Wisconsin Basketball Thread 2017-18

[young guns]

I just came here to post about the same thing. I was really excited to get my first look at the team this year, but nooo gotta have women's basketball on tv and make the badger game a pay game.

[pacopete4]

The good thing about tonight is they are scoring at will. 46 points in the first half? Nicely done. I hope this team surprises a lot of people this season.

[MrTPlush]

The good thing about tonight is they are scoring at will. 46 points in the first half? Nicely done. I hope this team surprises a lot of people this season.

 

They are playing garbage. You should probably score at will vs. garbage. The coaches after these types of games usually sum up the meaningless pretty darn well.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Dominating performance against Yale. I'm surprised. Yale was missing one of its best players, but that's a solid Ivy League team, a team you'd expect to beat by 10 or 15 so wow. Excited for the big test against Xavier on Thursday.

[brwrsfan]

Some tougher competition upcoming, so we'll see there.

 

And yes, as someone mentioned above, they have to start the conference season earlier due to Delaney's ridiculous insistence on the tournament being at MSG, and thus, a week earlier than normal.

 

That, coupled with the non-conference games they already had scheduled is going to make for a brutal stretch for the Badgers in early December.

[nate82]

Just me or is this year looking kind of weak for the Big Ten?

[docduany]

I thought last season was supposed to be a down year in the Big Ten. This year is supposed to be tougher.

[CheezWizHed]

Twin Cities Fox is hyping the Gophers as finally returning to something decent.

[FVBrewerFan]

I thought last season was supposed to be a down year in the Big Ten. This year is supposed to be tougher.

 

Yea, Mich State should be a great team. Indiana, Michigan, and Purdue will be really good. Wisconsin, of course, will be better than predicted. Then there could be a couple surprises like Minnesota, Maryland, Iowa.

[ZBTMP]

I thought last season was supposed to be a down year in the Big Ten. This year is supposed to be tougher.

 

Yea, Mich State should be a great team. Indiana, Michigan, and Purdue will be really good. Wisconsin, of course, will be better than predicted. Then there could be a couple surprises like Minnesota, Maryland, Iowa.

 

Indiana lost by 21 to a Larry Bird-less Indiana State. They are currently 86 in Pomeroy. Really good is relative, but Im not seeing it.

[Samurai Bucky]

I thought last season was supposed to be a down year in the Big Ten. This year is supposed to be tougher.

 

Yea, Mich State should be a great team. Indiana, Michigan, and Purdue will be really good. Wisconsin, of course, will be better than predicted. Then there could be a couple surprises like Minnesota, Maryland, Iowa.

 

Indiana lost by 21 to a Larry Bird-less Indiana State. They are currently 86 in Pomeroy. Really good is relative, but Im not seeing it.

 

Speaking of Pomeroy, this may be my favorite rankings site: https://www.mratings.com/cb/compare.htm

[brwrsfan]

Top of the B10 will be quite good. MSU and Purdue both for sure. Minnesota looks pretty good on paper. Badgers probably fall into line somewhere in the next tier - hopefully. Be interesting to see how they fair against Xavier tonight.

[pacopete4]

Badgers a 3.5 point favorite over #15 Xavier tonight. Should be a fun one to watch.

[OnaBadger58]

Badgers a 3.5 point favorite over #15 Xavier tonight. Should be a fun one to watch.

I find that to be a little bit surprising. I would have thought the Badgers would be slight underdogs in this game with the lack of experience.

[pacopete4]

Still a terrible free throw team. Man, it’s gotten old.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Though it's never fun to lose, I thought the Xavier game should good progress for a young team. I wouldn't have laid points against a top-tier Big East squad, even at home, especially with only one proven scorer on the roster.

 

Positives: Happ was awesome, passing, scoring, and generally impacting the game defensively. Brad Davison looked like a real competitor and quality secondary option. The chemistry between Iverson and Happ on give-and-go plays was evident.

 

Negatives: Free throw shooting, of course. Van Vliet and King were both non-factors, failing to make any real impact during any possession. I would have given AI more minutes in the second half, as he played really solidly in half #1. He just seems more ready to contribute than AVV, who looks really, really soft to me. He's got skills but needs to be hitting shots or be isolated in the post. Trice was off. He missed open looks and didn't look like the guy who provided such a spark early last season. Pritzl was horrible defensively early.

 

Overall: This team is going to be fine once it finds some balance. There are a lot of good role players right now, including Trice, Thomas (who looked strong against Xavier), Davison, etc. Lots of people capable of contributing. One or two of them need to step up to complement Happ.

