2023-24 Wisconsin Basketball season thread

[Playing Catch]

1 minute ago, Playing Catch said:

AND there's a big discrepancy in foul shots (when both teams have about the same number of fouls).

This is officials' favorite trick, IMO. There's a bunch of dead-ball, non-turnover, non-shooting fouls on one team, and with the same number of fouls called, the other team shoots 20 more free throws.

[Playing Catch]

Badgers are going to absolutely crush Northwestern today. 85-60.

[Playing Catch]

Now THIS is the kind of officiating I hate.

[yourout]

Northwestern's always been a bit of a pain in our side in basketball.

[yourout]

Max..imum effort.

[yourout]

This is a pretty decent northwestern team.

[yourout]

Collins working the ref got that foul call.

That was nothing.

[young guns]

38 minutes ago, yourout said:

Northwestern's always been a bit of a pain in our side in basketball.

And football.  Good game so far.  Doing just enough to stay ahead of them.

[RedStickBrew]

Very impressed with this Badger team. They keep finding ways to win. This is a good NW team that is tough to play against

[yourout]

Good win against a likely tourney team.

[homer]

UW made their free throws. At the end of the day, they win by 8. KenPom had it 73 - 63

[Jim French Stepstool]

Going in to this one I would've had Klesmit on Buie. Boy was I wrong. Ty Berry had 6 points today, 3 on a putback-and-one off a miss, and a 3-pt shot that hit every piece of glass & metal in the building before somehow dropping through. He easily could've wound up scoreless. Klesmits' defense on him was a massive factor in the win.

Oh, BTW, he also scores 24. Just running out of superlatives for the way he's playing right now. And the offense is coming at times when they most need it. Salud, mia compadre.

Fantastic job digging out two extra shot clocks w/ offensive rebounds in the final minute. That's the "little things", except there's nothing little about it.

He's turned himself into a real good coach & gets his teams to do all the things necessary to give them a chance to win, but Collins just strikes me as one of these guys I'd love to go off on, if I was within earshot of his bench.

Loved how Storr didn't let frustrating results get to him. He was huge in the last 6 minutes or so.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, yourout said:

Northwestern's always been a bit of a pain in our side in basketball.

It seems like it's in the UW Athletic Department by-laws or something, that in FB and basketball, whatever your full capabilities are when playing your best you have to be 30-40% below that whenever playing Northwestern. You have to give them credit though. Collins came right back to the post double from last season & it worked really well. He's made them a tough team to beat. But some ugly turnovers, just a few too many times going under screens, etc. We DID get them into some foul issues though, which was key.

[Playing Catch]

Credit to Collins for having them locked in the whole game, my lousy prediction was somewhat based on my belief they'd come in flat, fighting the 11 am start and snow. I also expected that the Badgers would do a better job on the boards, and of course, a better job with ball security. I also expected about 45 free throw attempts.

[rickh150]

Although he probably hasn’t been the MVP for any Big Ten game this season, Tyler Wahl is a big reason this team is undefeated in league play. He defends bigs well and even guards on switches. A couple defensive stops of his stick out today. He was the one dribbling the ball down court with a minute left, up 4. He is hitting his FTs much better lately and he is finishing better at the hope….both big improvements from last year. And he is a post presence. Selfless. He is even better than he was two years ago. And he can be better rested on top of it all with more depth off the bench. 
Huge presence. 

[LouisEly]

On 1/13/2024 at 1:48 PM, Jim French Stepstool said:

It seems like it's in the UW Athletic Department by-laws or something, that in FB and basketball, whatever your full capabilities are when playing your best you have to be 30-40% below that whenever playing Northwestern. You have to give them credit though. Collins came right back to the post double from last season & it worked really well. He's made them a tough team to beat. But some ugly turnovers, just a few too many times going under screens, etc. We DID get them into some foul issues though, which was key.

Northwestern beat Purdue a month ago.  Give Northwestern some credit - they're good enough to beat a top-5 team (ranked #1 going into this week).

[wildcat83]

With the Illinois loss, every Big 10 team has at least 2 losses in conference now except the undefeated Badgers.  Couldn’t ask to be sitting any better at this point in the season.  

[Jim French Stepstool]

20 hours ago, rickh150 said:

Although he probably hasn’t been the MVP for any Big Ten game this season, Tyler Wahl is a big reason this team is undefeated in league play. He defends bigs well and even guards on switches. A couple defensive stops of his stick out today. He was the one dribbling the ball down court with a minute left, up 4. He is hitting his FTs much better lately and he is finishing better at the hope….both big improvements from last year. And he is a post presence. Selfless. He is even better than he was two years ago. And he can be better rested on top of it all with more depth off the bench. 
Huge presence. 

Agreed. He's a real swiss army knife on defense, and can beat you in just about any way imaginable, save for the perimeter jumper. Giving the guards a break by bringing it up the floor vs man pressure is something Gard sometimes goes to. Smart. And the FT improvement has really fueled his efficiency. In his last four games, 58 points on only 26 FG attempts. That's outstanding.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Northwestern beat Purdue a month ago.  Give Northwestern some credit - they're good enough to beat a top-5 team (ranked #1 going into this week).

For sure, they deserve a lot of credit. Defensively they remind me of some of the UW teams under Dick Bennett, not only in scheme but focus & tenacity. I suspect the focus & tenacity part hasn't been a problem since the Chicago State loss.

I just fail to remember a boatload of games in FB & BB where we played a clean game vs them. Some bad TO's yesterday & a few too many OReb's IMO.

[Oxy]

@PSU is an annoying game, in that all road games in the B1G are difficult, yet a loss would be a BAD loss.  Winning is expected, but not easy.

[Playing Catch]

"Expected" to win and, "I expect this team to beat PSU tonight." are different to me. Sure the oddsmakers have their favorite, therefore the Badgers are "expected" to win, But if I were a coach or player for the Badgers, and the Badgers lose, they failed to meet expectations, and they should be super disappointed.

Likewise, "I expect this team to beat PSU tonight." There would be no viable excuse for losing this game. Champions don't lose games like this. (Unless of course we're talking about the 2014-15 B1G Champion Badgers who lost on the road on January 11th to T-Rank's #184 Rutgers squad).

[Jim French Stepstool]

I hope Klesmit & Hepburn have a lot in the tank tonight. They'll probably be the primary defenders for Clary & Baldwin, and those two put up over 40% of Penn States' shots. Clary in particular, when I've seen him, never seems to meet a shot he doesn't like.

Crowl was obviously hampered vs Ohio State, and only seemed moderately better Saturday. Hope to see him closer to 100% tonight.

[Oxy]

4 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

"Expected" to win and, "I expect this team to beat PSU tonight." are different to me. Sure the oddsmakers have their favorite, therefore the Badgers are "expected" to win, But if I were a coach or player for the Badgers, and the Badgers lose, they failed to meet expectations, and they should be super disappointed.

Likewise, "I expect this team to beat PSU tonight." There would be no viable excuse for losing this game. Champions don't lose games like this. (Unless of course we're talking about the 2014-15 B1G Champion Badgers who lost on the road on January 11th to T-Rank's #184 Rutgers squad).

(without Frank Kaminsky)

[yourout]

Rough start.

[yourout]

Good lord. You have to tear off his arms to get a foul call.