Badgers news: 3 quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 67-64 loss to Michigan

After a 74-53 victory over the Chicago State Cougars, the No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers dropped their first game of the season, losing 67-64 to the Michigan Wolverines on Tuesday night.

The Badgers struggled with efficiency all night and struggled to protect Michigan’s six-foot duo, leading to a tough takedown in the final seconds and moving them to 8-1 on the year.

Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 67-64 loss to the Michigan Wolverines on Tuesday.

Big fight

Through the first eight games of the season, Wisconsin had a fairly strong size advantage in most matchups, starting with Nolan Winter at power forward and Steven Crowl at center.

This worked in their favor in certain games, while certain undersized opponents tried to take advantage of this matchup with smaller players.

But on Tuesday, the Badgers finally got a matchup of similar size to themselves when Michigan started the duo of Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin together, creating a battle between two 7-footers on either side.

Well, that matchup went in Michigan’s favor on Tuesday, as the Wolverines were able to deliver solid pick-and-roll play between the two bigs while consistently attacking Wisconsin’s bigs on offense.

Wolf was the top scorer in the first half with nine points and six rebounds to lead Michigan, while Goldin had seven points, struggled with efficiency but reached the free throw line several times.

In the second half, however, the duo began to have real success with the big man pick-and-roll. Wolf was the primary ballplayer, scoring 11 points and providing five assists in a productive half.

Goldin started celebrating here too, drawing a series of fouls on center Steven Crowl, scoring 17 points and grabbing four rebounds. When Crowl was fouled, the duo attacked Winter, whether on the boards or in 1-on-1 situations. They were the catalyst for Michigan’s offense, keeping them in the game throughout in Wisconsin’s most demanding game of the year.

Winter was a factor early on the offensive side as he scored six points in the first half while Crowl was unproductive, scoring just two points from 1/4 of the field, including a wide-open three-pointer. However, the former had problems defensively in the second half, while the latter had limited minutes due to three fouls in the half, which completely negated their impact.

This should be a Steven Crowl game as he prefers matchups against the bigger centers where he can have 1v1 opportunities. But that didn’t happen in the disappointing game on Tuesday.

A tale of two halves

While the shooting numbers weren’t great throughout the game, Wisconsin had a completely different mindset offensively in the first and second half.

Foul trouble was a problem in the first frame as star guard John Tonje picked up two fouls and only played 13 minutes in the half. This led to a much more balanced offensive attack for the Badgers.

Four different players scored six points in the half (Tonje, John Blackwell, Max Klesmit and Nolan Winter), while eight different players scored in the half, resulting in 32 first half points for the Badgers.

However, in the second half, as the team’s offense faltered, Wisconsin relied on its two best offensive players and relied on Tonje and Blackwell to handle the load. As a result, Tonje had 12 points in the half and finished with 18 for the game. Blackwell, meanwhile, had 10 points in the second half and finished with 16 on Tuesday.

Both players scored their points in different ways, as Tonje was the primary shooter for Wisconsin, resulting in one or two forced shots, but also two three-pointers and a perfect 4/4 from the free throw line.

Instead, Blackwell worked the boards and grabbed three offensive rebounds, each resulting in a putback or a foul. As always, he scored the majority of his points from the field and he was extremely efficient in the box, shooting 5/7 from the field in the half.

Max Klesmit had another tough night from the field that also included a few late misses, shooting 3/14 from the field and 1/9 from deep. With the game on the line, the Badgers went after him with a few possessions, but the senior guard had two missed shots, including a potentially game-winning three-pointer, and shot just 1/9 in the second half.

Ultimately, the Badgers went to their guard trio to close out this game after showing a balanced but inefficient approach early in the game and failed to pull out the win.

The goal

Time and time again this year, the Badgers have found a way to close out games after slow starts, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case on Tuesday.

The Badgers actually led 32-24 at halftime in this game despite shooting poorly from the field, but really struggled defensively in the second half, allowing the Wolverines to shoot 61.5 percent from the field and 44, Was able to shoot 4 percent from deep to come back and win.

Offensively, it was largely the same for Wisconsin in the second half as they shot just 35.3 percent from the field and 17.6 percent from deep and really had a hard time finishing the game as they were down by over 2.5 minutes ended.

The back and forth in the second half made it clear that it would go down to the last minute. Max Klesmit had a great turnaround jumper as the shot clock expired and Wisconsin took a 64-61 lead with 2:37 left.

But this is where the fighting began.

Wisconsin wouldn’t score again from then on, while Michigan grabbed a few goals to earn the win.

Michigan went right back to its strong duo as Danny Wolf hit Vlad Goldin for a dunk to pull the Wolverines within one point on the ensuing possession.

Goldin got a layup on the following possession after a turnover from John Blackwell and suddenly Michigan had a 65-64 lead with 1:34 left.

From there, the Badgers went heavy on Klesmit. He missed a tough layup on the team’s first possession after a timeout, but Wisconsin got the ball back after Roddy Gayle left the court on the sideline. Once again, Wisconsin went to its senior guard, who missed a quality three-pointer and gave the ball back to Michigan.

The Wolverines got a switch and were able to capitalize when Goldin found John Blackwell deep in the basket, leading to an easy layup that brought Michigan within three points with 22 seconds left.

Klesmit got a third chance at redemption with another three-point attempt, but was unable to connect, ultimately sealing the deal for Wisconsin and handing them their first loss of the season.

Wisconsin’s experience has been a key factor in its explosive second halves and comebacks this year. They just couldn’t deliver enough on Tuesday, resulting in a tough loss.