Tag: Indiana Wisconsin

Micah Potter couldn’t play IU in December; he makes it count in March

Micah Potter comes through

It was only fitting that while other teammates certainly made huge plays in the final minutes of Saturday’s game against the Indiana Hoosiers, Micah Potter made the biggest ones.

Potter was unable to play Indiana back on December 7 in the Kohl Center. He was still ruled ineligible by the NCAA for reasons which remain unfair and insubstantial. Potter could only watch as Wisconsin split its first 10 games of the season. He wasn’t able to take the court until Dec. 21 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He wasn’t able to play his first Big Ten game until Jan. 3 at Ohio State.

Potter struggled to play defense in January, the main reason UW head coach Greg Gard limited his minutes. His season reflected a slow evolution — progress appeared, but not abundantly. Potter flourished in a dominant performance at Penn State on Jan. 11, but that was not the iteration of Potter the Badgers normally received. Heading into late January, it was clear that Potter needed to develop more… and that Greg Gard had to trust Potter more by letting him learn on the job.

Then Kobe King left the team… and while it was unclear exactly how Wisconsin as a group would react to that unfortunate event, the one obviously good byproduct of that roster shakeup was that it meant Potter would HAVE to play more. Gard didn’t really have much of a choice. It didn’t mean playing Potter 35 minutes per night, but it DID mean he would have to play 22-25 minutes more often.

Sure enough, Potter learned how to play defense with more on-the-job training. He became less of a liability at that end of the floor, which made it easier for Gard to rely on him.

Saturday, that reliance from the coaching staff and his own improvement as a player showed up in a big way. Potter played tough defense down the stretch, enabling Wisconsin to deliver its decisive 12-0 run to turn the game around. He also collected two of the day’s three biggest offensive boards, both setting up 3-point plays (one an old fashioned “and one,” the other a 3-point shot) inside the final 5:30 of regulation. Those two 3-point plays set up by Potter’s offensive rebounding gave Wisconsin a 54-51 lead.

The other really big offensive rebound of the day belonged to Nate Reuvers, whose putback sealed the win in the final moments… but had Potter not collected those two offensive boards in the midst of UW’s 12-0 run, the Badgers wouldn’t have been in position to win.

Micah Potter could not play Indiana in December. He sure made this game count in March. As a result, Wisconsin is champion of the Big Ten for 2020.

It was worth the wait for Micah Potter.

B1G heart, B1G rally, B1G deal — the Badgers are Big Ten Champions!

WISCONSIN WINS THE BIG TEN TITLE

They did it!

The Wisconsin Badgers, who were 5-5 and looking like an NIT team, not an NCAA Tournament team, after 10 games, did it.

UW, which was 6-6 through 12 Big Ten Conference games in early February and the epitome of an inconsistent team which could not stack together three or four strong games, did it.

Greg Gard, who so clearly struggled to find the right lineup combinations when Kobe King was on this roster, found all the proper groupings of players after King left the team in late January.

Wisconsin, which seemed like a bubble team in early February and was still nothing more than a 7 seed with one week left in February, could now get a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. That is entirely realistic and possible.

The Badgers, who lacked Micah Potter for 10 games this season, and did not have either King or Brad Davison for the season-changing February 1 win over Michigan State, reeled off eight straight Big Ten wins to capture the conference’s regular-season championship and a No. 1 seed at next week’s Big Ten Tournament.

This was not and is not Greg Gard’s most talented Wisconsin team. This team did not have a superstar. It did not have a dominant “eff you” takeover player, though D’Mitrik Trice played the role of that kind of performer for one night in Ann Arbor against Michigan on Feb. 27. This Wisconsin team had to do it together. It had to figure out how to play the typically blended basketball the Badgers usually need, when they don’t have a Sam Dekker or Frank Kaminsky on the roster.

There have been better teams in Wisconsin basketball history. There have been more fun and elegant teams in Badger hoops annals. Yet, for this team to win the Big Ten title after ALL the hardship, all the outside interference from the NCAA, all the inner turmoil such as the Erik Helland (strength coach) resignation midway through the season, rates as one of the greatest accomplishments in UW basketball’s existence.

This team — no matter what it does at the Big Ten or NCAA Tournaments — has achieved a piece of immortality. No one in Madison will ever forget the 2020 Badgers, the team everyone (including myself) thought was second-rate… until it won eight straight games and won a trophy.

Champions of the heart, champions of the hardwood, champions of the Big Ten. This is a very B1G deal, and don’t let anyone else in the Big Ten ever forget it.

If Wisconsin beats IU, Greg Gard would deserve B1G Coach of the Year

More on Greg Gard

The photo of Greg Gard used for this story is from the Dec. 7 win by the Wisconsin Badgers over the Indiana Hoosiers. As you and everyone else in the Big Ten know, Gard and UW have been through a lot in the intervening three months leading up to Saturday’s regular-season finale.

Wisconsin didn’t have Micah Potter for that Indiana game — he was still two weeks away from making his season debut. Wisconsin had Kobe King, who would not be on the team two months later. Wisconsin was 4-4 entering that Indiana game and would not win its first road game of the season until after Christmas in Tennessee against the Volunteers. Wisconsin improved in early January but fell on very hard times in late January, losing back-to-back road games at Purdue and Iowa and watching Brad Davison get suspended for the Michigan State rematch on Feb. 1, with King having left the team.

Wisconsin was 5-5 through 10 games this season. The Badgers were 6-6 through their first 12 Big Ten games.

Wisconsin has lost only five times since that 5-5 start in late autumn, and the Badgers are now 13-6 in the Big Ten, riding a massive winning streak dating back a full month, to Feb. 5, the time of their last loss (in Minnesota).

