Nigel Hayes Dunk-Back Sums Up Wisconsin's 1st Half Destruction of Baylor

Nigel Hayes, a Wisconsin freshman, rose up and dunked back this miss near the end of the first half of the Badgers Sweet 16 game against Baylor, and let’s just say when Scott Drew reams out his team in the locker room, he can start by calling them soft. They went up meekly at the offensive end (5-for-24, 20 percent shooting), and defensively they were downright embarrassing. The zone defense was woefully ineffective, as Wisconsin patiently passed the ball around and had 11 assists on 13 baskets.

It’s 29-16, Wisconsin.

In fact, both early games have gotten the Sweet 16 off to a sluggish start. Dayton is thumping Stanford (up 10 at the half, but it felt like 20), and the Cardinal are also playing zone. Dayton only scored 55 against Syracuse, but they’ve got 42 at the break. Stanford’s zone, which befuddled Bill Self, isn’t slowing the Flyers.

Lesson learned – hope you’re paying attention, Tennessee – change it up defensively, because teams had four days to work on the zone offense.