UW collapses in regulation, pulls away in overtime with FTs

Cats may have nine lives, but the Badgers were glad to have two on Thursday night in Minneapolis.

Wisconsin (19-6, 8-4 Big Ten) survived the final 7:41 of the second half without scoring, which allowed Minnesota (17-8, 5-7) to erase a 10-point deficit and force overtime. The Badgers regrouped to strike first in the extra session and sank 15-of-17 free throws in the last four minutes to pull out a 68-61 win.

Seeking his first career win at Williams Arena, Bloomington, Minn. native Jordan Taylor led a hot-shooting Badger attack in the opening half with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Wisconsin shot 44% overall and 7-of-11 (63.6%) from behind the arc to take a 32-42 lead into the break.

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It's easy to forget, but Minnesota has been a thorn in Wisconsin's side of late. The Badgers snapped a three-game losing streak against the Gophers last year, but still has a two-game slide going up at Williams Arena. The unbalanced scheduling has limited the two teams to just one meeting each of the last two seasons, tempering the rivalry.

Wisconsin famously has four Minnesota natives on its roster, just one fewer than the Gophers have. But only Jordan Taylor has scored at Williams and no one has had much success there. A win by UW is vital to keep pace with Michigan in the upper tier of the Big Ten.

Tom from our sister site at SB Nation, The Daily Gopher, joined me to preview this renewal of the border battle. He had some interesting things to say about the rivalry, Tubby Smith and Minnesota's recruiting.

B5Q: Thanks to a midseason revival of sorts, the Gophers find themselves in bubble territory nevertheless. To get to 8 or 9 conference wins, Thursday's game with Wisconsin is basically a must-win. And it's on your campus. Is this the game of the year?

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By any point of view, Wisconsin's fourth home loss of the season was disheartening. The Badgers shot terribly and still had an upset over third-ranked Ohio State at their fingertips. But they let it slip away uncharacteristically via turnovers. Another 40 minutes of proof that Wisconsin is a poor 3-point shooting team that won't stop launching them and cannot get to the free throw line only adds to the frustration of losing.

It stung maybe a little more because it was Ohio State too. My thoughts lingered on the loss for days despite the fact that Wisconsin travels to Minnesota this week to resume its most high-profile border war on Thursday night. It was not too long ago when Tubby Smith, in his second season in the Twin Cities, orchestrated one of the most heart-wrenching two-game sweeps of Wisconsin in my lifetime. Because the two teams have only played twice over the past two seasons, this matchup has lost some of the luster it once had.

Conversely, even in defeat I derived great pleasure from how seriously Buckeyes fans were taking the matchup last weekend. The Ohio State rivalry has blossomed into something significant, thanks to two top-notch basketball programs and statements from the head coaches of UW's basketball and football teams. Meanwhile, younger generations only know the Golden Gophers as a team Bucky beats up in football every year.

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MADISON, Wis. - Coming off a 58-52 loss to No. 3 Ohio State, the No. 21 Badgers (18-6, 7-4 Big Ten) will go across the border to pick up where they left off with Big Ten rival Minnesota (17-7, 5-6). The two teams have a storied football rivalry, which sees them compete annually for Paul Bunyan's Axe, but according to Badgers head coach Bo Ryan, the rivalries in the two sports don't really compare.

"We play 18 games in the Big Ten, and we have a Big Ten tournament," Ryan said. "So in no way is there any one game in the basketball season that's comparable to a conference football game. It just can't happen that way.

"You've got to get ready to play 18 plus (games), so no it's a little different. Sometimes you might be playing in Minnesota and you have three games in seven days. So how could that be comparable to a sport that plays once a week on the weekend?"

So while the sheer number of games played in the basketball season might diminish the rivalry's effect, getting another Big Ten road win would definitely help the Badgers in the long run.

