UW’s Trice expects foes will force him to left side

Guard has been strong going to right

MADISON – One day before Wisconsin played its second Big Ten game, against visiting Rutgers, guard D’Mitrik Trice chatted with two reporters outside the UW locker room.

The discussion turned to Trice’s white-hot shooting – he was at 58.3 percent from three-point range at the time – and whether teams would eventually start trying to force him away from the right wing, an area from which he was flourishing.

“That’s something that is in the back of my mind,” Trice said at the time. “But until then I’m just going to stick to what I’ve been doing.

“It has been good to me so I don’t want to go away from it.”

Virginia had effectively forced Trice into more difficult shots and he finished 0 for 2 from three-point range and 2 for 9 overall in UW's 53-46 loss in the title game of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Marquette’s coaches decided they had to prevent Trice from getting to the right wing for jumpers and/or drives and guard Markus Howard did all he could to force Trice to the left side.

Trice was limited to eight field-goal attempts, his second-lowest total of the season, in 41 minutes. His lowest total this season is seven, in 27 minutes against Houston Baptist.

He hit just 1 of 6 three-pointers, 3 of 8 shots overall and finished with seven points in UW’s 74-69 overtime loss to the Golden Eagles.

“That was definitely something we keyed in on in preparation,” Howard said of forcing Trice to the left side of the floor. “He is terrific going up with his right hand.

“We saw in scouting that was primarily where he was getting most of his shots. We wanted to be sure to try to