BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Mike Lucas had a front-row seat as Wisconsin fell to Ohio State 83-73 on the road Thursday. Here is what he saw from courtside.
BK3, THE NEW UW RECORD-HOLDER
During the open gyms, the summer proving ground for all-comers, young and old alike, the incoming freshman left a favorable impression on Ben Brust who was gearing up for his senior year. Brust didn't know much about Bronson Koenig other than he was a highly-touted prospect out of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Brust, though, was well-versed on shooting and he was struck by the youngster's mechanics.
"Bronson had a good rotation and it was just a pure shot," recalled Brust, whose perspective was honed on such things by his own proficiency from 20 feet, 9 inches and beyond the 3-point line. "He had a shot built for consistency — a short, compact shot with little motion which results in little room for error and … (pause) … it has translated into catching me."
Koenig has caught and passed Brust as Wisconsin's all-time leader in 3-pointers by making 5-of-9 from outside the arc during Thursday's 83-73 loss at Ohio State. Koenig had four triples in the first half, including the record-breaker with five seconds left. He now has 237; topping a 200-plus list that includes Brust (235), Tim Locum (227), Kirk Penney (217), Michael Finley (213) and Jason Bohannon (212).
The NCAA record-holder is Travis Bader who had 503 triples at Oakland University.
Former Ohio State sharpshooter, Jon Diebler, is the Big Ten career leader with 374.
"He (Brust) is a good friend of mine still to this day and he told me before the season, 'Go out there and break the record,"' said Koenig, who matched his career high Thursday with 27 points. "Ben was a great, great shooter, an underrated rebounder and just a crazy competitor. He was very intense and we competed on the practice floor. It means a lot to me that I'm breaking his record."
Of course, it would have meant even more to Koenig had the Badgers not stumbled against the Buckeyes who dominated the glass (38-25) and won most of the 50/50 battles. Koenig said as much afterward noting how the aggressive Buckeyes showed more toughness, more energy, more fight. He also lamented the UW's defensive breakdowns with the hope that it serves as a "wake-up call."
A NOTE WORTH QUOTING
Wisconsin had made only 12 triples in the previous three games combined (12-of-47) before knocking down a season-high 13-of-30 (.433). The Badgers had 12 triples in their first meeting against Ohio State. It's also worth noting that the Buckeyes had made 10 or more triples four times all season, once in the last 22 games, before going 10-of-16, matching the most the UW has given up (Marquette was 10-of-22 and Michigan was 10-of-21 in Madison). Two unlikely sources sparked OSU from 3-point range: C.J. Jackson, who was 14-of-62 (.226), went 4-for-4; and Andrew Wesson, who was 8-of-28 (.286), went 2-for-2. The Buckeyes got into an early comfort zone.
DID YOU NOTICE?
- Vitto Brown snapped out of his shooting slump by scoring nine points (in 19 minutes). He was 3-of-5 from the 3-point line after going 0-for-8 from the field the last two games. D'Mitrik Trice got hot late and finished with 14 points. He was 4-of-6 from the arc. That matched Trice's season-high in triples.
Â
- UW coach Greg Gard went small early with Nigel Hayes at the 5, Khalil Iverson at the 4, Brevin Pritzl at the 3, Zak Showalter at the 2 and Koenig at the 1. It resulted in a 6-0 mini-run with Koenig scoring on a 3-pointer and Hayes completing an old-fashioned 3-point play with a basket and free throw.
Â
- Alex Illikainen nearly logged as many minutes (5) in the first half as Ethan Happ who picked up two fouls and played just six minutes (0-of-1 FG). Illikainen contributed three points and two rebounds. The Buckeyes used a hard double-team-trap to limit Happ to his fewest points (4) of the season.
Â
- After trailing by as many as 16 points, the Badgers missed a lay-up and two put-backs on the same possession that could have made it 54-47 in the second half. After cutting it again to a nine-point deficit, they missed a 3-pointer that could have made it 56-50. OSU then hit back-to-back 3's.
A QUOTE WORTH NOTING
Considering that Koenig has scored 27, 21, 13 and 15 points over the last four games against the Buckeyes, and has made 16-of-28 shots from the 3-point line during that span, Ohio State coach Thad Matta was moved to say, "My favorite player, Koenig, had a tremendous game. I love the kid's game. Boy, he was special tonight."
THE SKINNY ON MICHIGAN STATE
The Spartans rebounded from the emotional loss of their leading 3-point scorer, Eron Harris, to a season-ending injury by blowing out Nebraska, 88-72, Thursday night in East Lansing, Michigan. Miles Bridges and Nick Ward each had 20 points. Both were 8-of-13. Joshua Langford had 17 points. All are freshmen.
"They've relied on young players all year," said UW assistant coach Howard Moore. "Coach (Tom) Izzo has probably been a little more animated than he was in the past because of the lack of veteran leadership on the floor. But he has done a heckuva job coaching this group of young players."
Bridges, a one-and-done candidate, is the leading scorer (16.3) and rebounder (8.3). "The more I watch film on him, the more I say, 'Wow,"' Moore conceded. "He's just a matchup nightmare. He posts, he shoots, he dribbles, he attacks. And they look for him early and often."
The scouting report rarely changes on Sparty. "They want to push (the ball) and get early and easy baskets in transition," said Moore. "They're a good 3-point shooting team, so we have to prepare for that as well. Obviously, with Michigan State, especially there, it's always going to be a fist fight."
The Badgers have not won there since 2004.
GARDO SEZ
"Obviously, they performed very well offensively. But we also allowed them to … We handed them momentum right from the start on some things that we made mistakes with …We finally get the ball to go in a little bit on our end and then defensively we had a hard time getting stops. That's a credit to Ohio State … Once they got on a roll, you could see their confidence grow and grow."