Several coaches deserve Big Ten Coach of the Year recognition. To me, Pat Chambers deserves this award the most. If you were to tell me Greg Gard deserves it already, hey, that’s a perfectly sound argument. I would not fight you. However, given the wildness and unpredictability in the Big Ten season this year, Saturday is a real prove-it moment for Gard: If he wins, by golly, I would have absolutely zero problem with him beating out Chambers for Big Ten Coach of the Year. If Wisconsin wins the Big Ten title and gets a No. 1 seed for the Big Ten Tournament — which it would do if it beats Indiana — I would be completely fine with Gard winning the award outright. If he loses, I think Chambers has to be the choice, but if Wisconsin wins, it might be hard to argue AGAINST Gard winning the award.

It was already great that Gard turned this team around in early February, but the journey all the way to the top of the Big Ten would give Gard a massive, 24-karat achievement which would outshine what Chambers has done in reviving Penn State basketball.

It’s a complicated Big Ten Coach of the Year race, but the solution to the award is simple: If Gard can win the league title, any real argument against his COY candidacy melts away.

Indiana is a perfect test for Wisconsin before tournament play

Indiana in focus

There is nothing about the composition of the 2020 Indiana Hoosiers basketball roster which makes them a great challenge for the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday. The Hoosiers are a decent team and nothing more. Removed from the safety of Assembly Hall, they do not figure to mount a serious threat in March. They might win one game in the Round of 64, and that should be that. As a 10 or 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament, they would likely run into a buzzsaw in the Round of 32 should they get there. A 2 seed such as Louisville or a 3 seed such as Duke should eat them up.

Wisconsin — probably a 5 seed right now in bracketology, possibly with a chance to become a 4 seed — should not feel threatened by the Hoosiers themselves. The situation in which Wisconsin is playing Indiana is the real challenge for the Badgers on Saturday in Bloomington. This is what makes the game such an interesting — and good — test for Greg Gard’s team.

Wisconsin played Oregon in San Jose last March in the NCAA Tournament. That was not a friendly crowd for UW, and the Ducks roared past the Badgers. Wisconsin has played most of its recent games at home. In fact, only one of the Badgers’ past five contests has been a road game. UW has played one road game since February 15 at Nebraska — Michigan on Feb. 27. Wisconsin will be playing the Hoosiers on Senior Day in Assembly Hall. IU will be supremely motivated to play well and develop momentum heading into the Big Dance.

So many aspects of this game are set up for Wisconsin to fail… which, after the cushy home-centric stretch of the past few weeks, is EXACTLY what this team needs to confront before the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments. Unfriendly crowds and motivated, reasonably good opposition are what Wisconsin must defeat repeatedly to get to the Sweet 16 and maybe beyond. UW handled that challenge against Michigan. Let’s see UW handle it again.

Keep in mind, though, that whereas Wisconsin was merely playing for NCAA Tournament seeding against Michigan, this game against Indiana was for something much bigger: the Big Ten championship. There is real pressure attached to this game, more than the Michigan contest. If Wisconsin handles this moment, it is an even better sign that the Badgers are ready for tournament play.

Wisconsin played Indiana 3 months ago, and everything has changed

Wisconsin vs Indiana, part two

December 7, 2019. A lot has happened since then, not just in the world at large, but in college basketball.

Wisconsin was an NIT-quality team then. Indiana had not lost a game heading into its Big Ten opener against the Badgers in Madison.

The Hoosiers had just beaten Florida State — a team likely to be a No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament — and hoped that they were ready to take the next big step forward as a program.

The Badgers had Kobe King on their active roster, and Micah Potter was still two weeks away from making his UW debut in the 2019-2020 season.

Greg Gard was facing more heat than Archie Miller at the time.

Yes, a lot has changed in the three months since that contest. The Big Ten’s 20-game conference season, with those two December openers, makes it possible to have a three-month gap between two conference games.

Now look where everyone is.

It is somewhat ironic that when Indiana and Wisconsin played on Dec. 7, the Badgers had one of their best offensive games of the season against a non-Nebraska opponent. Wisconsin had struggled through much of November (and then at North Carolina State in early December) at the offensive end of the floor, but against Indiana, everything came together. The obvious difference between the fluid, functioning Wisconsin offense of past weeks and the fluid, functioning Wisconsin offense seen against Indiana three months ago is that Kobe King was a central part of the Dec. 7 explosion against Indiana. King got in a rhythm and stayed there. He was a primary cog in an 84-point outburst against the Hoosiers, scoring 24 points. Nate Reuvers scored 20 to bolster Wisconsin.

The Badgers’ scoring patterns and distribution are so different now. Reuvers has been picked up in the frontcourt by Aleem Ford and Micah Potter. With King out, D’Mitrik Trice and Brevin Pritzl have stepped up, and Brad Davison has been a different player since getting a needed week off from Feb. 9-15, when Wisconsin did not play a midweek game in the Big Ten schedule. (That week in many ways reset Wisconsin’s whole season, though the Michigan State win on Feb. 1 was the most important individual game of this campaign.)

Indiana, meanwhile, has stumbled around — just good enough to make the NCAA Tournament, which is a profound relief in Bloomington, but not good enough to represent a remote threat for the Sweet 16. The Hoosiers have a low ceiling, especially since they can’t play NCAA Tournament games in Assembly Hall. Indiana fans won’t mind an NCAA bid, but they’re not happy. Indiana fans don’t expect 10 seeds; they expect strong Sweet 16 teams with a chance to go to the Final Four. Memories of that 8-0 start for IU are very distant.

Yes, a lot has changed in three months.