Gophers pregame: Minnesota will have to focus efforts on stopping Nigel Hayes

Tonight's game vs. Wisconsin tips at 8 p.m. CT and is broadcast on ESPN and 1500-a.m.

Check out my story on Mo Walker's resurgence, which started the last time these two teams met, here. Previewing both teams here.

Wisconsin may have to change its game plan to account for the suddenly efficient Mo Walker (who they were rudely introduced to last month), but the Gophers have a new defensive focus as well:

Nigel Hayes.

The reserve freshman has been an intriguing piece of the Badgers' rotation from the start of the year, but it seems he's only getting better. Coming off the bench, the 6-7, 250-pound forward actually leads the team in percentage of possessions used, getting involved 25.3 percent of the time according to kenpom.com.

And despite that high number, Hayes has been very efficient offensively.

"He's kind of had a great impact on that team," Gophers coach Richard Pitino said. "They're playing him a lot more. When he played vs us he wasn't really the focal point of their offense, and he's become that. And he's really, really hard to guard. I've said before I thought [Indiana's Noah] Vonleh was the best freshman in the league -- [Hayes is] pretty close. And I think they see that and they've been going to him. He hurt us our first game -- bad. And I'm sure they see that and they're going to come at us with him."

Then, after two "off" games against Purdue and Northwestern, Hayes has been huge in the last three, posting offensive ratings of 137, 118 and 117 in games against Ohio State, Illinois and Michigan State.

Hayes has been one of the best in the nation at drawing fouls, and is capable on the defensive end as well.

Pitino said on Wednesday that he thinks the Gophers might have a small advantage offensively when Hayes is in at center -- where the Badgers have played him in extended stretches -- and the frontcourt is smaller, but he's more worried about what the dynamic newcomer is doing on the other end of the court.

"I guess when they put Hayes in, it's an advantage for us offensively, but it's a disadvantage for us defensively, so you worry more about the defensive side," Pitino said.

A few other notes on tonight's matchup:

*Silver linings can be found in just about everything. The bright spot for being without Andre Hollins for a while, Pitino said, is that the Gophers have aggressively pursued an inside attack, something the team seemed hesitant to commit to before. "I think we somewhat abandoned the outside game and started really going inside," Pitino said. "We figured out that we can go inside and we can win some games. Because we had to, without Andre. And you're seeing success from Mo Walker. Joey King, you're seeing success from. Because they now know offensively, this may be because they may be able to shut down Malik or they may be able to shut down Austin. Well, now you're going to go inside and that's been the positive through it all."

*Joey King on playing Wisconsin: "It definitely gets us fired up -- especially me and the guys who have been here. And it's really a big opportunity for us ... it's something that people from Minnesota really look forward to."