Wisconsin's Taylor Shines As Badgers Lose At Home
It was a matter of a split-second or so that could have sent the Wisconsin Badgers into a second-overtime against the visiting Spartans of Michigan State, but the officials looked at a replay and disallowed the 3-point make by the Badgers, resulting in a second-straight home loss; under Bo Ryan, Wisconsin has lost 14 total games at the Kohl Center, but their homecourt advantage seems to be fading as the Badgers continue to rely on their streak outside shooting, led by senior All-American Jordan Taylor. One of the more efficient shooters last season hitting 43 percent of his 3-point attempts, Taylor is making just one-third of his shot attempts this year from distance, one of several areas where Taylor's production has seen a drop-off this year. Taylor's perceived "down year" is in large part due to his teammates' inefficiencies.
However, last night, Taylor was on his game, taking over the scoring load when his teammates couldn't hit their shots; Wisconsin as a team minus Taylor made just 11-of-43 field-goal attempts (25.6 percent), while the point guard was 7-of-11 from the floor. He also finished with just one assist on the night. So he kept the ball in his hands, attacked the rim time-after-time, getting to the foul line 16 times, connecting on 12 of those to finish with 28 points. No other Badger was in double-figures.
The normally reliable Josh Gasser and Ben Brust combined to shoot 2-for-9 from the floor for six total points. If Wisconsin continues to struggle with its outside shooting, Taylor will have to dominate the ball even more and take over games from tip-off until buzzer.
By President Corey Ruff - 1 - 4 - 12
