To be sure, Kaleb Wesson did his part for the Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday night against the Wisconsin Badgers. On a night when his team scored just 57 points, Wesson scored 22. On a night when his teammates went 12 of 37 from the field (under 33 percent), Wesson hit 70 percent of his shots. Wesson generated a majority of his team’s free throw attempts (nine of the Buckeyes’ 17) and a majority of his team’s free throw makes (seven of OSU’s 13). Wesson pulled down 13 rebounds. All his teammates combined managed just 19. Wesson did what he could. For portions of the game, he dominated inside and was a load for Wisconsin to handle.
Yet, the Badgers did find a way to deny him the ball late in the game. That was a key reason Wisconsin won. It was a centrally revealing aspect of UW’s improved defensive toughness, which is precisely why Wisconsin now looks like an NCAA Tournament team instead of an NIT team.
With 9:19 left in regulation, Ohio State had a 45-39 lead. That six-point lead felt large not only because Wisconsin was struggling to hit shots — the Badgers made only one of their first 11 threes in the second half — but also because Wesson figured to score more down the stretch. He was the problem Wisconsin hadn’t been able to solve. Even if Ohio State slowed down on offense, the Buckeyes figured to get a few buckets from Wesson in the final minutes, just enough to fend off the cold-shooting Badgers.
Yet, that never happened.
Wesson made two free throws with 6:32 remaining in regulation, and that was it. He did not hit a field goal in the final 9:19, and he didn’t score at all in the last six and a half minutes of the game. His overall stats were great, and again, he did make 70 percent of his shots. Yet, that 70-percent figure was based on a 7-of-10 shooting line, not 14 of 20. Wisconsin contained Ohio State’s guards on dribble drives, and did not allow the Buckeyes to feed Wesson for layups or dunks at crunch time. The Badgers were strong on the perimeter, but they didn’t allow Wesson to beat them on the game’s most important possessions in Friday night’s most pressure-packed moments.
There were many manifestations of Wisconsin’s toughness. Standing up to the big guy in the middle for Ohio State, Kaleb Wesson, in the final minutes of regulation has to be recognized as one of the Badgers’ best and most ballsy displays in Columbus.