They hadn’t played in a week. They were fully healthy. Their opponent’s best player was out with a broken nose. None of it seemed to matter for about 38 minutes of the game between the No. 23 Wisconsin Badgers (16-9 overall, 10-8 Big Ten) and the No. 5 Illinois Fighting Illini (18-6 overall, 14-4 Big Ten).
The Badgers weren’t shooting well and couldn’t stop Kofi Cockburn from scoring down low but then D’Mitrik Trice decided to turn into Reggie Miller against the Knicks and scored 19 straight points in the last 2:12 of the game to give UW a chance.