The Wisconsin Badgers suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of Dusty May and the Michigan Wolverines.
The Badgers he played difficult and worked towards a possible lead overdue in the match, but ultimately didn’t have enough strength to hold on. The Wolverines handed Wisconsin a loss and also brought a new-look Badgers to the Big Ten Conference this season. Wisconsin will need to get stronger on the boards as the paint was tough for the Badgers against Michigan.
Defenseman John Tonje led the Wisconsin Badgers in scoring with 18 points, but had some difficulty getting to the net. The Big Ten Conference appears to be wary of fouls in Tonje’s favor as the defenseman makes his living early in the season. John Blackwell added 16 points and was one rebound shy of a double-double against the Wolverines.
Max Klesmit had a abrasive night, going 1-for-9 from deep, but that was largely due to the Wolverines’ defense applying clamps. Michigan forced destitute shooting opportunities from deep and forced Wisconsin to play offense outside of its comfort zone. By taking away the three and Tonje, the Michigan Wolverines found a real way to snail-paced down the Wisconsin offense.
The Wisconsin Badgers suffer their first loss of the season against the Michigan Wolverines
The lively gigantic man duo of Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin were a tough pair to stop early in the season.
Michigan used the duo to the best of its ability, and the two combined for 54 points and 11 rebounds. The gigantic man duo also had eight blocks against the Wisconsin Badgers, while Wisconsin blocked 11 shots all night.
The rebounding totals were fairly even as Wisconsin maintained a five-rebound advantage, but the real problem was passing on the reverse pick-and-roll. Wisconsin worked difficult to establish a close lead on the boards, but couldn’t find an answer to the speed and elusiveness of Michigan’s offense. Wolf, in particular, has caused problems for Wisconsin on defense due to the 6-foot-6 center’s speed and the natural mismatch he creates with most players.
As Wolf also stated after the game, it’s not uncommon to see two 6-foot-7 players sharing the pick-and-roll, creating an incredible mismatch.
Michigan was one of the few teams this season that had a numerical advantage, as the Wolverines had two capable gigantic men. Arizona was another team that had an advantage over the Badgers this season, but the outcome of this game was different because the skill difference was stark. Wolf and Goldin are two stern players and will likely continue to raise the bar for the Wolverines in Big Ten Conference play.
The Wisconsin Badgers will need to regroup and work on whatever they struggled with against the Wolverines before their next scheduled game. Marquette is currently the No. 5 school in the country and always delivers an outstanding performance against the Badgers. The interstate rivals have a special team and will be the first team to host the Wisconsin Badgers this season.
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