proof that the successful half-court shot was unlikely, all one needed to do was look at Ryan after Brust’s shot ripped through the net.
“Coach Ryan actually put his arms up. He showed some emotion, which was odd,” Bruesewitz said. “Every once in a while he’ll bring it out, and that’s when you know something big has happened.”
After the game, Michigan head coach John Beilein said the plan was to foul whomever caught the inbounds pass. The Wolverines had just four team fouls at the time, meaning they could foul a UW player three more times (although not in the act of shooting) before the Badgers would go to the free throw line to shoot a one-and-one bonus.
“We tried to foul him. That was the instruction coming out,” Beilein said. “[Brust] turned the corner on [freshman guard] Caris [LeVert], and [LeVert] couldn’t get it done in time.”
Wisconsin jumped out to a 23-14 lead midway through the first half, thanks in large part to freshman forward Sam Dekker, who scored nine points on 4-of-7 shooting in 14 minutes of action off the bench. However, a 9-1 Michigan run over a three-minute span brought the Wolverines within one, and a couple jumpers from Michigan sophomore guard Trey Burke at the end of the half gave the visitors a one-point edge through the first 20 minutes.
The two teams exchanged the lead six times during the second half, with neither side holding larger than a four-point advantage until Wolverine junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr. knocked down a triple at the 6:34 mark. It gave Michigan a six-point edge, its largest of the game.
But an 8-2 Wisconsin run, capped off by redshirt senior forward Jared Berggren’s and-one slam, tied the game at 57 with just over 30 seconds left on the clock.
Following a Beilein timeout, Hardaway Jr. curled to the left off a high ball screen from freshman forward Mitch McGary, and the sharpshooter drilled an off-balanced, cold-blooded triple despite skin-tight defense from Bruesewitz. A measly 2.4 seconds were left on the clock.
Wisconsin had only three team fouls at that point, which means it could have fouled a Michigan player four more times (on non-shooting plays) before the Wolverines would have gone to the free throw line for a one-and-one. Ryan said the plan was to foul a Michigan player if he beat a UW defender off the dribble.
“Mike actually reached in at the hand off, no call,” Ryan said of Bruesewitz’s defense on Hardaway Jr.’s go-ahead triple. “And [Hardaway Jr.] was still able to hit that three.”
Then, Brust ripped one from half court.
Each team managed just one bucket through the first four minutes of overtime, and Brust’s miss with just over one minute to play gave the visitors possession in a tie game. However, Brust poked the ball away from Michigan freshman guard Nik Stauskas and, on the ensuing possession, knocked down a three-point shot off a handoff from Bruesewitz to give UW a 65-62 lead with 39 seconds on the clock.
Michigan put on its full-court press following a Hardaway Jr. miss, which eventually led to redshirt senior forward Ryan Evans going to the line for a one-and-one. Although the Phoenix, Ariz., native missed the front end, Burke’s in-and-out attempt from beyond the arc sealed the win for the Badgers, their third straight this season and 11th-consecutive home victory over Michigan.
Further, the victory put Wisconsin just one-half game out of the Big Ten lead. Beilein thinks whomever wins the conference will need to win its home games, although doing so is easier said than done.
“Anybody can sweep through this, obviously, and win the ones they’re supposed to, and then hold court at home,” Beilein said. “But holding court at home is no joke, either, as Wisconsin found out today and as we found out the other day [in Michigan’s 76-74 home overtime win against Ohio State Tuesday].
“Maybe somebody’s just gonna be incredible here and sweep and win the rest of these road games,” Beilein added. “But it’s probably gonna come down to a lot of breaks to [determine] who’s the champion.”
While the Badgers still have seven conference games left to play, not many outside the program could have legitimately expected UW to find itself in the middle of a Big Ten title hunt this season after losing junior guard Josh Gasser back in late October to a season-ending ACL injury. Ryan said the Badgers are still being written off, despite their position near the top of the conference standings.
“It’s a good thing I don’t have Twitter or Facebook or anything like that, because I’m hearing enough from emails and text messages about, ‘You guys aren’t that good,’” Ryan said. “I’m so proud of these guys. This is a group that just finds different ways.”
