After only one day as number 1, the Badgers fall to Michigan State. A combination of poor shooting and rebounding along with Drew Neitzel going bonkers lead to Bucky's 3rd loss of the season and 2nd loss in the Big 10.
That kind of takes the steam out of Sunday's matchup with Ohio State (which ESPN was touting as 1 vs 1 during the game). They can still win the conference with a win Sunday so it didn't hurt them that much but they most likely will drop in the polls come Monday regardless of what happens against OSU.
The game was a back and forth affair, with the Badgers taking a 4 point lead at 49-45 with 7:07 left and then proceeded to go ice cold, despite many chances to blow the game open. Both teams went about 2 1/2 minutes without scoring until Neitzel buried a 3 to cut it to one and then followed with a wrong handed runner in the lane. Once the Badgers got behind they started to panic and take really bad shots when they still had time to work for a good shot. They ended up jacking 28 3's and hitting only 9. Landry and Tucker combined to go 8-14 from 3-land but the rest of the team combined for 1-14, many of them poor looks down the stretch.
Bo Ryan will undoubtedly use this as a teaching lesson and should have them ready to go Sunday. Only time will tell how the players will respond. Despite all Bo's talk of not talking about being #1, I got the impression the players felt the pressure and were playing not to lose instead of focusing on doing what got them there.
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3 comments:
If it makes you feel better, they were only ranked #1 in 1 poll. They were #2 in the ESPN and USA Today polls. So the fall from grace was a little shorter.
I don't count that poll.
Which? The AP? OR the ESPN/USA Today? I'm guessing the one that had y'all at #2...
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