Byline: Tom Oates
MINNEAPOLIS -- After two months of engaging in the hand-to-hand combat that goes on under the basket in Big Ten Conference men's basketball, University of Wisconsin freshman Alando Tucker has learned a thing or two about defense.
Not that he had a choice. As a 6-foot-5 power forward, Tucker has given away inches and pounds in almost every game since the Big Ten season began.
'You have to always move your feet,' Tucker said. 'You can't go pound for pound and try to battle with those guys using strength. You have to try to outsmart them and work around them and do different tricks to try to get them off their game.'
Tucker was speaking for himself, but his words easily could be a metaphor for the entire defense. The Badgers have given away height inside in every game, yet they share the conference lead with a 10-4 record because their defense has been effective using effort and guile as opposed to size and strength.
Despite allowing a Big Ten-best 58.6 points per game, UW is not a great defensive team able to dominate an opponent for 40 minutes. With its lack of size, it has trouble overpowering anyone.
Instead, UW is a very good defensive team that is forced to rely on off-speed pitches rather than fastballs. Coach Bo Ryan must pick and choose which players he wants to stop and hope no one else goes off. So far, Ryan's won that battle more times than he's lost it.
There are two reasons for UW's success despite having only one player (Mike Wilkinson) taller than 6-5 playing major minutes. First, Ryan has kept opponents off-balance by overplaying top scorers and making good in-game adjustments. Second, the Badgers are moving better and are more together on defense than they were early in the season.
'Defensively, our guys are willing to help one another,' Ryan said. 'They're listening to the scouting reports and they're listening to the technique that we're using and they're responding. And they're doing it a little bit undermanned size-wise.'
They're doing it well enough to put UW in the Big Ten driver's seat entering today's game at Minnesota. But if the Badgers hope to nail down a second straight title, they have sizable obstacles to overcome in their final two games.
'Minnesota and Illinois are the two biggest teams in the league,' Ryan said. 'So there's our challenge.'
One way or another, UW has been up to that challenge more often than not during the Big Ten season. Since giving up 66 and 69 points in its first two league games, UW has allowed more than 61 points only once (78 at Purdue).
However, UW's defense isn't always as pretty on the floor as those numbers indicate.
Illinois, Purdue and Iowa, among others, hurt the Badgers by using multiple tall players and forcing the ball inside. UW usually has been able to get that under control at some point, but at what cost? The Badgers were hurt by 3-point shots in losses to Michigan, Purdue and Penn State.
Overall, though, UW has held up well. Wilkinson and Freddie Owens are outstanding defenders and Tucker, Devin Harris and Boo Wade are noticeably better.
'I think we have to overachieve, and that's giving the players the credit,' Ryan said. 'From the coaching standpoint, we present it with the idea, 'Here's the challenge and here's what we need to do, can you do it?' ... All the guys are starting to assimilate the information and they're working better together with it.'
Last week's win over Iowa was typical of UW's defense.
In the first half, 22 of the Hawkeyes' 29 points came right at the rim. Often, Iowa's tall post players went over the top of the Badgers for turnarounds or putbacks. In the second half, however, the Badgers shut off Iowa's inside game as Wilkinson got more active inside and the others gave him more help.
'It's all a gut thing that you see,' Ryan said of his halftime adjustments. 'Will size make a difference on a hedge? Will a little more quickness compensate for a guy's penetration that maybe he's hurting us with?'
Ryan anticipates needing more size in the next two games, which means 6-11 junior Dave Mader and 6-9 freshman Andreas Helmigk, two centers he's been reluctant to play, are on call. Mader started every game last year, but he was set back by an ankle injury in the third Big Ten game and has struggled since his return. Helmigk isn't as alert defensively as Mader, but he's improving after playing little in November and December.
'Andreas has gotten better,' Ryan said. 'Dave is trying to get back to 100 percent with his push-off and ability to help and rotate. The thing that people do not recognize is that defensively if your bigs aren't mobile or if they're hampered a little bit, what a difference it makes on allowing driving lanes, on not being able to hedge properly. Hopefully, both Dave and Andreas will be able to help us up front.'
Hopefully, they'll get the chance.
CAPTION(S):
Associated Press
The defense of guard Freddie Owens is one big reason the Badgers lead the Big Ten Conference in scoring defense at 58.6 points per game.
Alando Tucker
