Defense: C
After allowing 38 points in the paint in their loss to Michigan State on Friday the Badgers struggled once again protecting the lane. Wisconsin allowed for 36 of Nebraska’s 68 points to come in the paint.
To often the Badgers struggled with help defense, which led to easy buckets in the paint. In particular, the Badgers struggled to defend Cam Mack in the first half as he was able to get into the lane or set up his teammates around the basket.
Mack finished the game with 14-points on 5-for-15 shooting from the field and finished with half of Nebraska’s 12 assists. Wisconsin did a better job of defending him in the second half though as he only made one shot on eight field goal attempts and only had two assists too.
Wisconsin’s defense was able to cut off his driving lanes better and did a better job of contesting Mack’s shots, which ultimately made sure the Cornhuskers couldn’t shoot 55.5 percent (15-for-27) from the field again like they did in the first half.
Overall Nebraska finished the game 26-for-60 (43.3 percent) from the field as four different players for the Cornhuskers reached double figures.
Dachon Burke finished the game with a team high 20 points (10-for-14) but 12 of those points came in the first half. Kevin Cross had 17 points and Thorbjarnarson Thorir had 12 points to round out Nebraska’s top four scorers.
In particular, Wisconsin’s defense was going to have to pay attention to Thorir to make sure he couldn’t generate a rhythm from three. Thorir finished the game 1-for-5 from three as Nebraska, which is leading the league in made 3-pointers over Big Ten play was held to 6-for-22 from three.