BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Mike Lucas had the best seat in the house for Wisconsin's 70-69 overtime win at Nebraska. Here is what he saw from courtside.
THE DAGGERWith Nebraska holding a 69-67 lead, the officials huddled at the scorer's table for a video review with 53.6 seconds left in overtime. In question was a pass from Nigel Hayes to Bronson Koenig in the right corner that was ruled on the floor to have deflected out of bounds off Tai Webster's left hand.
"In my mind, I didn't know if Webster touched it or not," Hayes admitted. "I honestly thought that I threw it out of bounds. I was like, 'Damn, I just turned the ball over.' But luckily the basketball gods were with us and we were able to get another possession."
It was determined that there wasn't enough to overturn the call. But the Badgers weren't able to capitalize. Koenig missed a shot and Ethan Happ fouled the rebounder, Ed Morrow, who had been out of action since Jan. 14 with a foot injury. He was the right player to put on the line in this situation.
With 42 seconds remaining, Morrow, who was only shooting 50 percent (7-of-14) from the stripe in league games, missed both attempts. Off the second miss, Happ got the rebound and Wisconsin coach Greg Gard called a timeout to map strategy with 25 seconds to play.
Since Koenig had banked a 3-pointer at the 1:44 mark of OT to pull the Badgers into a tie, it made sense the Huskers would try to get the ball out of his hands, which they did with Webster and 6-foot-9 Michael Jacobson who overplayed Koenig at the expense of leaving Hayes open.