Men's Basketball
Wisconsin (6-4 Big Ten, 14-9 overall) continued its hot stretch, pushing its win streak to five games after defeating Ohio State (6-5, 14-10) 79-68 at the Kohl Center last Thursday night. Head coach Greg Gard likes the improvement he is seeing on offense.
“We're getting more mature in terms of how we're moving with the ball, how we're moving without the ball, spacing, those things, and it showed in the three's that we hit,” Gard said. “The ones that we hit [against Ohio State] were, for the most part inside-out touches, and the ball touched the paint either off the dribble or off the post feed and then kicked out, and the ones we made, for the most part, were toes set, and ready, and squared to the rim.”
Gard wasn’t too concerned about junior forward Nigel Hayes’ postgame comments about playing for Wisconsin rather than his home-state Buckeyes following the Ohio State game.
“Nigel is an interesting, unique individual. You've seen that in the past. So I don't know exactly how the question was phrased, other than, he said something about a few Ohio players on our roster, and they were on the floor at the same time, so as long as he can—you know there is an old saying that former football coach used to say around here, make sure your rear-end can cash any check your mouth writes,” Gard said. “So Nigel needs to back it up, and he has, and I don't think it was made in anything in angsts against Ohio State, it was just Nigel being Nigel.” Nebraska faces the possibility of playing without one of its key players in Shavon Shields, who was injured last game. Gard, however, isn’t taking the Cornhuskers lightly.
“They still have very capable players, and he's not even leading in the scoring, Andrew White is, so I think from that standpoint, they have a couple days to prepare without him, if he does not play,” Gard said. “If he does play, I've seen a lot of times where this can help fortify a team and they will rally around each other, and you'll have somebody else step up. We will prepare as if he is going to play and—because I think it won't change them a whole lot in terms of what they do as a team.”
The Badgers host Nebraska (5-6, 13-11) at the Kohl Center Wednesday at 6 p.m. and then head to College Park, Md., to take on No. 2 Maryland (10-2, 19-4) Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
Women’s Hockey
No. 2 Wisconsin (22-1-1 WCHA, 28-1-1 overall) pushed its win streak to 10 after sweeping Ohio State (5-18-1, 9-20-1) in a weekend series in Columbus, Ohio.
Head coach Mark Johnson was pleased with his team’s performance.
“I thought defensively, in a small rink where things are going to happen quickly, pucks are going to turn over fast we did a good job of not only winning two games but did a good job of protecting areas Friday night's game. [Ohio State] had two extended 5-on-3s; we did a good job of killing penalties, so the [takeaway] is in building as we move forward, a lot of positive things happened,” Johnson said. “The most important part is we found a way to win a couple of hockey games, and certainly put us in position this weekend with senior weekend and finishing our home series, hopefully off on a real positive note.”
With a postseason home game already announced, Johnson isn’t worried about his team relaxing as the regular season comes to a close.
“We've been together since early September. We've played 30 games, we put ourselves in good position,” Johnson said. “Now is not the time to let your guard down. You have to continue to do things on a daily basis, when we practice you've got to be focused in and the big thing is to come out Saturday and embrace the weekend, enjoy it, especially from our seniors, it's going to be the last weekend they get a chance to play regular games in LaBahn, so I know we will have big crowds so embrace it, enjoy it, and go out and play free.”
The Badgers host Minnesota State (0-21-3, 3-23-4) at LaBahn Arena Saturday and Sunday, with both games starting at 2 p.m.
Men’s Hockey
Coming off a bye week, Wisconsin (1-7-2 Big Ten, 6-12-6 overall) turns its attention to a weekend home series against No. 6 Michigan (8-2-2, 17-4-4). Head coach Mike Eaves looks for his team to continue its past offensive hot streak versus the Wolverines.
“I would like the trend for us to continue to score against them and to hold them back a little bit. We flirted with winning both those games there, and I remember when Red came off the bench on Saturday night he was like a little old time hockey, they were up and down, a lot of goals, and I think we continue to work on those areas that will affect that,” Eaves said. “Our line rush against us into our defense's own coverage, if we can continue to improve on that then we can give ourselves a chance to win.”
The Badgers have been in close games but have had trouble finishing off opponents.
“One of the things we talked about is we have flirted with beating a lot of good teams, and that flirtation has got to end, and we've got to get over that hump, and I'm going to borrow a quote from Bret Bielema, but I firmly believe that our focus is on Friday night; our goal is to be 1-0,” Eaves said. “And then when that's done, we put that aside and we've got to get into Saturday and be 1-0. It's that simplistic, and I believe and I think our young men believe, if we play the way we are capable of and we continue to improve as we have been, we give ourselves a chance to be successful.”
The puck drops at the Kohl Center Friday and Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.
