College Basketball 2009

[homer]

For some reason, UW decided to play run and gun with Marquette. Didn't work out so well. But even so, had UW made their free throws they win that game.

[thebruce44]

The tempo of that game definitely favored MU. Still, Marquette needs to go to the hoop more if they are going to survive in the big east. They are not a jump shooting team.

[Menotti80]

But even so, had UW made their free throws they win that game.

i dont know about that, considering MU missed 9 free throws themselves, and at least 3 of them were on 1and 1s.

[bork]

I thought the game was over when Hayward got called for the two charges. I certainly wasn't expecting MU to win, the way they've been playing.

 

As good as McNeal was, I just hope the 4 threes don't go to his head and he starts thinking he's a three point shooter again. It drives me nuts when he takes those quick threes, early in the shot clock.

 

Burke stepped up again for the Wisconsin game. I don't care if he doesn't score, if he can play defense without fouling like he did yesterday and grab a few rebounds, that will really help in the Big East.

[pitchleague]

I'm thoroughly enjoying tonight's Badgers-Texas game. Up-and-down scoring (albeit a bit more scoring that I thought), nice runs by both teams, and overall good, hard play.

 

Hope they can pull it off. 4:00 to go.

[Oldcity]

Good game but the Badgers went on a bit of a dry spell at the end. They just struggle to score at times. They have a solid team, but it definitely seems to be a notch below last year's team. I'm definitely not expecting another Big Ten title.

[owbc]

Definitely a solid performance by the Badgers but they come up short yet again.

 

They don't seem to have a "go to" guy late in games and seem to just quietly fade away--even in some of their wins. I really like what I see from Leuer, but with Landry having an off night, there wasn't anyone else to step it up. Using the deep bench is usually nice, but we don't have the depth that we had in years past--instead of Hughes coming off the bench, we have Jordan Taylor, who definitely has room for improvement.

 

The Big Ten is going to be tough this year--perhaps the #2 conference behind the Big East. This might be the year that Bo fails to make the NCAA tourney--Michigan State, Purdue, and Ohio State look to be the favorites, with Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois all fielding solid teams. Even Iowa and Northwestern aren't that bad this year.

[fondybrewfan]

So what the heck was Hughes doing going in for a layup with 6 seconds left? It looked like he was trying to draw a foul but the Texas guy wasn't that dumb. At least give your teama chance to win Trevon!!! It is a shame because he had a pretty good game going. Bo really needs to get Leuer into the starting lineup. Nankavil is really painful to watch most of the time

[bjkrautk]

So what the heck was Hughes doing going in for a layup with 6 seconds left? It looked like he was trying to draw a foul but the Texas guy wasn't that dumb. At least give your teama chance to win Trevon!!! It is a shame because he had a pretty good game going. Bo really needs to get Leuer into the starting lineup. Nankavil is really painful to watch most of the time

The idea was to take a quick 2 and foul, hoping to squeeze an extra possession out of the game. The problem wasn't the decision, per se, but the execution. There was 24 seconds on the clock after Texas hit their last jumper; Wisconsin ran 18 seconds off the clock before getting their shot.

 

 

Right now, the Badgers have go-to answer in the post when Landry isn't in the flow of the game. Landry has had to go to the bench with foul trouble in 2 of the 3 Wisconsin losses (Texas, Marquette), and while Leuer could become that kind of scoring presence....he's not there yet.

[Roscoe Chill]

Yes, once again, just as in years past, when the game is close and time is short, the Badgers don't seem to know how to react/execute. In these situations, the normal offense/game plan should be out the window, but for some reason it's not, and it's same old same old, using way too much time on the clock that they don't have and then panic before an ill advised low percentage try. Obviously there have been some exceptions (Butch @ Indiana; Flowers @ Texas). But more often than not, they aren't prepared for these situations.

 

Great game though, and I think the Badgers are going to be fine, it's just disappointing that they never seem to figure out the last second strategy to try and tie or win a game. Last night, they had the ball in the right guy's hands (Hughes) but they should have had someone like Leuer set up for a final three attempt from a kick out, since Bohannon was obviously going to be blanketed.

[ccbrew]

Yes, once again, just as in years past, when the game is close and time is short, the Badgers don't seem to know how to react/execute. In these situations, the normal offense/game plan should be out the window, but for some reason it's not, and it's same old same old, using way too much time on the clock that they don't have and then panic before an ill advised low percentage try. Obviously there have been some exceptions (Butch @ Indiana; Flowers @ Texas). But more often than not, they aren't prepared for these situations.

