Wisconsin has drawn on the positives from its sweep of Alaska in its last home series and hopes to continue its winning ways against Michigan this weekend. Men’s Basketball Wisconsin (6-4 Big Ten, 14-9 overall) continued its hot stretch, pushing its win streak to five games after defeating Ohio State (6-5, 14-10) 79-68 at the Kohl Center last Thursday night. Head coach Greg Gard likes the improvement he is seeing on offense. “We’re getting more mature in terms of how we’re moving with the ball, how we’re moving without the ball, spacing, those things, and it showed in the three’s that we hit,” Gard said. “The ones that we hit [against Ohio State] were, for the most part inside-out touches, and the ball touched the paint either off the dribble or off the post feed and then kicked out, and the ones we made, for the most part, were toes set, and ready, and squared to the rim.” Gard wasn’t too concerned about junior forward Nigel Hayes’ postgame comments about playing for Wisconsin rather than his home-state Buckeyes following the Ohio State game. “Nigel is an interesting, unique individual. You’ve seen that in the past. So I don’t know exactly how the question was phrased, other than, he said something about a few Ohio players on our roster, and they were on the floor at the same time, so as long as he can—you know there is an old saying that former football coach used to say around here, make sure your rear-end can cash any check your mouth writes,” Gard said. “So Nigel needs to back it up, and he has, and I don’t think it was made in anything in angsts against Ohio State, it was just Nigel being Nigel.” Nebraska faces the possibility of playing without one of its key players in Shavon Shields, who was injured last game. Gard, however, isn’t taking the Cornhuskers lightly. “They still have very capable players, and he’s not even leading in the scoring, Andrew White is, so I think from that standpoint, they have a couple days to prepare without him, if he does not play,” Gard said. “If he does play, I’ve seen a lot of times where this can help fortify a team and they will rally around each other, and you’ll have somebody else step up…
Continue Reading: Gard, Johnson, Eaves take a look at the week ahead
