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L DAVID STLUKA ike his teammates, Berggren has no "We know what the Big Ten is all explanation for the lack of success at about," Berggren said. "We know the foul line. "We work on free throws every single every game is going to be a battle. day in practice,'' Berggren said. "Guys are That makes it fun. We have to turn knocking them down; I'm knocking them the page and get refocused." down then. To shoot that poorly (against Michigan State) was inexcusable. "I knocked down my first free throw and it felt fine. Every time I shot it, I thought, 'It's good.' All of my misses were in the exact same spot. I was pushing it long, and it was catching the back rim.'' But he emphasized that it's correctable. "It still hurts and it's frustrating,'' he said of the Badgers' fourth-straight loss to the Spartans. "Defensively, we played well. Rebounding-wise, we took care of business. "I thought we played hard, we played tough. We did all the little things that you need to do beat a team like Michigan State besides shooting the ball and knocking down free throws. That cost us.'' Berggren's slump has extended from the free throw line to the 3-point arc. Brian Butch went through a similar stretch during his senior year. "My mindset right now is to get in the gym and just keep shooting,'' Berggren said. "A lot of it is rhythm. Sometimes you er to be honest. Sometimes after a big win, you're get into a slump like this and you have to all jacked up. shoot your way out of it. "Last night (Tuesday) it was definitely a bit of a "There are no tricks. You can't have someone talk struggle. But I just tried to clean my mind, relax, you out of it. You just do it. I'm going to keep shootand get some rest before moving forward. ing (3s), my teammates are going to keep finding "There's no time to sit and sulk.'' me and I'm going to start knocking them down.'' Especially this season in the Big Ten. That's the mindset that he's going to take to the "We knew that coming in,'' Berggren said. "We stripe. know what the Big Ten is all about. We know every "The biggest thing is the mental aspect,'' said game is going to be a battle. That makes it fun. We Berggren, who was shooting better than 80 percent have to turn the page and get refocused. earlier this season. "You do it over and over and "Minnesota has a lot of weapons and we have to over until you can do it in your sleep.'' get back to playing our game. But if we have anothBerggren didn't sleep well Tuesday night. er defensive effort like we just did against Michigan "It's always hard for me to sleep after a game, win State, we'll have a pretty good shot to win.'' or lose,'' he said. "I don't know which one is tough28 ยป VARSITY JANUA RY 24, 2013