BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Trevor Anderson was engulfed by a double-team and pinned on the Rutgers sidelines. With no clear path to pass or dribble the ball out of the trap, he called a timeout.
After the whistle blew, there was some contact in the player cluster and Anderson was in the middle of it all before making his way to the other end of the floor and the Wisconsin bench.
His scrappiness did not go unnoticed by his teammates.
"We got back to the huddle and everyone was just kind of screaming and yelling — I don't know if we were really saying anything," Aleem Ford said of the general reaction to the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Anderson holding his ground in enemy territory.
"It gave us more energy. We have to play with that fight. Trevor, one of the smallest guys on the team, was not going to back down from anybody. He was in front of their bench surrounded by nothing but their guys and he just showed the heart that he has and what we were doing as a team."
What Anderson and the Badgers were doing was competing. After walking out of The RAC with a hard-earned 60-54 road win over the Scarlet Knights last Friday night, UW coach Greg Gard was pleased with the overall response in what he labeled as an "effort and scrap" game.
It followed a disheartening loss at Michigan three days earlier.  Â
"Everybody who played, the eight guys who got on the floor, played with the energy and the grit and the togetherness," said Gard. "That's what it takes to win against Rutgers. You've got to play exceptionally hard and it's not always going to be pretty. It may not look good in the stat sheet areas.
"But you have to try and match how hard and aggressive and gritty they are."
Self-generated energy, in particular, is an invaluable asset.
"You don't have a choice or what happened at Michigan will happen a lot if you don't bring that energy," said Ford, reflecting on the 77-54 loss to the Wolverines. "Especially in arenas that are empty, whether at home or the road, with no crowd cheering for you or against you, regardless.
"You have to create your own energy, not just for spurts, but for the entirety of a game really."
It was one of the talking points for the players during an extended two-game road swing in which the Badgers did not return to Madison. After an overnight in Ann Arbor last Tuesday, they traveled to New Jersey where they had a couple of days to themselves in a New Brunswick hotel.
Between practices, Ford said, "There was not much to do at all, so we created some time for each other and hung out and talked and addressed some things … to see where we were at … where everyone's head was at … to kind of get back on the same page.
"At Michigan, there were lapses where our togetherness wasn't where it should be or — or where it has been — and we needed to make sure we were all together."
As far as the Wolverines film review, he admitted, "We knew what we needed to fix and kind of addressed things ourselves — laid it out and kind of laid it to bed as well. We tried to learn from it and flushed it down the drain. We took what we needed from it and shifted our gears towards Rutgers."
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Aleem Ford (2) matched his season high with 14 points, plus six rebounds, two steals and a career-high four blocked shots in UW's win at Rutgers.
D'Mitrik Trice, for one, shifted his game into high gear when it was most needed.
"As a point guard, it's important to get other guys rolling as well, especially when teams are keying on you," said Trice, who was averaging 22 points over the last five games. "I think it was important for me not to force it — that would have hurt our team a little bit more."
While taking only two shots in the first half, he focused on getting the ball to others.
"Finding them in the right spots and getting them going was super important, especially in that first half to get that lead (33-32) that we did," said Trice who had four assists and no turnovers in 12-plus minutes before intermission. "I knew that eventually it would come for me to start making plays."
With 7:54 remaining in the game, Ford scored in transition on an assist from his roommate, Trice, to push the Badgers into a 46-44 lead that they would not relinquish. In what would turn out to be a 12-0 run, Trice scored eight straight points on two triples and a slashing drive to the rim.
"I was not surprised at all, that's my guy, that's what he's supposed to do," Ford said of Trice. "Especially when games come down to crunch time like that and the intensity picks up and we're not always going to get easy looks, Meech (Trice) is our guy to create something whether it's for himself or for others.
"He has done a great job of that throughout his career. He's built for those moments."
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Ford delivered in the moment, too, at Rutgers. Along with matching his season-high total with 14 points, tying
Brad Davison for scoring honors, Ford had six rebounds, two steals and a career-high four blocked shots. He also was the principal defender on Ron Harper, Jr. who was averaging 20.
Harper was held to four points on 2-of-13 shooting from the field (0-of-5 from the arc).
