No. 24 Wisconsin looks to fend off Northwestern (Mar 11, 2017)
WASHINGTON -- This is the time of year that college basketball teams will grasp onto anything that can give them a lift.
For Michigan, coming together when the team plane skidded into a ditch Wednesday may have made the club a Cinderella story.
Another Midwest team in the Big Ten Conference tournament -- No. 24 Wisconsin -- may be drawing on a recent players-only meeting.
"We are playing better, so if that means joy has been found, then so be it. I like the way they're playing though," head coach Greg Gard said after his team beat Indiana 70-60 on Friday night in the conference quarterfinals.
The Badgers (24-8) will play on Saturday in the semifinals against Northwestern, which defeated Maryland 72-64 late Friday night to continue its feel-good story in this event.
The Wildcats (23-10) trailed by 10 points early in the second half before storming back to quiet a pro-Maryland crowd as the Terps played about 12 miles from their campus in College Park, Md.
Northwestern beat Maryland for the first time in five tries since the Terps joined the Big Ten.
The Wildcats had a run of 20-4 at one point and are shooting 57.7 percent from the field in its first two games in the tournament.
Northwestern, all but assured of making March Madness for the first time, advanced to the conference semifinals for the first time in its history.
The Wildcats beat Wisconsin 66-59 in the only meeting between the teams earlier this season.
"Obviously we are super excited right now to be on the stage where we've never been before," Scottie Lindsey said of the Wildcats.
When did Northwestern head coach Chris Collins, who used to face Maryland when he played at Duke, realize he had a special club?
"I think it was a mentality we came into the season with," he said. "We had been through a lot together and these guys had played together as freshmen and sophomores. They got their heads kicked in a little bit, they got in the gym, and they got tough. I noticed in the fall that this was a group that believed they could be good. It is so fun to watch them go out there and play this way."
The Wildcats were able to silence the Maryland crowd and now head to the semifinals.
"It means a lot. I feel like we are playing well at the right time. We are really clicking on all cylinders and it is a special thing we have going on right now," said junior guard Bryant McIntosh, who had 16 points and six assists against Maryland.
Both Northwestern and Wisconsin are using crisp ball movement in a team approach in the tourney.
Gard noted that the Badgers had five players in double figures for the first time in a long time against the Hooisers.
"We sputtered offensively for a while and our defense saved us, and then once we got the offense going again, our defense was lacking. Now we kind of found a way to make both of those things happen on a nightly basis," said sophomore forward Ethan Happ, who scored 14 points and had 12 rebounds against Indiana.
