2023-24 Wisconsin Basketball season thread

[yourout]

1 hour ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I'm just over-the-moon speechless about the halfcourt defense tonight. Spectacular. Hall was under the weather for them, but still..........57 points, and that's with the 3-4 minute stretch where they got in a great rhythm from beyond the arc. Was actually hold-them-to-50-caliber defense IMO.

Hitting the offensive boards certainly paid off again tonight. Loved the clock management with the late lead that the Orebs allowed for.

Great floor games from the bigs, along with the points. If Crowl starts knocking down that set shot with regularity, it's an X factor. Didn't see the stat sheet yet, but I thought I saw Crowl with 5 assists. Overall assist-to-bucket ratio for the team had to be impressive.

I thought Winter was surprisingly physical on a couple rebounding situations. Great to see. No points, but McGee made a couple plays in the 1st half as well. And nice to see Essegian knock one down. This bench contributes, even when it isn't with points.

John Blackwell-------AGAIN. 'Nuff said.

Terrific performance.

Blackwell seems like a complete player.  He's really the basketball Swiss army knife.

Incredibly savvy for a freshman.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Storr and Blackwell are total game-changers for this team. Just that little bit of agility makes so much difference on a team that's always going to be sound in the halfcourt.

The Tennessee game showcased a lot of what I thought was wrong with the Badgers in previous years. They just were really limited offensively. With some guys starting to grow into themselves a little, they're looking much, much better. When you don't have to count on Wahl and Essegian to score a bunch and can let Chuckie take what comes, you're going to be good.

If Crowl shoots like a little over 30 percent from 3, lookout. He's going to get a million open looks when the defense has to rotate so hard on the high ball screen.

Storr & Blackwell make a huge difference w/their ability to penetrate, for sure. But while the offense was stagnant & the shooting mediocre vs the Vols, they still scored 70 (& gave up 80). I just feel this is becoming a team that really feeds off defensive effort & can give that effort consistently due to the depth. If they guarded Tennessee the way they did vs MSU they might've won, despite the limitations you pointed out.

But yeah, #s 2 & 25 make a heck of a difference. And your point about Crowl & the 3s is spot-on.

[Playing Catch]

I may be mistaken, but it seems like we saw a lot of Storr and Blackwell on the floor together tonight. It raises the floor (and ceiling) of this team if they can play TWO 2-way wings (3 way? they both rebound, and Blackwell can handle) at the same time, along with Chucky, Wahl, and Crowl.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

I may be mistaken, but it seems like we saw a lot of Storr and Blackwell on the floor together tonight. It raises the floor (and ceiling) of this team if they can play TWO 2-way wings (3 way? they both rebound, and Blackwell can handle) at the same time, along with Chucky, Wahl, and Crowl.

You're right. It appears they were on the floor together for about 9 minutes. I don't know how that comps to the other games, but it seems like more than usual.

As Storr gets better at guarding people, the chances of doing this increase. And it makes it easier to slide Klesmit to the point if Hepburn is sitting & the situation calls for him over McGee. Of course, Gard is giving Essegian chances to jump-start, too. Just a ton of options.

[CheezWizHed]

I didn't watch WI vs MI ST, but that looks like another convincing win.  Very even stats; the game looks to be won on 3ptrs and free throws. 

Now to take down AZ, right? 😀

[Samurai Bucky]

I have been pleasantly surprised.  I did not expect them to beat the Golden Hilltoppers and I didn't expect them to win as they did against MSU.  I don't want to parrot what has already been said.  I did want to bring up a few points, though...

Free throws.  This was an Achilles heel last year.  So far this year, they are 16th in the NCAA at 78.26%.  Last year, they were 282nd at 69.1%.  Last night, they went 14-14.  Sweet!

Not settling for threes.  There was a play where Wahl (I think) rebounded and kicked it out to Storr? outside the three point line.  In years past, they would just jack up a three and would often times miss.  Instead, Storr drove to the rim and it might have even turned into an and-1.  The Badgers have some guys who can drive to the hoop with more consistency this year.

Now onto the three pointers.  Sure, it is great if they hit like they did the last couple of nights, but I'm not sure if they can sustain that.  This year, they are 239th at 31.8% (I thought it would be better) vs. 176th at 34.2% last year.

Wahl can't get into his "I'm going to back my guy down from the elbow or wing with 10 seconds to go on the shotclock" mode again.  The team has shown that when predicated on motion and ball movement, they are very good.  Wahl did that a few times last night and I cringed in my seat.

That said, hopefully they can keep it up against Arizona.

On, Wisconsin!

[Oxy]

I'm not worried about the 3 pt shooting.  Wahl and Gilmore can't shoot.  Everybody else can knock it down even if the numbers aren't quite there YET.  They have been there in the past, and pretty much everybody should positively regress to their true percentage (except for Crowl...who can shoot 33-35%+ if he only takes the ones like he was given last night)

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

I have been pleasantly surprised.  I did not expect them to beat the Golden Hilltoppers and I didn't expect them to win as they did against MSU.  I don't want to parrot what has already been said.  I did want to bring up a few points, though...

Free throws.  This was an Achilles heel last year.  So far this year, they are 16th in the NCAA at 78.26%.  Last year, they were 282nd at 69.1%.  Last night, they went 14-14.  Sweet!

