Wisconsin Basketball 2022-23

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

 

Nebraska isn't terrible.  I saw Andy Katz suggested that Minnesota would be the only team not to play in the postseason.  The others would play in the NCAA or the NIT.

Surprisingly, they aren't. The last few years I thought their defense in the half court & overall fundamental soundness were just laughingly bad. It's almost as if Hoiberg has given up on just letting everyone do what they want & decided to coach basketball. They have some toughness now with guys like Breidenbach, Griesel & Bandoumel. A couple of years ago I'd bet Hoiberg wouldn't have even been interested in those guys.

[Samurai Bucky]

3 hours ago, nate82 said:

I thought there was another recent one not as bad as the Gard one but another outburst. 

https://nypost.com/2022/12/22/juwan-howard-flips-out-in-michigans-loss-to-unc-video/

[Samurai Bucky]

NVM -- site didn't update and I posted twice.

 

[valpocrewsader]

Just confirming, tonight's game doesn't appear to be on BTN, any ESPN channel, or anywhere else on cable? 

[yourout]

1 hour ago, valpocrewsader said:

Just confirming, tonight's game doesn't appear to be on BTN, any ESPN channel, or anywhere else on cable? 

BTN+ but it doesn't show up in the main menuing. I had to search to find it

[homer]

figured they'd be rusty after two weeks. good second half. 

[Oxy]

Western Michigan seemed better than advertised.  We basically made their poor shooters shoot...and they made enough shots to keep it at a respectable score.  But they didn't force a lot of things and didn't turn it over a lot and seemed to fight for rebounds...but they were ultimately just too small for Crowl and Wahl, who did whatever they wanted to do in the paint.  Still, we didn't exactly shut them down the way we could have.

A Bo team would have kept them to 55 points or so...Gard seems less anal about annihilating bad teams on the defensive end, but this team has shown enough defensive chops this year to lock down when they have to. I hope...

[Jim French Stepstool]

22 hours ago, Oxy said:

Western Michigan seemed better than advertised.  We basically made their poor shooters shoot...and they made enough shots to keep it at a respectable score.  But they didn't force a lot of things and didn't turn it over a lot and seemed to fight for rebounds...but they were ultimately just too small for Crowl and Wahl, who did whatever they wanted to do in the paint.  Still, we didn't exactly shut them down the way we could have.

A Bo team would have kept them to 55 points or so...Gard seems less anal about annihilating bad teams on the defensive end, but this team has shown enough defensive chops this year to lock down when they have to. I hope...

They were a little better than I expected them to look. They stayed in the game by having to put up a lot of 3pt shots that I suspect Gard was happy with them taking-----and making them. They were something like 7 for their first 12 from three. It was nice to see Crowl assert himself. We certainly didn't touch the post enough in the first half. Once that happened there wasn't much WMU could do about it. It was an 18-point game until a late run by the WMU regulars against Candelino, Isaac Gard, Chris Hodges, Ilver & Isaac Lindsey. I guess making the score relatively respectable is more important to Dwayne Stephens than getting a couple minutes for his end-of-the-bench kids. He was waving his kids up to press before a FT attempt too, with maybe a minute or so left. Found that a little strange.

[Jim French Stepstool]

It's so satisfying---to me anyway---when a team just finds a way to win. Tonight they overcome Wahl having to sit & just being curb-stomped on rebounds & 50-50 balls. Still quite a ways to go for Ilver but maybe the minutes tonight serve as a starting point as far as his defense & rebounding are concerned.

Hepburn's defense in late-game situations, don't know if i've ever seen anything like it. 3 or 4 times this season they need a stop, you want to force a tough shot, he takes it a step further with a steal. Just outstanding.

For anyone ancient enough to remember, Max Klesmit reminds me so much of some of the guards Dick Bennett had at UWGB. Smart, competitive, a leader, and a dynamic defender in the half court.

[Brewcrew82]

7 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

It's so satisfying---to me anyway---when a team just finds a way to win. Tonight they overcome Wahl having to sit & just being curb-stomped on rebounds & 50-50 balls. Still quite a ways to go for Ilver but maybe the minutes tonight serve as a starting point as far as his defense & rebounding are concerned.

