Wisconsin Basketball 2022-23

[Oxy]

We've been tagging on to last years thread for awhile, but it's clearly time for a fresh new post-Johnny iteration of UW basketball.

A solid core of Chucky, Wahl and Crowl should keep the floor relatively high for this crew.  Essegian and Klesmit seem like they could really step into an outside gunner type of role, which this team really needs. Hodges or Ilver or Gilmore need to step up to at least be defensively competent and not turnover machines in order to give Crowl a little rest and protect him from foul trouble.

It should be fun as always.  I'd be more surprised if they missed the Tournament than if they won the conference, but there are way too many unknowns on both this team and throughout the B1G to really say anything with any sort of confidence.  I found it odd that The Athletic picked them 9th in the league, but also were the only team with 2 guys picked on the 2 deep preseason all-conference team (Chucky and Wahl).  Of course neither were on the 1st team,  but still.  They were picked 10th last year and finished 1st in a theoretically MUCH tougher league.

Let the games begin.

[RedStickBrew]

I'm interested to see how this team comes together.  I can see them playing small ball with Wahl at the 5 and going with 4 perimeter guys that can score against several teams.

I recall reading somewhere that Wahl looked much improved as a shooter this summer.  If he could even shoot from 12 feet consistently that would really help open up his overall game.

[bjkrautk]

Really hoping the transfer (Klesmit) and Freshman (Essgian) improve the outside shooting.  Chucky shot it well before his injury in the tournament, and Jordan Davis had flashes, but I do hope they're more consistent from outside without Johnny manufacturing his own shot.

 

Hearing about the scrimmage at least gives me some optimism for this year, despite the lowered expectations.

[Jim French Stepstool]

As RedStick referred to, I think you'll see some interesting combinations esp when Crowl sits. Don't know if Gilmore elevates his offensive game---he might--but he is probably going to give them a lot of minutes. If Ilver & Hodges can guard & rebound they'll contribute. 

The perimeter will be an interesting unfold. No one really saw Neath at his best all last year, so that's a situation to keep an eye on. With Jordan Davis it's about consistency. What is the level he can play at, where he can be there 80-90% of the time? No one quite knows that, yet. I expect Klesmit to start; I think he fits the program & what Greg Gard wants pretty well. With Essigian, it's all about how quickly he can figure out the defensive end enough to hold his own. The way he can shoot it's tempting to think he may get a lot of minutes right away & learn the other end "on the fly" but that's not how they usually do things. He's definitely an exciting kid.

Bottom line, if Crowls' added strength & bulk translate positively they have a very impressive 3-man nucleus. And looking ahead, they just completed a real solid recruiting class for '23.

 

 

[LouisEly]

Not just post-Jonny, but also post-Brad.  Don't undervalue what Davison brought on both ends of the floor, at the free throw line, in the locker room, and during practice.  His 3-point shooting was mediocre, but he brought a lot of intangibles and I won't forget him hanging 29 on UNC in the tourney two years ago.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Not just post-Jonny, but also post-Brad.  Don't undervalue what Davison brought on both ends of the floor, at the free throw line, in the locker room, and during practice.  His 3-point shooting was mediocre, but he brought a lot of intangibles and I won't forget him hanging 29 on UNC in the tourney two years ago.

No doubt. The things he brought to the table day after day, it's hard to put into words how valuable that is to a coaching staff. From what I've heard Klesmit comes the closest to replacing what Davison brought. I think you'll see Brad on a coaching staff somewhere eventually.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Pretty impressive pipeline UW has developed with Lakeville North HS (MN). They just received a commitment from 2024 wing Jack Robison. Same HS as Nate Reuvers, Tyler Wahl & '23 recruit Nolan Winter.

[Brewcrew82]

10 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Pretty impressive pipeline UW has developed with Lakeville North HS (MN). They just received a commitment from 2024 wing Jack Robison. Same HS as Nate Reuvers, Tyler Wahl & '23 recruit Nolan Winter.

It's a great start to what could be a special class. 

[Oxy]

16 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

It's a great start to what could be a special class. 

Yeah, there are quite a few top 150 type '24 recruits UW is targeting who seem to be fairly high on UW.  Only need a couple of them to commit to have a nice class.

[CheezWizHed]

22 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Pretty impressive pipeline UW has developed with Lakeville North HS (MN). They just received a commitment from 2024 wing Jack Robison. Same HS as Nate Reuvers, Tyler Wahl & '23 recruit Nolan Winter.

