The Wisconsin Badgers have suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of Dusty May and the Michigan Wolverines.
The Badgers played hard and worked towards a possible lead towards the end of the game, but ultimately did not have enough juice to hold on. The Wolverines handed Wisconsin a loss and also introduced the new-look Badgers to the Big Ten Conference this season. Wisconsin will have to get stronger on the boards moving forward as the paint was a bit of a struggle for the Badgers against Michigan.
Guard John Tonje led the Wisconsin Badgers in scoring with 18 points but had some difficulties making it to the line. The Big Ten Conference appears to be cautious towards calling fouls in the favor of Tonje since the guard has made a living at the line early in the season. John Blackwell added 16 points and was one rebounds shy of a double-double against the Wolverines.
Max Klesmit had a difficult night, going 1-for-9 from deep but largely due to the fact that the Wolverines defense applied the clamps. Michigan forced bad shot opportunities from deep and made Wisconsin try to play outside of their comfort zone on offense. By taking away the three and Tonje, the Michigan Wolverines found the true way to slow down the Wisconsin offense.
Wisconsin Badgers Suffer First Loss of the Season Against Michigan Wolverines
The dynamic big man duo of Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin have been a tough pair to stop early on this season.
Michigan utilized the duo the the best of their abilities, and the two combined for 54 points and 11 rebounds. The big man duo also had eight blocks against the Wisconsin Badgers as 11 shots were blocked for Wisconsin all night.
The rebounds total were rather close as Wisconsin kept the gap within five rebounds, but the passing from the inverted pick-and-roll was the real issue. Wisconsin worked hard to secure a near advantage on the boards but could not find an answer to the speed and elusiveness of the Michigan offense. Wolf in particular gave the Wisconsin defense issues due to how quick the 7-foot center is and the natural mismatch he creates against most players.
As Wolf stated after the game as well, it is not often that two 7-foot players run the pick-and-roll together on the court, which makes for an incredible mismatch.
Michigan is one of the rare teams this season that had an advantage in terms of size as the Wolverines had two capable big men. Arizona was another team this season that had size against the Badgers, but the result of that game was different as the skill gap is clear. Wolf and Goldin are two serious players and likely will continue to elevate the play of the Wolverines throughout Big Ten Conference play.
The Wisconsin Badgers will have to regroup and work on everything they struggled with against the Wolverines ahead of the next game scheduled. Marquette is currently the fifth-ranked school in the country and always brings exceptional play against the Badgers. The cross state rivals have a special team and will be the first team to host the Wisconsin Badgers this season.
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