Not settling for threes.  There was a play where Wahl (I think) rebounded and kicked it out to Storr? outside the three point line.  In years past, they would just jack up a three and would often times miss.  Instead, Storr drove to the rim and it might have even turned into an and-1.  The Badgers have some guys who can drive to the hoop with more consistency this year.

Now onto the three pointers.  Sure, it is great if they hit like they did the last couple of nights, but I'm not sure if they can sustain that.  This year, they are 239th at 31.8% (I thought it would be better) vs. 176th at 34.2% last year.

Wahl can't get into his "I'm going to back my guy down from the elbow or wing with 10 seconds to go on the shotclock" mode again.  The team has shown that when predicated on motion and ball movement, they are very good.  Wahl did that a few times last night and I cringed in my seat.

That said, hopefully they can keep it up against Arizona.

On, Wisconsin!

Lots of good stuff here.

38-42 from the line the last two games.

Whatever their ceiling is as a 3-pt shooting team, I think they'll reach that by continuing to do what we've seen---touch the post & drive the ball. In the face of a dry spell & a 16-point lead shrinking to one on Saturday, they righted the ship & pulled away with nothing made from behind the arc. As long as they don't revert back to where it becomes a necessity I think they'll be OK.

I said earlier, if we catch the defense in a switch where Wahl has a 6-2 guy on him I'm fine with him backing down. But you're right, it should no longer be a recognizable part of what they do.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Totally echo the free throw sentiments. Makes a ton of difference when you're hoping to mostly win games in the 60s or low 70s.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

I remember how daunting things looked a couple games ago. There were Badger fans that would've gladly taken a 1-2 record in the three-game stretch ending tomorrow, and I can't say I blamed them. With what's obviously the toughest of the three, at least on paper, coming up in Tucson it's a great feeling to continue the winning streak & put sort of a "nothing to lose" feel on the Arizona game. Coming in loose but still focused could be a dangerous weapon in the arsenal.

That being said, Arizona just comes at you in waves in the frontcourt. Lots of size & talent. UW will have to stay out of foul trouble. As solid as Gilmore has been in doing what they ask of him, and even though Winter is slowly trending upward, they're going to need Wahl & Crowl to be good AND give 30+ minutes. Getting off to a decent start from the perimeter would help, because as good as Blackwell & Storr have been driving the ball you need to spread 'Zona out for that to work.

Barring the extremely unforseen we're looking at no worse than 9-3 when they go back into the league. That didn't look likely after Providence.

[RedStickBrew]

Blackwell should play big minutes. He’s just impressive 

[RedStickBrew]

Arizona is a little better defensively than I thought they would be.

[yourout]

4 minutes ago, RedStickBrew said:

Arizona is a little better defensively than I thought they would be.

The Badgers have to pick up the D or it's going to get ugly.

[RedStickBrew]

Yep. It’s already getting ugly

[yourout]

Just now, RedStickBrew said:

Yep. It’s already getting ugly

If They're going to bank in 25 footers then it's not much you can do.

[yourout]

Wahl is so much better facing the basket than he is trying to back guys down.

[yourout]

That was a very un-wisconsin half.

 

[RedStickBrew]

6 minutes ago, yourout said:

That was a very un-wisconsin half.

 

It was. I didn’t expect a W today but I do want to see some fight in them in the second half 

[homer]

AZ made 5 more threes. Basically the difference right there. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

Quote

13 minutes ago, yourout said:

If They're going to bank in 25 footers then it's not much you can do.

 

Yeah. For the most part I was OK with the defensive philosophy in the 1st half. It's very hard to slow them down, pace-wise. You kinda have to pick your poison, and when they make 6-7 threes, or whatever it was, you're kinda screwed because you can't let them get into the lane. We tried to take that away, but they got on a roll from outside.

Then that leads to the pace getting to them.....turnovers, and Wahl & Crowl missing a few in close, then some ill-advised shots. If you're not careful it snowballs real quickly vs a team like this. Even Blackwell, despite the made threes, let the pace of the game get into his head a little. 

Maybe Crowl needs to get up the set shot from three. They'll give it to him.

[young guns]

Gilmore is pretty useless on the floor if he's on the perimeter and they don't even bother guarding him.

[yourout]

Hopefully there's no hangover from a 30-point feet down

[homer]

I don't think AZ is 30 points better than UW. Bad matchup though - UW will have problems with lots of size down low.

[yourout]

5 minutes ago, homer said:

I don't think AZ is 30 points better than UW. Bad matchup though - UW will have problems with lots of size down low.

Especially when lots of size is allowed to do basically anything he wants without getting a foul call.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 minutes ago, homer said:

I don't think AZ is 30 points better than UW. Bad matchup though

Nope.....twenty-five.😁

Today, at least. With all they do well on both ends, you can't have them nailing all those threes in the 1st half. But if you try to take that away.......I don't know if I've ever seen a team that can get into the lane, then do the late developing lob & dunk, like making the pass from 10-12 feet out, like this group. We let the pace get out of hand & certainly made mistakes on both ends, but I really think it was like 70-75 percent them just having waves of talent & executing.