I think it's just a case of the late game inadequacies being magnified because UW has lost only a handful of games over the past few years, many of them being close. Off the top of my head, some other clutch late game performances from the past couple of years come to mind: BTT semis against MSU, finishing off Michigan in an otherwise sloppy game last year, and Kammron Taylor on Senior Day. Digging a bit further back, Taylor's buzzer-beater against UNC-Wilmington was pretty memorable for me as well.

 

While I wouldn't go as far as to call it a strength, the Badgers have executed enough times for me not be terribly concerned with the way this one ended.

[Roscoe Chill]

I'm as big of a Badger supporter as there is, ccbrew, but when they are down late in the game, they are not the same team. Well actually, they are the same team, but they shouldn't be if that makes any sense. There's almost no urgency.

 

Like I said, there are exceptions. But I'm not even talking about games decided by just a couple or few points. My point is at the end of the game, they don't have very good clock management when trailing. That's just something I've noticed with Bo Ryan's teams. I've honestly got no other problems with Bo Ryan except for how they let too much time off the clock when they should be trying to score quickly in those situations. Obviously, that's what they do normally in their offense, is work the clock down, then take a shot. It's almost the equivalent of a football team being down 14 points with 2:00 left, and continuing to run the ball because that's their original game plan.

 

You just lessen your chances to win doing that. That play at the end of the game last night was not a good effort, and didn't make much sense to me. It's not often announcers question stuff like that either, but they did last night. And I did too.

[Glennron]

Pretty big wins for Wisconsin and Marquette the last couple days. Wisconsin was very impressive for most of the game vs. Michigan, and the Big 3 for Marquette all played a big part in beating Villanova. I know the Big East schedule will be tough all year, but MU's last 5 conference games are @ Georgetown, vs UConn, @ L'Ville, @ Pitt, and vs. Syracuse, just brutal.

[Menotti80]

yeah MU needs to start off about 10-3 (or at least 9-4) before that awful stretch. given marquette's uncanny ability to suck down the stretch to close out the big east season, i can't see better than 1-4 in the last 5

[PeaveyFury]

People complain all the time throughout sports about announcers leaning towards one of the schools when calling a game, but I don't think I've heard an announcer blatantly rooting for a team like the color guy on the Wisconsin/Penn State game today.

[trwi7]

People complain all the time throughout sports about announcers leaning towards one of the schools when calling a game, but I don't think I've heard an announcer blatantly rooting for a team like the color guy on the Wisconsin/Penn State game today.

 

That was Spencer Tollackson. Former Minnesota center.

[homer]

Yeah he just graduated last year so there's probably some leftover animosity. It was pretty blatant though.

[Oldcity]

I've never heard an analyst yell, "...NO!!!" like four different times in a game the way Tollackson did.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

Bye, Bye UNC from the undefeated ranks.

[Marc Newfield of Dreams]

Jerel McNeal is ridiculous.

[Glennron]

Pittsburgh's the new #1 after UNC's loss. I know rankings don't really mean much and in the end don't affect seeding, but it's kind of a joke that Louisville is still ranked when a team like Wisconsin isn't even in the top 30 in terms of votes.

[homer]

Louisville hasn't played a true 'away' game yet. Only neutral courts (they lost both games). Isn't that kind of odd?

 

And the Big East is ridiculous. There are 4 legit national champion contenders (Pitt, UConn, West Virginia, G'Town) and three more sweet 16/Great 8 types (Louisville, Marquette, 'Nova)

 

The Big Ten will be lucky to get a team in the Final 8.

 

Edit: And before someone jumps on me for my West Virginia pick, I'm a Ken Pomeroy disciple. His word is law.

[Glennron]

I've read through what all of KenPom's different rankings are based on and all that so I mean I get what he's doing, but I still don't get his rankings a lot of times. Northwestern the 37th best team, Washington ahead of Texas? Last year my brother said he picked his first round based off Pomeroy and he went 28-4 so I know I shouldn't really doubt him, but I still don't see how he figures his rankings some of the time.

[burniebrewer]

Bye, Bye UNC from the undefeated ranks.

Not over yet, but BC (the team who beat UNC at Chapel Hill) is down by 14 to Harvard with 4 minutes to play...and this is a BC home game.

 

Edit- Game over, Harvard wins, 82-70.

 

Talk about a hangover game for BC.

[homer]

Wow, UW just creams Northwestern. I didn't get a chance to see the game but I thought it would be much closer.