Some extremely generous home court clock manangement allowed the Duke Blue Devils defeat Clemson 68-66. After Duke literally tossed this game away, allowing Clemson to tie the game with a gift 3-pointer, Duke was given 4.4 seconds on the clock. At best it should have been 3.4 seconds ont he clock. Duke needed every tenth of those 4.4 seconds as David McClure barely got the shot off for the winning basket. Clemson fans (and Duke-haters generally) will be pretty pissed about this game and the rematch at Clemson on Feb. 22, 2007 will be pretty interesting.
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More importantly, the Badgers won their 16th in a row by beating a former Dukie. Go Badgers!!!!
UW Wins 16th In A Row; Beats Michigan
MADISON, Wis.-
Brian Butch and Alando Tucker scored 16 points each to help No. 2 Wisconsin (20-1, 6-0 Big Ten) extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 16 games. The Badgers topped the Wolverines of Michigan, 71-58, Wednesday night at the Kohl Center to remain all alone in first place in the Big Ten.
Wisconsin is 6-0 to start the Big Ten season for the first time in 93 years. It’s 20-1 record equals the best start in school history.
Michigan (16-5, 4-2) got 16 points from Courtney Sims but picked up its second loss in Big Ten play. Lester Abram added 10 points for the Wolverines and was the only other player to reach double figures.
The Badgers shot over 50 percent from the floor for the first time in Big Ten play and attempted a season-low six three-pointers. Michigan was 2-of-9 from behind the arc and committed 19 turnovers.
The Wolverines scored the game’s first nine points, but were immediately answered with nine straight from the Badgers. Greg Stiemsma, coming off a career-high 12 points against Illinois, gave the Badgers their first lead at 13-11 with a mid-range jumper. He was one of nine Badger players to record a field goal in the first half.
Tucker picked up two early fouls and was limited to five first-half minutes. Butch had seven points and Kammron Taylor chipped in six points and four assists in the opening frame to pick up the slack. Jason Bohannon knocked a 3 in the final minute of the half and gave UW a 33-26 lead heading into the break.
Wisconsin came out blazing in the second half and quickly extended its lead to 16. Tucker, Butch and Michael Flowers combined for 13 points in the first six minutes and the Badgers took a 47-31 lead.
Tucker had 13 points in the second half on 5-of-8 shooting. His bucket in the lane gave UW a 63-39 lead with eight minutes remaining.
Post-Game Notes
• Alando Tucker recorded Wisconsin's first field goal at the 16:21 mark of the first half
• Despite missing its first six shots from the floor, Wisconsin shot over 56 percent in the first half
• Michigan had 12 turnovers in first half
• Michigan's Brent Petway fouled out with 12:43 remaining in the second half
• Michigan's Jerret Smith was injured after running into a screen at the 11:17 mark of the second half. He did not return.
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan Post-Game Quotes
On the second half being a ‘rat game’: “The only time I got concerned was when, by the time (Marcus Landry) got to shoot his one-and-one, did you see the icicles? I’m trying to help him out a little bit. He was a little tight, that’s why I had those guys run down and back just to stay loose. But you guys did get an explanation to what happened there, right? The seventh foul was Petway’s and the technical was the eighth. The technical foul cannot cause a one-and-one. But it was the seventh foul that caused the one-and-one so then it was going to be the technical, then the one-an-one. Then by the time all that was solved after checking the book, by the way, who got fouled? I asked Tommy (Amaker). Tommy said (Marcus) Landry. Tommy’s never lied to me. I said to the officials, Landry. I said Marcus, are you the guy that got fouled? He said yeah. So we solved it, actually we solved it on our own. It was like being at the playground. We shoot the technical, missed the one-and-one and played on from there.”
On each player contributing with scoring: “That’s happened before. It was nice to see Devin (Harris) there at the game. That’s happened to Devin a few times when he played with (Mike) Wilkinson. Sometimes you recover from it, sometimes you don’t. Mike picked up two (fouls) down in Alabama and we never did recover. We did OK the next year when they came back up here. There’s been times. I just wasn’t going to have him out on the court with the way things were going. I wanted him to have at least three fouls (remaining) in the second half. Some teams will play, some coaches will play a guy with two, I just wasn’t going to do it. The other guys picked him up and they did a good job of it.”
On the stretch when Alando Tucker was on the bench: “We just ran the swing and ran off the cuts hard and tried to get whatever opportunity passes we could and I thought we moved the ball pretty well. We worked the shot clock to the point where we got them a little antsy. They were extremely aggressive and you got to get fouled, got to get to the line when people are being overly aggressive and we finally did that. We got into free throw situations during that stretch where we started to make a move and you have to do that. If you start standing around, nothing good is going to happen. I thought the guys were moving well away from the ball.”
Michigan Head Coach Tommy Amaker Post-Game Quotes
Opening Comments: “Certainly it was a very physical game, a competitive game. We went out here against a very good basketball team, a team playing their best in their great home court environment. I thought the turnovers we had and our inability to handle the basketball and to have positive possessions on the offensive end really doomed us. It’s no question that we had silly turnovers and that was one of the things we talked about coming in here. When you play on the road you have to take care of the basketball and we weren’t very good at that tonight.”
On what played the biggest factor in their loss tonight: “We got out to a great start, certainly that is one of the things you like to see on the road against a good team in a tough environment. I thought we were ready and we certainly accomplished that goal there. As you saw though, we didn’t take care of the basketball. We got ahead of ourselves and we rushed a lot, whatever you want to call it, it really doomed us. I thought that was what allowed them to really get back into it. It’s no secret that they are one of the top teams in the country. Certainly the things that we did to ourselves did not help us tonight.”
On not being able to capitalize when Tucker was out of the game: “That just shows you how good they are as well. You can’t think that because he’s not in, that is going to allow teams to win ball games against Wisconsin. They are very talented, very deep and I thought the players that came off the bench for them made the difference. I thought Landry played great, he’s tough. I thought their front line guys were very physical. I thought Flowers drove well. Certainly you would like to think that we could do better than what we did, but they are deep, they are talented without Tucker. Obviously, with Tucker they are something special.”
Badgers are unbeatable at home- incredbile. Let's see how they do on the road.
They didn't win 16 in a row at home!!! THey did beat the mighty Illini on the road
UIC Badger
Hey, I wasn't being negative, I wasw just stating that the Badgers just have to prove that they can beat teams on the road or teams from the Missouri Valley Conference!!! Question: Why is Wisconsin #3 in the country with only 1 loss (Florida has 2)? Also after seeing Butler in person, what is your prediction if Butler and Wisconsin play on a neutral court or at Butler?
UW would handily beat Butler. Any time. Any place.
UIC Badger
Duke is lucky to beat Clemson and a depleted BC, but you have to say that Clemson's guys knew how much time was on the clock and they just didn't get a stop -- easy as that. McClure -- what is his injury status?
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