The Wisconsin Badgers lost to the Indiana Hoosiers in overtime, 78-77, and almost all the discussion is surrounding the officiating. Wisconsin fans are calling it rigged, while Indiana fans are finding all the clips that may or may not prove the point. Yet, that's only one of the reasons Wisconsin can point to for losing the game.
We can start there though, let's look at the officiating real quick.
1. The officiating cost Wisconsin the game in the end
Officiating won't be perfect, and every fanbase after every loss can point out bad calls. However, towards the end of regulation and into overtime, there was a series that ultimately cost Wisconsin the game. Whether you agree with the calls (no calls) or not, they ultimately decided the game.
There was the Nolan Winter foul, where he clearly went straight up. There was the no calls on Indiana trying to actively foul at the end of the game when trapping. There, of course, was the charge called on Nick Boyd when he was driving away from the basket, and Conor Enright came and basically jumped into Boyd. Then there was the John Blackwell vs. Lamar Wilkerson foul call to end the game.
Indiana fans can nitpick any of them at the micro level, but the larger problem is that, during that span, they were all against Wisconsin, and all were close. That's why Wisconsin fans feel screwed.
2. Slow starts over and over again
After the game, when asked about the terrible officiating, the players all basically had a similar message. Nolan Winter said, "To put it in the refs' hands is not what we want to do." Nick Boyd jumped in with, "Tough call. We just put ourselves in that position." What do they mean? That they should have started hot instead of only playing hot at the end.
The Badgers continue to start games out of sync and cold from all over the court. It's become quite a trend, and Wisconsin continues to have to fight out of double-digit deficits to win games. They should probably not put the refs in the position to decide games; they could have won by starting hot.
3. Wisconsin has no clear answer for bigs in the paint
Sam Alexis hasn't scored more than 13 points in all of Big Ten play. He's never scored 19 in a game, and yet he looked like prime Shaquille O'Neal down in the paint. Alexis was getting anything he wanted in the paint. Wisconsin's Aleksas Bieliauskas was struggling against him so badly that he got swapped out for Jack Janicki (who's not even a big man).
The Indiana Hoosiers and other teams built like them can seemingly get whatever they want in the paint. Wisconsin is void of a real big man, or at least a veteran one. Winter is better at the four than the five and struggles in these situations when he has to do it all himself.
Indiana had 44 points in the paint to Wisconsin's 28. That's bad.