"He's an aggressive player," Ford said of the 6-6, 245-pound Harper, the son of Ron Harper, Sr., a former NBA star, and five-time champion. "What you can do is make sure most of his attempts are tough attempts and he doesn't get too comfortable and doesn't get going and doesn't get easy looks.
"There are a few guys if you give them one good look or if you let them get to the free throw line or you let them see the ball go through the basket a few times, they get going. That's all it takes. As a team, I thought we did a really good job of negating those looks for him."
Rutgers made just two-of-19 shots from the 3-point line and shot 37 percent from the field.
"I feel like that's what we pride ourselves on as a team and program," Ford said of UW's team defense (62.1) that ranks No. 1 in the Big Ten. "That was a great test for us to come together and play a well-rounded game. You're never going to play a perfect game. But the effort was there."
That was true of the matchup between sophomore
Tyler Wahl and Rutgers senior Geo Baker, 22, a four-year starter and a 1,000-point-plus career scorer. Wahl, who got his first start of the season due to the Scarlet Knights undersized lineup, limited Baker to just eight points (4-of-11).
"I really challenged Aleem and T-Wahl before the game," Trice recounted. "I knew they were going to have really big assignments with Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr. I challenged both of them in our team meeting to go out there with a defensive mindset and that would get their own offense going.
"They did a great job through the whole 40 minutes stopping Geo from getting to what he likes to do and playing physical with Harper, one of the nation's leading scorers, one of the Big Ten's best scorers. Holding him to four points was a key factor in getting that win. Aleem did a great job."
Deflecting the praise to Wahl, Ford said, "He took the challenge head-on and I don't think Geo got any easy looks. He got a layup in transition after a turnover. But, for the most part, Tyler forced him into tough shots, a few mid-range jump shots. Tyler was testing him all night."
Ford certainly got high marks for timely offense in the victory continuing a season-long trend (10 or more points in nine of 14 games). Although he was not effective from the perimeter (0-for-3), he was able to score off the bounce inside the arc (5-of-9) and get to the free throw line (4-of-5).
"His game has grown immensely," said Davison who got the Badgers off to a fast start by scoring nine of their first 11 points. "He's bigger, faster, stronger. And really confident right now. Offensively, he did a lot of great things by getting to the rim and putting them on their heels.
"When he's aggressive … it's definitely a huge boost for our team."
One play stood out. Taking the ball on the right wing, Ford blew past Myles Johnson on the dribble and drew a crowd at the rim. With the 6-11 Johnson trailing, and the 6-11 Clifford Omoruyi chasing, the 6-7 Caleb McConnell rotated and built a wall at the basket.
If you're doing the math, it was three (Rutgers defenders) on one (Ford).
Despite the numbers, he scored on an underhand scoop that banked off the glass.
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"I've been trying to be more aggressive and put more pressure on the rim whether it's posting up or it's attacking the basket," Ford said. "Putting that pressure on the rim creates opportunities not only for myself but for the team in general … it makes us a lot tougher to guard."
Ford admitted that he didn't always have the confidence to execute that attack move.
"I've felt that I've always had the skill set and everything to do it," he said. "But it was just about getting better, getting stronger and making it translate to the game. I feel like I've done a really good job of doing that over the past few years by making sure I stay consistent in putting in the work and time."
The Badgers return to action Wednesday against Northwestern, a team that got off to a fast start (6-1) but is now mired in a five-game losing streak, all at the hands of ranked opponents. If nothing else, Minnesota's stunning win over previously unbeaten Michigan has put everyone on alert.
"That's the Big Ten," Ford stressed. "It shows that on any given night any team can win."
The Wolverines were held to a season-low 57 points and shot a season-worse 39 percent. Mike Smith was held scoreless. Hunter Dickinson had only nine points. Franz Wagner had just eight. Minnesota's tenacious defense contested every shot and pass in forcing 20 turnovers.
Ford can relate to the Gophers successful formula based on his own Badger experience.
"We can't control that the shots are going to go in," he rationalized. "But the one thing that we can control is our mindset on the defensive end … our aggressiveness and our energy. With arenas being empty, we have to create that for ourselves and instill that from the start of the game.
"To keep it rolling from Rutgers, we have to play with the same energy and intensity."
With or without Anderson mixing it up on the opposing sideline.
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