Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes couldn’t be stopped all night. So when he stepped to the free throw line with 3.7 seconds remaining in overtime, there wasn’t much doubt what would happen.
He had made his last nine free throws before that and would make those next two free throws to give Wisconsin a four-point lead.
IU would turn the ball over to give Wisconsin a 82-79 overtime win behind 31 points from Hayes. The loss snapped a 12-game win streak for the Hoosiers and gave them their first loss of the conference season.
“They wanted to play me physically,” Hayes said. “Maybe that was something they thought I would not like or something I wouldn’t respond to well.”
There was only one IU player who had any consistent success staying in front of and stopping Hayes, but freshman forward OG Anunoby was limited to 13 minutes.
Anunoby had success defending in IU’s 59-58 win against Wisconsin on Jan. 5, limiting Hayes to 3-of-13 shooting from the field.
IU Coach Tom Crean said there were Hoosiers playing sick Tuesday, but did not say whether Anunoby was one of them.
Hayes started the game scoring six of Wisconsin’s 11 points before Crean went to Anunoby off the bench.
Hayes scored again three minutes later, but on a possession when he was being guarded by junior forward Collin Hartman. When Anunoby wasn’t in the game, it was Hartman tasked with defending Hayes.
Hartman ended up fouling out of the game with 45 seconds remaining in regulation.
Shortly after that, it was Hayes who forced senior guard Yogi Ferrell to miss a 10-foot shot at the buzzer. The Hoosiers were trying to switch Wisconsin sophomore forward Ethan Happ onto Ferrell for the final possession after a ball-screen.
The Badgers did switch after the screen, but they switched Hayes onto Ferrell because they knew what IU’s plan was.
“We did that intentionally thinking that would happen to get Nigel onto Yogi,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said. “Yogi did a terrific job of shot-faking and getting Nigel in the air but he didn’t take the bait enough.”
Hayes said he was lucky Ferrell didn’t go into Hayes and create contact, looking to get to the line and that he was bailed out for biting on Ferrell’s shot-fake.
Hayes never hesitated going into contact though.
In 42 minutes, Hayes scored 31 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. He also shot 17-of-22 from the free-throw line. The Hoosiers only managed to get to the free-throw line 18 times as a team.
Crean said he couldn’t afford to double Hayes in the post because of his ability to pass out of double teams. That’s what hurt IU in its first matchup against Wisconsin, so Crean was going to make the Badgers win another way.
They responded by getting the ball to Hayes as much as they could.
“A couple of the timeouts we just got Nigel the ball and got out of the way,” Wisconsin Coach Greg Gard said. “That was the play call. I thought our guys did a good job of finding him at certain times.”
Crean said he didn’t know what Hayes was doing to get to the free-throw line so much, but he was going to look at tape to see if the Hoosiers could replicate what Hayes and his teammates were doing.
He also said he thought Ferrell was doing a good enough job of drawing contact, but he wasn’t getting to the line as often as Hayes.
“I would be confident too if I had time to rest on those free-throws,“ Crean said.
As for Hayes, he said the amount of times he got to the free throw line didn’t matter. He said it didn’t matter who was guarding him.
He said this because of one fundamental belief. Hayes said no matter the situation or the game, there is no one who can guard him.
“I’ve got this mindset that I’m the best player on the court and that nobody can guard me,” Hayes said. “It’s not a matter of who’s guarding me, just what can I do next and what can I do to score?”
