DETROIT — When asked for the specifics about Trevon Hughes' injury Friday night, Bo Ryan's response was right in line with his policy.

"We don't discuss injuries," the University of Wisconsin men's basketball coach said.

But Ryan couldn't help but talk about the impact losing the sophomore point guard — Hughes suffered what appeared to be a right foot injury about 8 minutes into the game — had on the third-seeded Badgers' 73-56 loss to 10th-seeded Davidson in their NCAA tournament Midwest Regional semifinal game at Ford Field.

Hughes, who was coming off a career high-tying 25-point performance in UW's second-round victory over Kansas State, ended up playing just 12 minutes — he came back for about 4 unproductive minutes in the second half — and did not score.

His absence also forced Michael Flowers, already charged with the difficult task of guarding Davidson's Stephen Curry on defense, to run the offense, along with sixth man Jason Bohannon.

"I really wish Trevon had been healthy. It would have been a better game," Ryan said. "Our guys will never say it, but it wouldn't have been a bad thing to have a penetrator (on the floor), a guy that can take care of (the basketball)."

Hughes spent most of the second half at the end of the UW bench, and he wasn't in the post-game locker room during reporters' access to it.

"Of course, we'd love to have (him)," said Ryan, whose team won without Hughes at Texas in December. "I feel badly for his teammates that he wasn't able to help them. That's not an excuse. What that is ... is the truth. You would like to go in to the heat of the moment with what brought you here. That didn't happen."

Transition 'D' a problem

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of UW's loss was the Wildcats' transition baskets after UW scored.

Three times in the first half, Davidson scored in 7 seconds or fewer after a UW bucket: A Curry 3-pointer, a Thomas Sander layup and a Bryant Barr 3-pointer.

"That's our style. We like to catch people sleeping," Barr said. "We saw on film they were kind of slow getting back in transition, just because they're not used to it in the Big Ten. To get some quick 3s in transition, not only does it help you offensively, it puts them down a little bit. They're like, 'Wow, we scored ... oh wow, they just scored right back.' That really helped us."

Said Flowers: "I think this game, we gave up more transition points than we have all year. They capitalized on that. Any time you get the ball out in the (open) court for easy layups and easy 3s, it's going to better your chances of coming out with a W."

Davidson coach Bob McKillop said he was stunned when point guard Jason Richards found Sander for the layup following a Bohannon layup at the other end.

"That's what we do. We've been doing that for 10 years at Davidson. But it doesn't happen against Wisconsin much," McKillop said.

Crowd control

Ford Field's sheer enormity made for a pretty sterile environment during the first half, but when Davidson took control, most of the non-UW backers in the stands jumped on board the Wildcats' bandwagon.

Ford Field set an NCAA preliminary round single-session record with 57,028 fans.

"Everyone loves the underdog," Richards said. "That felt so good, to have all of Ford Field — except the Wisconsin fans — cheering for us."

Richards was excited that NBA star LeBron James was rooting for his team.

"That's pretty impressive to have the best player in the NBA coming to your game and being entertained by what you do."

Barr said Curry is the main reason, because "once people see Steph play, you just kind of fall in love with him, and it's hard not to cheer for the kid."