“Bo Knows” how to beat IU: Wisconsin beats Hoosiers in Big Ten semis
By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Assistant Editor
CHICAGO ” There are a few things in college basketball that are constants. Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin teams always overachieve and his Badgers always beat Indiana.
No. 4-seed Wisconsin upset No. 1-seed Indiana 68-56 today in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals to advance to the championship game against the winner of the Ohio State-Michigan State game. The win was the Badgers’ 12th straight against the Hoosiers, who have still not won a Big Ten Tournament title in its 16-year existence.
When asked for an explanation of Wisconsin’s dominance over Indiana the last dozen meetings, Hoosier coach Tom Crean praised Ryan.
“They are a very good team, extremely well coached, disciplined with a great staff,” said Crean, who fell to 27-6 on the season. “They have inside-outside scoring, great balance and just an all-around great team. They are an excellent team and have been for a long, long time. As long as he’s the coach there, they will be.”
The victory was Ryan’s team’s second this season over Indiana as the Hoosiers were held to their season-low point total after being held to 59 points against Wisconsin in the five-point loss in January.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of the defensive effort on a good offensive team,” said Ryan afterwards. “Every guy that went in there was pretty much sticking to the rules and trying to force Indiana to make some tough shots. I thought our guys accomplished that.”
“I think we played great defense,” Badger forward Ryan Evans said. “You know, that forces them to take better shots, or if they want to go and take bad shots and play fast, that’s on them.”
Evans was the best player on the floor on this day. He led all scorers with 16 points, hitting 7-of-12 shots from the floor, grabbing eight rebounds, and had four blocked shots and four assists.
Ryan’s bunch limited the Hoosiers to 38.2 percent shooting (21-of-55), including 32.1 percent from three-point territory (9-of-28).
IU sharpshooter Jordan Hulls managed just two made shots on nine attempts, one of which came when the outcome was already decided. He missed 6-of-7 triples, and overall had a final Big Ten Tournament to forget, scoring just six total points.
Hulls wasn’t the only Hoosier that found little daylight and was limited offensively against the exceptionally stingy Badgers.
Cody Zeller, who was terrific against Illinois on Friday, needed 10 shots from the floor and seven free throws to get 13 points. Victor Oladipo was bottled up, too, misfiring on 8-of-12 shots from the floor, and terrific sixth man Will Sheehey was errant on six of seven shots.
IU’s offense rarely got going and got few open looks, but what else is new when the Hoosiers have played Wisconsin. Crean wasn’t pleased with his team’s offensive efficiency. However, he did like how his team came back more than once.
“We made a couple of comebacks in this game, and we did an excellent job of that, and every time we made that comeback with what was working for us, we got away from it,” he said. “We had some critical turnovers at key times We had some critical second shots we gave up at key times.”
The Badgers were their usual deliberate selves on offense, running nearly 25 of the shot clock’s 35 seconds down on every possession. Many times Wisconsin ran its swing offense close to perfection, getting too many pointblank chances to count.
“So much is made about pace and everything else, you know,” said Ryan, whose team is now 23-10. “You take advantage of what you can. You try to get good opportunities every trip down. You try to limit another team’s good opportunities, and it’s that constant clash. My guys understand that.”
They certainly did, and it resulted in some awfully good perimeter looks that resulted in Wisconsin knocking down seven three-pointers.
“The biggest story for us is we’ve been defending the three the last six, seven games at an incredibly high level, and today we didn’t,” Crean explained.
The game was in doubt in the latter part of the second half. Wisconsin clung to a 50-49 lead when Evans scored at the 7:48 mark.
Over the next couple minutes it remained a one-possession game as IU missed three shots, the last coming on a forced shot just outside the lane on the baseline by Zeller, who was blanketed by Badger big Jared Berggren.
Berggren followed that great defensive effort by burying a three-pointer in front of the Badger bench and it was 55-49 with 5:41 remaining.
“Everybody talks about Cody Zeller and he’s a great player, he really is,” Wisconsin’s Mike Bruesewitz said. “He puts up numbers and there’s a reason he’ll probably be a lottery pick. But Berggren did a great job and forced him (Zeller) into some tougher shots early, and just kind of made life miserable for him.”
IU got no closer than 58-53 the rest of the way.
Hulls missed a triple that would’ve got the Hoosiers to within three when it was 59-53 and guard Traevon Jackson, former Buckeye great Jim Jackson’s son, hit a pair of free throws on the other end to increase the margin to 61-53 with 1:49 to play.
An IU turnover and wild miss by Yogi Ferrell followed, and the game was over for all practical purposes.
It was a game that saw Indiana enjoy its largest lead of six with just over nine minutes to play in the opening half. Shortly after that, the Badgers went on a 10-0 run to take a 26-22 lead with 4:40 left until the break.
IU trailed 34-31 at halftime, but watched Wisconsin score the first six of the second stanza and were down 40-31 with 17:14 to play. The Hoosiers rallied, scoring the next nine to knot it up at 40 a little more than three minutes later.
It was tied at 43 when the Badgers went on a 7-0 run to lead 50-43 with just over 11 minutes to play.
As the final seconds ticked off the United Center scoreboard, Ryan and Crean met near center court and had a prolonged handshake where the two congratulated one another on the season and wished one another luck in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
“I told him he’s a great coach and always looked up to him and what he’s done in his program,” Crean told the media afterwards explaining the gist of his conversation with Ryan.
All is certainly not lost for the Hoosiers.
They’ll learn their fate tomorrow on Selection Sunday when they’re expected to receive a No. 1 seed. IU will be hoping for a favorable draw, one that includes a path to Atlanta, the site of the Final Four, that goes through Dayton, Ohio, and Indianapolis.
What is concerning for the Hoosiers is that they’re certainly not playing their best basketball of the season, having lost three of their last six.
“Obviously we wanted to get this win today,” Zeller said. “We’ll learn from it. We’ll figure out what we did wrong. We’ll make the corrections and get ready for next week because that’s what’s most important.”
Crean concluded, “We can play better. We will play better. We have played better and we are going to go find out next week.”
