2024 - 25 Wisconsin Basketball Thread

[RedStickBrew]

I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of Carter Gilmore today trying to match up with this Marquette team. Tough match up for UW today. Definitely need Klesmit to step up and knock down some threes

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, RedStickBrew said:

I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of Carter Gilmore today trying to match up with this Marquette team. Tough match up for UW today. Definitely need Klesmit to step up and knock down some threes

Good call on both. Gilmore played pretty well, and that's what we were waiting for from Klesmit.

[Jim French Stepstool]

I thought there were two significant sequences in the game. Klesmit, for the 2nd game in a row, committed a really dumb foul late in the half on a missed 3pt. Chance to get the ball back up five w/an opportunity to go up 7/8 at halftime. What made it worse was UW was in a zone, which if you have that in your arsenal (I had no idea they did), it wasn't a bad time to break it out.

The other, more critical, was a few minutes into the 2nd half, MU was sorta threatening to make a push, and Tonje & McGee were on the bench w/3 fouls. You really needed Blackwell there to make good decisions & stabilize, and he turned in probably his worst 5-minute stretch of the game. Both he & Tonje needed to be better obviously, but in the case of Tonje a lot of it was being defended very, very well & having pressure put on him on the other end. Blackwell, a lot of unforced stuff.

Two points for Crowl. He'll get more criticism. And if you look at his season as a whole, it's deserved. But today, if he has a 'typical Steven Crowl game' looking at his career, they still lose. He got up 4 shots, and that's about as many as he had a chance to put up. He led both teams in rebounds. And near the end of the game when he had the open 3pt shot, it really should've been Winter in the game at that point. Other than the board work he was nothing special, I just don't think he hurt them all that much compared to the above points.

In recent years, I felt MU was the type of team that you can defend w/o much trouble in the half court, just keep them out of transition & semi-transition. And if you can take care of the ball, you'll find breakdowns in their HC defense. Neither appears to be true now. The drive-and-finish game was really impressive, and just enough 3pt to balance it. Defensively they put nice pressure on the ball while still being able to recover & rotate when needed. We did an OK job of getting to the line early, but that dried up.

I will say it's a tiny bit more palatable losing to Smart, who seems like a pretty good guy, compared to some of the jackasses roaming their bench over the years.

[Jim French Stepstool]

You gotta love modern-day college hoops. Tonights' opponent (Illinois) has two players on their active roster that were on the team last year, both reserves, one of whom has played 11 minutes all season. Even with the new landscape, for an established program that's kinda sad regardless of success. And they've had success, so far. Brad Underwood must've been busy providing exchange rates from dollars to euros. Two of their best are Kasparas Jakucionus (Lithuania) & 7'1" Tomislav Ivisic (Croatia). Ivisic is a 'sophomore' even though he'll be 22 on his next birthday. If they continue to shine, I'd imagine you'll see them at Kentucky, Kansas or Duke next year.

After Andrija Vukovic wound up not going to UW, supposedly due to an admissions issue, I'd have to wonder about the two euros at Illinois. They may very well be bright young men. But thinking back to Lou Henson, Bill Self & now Underwood in Champaign, the cynical part of me can't help but imagine their admissions office, at least for athletes, consisting of a table with different shapes cut into it & round, square & star-shaped wooden blocks.

[Playing Catch]

11 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

You gotta love modern-day college hoops. Tonights' opponent (Illinois) has two players on their active roster that were on the team last year, both reserves, one of whom has played 11 minutes all season. Even with the new landscape, for an established program that's kinda sad regardless of success. And they've had success, so far. Brad Underwood must've been busy providing exchange rates from dollars to euros. Two of their best are Kasparas Jakucionus (Lithuania) & 7'1" Tomislav Ivisic (Croatia). Ivisic is a 'sophomore' even though he'll be 22 on his next birthday. If they continue to shine, I'd imagine you'll see them at Kentucky, Kansas or Duke next year.

