The Wisconsin Badgers improved to 4-1 at the conference last night when they defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 80-73 in double overtime.
Indiana head coach Archie Miller had a lot to say about the Badgers after the game, especially what they were able to do on the defensive line.
Related: Movie theater: this is how Wisconsin basketball dismantled Minnesota
“When you play against the best teams in the country, which is Wisconsin, you have to find a way to step up, execute and make some tough plays,” began Miller. “We didn’t do that when we needed it most. Give them credit. They made some very good plays at the end of the game. “
The head coach continued to notice how badgers “don’t give you much and are very difficult to stick to the paint with their big ones being left behind most of the game.”
Miller was then asked about the performance of his star Trayce Jackson-Davis in pick-and-roll scenarios and how the Badgers adapted to them as the game progressed.
“I thought the defense of the ball screen was a little better late, when they didn’t let our guards go down to the end and didn’t fall so much,” said Miller. “They changed a little more to stay ahead, and we had a chance to put him inside the house a few times, when needed. But when you look at Trayce, you have 16 goals in 49 minutes. Usually he will score more fouls and get more free-throw attempts … I think at the end of the day he stepped up, they played really hard, they kept the ball in front of them very well with their changes and we couldn’t get down as far as possible .. Good teams do that. They adjust, they play all the time. “
Finally, Miller praised the Badgers for extra periods – both on the offensive and on the defensive side of the court.
On Tyler Wahl and his two important strokes in the double overtime:
“At the end of the game they took advantage of some exchanges, but the two 3s in the second overtime that realistically broke our defense kind of broke the game for them.”
In the Hoosiers game at the end of the first overtime that the Badgers managed to stop:
“End of the first overtime we asked for two timeouts and made a move, the same move twice. We wanted to give Al Durham a chance to see if he could clean the left side. I think they must have done a good job of preventing him from surviving. But we don’t run timeouts to maintain spacing. The end result is that they tied. “
With the win, Wisconsin moves to 10-2 in the season and 4-1 in the Big Ten game. All eyes now turn to the crucial showdown against No. 10 Michigan, 4 days from now.