Hayes, Happ struggling from free-throw line

Madison – Will the free-throw struggles of Nigel Hayes and Ethan Happ eventually place the Wisconsin staff in a quandary?

Hayes hit 10 of 10 free throws in the Big Ten opener against Rutgers to push his season mark to 65.5% (55 of 84). He made a combined 4 of 7 attempts in the next two games but began wearing a large bandage on the index finger of his shooting hand before UW hosted Ohio State.

Hayes made just 1 of 5 attempts in UW’s 23-point victory over the Buckeyes and followed that by making only 4 of 10 in a four-point victory over Michigan.

As a result, Hayes is shooting 60.4% from the line (64 of 106) as UW (15-3, 4-1  Big Ten) prepares to face host Minnesota (15-4, 3-3) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

That is well below the 69.7% mark he shot in his first three seasons.

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Happ is second on the team behind Hayes in free-throw attempts with 50. But he is shooting just 50% from the line, down slightly from his 53.8% mark last season.

Those developments have left the players No. 1 and No. 2 on UW in attempts shooting a combined 56.7% from the line (93 of 164).

UW’s other three starters – Bronson Koenig (87.9%), Vitto Brown (84.6%) and Zak Showalter (84.0%) – have combined to make 61 of 71 attempts.

Reserve guard D’Mitrik Trice is shooting 75% from the line (12 of 16), but the struggles of Hayes and Happ have contributed to UW shooting just 66.3% from the line, the No. 12 mark in the Big Ten.

“We have confidence in both those guys,” UW assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft said. “Nigel, how many times has he shot big free throws in his career?”

Hayes as a junior made 65 of 74 attempts (87.8%) during the final 5 minutes of regular-season games.

“Crazy,” Hayes said.

Hayes made just 1 of 4 in the final 40 seconds in the victory over Michigan.

“They want to be at the line,” Krabbenhoft said. “They don’t want to be on the bench. They don’t say: ‘Hey, sub me out. I might get fouled.’

“That is not those guys. Those guys are very confident players. … They want to be at the line when it counts and we expect them to make it.”

Happ picked up his fourth foul with 3 minutes 26 seconds left against the Wolverines. Coach Greg Gard immediately brought guard Jordan Hill in for Happ. He brought Hill in for Happ when UW was on defense three more times – with 2:48, 2:24 and 2:17 left.

Happ, one of UW’s best in-bounders, got the ball in against full-court pressure and eventually assisted on a fast-break basket by Showalter to give UW a 60-51 lead with 2:13 left.

With UW holding a 60-54 lead with 1:55 left, Gard brought Hill back in and Happ watched the rest of the game from the bench. Michigan committed six fouls and UW hit 8 of 12 free-throw attempts.

Happ, who has been working on reconstructing his shot since he arrived at UW, has made 9 of 18 free-throw attempts in Big Ten play. The one bad performance came against Ohio State, when he missed all four attempts.

"I only had one slip-up,” Happ said, referring to the Ohio State game. “I’m happy with the progress that I’ve made and I’m going to continue to get better.”

Hayes is wearing a bandage on his right index finger to protect a cut on the underside of the finger.

“Putting the tape over it allows it to heal while I’m playing,” said Hayes, who declined to say how he suffered the cut. “Hopefully it doesn’t re-open.

“I’m waiting on it to heal. It is getting close. It is right there on the border. Hopefully once this heals I’ll be back in business.”

UW did not practice Wednesday, the day after the Michigan game, but Hayes said he came in and shot free throws for two hours.

Hayes acknowledged the recent misses have left him thinking too much.

“Usually they say you trash talk and you can get into someone’s head,” he said. “Well, Nigel is in his head, just having a party up there. I would like to move out. I’m going to move out.

“I’m good. I’ve just got to get it out of my head.

“Fortunately it hasn’t cost us a game yet this season. I’m not looking forward to letting that happen."

Jeff Potrykus can be reached at jpotrykus@journalsentinel.com or twitter.com/jaypo1961.