One team came into Value City Arena ready to play from the tip-off, and the other team went through the motions.
The Wisconsin Badgers, who we saw upset Illinois on the road and clobber Michigan State by 21 points at home, were nowhere to be found Tuesday night in Columbus. Ohio State, a team currently on the NCAA tournament bubble, controlled the game from the start and dominated Wisconsin 86-69.
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This quote from Greg Gard’s press conference summarizes the Badgers’ performance (or lack thereof) against the Buckeyes.
“When we threw the ball up, I thought right from the beginning we did not have the same mentality, aggressiveness, physicality,” Gard said, via 247Sports’s Nick Osen. “Ohio State was much more aggressive, much more physical than we were. Set the tone early, and they were able to get that lead.”
It was as bad a game as one could expect from the Badgers’ starters. Three of them, Andrew Rohde, John Blackwell, and Nick Boyd, combined for nine of Wisconsin’s 12 turnovers of the day. Aleksas Bieliauskas was a non-factor against Ohio State, scoring two points on one whole shot from the floor. Nolan Winter did have 10 points and seven rebounds on the day, but he was held scoreless in the second half.
The Buckeyes handed the Badgers a hard lesson that you cannot coast through Big Ten games. Shooting 7-of-26 from behind the three-point line and 8-of-16 from the free-throw line are easy ways to get blown out in this conference. Wisconsin has the rest of this week off before welcoming an Iowa Hawkeyes squad that upset ninth-ranked Nebraska to the Kohl Center on Sunday. There had better be a better effort from the start.
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Here are three standouts from the Wisconsin-Ohio State game.
Bruce Thornton
If the Badgers wanted to leave Columbus with a victory, they had to find a way to shut down Thornton. Instead, Thornton, one of the top guards in the Big Ten, had his way against the porous Badgers’ defense. The senior guard led the Buckeyes with 27 points on 9-of-18 shots from the floor and even led Ohio State with nine rebounds and eight assists on the day.
Devin Royal
The Buckeyes needed someone to step up with second-leading scorer John Mobley Jr. out with a hand injury. They got that from Royal, who made his first six shots to help pace the Buckeyes. In total, Royal scored a season-high 25 points on 10-of-17 shots from the floor, including making 4-of-7 three-point attempts.
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Braeden Carrington
Carrington continues to provide a spark for Wisconsin coming off the bench. Against Ohio State, it’s safe to say he was the only Badger who played a great game in Columbus. The transfer guard scored 20 points, including making 5-of-12 three-point attempts. I just wish the rest of the team could match Carrington’s energy on Tuesday night.