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MADISON, Wis. - When you live by the three, you'd better be prepared to die by the three. The No. 19 Badgers found that out first hand against No. 3 Ohio State Saturday afternoon, when 5-of-27 shooting from distance put extra nails in their coffin in a 58-52 loss to the Buckeyes. The Badgers fell to 18-6 (7-4 Big Ten) with the loss, while the Buckeyes 20-3 (8-2) solidified their hold on first place in the conference.

But despite their poor shooting performance, Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said he was happy with the shots his players took. But unfortunately for the Badgers, they almost never got a shot to fall when they needed one.

"You can take an overlay of the shots," Ryan said after the game. "Space between the defenders, things like that, I thought we did a great job of touching the post by our dribble - a post feed and knockout. Our shoulders squared and feet looking at the basket, it had to be at least 90 percent of those. I can think of one, possibly two, that weren't those type of 3's. When we're hitting them, we can look pretty good on the offensive end."

"Everybody was getting open looks, and we've got to knock them down," Wisconsin forward Mike Bruesewitz said. "We did a good job moving the ball ... we've just got to knock shots down when we're open."

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MADISON, Wis. - In case you hadn't heard, the Badgers have a pretty big game coming up. No. 20 Wisconsin will host No. 3 Ohio State on Saturday in the Kohl Center, with the winning team claiming first place in the Big Ten, at least for the time being. It will also be another chapter in the growing rivalry between the two schools, which just got a little more intense on the football side of things with a spat between Bret Bielema and Urban Meyer.

But if you asked head coach Bo Ryan, the Badgers aren't looking at Saturday's game any differently. They have a history with the Buckeyes, but that doesn't mean the Badgers will get worked up about having another chance to take down another highly ranked Ohio State squad.

"I don't see our guys getting too high or two low. You keep an even keel, you work," Ryan said Friday. "If you try to make a big deal out of one (game), what do you do the next time?"

Having the game in the Kohl Center definitely works in the Badgers' favor. Under Bo Ryan, the Badgers are 5-1 against AP Top 5 teams at home, and are currently on a five game winning streak. You don't have to look that far back to find their last Top 5 win: Feb. 12, 2011, when the Badgers beat the Buckeyes 71-67 on the strength of Jordan Taylor's 27 points. That kind of success doesn't just happen, according to Ryan.

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MADISON, Wis. - There's a buzz in the air about this weekend's matchup between No. 3 Ohio State and No. 20 Wisconsin, but Wisconsin forward Mike Bruesewtiz says he wasn't aware of it until recently.

"Yeah we went through a day of practice with scout (teams), so somebody was ‘Sullinger' so I just kind of assumed that they were (next)," Bruesewitz said after practice Thursday.

That might be just a figure of speech, but it's clear that the Badgers aren't looking at playing the Buckeyes any differently. Right now they're just another team on the schedule, even though Saturday's game is effectively a battle for first place in the Big Ten.

"It's just another game, another 40 minutes," sophomore guard Josh Gasser said. "It's a little bit of a bigger game just because of the conference race, but we don't really pay attention to that. We've got make sure we keep this place protected, and take care of business."

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In case you had forgotten in all this National Signing Day nonsense, there is a pretty epic basketball game this weekend. No. 19 Wisconsin hosts No. 3 Ohio State on Saturday with sole possession of first place in the Big Ten conference at stake.

It's been a wild ride for the Badgers over the past month. It began with a terrifying home loss to Iowa, followed by a heartbreaking home setback to Michigan State, and finally a blowout loss at Michigan. Yet, here we are. Wisconsin has found a way to win each of the last six games to the point where UW controls its own destiny in the Big Ten race. It's almost surreal.

A big thanks goes out to Chris Lauderback from OSU blogging juggernaut Eleven Warriors, for agreeing to give us the Buckeye perspective on this match up. I also chatted with Elika at Eleven Warriors for their preview.

B5Q: This weekend's match up might not have quite the same buzz as last year's tilt, but first place in the Big Ten is on the line. Where do you rank this game in terms of importance for Ohio State's season?

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