Brad Davison is already a Badger legend. We talked about it on the Daily Tap yesterday as Davison cemented his claim of being a Badger over the past few months. He’s the classic look of a prototypical Badger player with the buzzcut, the attitude, grittiness and every other superlative you can find for a short, white, college basketball player. Yesterday, he had a career day for Wisconsin going off for a career-best 30 points battling through his shoulder injury and other knicks through the game. Wisconsin could not pull off another top five upset as they fall to Michigan State, 68-63.

Happ and Iverson get slowed down by State’s big men
One of the things that Michigan State is known for this year is their interior defense. Jaren Jackson is a top five pick next season in the NBA Draft, and you could see why in this game. He’s still very raw on offense, but he can play some defense. Jackson did a great job shutting down Ethan Happ who only had 13 points missing 11 shots from the field. Khalil Iverson also felt the pain of Sparty’s bigs going scoreless and only shooting the ball two times in the game.

Refs hurt Wisconsin’s chances at a win
It’s never fun to blame the refs for a loss, and while Michigan State was clearly better down the stretch, the officials missed a blatant foul on Brevin Pritzl who went up for a three point shot down six with about a minute left to go. Michigan State defender slashed his arm, and there was no call given to the Badgers’ sophomore guard. That hurts in a close game like this one. Refs cannot swallow their whistle in that situation.

Shall we meet again?
Wisconsin and Michigan State can pick this back up on Friday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. The Big Ten Tournament begins on Wednesday with Wisconsin kicking it off against Maryland. If they beat the Terrapins, Michigan State looms in the quarterfinal. Wisconsin knows they can beat this Spartans team, and we’ve seen strange things happen at a conference tournament before.

Next up
As mentioned, the Big Ten Tournament starts and Wisconsin will be playing Maryland on Thursday afternoon. Badgers and Terrapins met once this season where Maryland pulled out a close victory. Mark Turgeon came under fire with the latest news about Diamond Stone receiving 14k to come and play for Maryland. The team did not look together last Saturday losing by 24 points at home to Michigan.

Charlie.