 

This stretch is a nice little test, with the MTE next week. Badgers get Baylor then UCLA/Creighton. Other non-conference tests looming in road trips to Virginia and Temple and the home dates with Marquette and perhaps even Western Kentucky.

 

There is no lack of effort. I think this is a Sweet Sixteen contender with typical in-season growth and matchup luck.

[pacopete4]

Pritzl has been a huge disappointment in these last two games. Wonder if he’s a mental midget. Keep hearing how great of a shooter he is but when we play anyone of any talent, he disappears. Van Vilet has been a no show as well. Doesn’t bode well.

[OnaBadger58]

Pritzl has been a huge disappointment in these last two games. Wonder if he’s a mental midget. Keep hearing how great of a shooter he is but when we play anyone of any talent, he disappears. Van Vilet has been a no show as well. Doesn’t bode well.

Van Vliet is who he is. He is a finesse player on both sides of the ball. He's a lot like a college version of Thon Maker (at this point). If he gets the ball in the post, don't expect much. He will almost always be out-rebounded by Iverson, Happ, and maybe Davison. What I hope to get out of AVV is a couple of threes a game to open up the paint, and hopefully some semblance of an adequate defensive player. Right now he's just too soft.

 

Pritzl is a bit more of a surprise. I remember last year when Nigel said Pritzl was the best shooter in the country. There has been a tiny glimpse of that, but like you said it's time to bring it during games and do it consistently. Stop pump faking every time you have an open shot and just shoot the darn thing. I think it may take one game for him to get 20 points to remember he should be a focal point of this offense.

[MrTPlush]

Rough way for Wisconsin to start their March resume off with two Top 25 losses. Not being a fan of a Big Ten team I don’t know how strong the Conference is overall, but certainly not a great start to the season. Would have been great for hem to pull off at least one of those games.

[pacopete4]

Rough way for Wisconsin to start their March resume off with two Top 25 losses. Not being a fan of a Big Ten team I don’t know how strong the Conference is overall, but certainly not a great start to the season. Would have been great for hem to pull off at least one of those games.

 

Makes this next game against the #23 ranked UCLA team much more important. Need to figure out a way to get a win to add to that resume for March. Another loss and it'll take just that much more during B10 play to get in.

[stoutdude04]

Playing top 25 teams tough but...gotta get a few wins.

[pacopete4]

Just not enough depth on this team. Lots of effort but just not good enough. Maybe as they get some experience that will change but some of these guys are just not good.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Youth showing in Kansas City. I think the starting lineup change shows Gard and Co. (including the players) are still figuring things out. I am trying to remember that Trice is just a sophomore. I expected him to a major contributor, and so far he hasn't really been there when they've needed him. And Iverson threw the ball away twice late tonight, which cost them. Plus missing free throws. Not a good week or so from him.

 

I still think this is a good team. It's so early, and there are still good games on the schedule. Still a few chances for a big nonconference win or 3. Temple went undefeated in Charleston last week, so that road game becomes another opportunity. And of course the B1G schedule will give them lots of chances to prove they belong. I'm a little reminded of the 2015-2016 Badgers who started 8-8 with a home loss to Western Illinois and then rattled off a bunch of conference wins in a row to end up a possession away from the Elite Eight.

 

5 of the next 7 are against major conference teams (if you count the AAC, which I think deserves it with the addition of Wichita State), 3 of them on the road (true roadies too), 2 in conference. I don't know what's a reasonable expectation, but there'll be lots of chances to get big wins. 2-3 right now, and if they're even 7-5 heading into a stretch of what should be three Ws (GB, Chicago State, and Mass-Lowell) that's fine. The Nonconference SOS number will be high for the Badgers all year, which should help with the committee supposedly putting new emphasis on KenPom and other advanced metrics. In conference, they get Purdue, Michigan State, Northwestern, and Minnesota (probably the best four teams in the B1G, though NW might be overrated) all at home (plus roadies at MSU, Purdue, and NW). This is a TOUGH schedule, so if they learn lessons from this tourney, they're going to end up alright. Looking forward to being by turns annoyed, frustrated, optimistic, and thrilled, I suppose.

 

Loving what Davison brings. Looking forward to King and Ford progressing.

[AKCheesehead]

On a different note, last night's game was my first time watching on espn3, as bandwidth issues prohibit it where I live. The timing and randomness of ads during the broadcast was pretty bizarre. I couldn't figure out whether that is a product of the webpage, or if they actually just insert commercials in the broadcast while play is still going on the court.

[young guns]

I watched it on the watch ESPN app and only got commercials when there were commercial breaks.