On a day when the Wisconsin Badgers scored only four points in the final seven and a half minutes of regulation, they did not lose. The Michigan State Spartans could not climb past them.
Wisconsin’s offense ground to a halt after a scorching-hot first half of shooting from the field, the 3-point arc, and the foul line. Defense was always going to be the component which held the firewall together and preserved this huge victory.
How impressive was Wisconsin’s late-game defense? In the final seven minutes of regulation, Michigan State endured a hellish span of six and a half minutes in which it scored three points on one 3-point basket. Within that 6:30 span, Michigan State went scoreless for 4:24, from the 4:35 mark until there were just 11 seconds left and Wisconsin had essentially put the victory away, up 64-57. Michigan State hit two threes in the final 11 seconds, the second one coming with only one tick left on the clock. The final six points of the game for the Spartans were cosmetic, not meaningful, the basketball equivalent of garbage touchdowns in football.
When wondering how a Tom Izzo offense could so completely crash and burn, Wisconsin’s defense obviously deserves a ton of credit on a broader level. What can we identify within the effort and hustle and rebounding and rim protection which made the defining difference for UW?
Defending without fouling.
When a team struggles on offense from the field, as Michigan State did versus Wisconsin, what is often the salvation for that scratchy, patchy offense? Getting to the foul line. Field goals might not fall, but earning those charity pitches relieves pressure from an offense and represents the way to carve out just enough points to survive.
Michigan State simply couldn’t achieve that. Wisconsin wouldn’t send the Spartans to the line.
The Badgers allowed only four free throw attempts the entire game. They never gave MSU the free points in that span of roughly six and a half minutes (the 6:43 mark until 0:11 remained on the clock) which might have turned the game in the other direction for the visitors.
Was this an isolated instance, you might ask? No. In the Jan. 17 game won by Michigan State, the Spartans earned just 10 free throws. This means that in two games — 80 minutes of game action — Michigan State shot a total of 14 free throws against Wisconsin, averaging only seven per game. Imagine if Michigan State had earned a modest total of 12 or 14 free throws on Saturday instead of only four. That feels like an equation-shifting development.
The Badgers never allowed it to happen, with a defense which didn’t let down its guard (or is it Gard?).