By Adam Roberts – 3/22/2021
A season of challenge has ended for Wisconsin men’s basketball. Fighting through a pandemic and being fortunate enough to not require any pauses for COVID-reasons on their end, Wisconsin was outmatched by a one-seed from Waco, Texas. The Baylor Bears forced 14 Wisconsin turnovers on their way to a 76-63 win over Wisconsin.
Seven Badgers scored, with only Micah Potter and Johnny Davis contributing off the bench. The real story though was the offensive struggle in the first half for Wisconsin; Baylor junior guard Davion Mitchell said after the game the pride of Baylor’s style of play is how difficult they make it for their opponents to get into a rhythm, and that was on full display yesterday.
Wisconsin was able to rally from down 18, largely thanks to a push from D’Mitrick Trice to get the Badgers within seven, but Baylor’s D clamped down when they needed down the stretch, with stingy defense setting up alley-oops aplenty on the other end.
Baylor returns to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017, while Wisconsin continues to find their first return to the third round since being ousted by Florida in 2017.