After Andrija Vukovic wound up not going to UW, supposedly due to an admissions issue, I'd have to wonder about the two euros at Illinois. They may very well be bright young men. But thinking back to Lou Henson, Bill Self & now Underwood in Champaign, the cynical part of me can't help but imagine their admissions office, at least for athletes, consisting of a table with different shapes cut into it & round, square & star-shaped wooden blocks.

Kind of cynical, Jim!

The way I understand it is that Euros can't do NIL, because they don't have green cards (which is why the Badgers are going that direction with recruiting).

Jakucionus looks every part the Dalton Knecht of 2025 to me. He was pretty incredible. I thought Illinois played great, so a 6-point road loss to Illinois wasn't too painful. It was annoying, though, that every time the Badgers made a run, the announcers credited Illinois "letting them back in the ballgame, just like the Northwestern game," essentially denying any credit to the number 20 team in the country, or a really tough Northwestern team.

I was also annoyed by the officiating (so sue me!). Blackwell had 4 FTAs, and Tonje had 2. That's simply BS, with the amount of times they drove the lane, and the comparative fouls being called on the other end. It neutered the Badgers offense.

[Jim French Stepstool]

5 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

Kind of cynical, Jim!

The way I understand it is that Euros can't do NIL, because they don't have green cards (which is why the Badgers are going that direction with recruiting).

Jakucionus looks every part the Dalton Knecht of 2025 to me. He was pretty incredible. I thought Illinois played great, so a 6-point road loss to Illinois wasn't too painful. It was annoying, though, that every time the Badgers made a run, the announcers credited Illinois "letting them back in the ballgame, just like the Northwestern game," essentially denying any credit to the number 20 team in the country, or a really tough Northwestern team.

I was also annoyed by the officiating (so sue me!). Blackwell had 4 FTAs, and Tonje had 2. That's simply BS, with the amount of times they drove the lane, and the comparative fouls being called on the other end. It neutered the Badgers offense.

Yep, very cynical😁. And you're correct about the 'no NIL' thing for Euros. But we're talking Illinois here........

He might be a tad smaller & not quite as sturdy, but the Jakucionus comp to Knecht is a good one. It sucks, but we've run into three games in a row now where the opponent played pretty well, and we were unable to match it. Fortunately, over the years I've developed an ability to dismiss most of what comes out of announcers' mouths. The constant railing last night about the missed FTs for UW--yeah, they only made two-thirds of their FTs, which isn't the 90% or whatever they usually shoot. But of the top five reasons why they lost, four of them are poor rebounding & the multiple 2nd & 3rd looks for the home team. 

People complain about Crowl & I don't blame them. He scored 9pt last night, which I believe is his 2nd-highest point total of the season. But IMO he played much better on Saturday, when he scored 2pt. Vs Illinois.......seven feet tall, 19 minutes of game action, and zero rebounds. I don't know how that's even possible.

I wonder if this is going to be one of those deals where Tonje averages 12 FT attempts at home & three on the road. Reffing has become so hit-and-miss I wouldn't even mind it much. But then he'd better damn well get the dozen in the home games.

I thought the entire bench performed well. Janicki looks like he may develop into a backcourt version of Gilmore, except with a shooting touch. And that would be great. And maybe last night was a coming out party for Winter.

[Playing Catch]

19 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Yep, very cynical😁. And you're correct about the 'no NIL' thing for Euros. But we're talking Illinois here........

He might be a tad smaller & not quite as sturdy, but the Jakucionus comp to Knecht is a good one. It sucks, but we've run into three games in a row now where the opponent played pretty well, and we were unable to match it. Fortunately, over the years I've developed an ability to dismiss most of what comes out of announcers' mouths. The constant railing last night about the missed FTs for UW--yeah, they only made two-thirds of their FTs, which isn't the 90% or whatever they usually shoot. But of the top five reasons why they lost, four of them are poor rebounding & the multiple 2nd & 3rd looks for the home team. 

