Game notes: Minnesota 70, Wisconsin 52

Here are some fun facts, courtesy of me because the UW Athletic Department doesn’t send these out on the road, on the Wisconsin Badgers getting blown out by the Minnesota Golden Gophers at The Barn.

• I made a note during the first half that freshman Tyler Wahl looked out of sorts and overwhelmed during the game. He had three fouls and one turnover and only scored two points on 1-of-3 shooting. He also missed his only two free throw attempts. However, he added six rebounds (three on the offensive end) and had a blocked shot. Wahl seems like a more valuable player coming off the bench as an “energy guy” who can also close out games.
• Brad Davison did not have a great return to the lineup. He was booed mercilessly every time he touched the ball and the loudest The Barn was all night was when he tried to take a charge and it was called a block. He was 0-for-3 from the field and scored four points (all on free throws) and added two assists and two boards. He looked hesitant at times, but that may have been from the one-game layoff. It will be interesting to see how he plays at home against Ohio State this weekend.
• The Minnesota guards were able to get in the paint at will all night. During the first half they looked quicker and more decisive than the Badgers guards. On the evening, Minnesota finished 10-for-16 at the rim while the Badgers were 7-for-15. The most glaring miss was a wide open layup that Trevor Anderson missed, after making a nice move to get baseline, that left me speechless.
• What’s really amazing/depressing is that the Gophers played poorly in the second half and yet somehow, the Badgers played worse! Minnesota only shot 25% from the field and scored zero (!) points in the paint in the second period and still ended up extending their lead. They went scoreless for over five minutes!
• Micah Potter looked good in the second half. Any time a shot was missed he was there for a rebound, of which he had 15 on the evening. He also looked good scoring in the paint. Might be time for him to start playing more minutes than Wahl.
• Why did D’Mitrik Trice play over 35 minutes in a blowout after he played over 38 minutes against Michigan State?
• Minnesota’s Marcus Carr played every second of the game and was one rebound away from a triple-double. Really impressive performance by him.
• The amount of times I wrote down “but it won’t matter” on my running game notes is alarming. The Badgers were cooked in this one early.
• Minnesota had 12 fast break points to Wisconsin’s zero. There was one sequence where the Badgers had a numbers advantage and then treated the three point line as some sort of force field until Daniel Oturu made it back on defense.
• The Badgers and Gophers have identical conference record while Wisconsin has one more overall win. You would NOT have known that if last night were the only game you watched.