Hepburn's defense in late-game situations, don't know if i've ever seen anything like it. 3 or 4 times this season they need a stop, you want to force a tough shot, he takes it a step further with a steal. Just outstanding.

For anyone ancient enough to remember, Max Klesmit reminds me so much of some of the guards Dick Bennett had at UWGB. Smart, competitive, a leader, and a dynamic defender in the half court.

True. Just wish they would've put Minnesota away when they had the chance. Rebounding was atrocious. But, then again, Wahl is our best rebounder and he was out almost the entire game due to injury. Hopefully, he's back by Saturday because we really lack depth after the top 6/7. Still, I would put our top 6 up against anybody in the BIG, including Purdue. 

[Oxy]

The game was almost lost when Mcgee and Ilver got extended time in the 2nd half, along with Klesmit being on the bench which allowed Battle to have a little run--along with an absolutely atrocious rebounding/loose ball stretch when Minnesota got everything.

When UW had at least 4 starters on the court they dictated play...Chucky could do whatever he wanted--particularly in the 2 man game with Crowl.

[Samurai Bucky]

7 hours ago, Oxy said:

The game was almost lost when Mcgee and Ilver got extended time in the 2nd half, along with Klesmit being on the bench which allowed Battle to have a little run--along with an absolutely atrocious rebounding/loose ball stretch when Minnesota got everything.

When UW had at least 4 starters on the court they dictated play...Chucky could do whatever he wanted--particularly in the 2 man game with Crowl.

Was at the game last night.  A lot of fun, but much closer than it needed to be.

One key is at around the 10:00 mark of the second half (I seem to recall 9:48, but not sure).  Minnesota outworked and "out-desired" the Badgers to cut the 13 point lead.  I don't know if it was evident on TV, but behind the band, you could certainly see it.

Klesmit and Essegian are, IMHO, the hardest workers on the floor.  Klesmit will at times will avoid toning it down a little.  The second foul in that two-foul sequence was a little iffy, but he probably got it because he was very physical on defense.

There were more than a handful of times when Crowl would miss on his post move and instead of fight for the rebound, he would put his head down and just run back.  There might have been a pout in there once in awhile.  I know he had a good stat line, but it could have been much, much better.

[areacodes]

8 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

There were more than a handful of times when Crowl would miss on his post move and instead of fight for the rebound, he would put his head down and just run back.  There might have been a pout in there once in awhile.  I know he had a good stat line, but it could have been much, much better.

I think he was frustrated as well since there seemed to be quite a bit of contact on many of his shots with no fouls being called on Minnesota.

[Jim French Stepstool]

19 hours ago, Oxy said:

The game was almost lost when Mcgee and Ilver got extended time in the 2nd half, along with Klesmit being on the bench which allowed Battle to have a little run--along with an absolutely atrocious rebounding/loose ball stretch when Minnesota got everything.

When UW had at least 4 starters on the court they dictated play...Chucky could do whatever he wanted--particularly in the 2 man game with Crowl.

Besides the obvious differences on the boards & defensively the lack of Wahl really showed by not having him & Crowl on the floor together. Two bigs who can score, one available to step out & shoot, and both more than capable passers. And yeah, the screen & roll was there, more often than we utilized it. As mentioned before, I just hope this extended time can be a springboard for Ilver.

McGee, yeah, it's been a bit of a disappointment. Sometimes a system is just "wrong" for a kid to get comfortable in. Other than shooting the ball he gives them more than Lindsey IMO, so hopefully the comfort level & consistency can go northward.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Was at the game last night.  A lot of fun, but much closer than it needed to be.

One key is at around the 10:00 mark of the second half (I seem to recall 9:48, but not sure).  Minnesota outworked and "out-desired" the Badgers to cut the 13 point lead.  I don't know if it was evident on TV, but behind the band, you could certainly see it.

Klesmit and Essegian are, IMHO, the hardest workers on the floor.  Klesmit will at times will avoid toning it down a little.  The second foul in that two-foul sequence was a little iffy, but he probably got it because he was very physical on defense.

There were more than a handful of times when Crowl would miss on his post move and instead of fight for the rebound, he would put his head down and just run back.  There might have been a pout in there once in awhile.  I know he had a good stat line, but it could have been much, much better.

