Michigan 77, Wisconsin 70
If you happen to have tickets to a Michigan basketball home game, show up an hour before tipoff. You'll see Nik Stauskas shooting his way around the three-point arc. Many of these aren't just any shots—the between-the-legs stepback is an integral part of his arsenal. He rarely misses. It's a joy to watch.
As Michigan stood on the precipice of another heartbreaking loss at the Kohl Center, Stauskas matched up against Wisconsin freshman Nigel Hayes. He hit him with the stepback. Collectively, we stepped back, too—off the ledge, and into a glorious world full of Muppets and unprecedented road wins.
U-M official says this is highest-ranked road win ever, surpassing beating No. 5 Duke in 1964
— Mark Snyder (@Mark__Snyder) January 19, 2014
Stauskas put together an MVP-worthy performance, scoring 16 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, including Michigan's final 11 points of the game. While Stauskas got plenty of help from Caris LeVert (20 points) and Glenn Robinson III (14), he was the driving force behind an offense that put up 1.16 points per trip in this one; the Badgers couldn't corral him as he repeatedly darted into the lane, creating open pull-up jumpers for himself or slipping the ball down low to a teammate—Jon Horford and Jordan Morgan combined for a perfect 6/6 mark from the field.
Tasked with producing just about all of the offense, Stauskas and LeVert had their slipups—collectively shooting 14/32 from the field with six turnovers doesn't always bode well. However, LeVert managed to get layups out of otherwise stagnant possessions—including an and-one in which he swiped a rebound from an unsuspecting Frank Kaminsky—and, when he sputtered in the late going, Stauskas simply took over.
LeVert also played a huge role in Michigan jumping out to a lead to begin with, drilling a pair of triples in the first five minutes when Wisconsin lost him on the perimeter. Stauskas had an early three of his own, Robinson added two near-identical jumpers from the elbow after curling around screens, and the Wolverines found themselves up ten at the midway point of the first half.
Wisconsin kept fighting back on the strength of big-time performances from Ben Brust (14 points, 5/10 FG) and Josh Gasser (16 points, 4/5 3-pt), the men responsible for two particularly brutal Wolverine losses. Every time Michigan threatened to blow the game open, they'd tighten the margin, with a Brust jumper cutting the halftime margin to just five. The Wolverines had shot 61% to that point—including a 4/5 mark from beyond the arc—and a second-half run felt inevitable.
It happened—of course it did—after a LeVert layup pushed the lead to 13 with eight minutes to play. As is the norm at Kohl, it was brutally slow. Both teams went scoreless for two minutes before Gasser hit a three-pointer. Then the floodgates briefly opened, with Wisconsin scoring on each of their next three possessions to make it a one-basket game before Stauskas stopped the bleeding with a two-point jumper.
The Badgers would get as close as one point when Brust, initially stymied by Morgan, wouldn't be denied a layup. But after empty possessions from both teams, Stauskas stepped back and delivered the blow that sent Wisconsin reeling, though the Badgers didn't hit the canvas until stringing out the game at the free throw line. After six consecutive makes at the charity stripe, Stauskas' work was done.
For tonight, anyway. Tomorrow, he'll be back in the gym practicing those stepbacks, because he'll never stop working until he never misses.
January 18th, 2014 at 11:15 PM ^
January 18th, 2014 at 11:24 PM ^
January 18th, 2014 at 11:26 PM ^
Where do you think we get ranked after this win? I'd think 18th or so
January 18th, 2014 at 11:56 PM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 12:23 AM ^
We'll be higher than that. I'm betting somewhere between 15-18.
January 19th, 2014 at 3:22 PM ^
Moved up to 13 in Kenpom. And 5th in the conference. BIG TEN!
January 19th, 2014 at 12:00 AM ^
Huge win. This effectively cancels out the Charlotte loss from a résumé/RPI standpoint. I think most of us would have easily accepted a 13-4 record at this point in the season.
I'm still not too bullish on our Big Ten title chances, partly because of the schedule, but who knows? This team is starting to remind me of the 2012 team, which on paper didn't seem to have the goods to win the title, but just kept hanging around, week after week, and at season's end there it was with the trophy.
January 19th, 2014 at 1:50 AM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 3:07 AM ^
January 20th, 2014 at 9:55 AM ^
One of the best National Anthems in the world.
January 19th, 2014 at 8:47 AM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 8:55 AM ^
Great win. I'll be even happier when McGary is well enough to at least be doing this again on the sidelines:
January 19th, 2014 at 8:59 AM ^
This team has so many ways to beat you. If you crowd the lane they can drop bombs on you. If you chase shooters they make the good entry pass on the big man slip to the hoop. Stauskas attacks the rim, now if we can get GRIII or Walton to penetrate more the options become endless...especially in a game where we're shooting the 3 ball. Though as good as our offense can be it's our defense that impresses me. These kids work their butts off on D to get to the right spot and they are clearly well coached at that end of the court. It's not a lazy defense and we still rarely put the other team at the line. Reminds me of those Duke teams that over a season would hit more free throws than their opponets attempted.
January 19th, 2014 at 9:36 AM ^
Not to take anything away from Michigan, but was anyone else less impressed with Wiscy than they thought they'd be?
I mean, they definitely have some nice shooters, and I guess they missed more shots early on than they normally would. But I didn't see anything really terrifying about them, compard to, say, teams like Arizona (athleticism) or Syracuse (that GD 2-3 zone).
Anyway, that was my first time seeing Wiscy and I guess I imagined they'd have something in their offensive sets or their defense (a la the Dick Bennett years) that would make me go "holy crap, that's gonna be a hard team to beat."
Rather, it turned out how it turned out--we made some shots and played solid D and got the win. A GREAT win, no mistake, but it just surprised me that our best home win in decades was against that team.
January 19th, 2014 at 1:29 PM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 4:25 PM ^
But we didn't let them off the hook, so no one is going to crown their ass!
January 19th, 2014 at 7:21 PM ^
60% eFG%
Their offense was quite good, over 1 pt per possession. Michigan was just better.
January 19th, 2014 at 10:45 AM ^
Without McGary, the team runs with a big body down low for rebounds and defense, a shooting point guard, and three swingmen. Isn't that basically what Beilein has worked with for most of his time at Michigan? In other words, should Michigan's success so far without McGary be that much of a surprise?
I love McGary, and think that he's a valuable asset to the team, but I feel like this team, without McGary, is comparable to the 2011-12 team, and they did pretty well against the B1G.
I guess I'm saying that I was surprised, but that I really shouldn't have been. Don't mind being wrong about this, though.
January 19th, 2014 at 11:21 AM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 1:11 PM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 1:49 PM ^
A few of my buddies who bleed green are worried about what Levert can do against them. I still think this is a big game for Robinson. He needs to continue to improve.
January 20th, 2014 at 9:54 AM ^
What sucks is knowning that we hardly stand a chance when we play in EL.....the problem is that msu plays big and tough down low, izzo likes this style, and it doesnt bode well for us without McGary. We will beat them at home but in EL I wish I didnt think we dont have a chance.. We need scrappers in the paint because its gonna be a fistfight of sorts. and last year their fans rattled stauskas so much that he wasn't the same afterwards for a month.
Part of me wishes someone could somehow piss Horford off right before that game, whereby he morphs into an intimidating monster...only then would I think we stand a chance at Breslin.
January 20th, 2014 at 11:36 AM ^
January 19th, 2014 at 10:26 PM ^
that shot for the tenth time. lights out.
January 20th, 2014 at 12:06 AM ^
Congratulations to this Michigan squad! I loved it, now take care of business at MSU and Ohio. Great game by everyone.
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