The Wisconsin Badgers have been led by Captain America, Frank Kaminsky, all season long, and it was only fitting that the Wooden Award favorite would lead his team to the outright Big Ten regular season title. With a super-human effort of 25 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds, the big man pushed Wisky to the win over their rival Minnesota in The Barn.
This was an all-around effort by Wisconsin, as there wasn't a single player in the starting lineup that could be pointed out as having a bad game. Sam Dekker was pumped up with energy tonight, driving into the lane to end up with 20 points. Nigel Hayes was the little-talked about X-factor, scoring 12 points and garning 9 rebounds, hitting the boards hard to befuddle the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Gophs were down 10 with about 2:00 to go in the game, but Bronson Koenig scored 5 points in the final 2 minutes to put the game out of reach, clinching the title for Bucky the Badger.
Richard Pitino's inconsistent Gopher squad had the home crowd behind them, making some mini runs to cut the deficit, but their defense in the paint was simply heinous. Freshman backcourt leader Nate Mason went 6-12 shooting to wind up with 15 points, leading the team in scoring. Senior Andre Hollins had yet another disappointing affair, shooting 2-9 while being pummeled by Wisky in all facets of the game. Catalyst off of the bench Carlos Morris gave the team an occasional spark, but he wasn't enough to overcome the consistent onslaught by the Badgers.
Now 17-13 Minnesota will try to close out their regular season with a tough matchup at home against always feisty Pennsylvania State on Sunday, while 27-3 Wisconsin gets another rough road matchup on the same day vs. Ohio State.