It was evident on TV, too. They were certainly outworked there for a stretch. Wahl was definitely missed at that particular time, not only on the 50-50 balls but Ilver had a bad stretch during that time where he wasn't boxing out. With Wahl out, Crowl disappearing might've been fatal. He's still a work in progress but fortunately stepped up jussssst enough.

 Klesmits' defense on Battle might've made him the game MVP. And I agree about Essegian. Still makes mistakes on D but it isn't for lack of flying around, and he DOES cause some disruption. And he has a real good feel for moving w/o the ball.

[pitchleague]

Yikes.  Not good today in any aspect.  It's almost like they left the real players on the bus.

It didn't help with no Wahl out there, either.

Oh, well. 

[Oxy]

21 minutes ago, pitchleague said:

Yikes.  Not good today in any aspect.  It's almost like they left the real players on the bus.

It didn't help with no Wahl out there, either.

Oh, well. 

I actually thought it was fine considering Wahl was out. Hawkins was 15-53 from 3 entering today and he was 6-9 today. UW was 5-12 from the FT line today. Normalize those 2 stats and we win a B1G road game without our best player.

[Jim French Stepstool]

The troubling thing was, when Hawkins started heating up Wahl, if available, could've switched on him. Or may have already been matched with him.

All things considered they needed to play much better to win on the road vs a quality opponent, especially being a man down. Was surprised to see 9 TOs, it felt much sloppier than that to me. Too many good looks for Illinois. I'm sure missing your most versatile defender had a lot to do with that. Nice to see Crowl continue to be productive & rebound with a little more authority. The only other person who I thought was pretty good throughout was Klesmit. Despite the 22 pts it was a spotty performance for Hepburn.

I wonder if Isaac Lindsey gets some PG minutes again at some point. McGee continues to look disjointed.

[Oxy]

Fun game.  MSU isn't very good. We aren't very good w/o Wahl.

I had written off Hodges and Ilver, but they actually look like competent B1G players today. I love C3gian.

[Brewcrew82]

Too bad. They definitely win this game with Wahl. Hopefully he's ready to go for Indiana.

[yourout]

3 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Too bad. They definitely win this game with Wahl. Hopefully he's ready to go for Indiana.

Was at the game. The way he is limping I'm betting he is out another week.

[Brewcrew82]

2 minutes ago, yourout said:

Was at the game. The way he is limping I'm betting he is out another week.

We'll see. At least he's not wearing the boot anymore. Wahl either needs to get healthy or they need to find a way to win without him.

[Jim French Stepstool]

MSU was terrific on the offensive end in the last 3-4 minutes. Izzo got pretty much what he wanted every time, matchup-wise, and they executed. Missed I think 1 FT the entire game. They were the better team late. I don't even feel we were that bad in the same stretch outside of a horrible decision by Hepburn on the 3pt attempt. Mostly pretty good defense beaten by great execution & decision-making. The frustrating thing is, for the second game in a row we were hurt by someone Wahl could've easily been switched on. Good chance he would've actually started the game on Hauser.

I think we can officially say Crowl has taken the next step.

I can see the offensive potential in Ilver. A couple times he took his man effectively on the baseline dribble, not easy for someone 6-9 or whatever he is. It's just that at the end of the play he gets sand kicked in his face. Added strength is a necessity.

I guess it's opportunity time for Lindsey again. Not his natural position but I don't blame Gard.

 

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, Oxy said:

Fun game.  MSU isn't very good. We aren't very good w/o Wahl.

I had written off Hodges and Ilver, but they actually look like competent B1G players today. I love C3gian.

Disagree re MSU. They're a quality team & really well coached. They CAN be exploited at the 5 spot as Sissoko isn't what I would call special. I guess if your standard is top 10 or 15 team, I'd tend to agree with you.

Glad for Hodges. He must've earned the minutes due to good work in recent practices, as he wasn't used out of desperation due to foul trouble or anything like that.

[Brewcrew82]

This team has zero depth. We need Wahl against Penn State or things could really start to go downhill.

Also, to help shake things up, Gard needs to bench Davis and start Essegian.