3-POINTER: PREVENTING MINNESOTA’S BALANCED SCORING
Minnesota in the first meeting had four of their five starters reach double figures as Payton Willis led the way with 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field.
With Minnesota receiving balanced scoring it allowed for the Gophers to take control of the game early and lead throughout as the Gophers shot 54.5 (18-for-33) from the field in the first half.
In order to prevent Minnesota from putting four players in double figures against Wisconsin again, the Badgers will need to be able to slow down Oturu and Carr as they scored 17 and 12 points respectively in the first meeting.
Oturu’s 20.9 points per game over conference play ranks second while Carr’s 16.4 points per game over conference play is tied for sixth.
Oturu is shooting 54.4 percent (135-for-248) from the field over Big Ten play as Nate Reuvers will draw the defensive assignment of defending Oturu. Reuvers will need to stay out of foul trouble against Oturu as he registered four fouls against Michigan.
Micah Potter will at times have to defend Oturu when Reuvers is on the bench making it important that Potter doesn’t give up any easy points when he’s defending Oturu and try to contest his shots.
Reuvers leads the team in blocks with 55 and Potter has 18 blocks in the 18 games he’s played in as he has registered at least one block in eight straight games.
Trice will likely draw the defensive assignment of Carr and try to make sure he works for each shot. Carr is going to get his shots up against Trice as he’s averaging 13.1 field goal attempts a game. The key with Trice is to try and frustrate him and make sure he can’t consistently get off open looks.
If Trice is able to do well on the defensive end in addition to the play of Wisconsin’s frontcourt defense the Badgers should be able to limit the Gophers to one shot per possession.