The Penn State Nittany Lions played an effective spoiler in Big Ten Conference as they tripped the Wisconsin Badgers who before the game was more favored and was aiming for the no. 2 spot in the standings.
The Badgers started the game with a 13 point lead after 3 minutes and ended it losing by 11 points, 75-86.
The team performed to their potential except on the defense, something that head coach Greg Gard said was laid back.
This is especially applicable to big man Yanic Konan Niederhauser who scored 15 points and had 11 rebounds. Of those points, 10 points came from dunks.
“We needed to get him, we were better when we had a five on him in terms of post play. Which I didn’t feel we were aggressive enough in the post,” Gard said after the game.
“But in terms of the dribble penetration, we did get there. I think we were 5-for-22 from two from our four or five guards, I was told. So some of that’s missing some chippies and some is him too impacting at the rim.”
Wisconsin Badgers’ bigger problem
Defense can be fixed. Gard said they will go watch the film to fill the holes of their game in their upcoming games.
The bigger concern for them right now is the injuries to key players.
Starting guard Max Klesmit continues to miss games and there’s still no update if he will get to play in the tournament.
Things got worst against Penn State when they lost big man Nolan Winter to injury after just 13 minutes.
Gard said their game plan change massively with two guys out.
(Klesmit and Winter are) starting for a reason, because they’re among our best five players. So you have two starters, one we’ve missed for three games and then you have another (get hurt), it puts more pressure on (Steven Crowl), he’s got to play more minutes because there’s another big that’s out of the lineup.
I went to (Carter) Gilmore more at the five in the second half when Nolan was out. So yeah, it’s a domino effect. Obviously, those five that walk out to start the game, they’re out there for a reason. We need to have those guys out there. Then the guys off the bench need to continue to contribute in positive ways.
Badgers receive the no. 5 seed because of the loss and they are set to face winner of No. 12 Minnesota vs. No. 13 Northwestern in the second round.
Big Ten tourney will start on Thursday.
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