When the new UM coach was hired, there was a lot of emphasis made on keeping their in-state talent.  Much was made of this connection between Lakeville and WI recruiting.  But obviously... not much has changed. ?

FYI, I live in Lakeville South school district, so this is very close to "home". 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

When the new UM coach was hired, there was a lot of emphasis made on keeping their in-state talent.  Much was made of this connection between Lakeville and WI recruiting.  But obviously... not much has changed. ?

FYI, I live in Lakeville South school district, so this is very close to "home". 

 Yep, UW has developed strong inroads in that state over the years. I was actually impressed with Ben Johnson, despite the W-L record. He certainly didn't have a whole lot to work with. It's funny, some of UM's fans try to run down Gard, yet Johnson is probably more like Gard in program-building philosophy than anyone they've had in recent memory.

What works against them is, the Minneapolis area produces tons of talent but it's kinda like Chicago in regards to Illinois or DePaul. So many people mine that area that it's unrealistic to "build a wall" & keep 'em all home.

Feel free to head over to North this winter & give us updates on how Robison looks.?

[brooks_quichenick]

Season opener tonight vs. South Dakota. Excited to see the post-Johnny era get underway, if the big 3 of Hepburn, Wahl and Crowl stay healthy they will surprise some folks in the B1G once again.

[bjkrautk]

Looking at the schedule, it seems like most of the non-conference season is going to be on actual Cable TV, and not shifted off to BTN+.  Job well done, schedule maker!

[Oxy]

I've been confident thinking about this upcoming season, but suddenly am worried they'll lose to South Dakota tonight.  I blame the Brewers, Packers, and Badger football for my pessimism.

[MrTPlush]

As a non Badgers fan they have a pretty respectable squad. A lot will depend on Hepburn really taking a step forward and maybe Wahl can make a sizable improvement. Outside of the experienced three it is pretty questionable though.

I really don’t think the loss of Davis and Davison are that big of a deal. Actually, I think this team will be notably better by seasons end and be a decent tourney team. They forced way too much through Davis…and Davison wasn’t even that good. Even Davis was wildly overrated in the grand scheme. Dude just shot the ball 1,000 times per game. I think they play much better team ball without those two.

[Oxy]

You aren't wrong MrTP, and I too look forward to a more balanced team that takes good shots.  Johnny single handedly won enough games last year where it just kinda stifled the overall offensive development since it was hard to argue against Johnny doing whatever he wanted.

[Jim French Stepstool]

57 minutes ago, Oxy said:

You aren't wrong MrTP, and I too look forward to a more balanced team that takes good shots.  Johnny single handedly won enough games last year where it just kinda stifled the overall offensive development since it was hard to argue against Johnny doing whatever he wanted.

Agree with your last sentence. It makes perfect sense to put the ball in the hands of a talent like Davis in crunch time of a game, yet it was very un-Wisconsin like. It actually shows the flexibility of Gard, to be willing to give up some structure. It'll be nice to see the opposing defenses get spread out a bit more, which should happen if they can shoot better from beyond the arc. Just hoping they don't settle for jump shots to the extent they did last season.

[Jim French Stepstool]

7 hours ago, bjkrautk said:

Looking at the schedule, it seems like most of the non-conference season is going to be on actual Cable TV, and not shifted off to BTN+.  Job well done, schedule maker!

IIRC the only game not on regular cable is Dec 30th.

[CheezWizHed]

9 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Agree with your last sentence. It makes perfect sense to put the ball in the hands of a talent like Davis in crunch time of a game, yet it was very un-Wisconsin like. It actually shows the flexibility of Gard, to be willing to give up some structure. It'll be nice to see the opposing defenses get spread out a bit more, which should happen if they can shoot better from beyond the arc. Just hoping they don't settle for jump shots to the extent they did last season.

I think that was the critical point last year.  Davison was a hot and cold shooter. If he was cold, there wasn't much else to spread the offense out.  

So was it Johnny stifling the offense because he was the best player or was he the only consistent player so they put it in his hands because they couldn't trust anyone else (beyond the random Chucky banked in 3ptr or Davison on a hot streak).  A bit of both sides of that coin, I think.

[Oxy]

15 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

 

So was it Johnny stifling the offense because he was the best player or was he the only consistent player so they put it in his hands because they couldn't trust anyone else (beyond the random Chucky banked in 3ptr or Davison on a hot streak).  A bit of both sides of that coin, I think.

