2023-24 Wisconsin Basketball season thread

[Playing Catch]

Who's taking the over on the O/U of 0.5 Frantrums tonight?

[CheezWizHed]

Has there been a game with 0 Frantrums yet? The over seems automatic!

[Oxy]

I think there has been a few non-conference games where only FranCon 4 was reached...but that may have been in his Iona days, so not sure if that counts.

How many man-seconds (like man-hours) will be spent by his players and coaching staff physically restraining or cutting off his pathway to accosting an official?  If only his players were as effective at staying between their man and the basket, then maybe Iowa would make A sweet sixteen or win A B1G title.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Regarding Chucky Hepburn---He's going through pregame warmups, and Greg Gard claims he's good to go. That's good news in that if he wasn't 100% or close to it I don't think they'd play him.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, Oxy said:

I think there has been a few non-conference games where only FranCon 4 was reached...but that may have been in his Iona days, so not sure if that counts.

How many man-seconds (like man-hours) will be spent by his players and coaching staff physically restraining or cutting off his pathway to accosting an official?  If only his players were as effective at staying between their man and the basket, then maybe Iowa would make A sweet sixteen or win A B1G title.

Just once I wish the rest of the team/staff would do a fake restraint & let Fran through, just to see whether he'd actually attack the official, or pull a Barney Fife.

[yourout]

Really need to clean up the turnovers so far in this one.

On edit. Now have seven in 10 minutes of play

[Oxy]

Offense looks good except for all the lazy TOs.  D not bad either except letting Sandfort get loose a couple times.  It sure feels like UW would have to (continue) to really play poorly to lose this one.

So it'll prolly be close🤐

[yourout]

13 minutes ago, Oxy said:

Offense looks good except for all the lazy TOs.  D not bad either except letting Sandfort get loose a couple times.  It sure feels like UW would have to (continue) to really play poorly to lose this one.

So it'll prolly be close🤐

3pt shooting is not a strength of this team.

[Oxy]

2 minutes ago, yourout said:

3pt shooting is not a strength of this team.

It's not a weakness of this team either.  This is a very strong, balanced offensive team.  If they can get in the paint and get to the line there isn't a NEED to set up 3 pters.  I'm comfortable with everybody shooting them except for Wahl and Gilmore.

[yourout]

4 minutes ago, Oxy said:

It's not a weakness of this team either.  This is a very strong, balanced offensive team.  If they can get in the paint and get to the line there isn't a NEED to set up 3 pters.  I'm comfortable with everybody shooting them except for Wahl and Gilmore.

Agreed... 

[yourout]

55 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Just once I wish the rest of the team/staff would do a fake restraint & let Fran through, just to see whether he'd actually attack the official, or pull a Barney Fife.

He must be medicated tonight because the Fran that I've grown to know and love would have popped a gasket on that drive by Storr when he basically trucked the defender.

[yourout]

Some very unbadger like possessions after building a lead.

[yourout]

Impressed with how much Crowl has improved.

Much stronger and more complete player.

[yourout]

Some really soft foul calls.

[Oxy]

Max Klesmit is an awesome unsung hero for this team.

[Oxy]

Good enough second half...but Perkins got what he wanted. Had Krikke not been in foul trouble or Wahl misses a few FTs it would have been close.  But, good enough.

[yourout]

Nice win.

[Jim French Stepstool]

I thought one of the most impressive things about the win is we accomplished it with Iowa pretty much imposing their will, pace-wise. That, and maybe the long layoff, contributed to the 1st-half sloppiness.

Freeman was impressive, especially in the 1st half. Nice to see Crowl assert himself in the second stanza after being outplayed.

I thought Hepburn moved around pretty well. Worth his weight in gold to have someone so team-oriented that he still plays hard & provides what he does even though he isn't "getting his (shots)" like in his first two years.

Sort of an average-ish game from Blackwell, but still a very nice night from the bench. Gilmore, McGee & Winter were all real good.

At halftime, I was thinking Iowa deserves credit for being at least a little better defensively than I gave them credit for. Nevermind.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, yourout said:

He must be medicated tonight because the Fran that I've grown to know and love would have popped a gasket on that drive by Storr when he basically trucked the defender.

They're 0-3 in the league now, with Rutgers coming into IC Saturday. If things don't go well that day we may see the lava start to seep out of his ears.

[Playing Catch]

All the usual caveats to this comment apply, but this team is looking like they could be special. I think they continue to get better, and are starting to develop that confidence and trust in themselves and their teammates.

I'm not sure what their biggest weakness is. Don't get me wrong, there are teams that are better than the Badgers in one facet or another, but this is perhaps as well-rounded a team as I can remember. Crowl has really taken a step, in my eyes. He's beginning to look like a guy that can be a reserve big in the NBA. Storr has looked like an NBA player. All the other guys are playing their roles perfectly. One can imagine all of the starting 5 as candidates for All-B1G, save for maybe Klesmit, who may make All-D team.

This is gunna be a fun season.

[Jim French Stepstool]

5 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

All the usual caveats to this comment apply, but this team is looking like they could be special. I think they continue to get better, and are starting to develop that confidence and trust in themselves and their teammates.

I'm not sure what their biggest weakness is. Don't get me wrong, there are teams that are better than the Badgers in one facet or another, but this is perhaps as well-rounded a team as I can remember. Crowl has really taken a step, in my eyes. He's beginning to look like a guy that can be a reserve big in the NBA. Storr has looked like an NBA player. All the other guys are playing their roles perfectly. One can imagine all of the starting 5 as candidates for All-B1G, save for maybe Klesmit, who may make All-D team.

This is gunna be a fun season.

A lot of weird stuff can happen of course, but I agree a very successful season is a possibility. One of the Achilles heels, in some folks' eyes, could be the 3 pt shooting. But Storr, Klesmit, & Hepburn all shot better from deep in 22-23 than they have so far this season. If they can revert and Blackwell & Crowl continue to do well in smaller samples it shouldn't be an issue.

[Playing Catch]

I considered that as well, but honestly, I'm not worried about 3 pt% at all. In any given game, the Badgers have got 6 guys (including Ess-dog) that I have no problem with shooting a 3. Now if they were reliant on hitting 3's to win games, then the percentage would be a bigger concern fo me.

[yourout]

I would say this....3pt shooting is not necessarily a weakness but it is the weakest part of their game.

[Samurai Bucky]

3 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

A lot of weird stuff can happen of course, but I agree a very successful season is a possibility. One of the Achilles heels, in some folks' eyes, could be the 3 pt shooting. But Storr, Klesmit, & Hepburn all shot better from deep in 22-23 than they have so far this season. If they can revert and Blackwell & Crowl continue to do well in smaller samples it shouldn't be an issue.

The main thing that has changed from last year to this year is having a player (or maybe more than one) that can drive to the hoop and draw contact.  Storr is that guy much the same way Johnny Davis was that guy. 

I was a little nervous last night when they started bricking their free throws towards the end.  When the announcers are lauding one of the forwards for having hitting 60% of the free throws (Wahl), I have to shake my head.  70% for him, ok.  60%?  Not so much.

[Jim French Stepstool]

6 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

The main thing that has changed from last year to this year is having a player (or maybe more than one) that can drive to the hoop and draw contact.  Storr is that guy much the same way Johnny Davis was that guy. 

 

I suppose it's a real tribute to Bo Ryan that they got to the line as often as they did under him, without a lot of guys who can penetrate. Adding that dimension with Storr & Blackwell, along with Wahl putting emphasis on straight-line drives as opposed to the crab-dribble backdowns, has indeed been huge.