Badgers ready to ‘slay a giant’ at Big Ten tournament this weekend
November 10, 2016 | Men's Soccer, Andy Baggot
Wisconsin’s defense shored up with leadership, stopping power of netminder Philipp Schilling
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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Philipp Schilling took the news with a mix of grace and confusion.
If you're compiling a list of the top goaltenders in Big Ten Conference men's soccer this season, Schilling was arguably the best during his debut season at Wisconsin.
Schilling led the league in save percentage at .825 and goals-against average at 0.64. He also finished tied for second with six shutouts, one behind the leader.
The fact the 18th-ranked Badgers are 11-3-3 overall and have advanced to the Big Ten tournament semifinals would seem to validate that resume. Yet when the all-league teams were announced last week, Schilling was nowhere to be found.
Cody Niedermeier of Maryland, he of the six shutouts and .712 save ratio, drew first-team honors for the top-ranked club in the nation and the unbeaten Big Ten regular-season champion.
Jimmy Hague of Michigan State, who has the second-lowest goals against at 0.71, was named to the second team.
UW coach John Trask was "shocked" that Schilling was snubbed.
Schilling admits he was a bit taken aback, in part because he'd been named defensive player of the week in the Big Ten just prior to the all-league announcement.
But if Schilling had a beef with the voting, it was that none of the back-liners — sophomore captain Sam Brotherton, redshirt freshman Elan Koenig, junior Alex Masbruch or junior Enda O'Neill — made the first team even though the Badgers had the best goals-against average in the league.
"If I could trade any honor for the Big Ten championship, I would earn that as a team," Schilling said.
Which brings us to the moment at hand.
The third-seeded Badgers face second-seeded Indiana (11-1-6) in the conference semifinals Friday at 1:30 p.m. at Grand Park in Westfield, Indiana. The other semifinal pits Maryland (16-0-2) against Michigan State (13-4-1) at 11 a.m. The winners meet Sunday at 1 p.m. for the Big Ten title.
UW will face the seventh-ranked Hoosiers three weeks after the clubs battled to a scoreless overtime draw in Madison. It represents the fourth time this season the Badgers will face an opponent rated in the top 25. They are 0-1-2 having also tied Michigan State 1-1 on Oct. 9 and dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to Maryland on Oct. 14.
Beating Indiana would give way to another matchup with a ranked opponent. The Terrapins are the unanimous No. 1 club, according to the latest NCAA ratings, while Michigan State is 12th.
The Badgers, fresh from going 9-0-1 at home and dominating a 3-0 quarterfinal victory over Ohio State, know that a win or two this weekend would enhance their NCAA tournament stock.
"We have to slay a giant, really," Brotherton said this week. "Go out there and prove that if we want to be one of the best teams in the nation, we can actually beat the best teams in the nation."
A major component to that plan is Schilling, a 22-year-old from Schwegenheim, Germany, whose maturity, personality and elite club-level experience has been a stabilizing force.
Schilling is a junior in terms of athletic eligibility, but he's attending grad school at UW focused on studying consumer behavior and family economics.
Trask described Schilling as a coach on the field, adding that he wouldn't trade him for any other goaltender.
"Philipp is the man right now," Trask said.
The sun had just set on a recent UW practice, a chilly breeze blowing, when Brotherton, a rising international standout out of Auckland, New Zealand, was asked why the Badgers have been so good defensively this season. His answer featured Schilling.
"We've done well eliminating the shots on goal," Brotherton said, mindful of the fact UW finished last season 5-11-3 overall. "But often he's come up with a big save and it's really nice to know that there's someone behind you, if you make a little mistake, he can bail you out sometimes."
Brotherton and Schilling have a good deal in common, starting with their status as international students.
"Like myself, he's on a bit of an adventure and everything's a little foreign, so he's trying to figure everything out," Brotherton said. "He's enjoying himself while he's doing that."
Another link is their approach to life.
"We have the same mindset," Schilling said. "We're both kind of perfectionists and we try to behave as professionally on and off the field."
Schilling, listed at 5-foot-8 and 155 pounds, likes to talk on and off the field. Either way, his voice is hard to miss.
"Off the field it's calm," he said with a smile. "On the field it's very loud."
Much of Schilling's on-field communication is directed at Brotherton and the rest of the back-liners.
"You have to be sharp and you have to know what each other wants to do and is capable of doing," Schilling said.
"We had to build a trust, I guess you could say, which has been built," Brotherton said.
"He made it easy. He understands the game well, so it gives me trust to let balls go back to him.
"He keeps everyone on their toes."
That high-alert status is essential if the Badgers are to win their first Big Ten title since 1995.
The Hoosiers are "a very stout team defensively" and "hard to breakdown," according to Brotherton.
But Schilling is heartened by the fact UW played the other three semifinalists "definitely toe-to-toe" during the regular season, as well as a clear sense of momentum.
"It feels great to continue improving throughout the season," he said.
Now it's time to see how far that momentum will carry the Badgers.