Johnny was just as hot and cold.  He was not very efficient and didn't really get his shots within the flow of the offense so the other 4 guys were just standing around and watching Johnny, or waiting for him to be the man rather than running their stuff and looking for good shots for anybody. That's what was "stifling." 

But he was mostly clutch-particularly in the first 2/3 of the season.

[MrTPlush]

I don't think Gard did that admirable of a job coaching last year's team. Not saying he was bad, a Big Ten title is nothing to sneeze at, but it just looked puzzling at times to me. The amount of standing around watching Davis with the ball was brutal. At times it felt like no one else wanted the ball and they were spectators. Even if you run 70% of your offense through Davis they could have been way more creative with more movement while doing so. They made it a lot harder on him than it needed to be and probably a reason his shooting numbers were as pedestrian as they were. They will also rid themselves of Brad Davison and his three-point shooting. I get he was their best three point shooter among the starters, but there is absolutely no good reason that dude should have been averaging nearly seven 3's a game. In my opinion, that team should have been more balanced by year end. 

ESPN Bracketology to start the year has Wisconsin as the first team not making the tourney....which seems a bit shocking to me. I think Wisconsin is going to comfortably be in the tourney picture all year. Might not be in the mix for a 1-4 seed...but I can't imagine they lose enough to be on the bubble.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, Oxy said:

Johnny was just as hot and cold.  He was not very efficient and didn't really get his shots within the flow of the offense so the other 4 guys were just standing around and watching Johnny, or waiting for him to be the man rather than running their stuff and looking for good shots for anybody. That's what was "stifling." 

But he was mostly clutch-particularly in the first 2/3 of the season.

Think of the last 5 seconds of a shot clock, or the last 2-3 minutes of a close game. The ball goes into the hands of a teams' offensive creator, and he does what he can. That was their offense through much of last season, pretty much throughout the game. Unfortunately it got to the point where it was their best option most of the time. Davison had a productive career, but has an offensive ceiling & had reached it, especially with the energy he expended on the defensive end. Hepburn & Crowl were in their 1st years of meaningful PT. The bench couldn't be counted on consistently for points. That left Wahl, who is magnificent around the hoop but pretty much limited to that.

Overall getting the ball to Johnny was their best option. But it did lead to some ugly possessions.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

I think that was the critical point last year.  Davison was a hot and cold shooter. If he was cold, there wasn't much else to spread the offense out.  

So was it Johnny stifling the offense because he was the best player or was he the only consistent player so they put it in his hands because they couldn't trust anyone else (beyond the random Chucky banked in 3ptr or Davison on a hot streak).  A bit of both sides of that coin, I think.

Both, but more of the 2nd IMO. Good news is they give every reason to believe the outside shooting will be better this year. Ironically my bigger concern is balancing it with some sort of post-up game. It was nice to see Crowl knock down a couple threes yesterday, but I'd have been much happier if he spent the day backing people down & finishing. He's bigger & supposedly stronger, looking forward to seeing evidence of that around the cup.

Also, I hope Wahl doesn't forget who he is. I hear his shot is greatly improved. If it means he's going to hoist 3-4 threes like last night, I'd rather his outside shot be limited from 15 feet out w/no one guarding him, after being fouled.

[Oxy]

As soon as the layout of the court was shown upon AmFamClam, this whole Brew City battle was destined to be a dud.  Had they done the common sense thing and placed the center court line perpendicular to one of the dugouts so that at least half of the stadium had a decent view of the game rather than none of the stadium (other than a few hundred seats rolled in...which they still could have done had they placed the court correctly) then this could have at least become an interesting novelty that would draw the normal 15K.  Instead they can't give away tickets.

ALSO: Bring in UWM and Marquette and make it a triple header...or GB as well and have an interstate tourney.  As it is, it's just another game, and one that is better viewed on TV.

[MrTPlush]

Would have been interesting had it been a UW-Marquette game. Double the fan bases to fill up seats. I think the court setup is logical for a pretty filled up game. The seat map for tickets is pretty empty. Not sold out, but pretty sporadic. The way the court is placed gives really solid views well into the OF corners on both sides.

Not sure how the view on the field level is though in the first few rows…and it appears they sold tickets all the way to Row 1.

Not sure if this is the end goal for this type of set up or if they are trying to say “Hey, you could come and host a regional final game in a baseball stadium and sell more seats.” You could obviously make a way more grand temporary seating in the outfield. I have seen some mention Final Four, but I don’t think you can make a baseball stadium hold 80k. Would there be enough demand to increase the 20k or so fans they can fit in the Elite 8 currently?