By PAUL GOTHAM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Nigel Hayes has recorded three straight double-doubles. Bronson Koenig notched a program record for three pointers last time out. But if top-seeded Villanova is to advance to the Sweet 16, the Wildcats will need to take away the Wisconsin Badgers inside threat of Ethan Happ.
“He’s a really tough match-up,” Wright said during Friday’s media session at Key Bank Center. “He can score over you, and if you have size on him, he can score around you with his ball handling. He’s a great ball handler.”
Happ finished with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting in Wisconsin’s 84-74 first-round win over Virginia Tech. The 6-foot-10 forward grabbed eight rebounds and handed out two assists.
“He’s gotten better in terms of handling double-teams over the last month, six weeks,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard explained. “He struggled with it early. We also didn’t take advantage of it on the back side, whether it was back-side threes, we miss a lot of wide open shots earlier in the year when that first became a scheme against us. Secondly, we also missed the opportunity to throw it back in on the the back side of the defense.”
Happ is averaging 13.9 points and 9.1 rebounds the season. In three Big Ten tournament games leading up to Thursday’s win those numbers increased to 14.7 and 10.3.
“He’s obviously gotten better, but also the guys around him have gotten better at taking advantage of what’s there,” Gard said. “We’ve tweaked some things. We’ve drilled a lot of things to try to help him through that. So, he’s probably seen about every conceivable thing you can do with five guys on the floor in terms of where the traps are coming from, whether it’s the bottom, whether it’s the top, whether it’s the same side wing, whether it’s been post to post.”
What isn’t found in the box score is the number of times Wisconsin ran through their offense through the redshirt sophomore Thursday night. Happ fanned inside-out passes from the low post to teammates who in turn kept the ball moving on the perimeter.
“It’s just a matter of making decisions, being strong with the ball, not panicking, and he’s had to grow through it. We’ll continue to work with it, and we work it about every week. But it’s also, in large part, due to the play around him, too. If guys can help him out, and not put him on an island and change sides of the floor. And then when you make shots against it, that’s the ultimate goal to try to make teams pay for committing an extra guy towards him.”
Hayes scored 16 and grabbed 10 rebounds in Wisconsin’s win.
“He’s a nightmare matchup, and sometimes when you’ve been in college basketball for four years, in the regular season, you know, you realize at some point, okay, the NCAA Tournament is coming up,” Wright said. “That’s the big show, and it kind of looks to me that’s what he did. When the NCAA Tournament hit, he’s ready to go. In the Big Ten Tournament also.”
Koenig hit a school NCAA Tournament and arena record eight 3-pointers as the Badgers improved to 15-3 since 2000 in first round games.
Donte DiVincenzo recorded a double-double (21 points, 13 rebounds) in Villanova’s opening round win over Mount St. Mary’s. Jalen Brunson scored 14, and Josh Hart had 11 in the 76-56 win.
Villanova and Wisconsin are scheduled for a 2:40 pm start.
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