UW men's hoops falls to No. 9 in USA Today coaches poll and to No. 11 in AP poll.
MADISON – As expected, Wisconsin took a hit Monday in both men’s basketball top 25 polls.
However, the drop wasn't precipitous.
The Badgers, who suffered losses to Nebraska and Purdue last week, slipped just three spots to No. 9 in the USA Today coaches poll and five spots to No. 11 in The Associated Press poll.
Meanwhile, the Badgers remained at No. 13 in the NCAA NET rankings.
The losses dropped UW (16-6, 8-3 Big Ten) into a second-place tie with Illinois (17-5, 8-3), 1½ games behind Purdue (21-2, 10-2).
UW has two road games this week, Wednesday against Michigan (7-15, 2-9) and Saturday against Rutgers (11-10, 3-7).
Juwan Howard's Wolverines haven't been able to protect second-half leads
The Wolverines have dropped into last place in the Big Ten for several reasons. The most obvious, however, is their inability to sustain solid play after halftime.
Michigan has led at halftime in nine of 11 league games, by an average of 5.8 points. They have lost seven of those games.
The victories were a 90-80 decision Dec. 10 at Iowa and a 73-65 decision Jan. 15 over visiting Ohio State.
Michigan has outscored Big Ten foes by a total of 27 points in the opening half but the Wolverines’ second-half deficit is a whopping 113 points, an average of 10.3 points.
The Wolverines on Saturday held a 39-30 halftime lead against visiting Rutgers and pushed the lead to 47-32 with 17 minutes 3 seconds left before collapsing. Rutgers closed the game on an 18-2 run en route to a 69-59 victory.
String of losses have Juwan Howard frustrated
The loss to Rutgers was the 10th in 11 games for Michigan. That is the program’s worst stretch since the Wolverines lost 11 of 12 during John Beilein's second season (2007-08).
Howard, in his fifth season as Michigan’s head coach, appears to be growing frustrated.
His Big Ten mark is 48-40 and his overall mark is 86-63. But since winning the Big Ten regular-season title with a 14-3 mark and finishing 23-5 overall in Year 2, his record is just 24-27 in league play and 44-46 overall.
“Everything, just take your pick, everything is always addressed in practice,” Howard told reporters after the loss to Rutgers. “We have a great staff. We’ve done this before and had success while doing it.
“But the buy-in has to be reciprocated on the other end as well. When you have the buy-in, that you’re going to do what we practice and apply it, it works. It’s proven it works…
“I've considered, you know, maybe going with my walk-ons. Because they care. They're going to give a lot of what we ask. They're all dialed-in.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Badgers No. 9 in USA Today poll; No. 11 in AP poll.
