For the first half of Saturday’s showdown between Wisconsin and Michigan, Badger fifth-year senior center Ethan Happ was the story.
He had 14 points at the break, and though 7-1 junior center Jon Teske was often in solid guarding position, Happ was more often than not able to score around him with a variety of impressive moves.
The fifth-year senior picked up his third foul less than two minutes into the second half, however, and didn’t return until the under-12 timeout, only scoring four points the rest of the way to finish with 18 for the game.
“I had to keep my motor running,” Teske exclaimed, when asked what the keys were to guarding Happ early on. “You can’t let him catch the ball on the block, because he’s too good of a player — you have to try and push him outside and deny his touches.
“You also have to wall him up while he’s dribbling and force him to take tough twos — I did that in the second half and made him a miss a few.
“Any time you get a great player in foul trouble, it’s obviously an advantage. I took my matchup with him as a personal challenge, because he’s such a good player.”
Although he wasn’t tasked with guarding Happ, sophomore guard Jordan Poole also gave his take on why Michigan was able to do such a better job on the veteran center in the second half than the first.
“We switched up a couple things defensively, but Jon held his own down there and got stops late,” Poole noted. “When you sit for a long time the way Happ did, it can mess up your rhythm. I think he was shook when he came back into the game.”
One player who wasn’t ‘shook’ down the stretch was redshirt junior guard Charles Matthews.
After being nonexistent offensively for much of the game, the veteran guard stepped up late and basically took the game into his own hands.
Matthews scored just two points in the first half, but tallied 16 after the break to finish with a game-high 18, including several clutch ones in the final minutes.
“I was just getting the ball more than usual,” the former Kentucky Wildcat explained. “I wasn’t standing around, and coaches were calling plays to get me the ball.
“I’ve had bad games before, but you just need to shoot your way out of them. I actually never even thought about our earlier loss at Wisconsin — I have a pretty short memory, so when I do miss a shot, I don’t even remember it and just keep shooting.
“I really tried to stay aggressive after my shots started going in.
“Coach [John] Beilein coaches me so hard, and watches the spin I put on the ball every day in practice. If he sees me make a turnaround jump, he’ll make me take 20 more.”
The aggressiveness obviously paid off, as Matthews’ 15 attempts were four more than any other Wolverine on the roster, and his 18 points matched the most he had scored in a game since also tallying 18 in a Jan. 6 win over Indiana.
“Having a guy make so many shots in a row like that was a huge reason we won today,” Poole said.
“Another big reason, though, was because we took better ones than the last time at Wisconsin, made smarter plays and held onto the ball better.
“Those were all things we didn’t do the first time around. We also stayed more connected defensively, and that’s what put us over the top.”
The defensive mantra that second-year coordinator Luke Yaklich has instilled has become the identity of this Wolverine team, along with a toughness and ‘in your face’ mentality that hasn’t always been present during the Beilein era.
“Wisconsin elbowed me in my collar bone,” Matthews laughed, when asked about how physical it was out there, especially during the first half.
“I’m from Chicago though, [freshman guard] Dave [DeJulius] is from Detroit and J.P. [Jordan Poole] has family from Chicago, so we’re not concerned about all that stuff.
“We know it can get real at any time. We’re not worried about all that fake tough stuff on the court, and actually perform better in that type of environment.”
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