Intentionally using your fouls to give is not necessarily the best move here. It makes more sense when you’re up 1 to 3 points. When the game is tied and you’re on defense, the most likely and best-case scenario is overtime. In overtime, you’re at a huge advantage if you still have fouls to give and can play very aggressively on defense without having to worry about sending your opponent to the line.

What Bo Ryan said about telling the players to foul only if beaten off the dribble was exactly the right move. If you’re in a precarious situation, it’s worth burning the foul, but if not, better to save the foul to give for a potential overtime. Bruesewitz executed it perfectly, but the foul went uncalled.

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Wisconsin’s Last Possession in Regulation:

Intentionally fouling is not necessarily the best move here either. Wisconsin only had two seconds and had to inbound at the opposite end of the court. If you foul right away after the inbound pass, almost no time comes off the clock and now instead of under the opposite basket, the Badgers get to inbound from half court with a much better chance of a decent look at three-pointer.

And of course, if you’re looking to foul with so little time left, you have to do it right away; otherwise, you risk fouling the player in the act of shooting.

The fairer criticism would be whether Beilein should’ve defended the inbounder. I’d answer yes, and he’s now been burned by it twice (admittedly on two ridiculous shots by Turner and Brust).

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Wisconsin’s Last Possession in Overtime:

Yes, clearly, Ryan Evans should not have been shooting those free throws. As has been discussed, there appeared to have been a miscommunication on the previous foul, with both coaches thinking Berggren was going to the line. Bo put Evans in to rebound a potential missed free throw, which would’ve been the right move had Wisconsin already been in the bonus. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be subbed back out without time running off the clock.

Also, you can’t tell the player inbounding the ball in that situation not to pass to him, as that basically gives you three guys to pass to with five defenders on them. Putting a 40% free throw shooter at the line is still better than risking a turnover.

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Michigan’s Last Possession in Overtime:

This is where I would’ve liked to see Wisconsin use up their fouls to give. With a three-point lead, the one thing you need to avoid at all costs is fouling someone attempting a three.

Give a foul with 5 or 6 seconds left, and another with 3 or 4 seconds left, and you make it much tougher on Michigan to get off a game-tying shot.

Also, why not foul Wiscy on their inbound passes until they are forced to shot 1 and 1? Being up by three seems like a decent chance to pick the rebound up even if the shooter makes the first basket.

That’s where I disagree. I don’t know how you can conclude Hardaway wouldn’t be able to get at least as good of a shot in 2 or 3 seconds as the one he took there. I do think that’ll easily be one of the most difficult shots he’ll take in his college career. But perhaps more importantly, with less time on the clock and a tie game, Michigan can still go for a lob & catch & shoot. As a Badger fan, I’d much rather take my chances with the shot he took than a lob in to him much closer to the hoop. And sure, refs are mostly going to eat their whistles at that point – but a lob in is more difficult to defend without fouling.