Saturday Michigan saw it’s undefeated season come to an end as the Wolverines suffered a 64-54 at the hands of unranked Wisconsin from the Kohl Center in Madison.
Senior forward Ethan Happ led the way with 26 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Badgers who improved to 12-6 overall and 4-3 in conference play.
Meanwhile, the Wolverines dropped to 17-1 overall and 6-1 in the the Big Ten.
The Difference
Michigan didn’t get much help from their top two scorers as Wisconsin held leading scorer Ignas Brazdeikis scoreless on 0-5 shooting while Charles Matthews had just five points in the losing effort.
In any sense Brazdeikis and Matthews’ struggles set the tone for the Wolverines offensively as the team shot just 40.7 percent from the field, 27.8 percent from deep and 45.5 percent from the free-throw line.
Wisconsin holds Michigan to 0.82 points per possession, Wolverines’ worst game on offense since November 23, 2016.
— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) January 19, 2019
Michigan also managed to match their season high in turnovers (16) as Brendan F. Quinn of The Athletic seemingly pointed out that Michigan keeping it as close as they did was an accomplishment in and of itself.
Michigan matched its season-high with 16 turnovers and shot 22-for-54 from the field.
— Brendan F. Quinn (@BFQuinn) January 19, 2019
0 points for Brazdeikis
5 points for Matthews
3 second-half points by Poole
It’s amazing it was that close.
The Michigan defense also didn’t have much an an answer for Happ helped the Badgers pull away later in the second half including a massive dunk at the four minute mark stretching Wisconsin’s lead to six.
What Next?
The loss for Michigan won’t do much to curtail what’s been a great season for them. They’ll still obviously a shoe-in for the NCAA Tournament and will still be in good shape for a high seed so long as they’re able to put today’s performance behind them.
As for Wisconsin today’s win is an opportunity for them to put a bad stretch of games firmly in the rear-view mirror and focus on getting back into the top 25. Prior to today the Badgers lost four of its previous five, including an embarrassing defeat at Western Kentucky.
Up next for Wisconsin is a favorable stretch of games in which they’ll see Illinois, Northwestern and Nebraska while Michigan looks to rebound against Minnesota on Tuesday before facing another road test on Friday when they take on No. 25 Indiana.