People complain about Crowl & I don't blame them. He scored 9pt last night, which I believe is his 2nd-highest point total of the season. But IMO he played much better on Saturday, when he scored 2pt. Vs Illinois.......seven feet tall, 19 minutes of game action, and zero rebounds. I don't know how that's even possible.

I wonder if this is going to be one of those deals where Tonje averages 12 FT attempts at home & three on the road. Reffing has become so hit-and-miss I wouldn't even mind it much. But then he'd better damn well get the dozen in the home games.

I thought the entire bench performed well. Janicki looks like he may develop into a backcourt version of Gilmore, except with a shooting touch. And that would be great. And maybe last night was a coming out party for Winter.

I agree with all your points. Crowl was much better despite the lack of boards. It probably means he was actually blocking out his man, waiting for one of the guards to come get it.

Yeah, I don't actually mind home cookin' --- but we better get that treatment at home, too!

Janicki continues to impress me. I keep waiting for him to just have a lousy game, but he doesn't. He's got moxie, just enough athleticism, and can both shoot and handle. He's a player.

After a couple of sleeps, I'm over the loss. Illinois, before the Badger game, was my pick to win the league. Badgers beat the spread. Illinois had to play great to beat the Badgers, who didn't play great. I mean, this is the B1G were talking about. Road wins are to be cherished.

(But dad-gummit, that Michigan loss at home!!)

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

 

(But dad-gummit, that Michigan loss at home!!)

Yeah, of the last three games not holding serve at home is toughest. Shoot Just over 20% from deep, inept at stopping the 2-man game by their bigs-------and lose by three. Frustrating.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

 

Janicki continues to impress me. I keep waiting for him to just have a lousy game, but he doesn't. He's got moxie, just enough athleticism, and can both shoot and handle. He's a player.

 

IMO he got a little flustered in Milwaukee on Saturday & had a poor game, but I'm nit-picking--we're talking about a walkon here. Great anticipation on D, smart. Like you said, moxie. Any time you can get a guy who had other D-1 offers to walk on to your program, it's like found money. 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Nice stop-the-bleeding win for the Badgers against a decent opponent in what will officially be a neutral game. Butler never really got in it, despite looking occasionally threatening. I gotta give Gard some credit for smart NC scheduling. Played a lot of Quad 2ish games that allowed us the chance to pick up some wins without really offering the chance for a major losing streak. It worked out well.

As others have said, dropping the home game to Michigan was really tough. Hopefully they can hold serve most of the rest of the way at the Kohl and picking off more than a few on the road.

Getting to the FT line is obviously huge for this team. Maybe the most telling stat for them overall. Drawing fouls and getting their athletic guards to the rim is key. We did that well today and hopefully can carry it over to the B1G schedule. First four after Detroit are very winnable games. I'm going to be disappointed if they don't go at least 3-1.

Good news is, the Pitt win on a neutral looks AWESOME. Bad news is Arizona stinks. That's a Quad 2 win right now. Hopefully the Wildcats get it together in a tough Big XII.

My expectation is this team ends up in that 7-10 seed range, but, who knows? Maybe they improve and manage to bump that up.

[yourout]

14 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Nice stop-the-bleeding win for the Badgers against a decent opponent in what will officially be a neutral game. Butler never really got in it, despite looking occasionally threatening. I gotta give Gard some credit for smart NC scheduling. Played a lot of Quad 2ish games that allowed us the chance to pick up some wins without really offering the chance for a major losing streak. It worked out well.

As others have said, dropping the home game to Michigan was really tough. Hopefully they can hold serve most of the rest of the way at the Kohl and picking off more than a few on the road.

Getting to the FT line is obviously huge for this team. Maybe the most telling stat for them overall. Drawing fouls and getting their athletic guards to the rim is key. We did that well today and hopefully can carry it over to the B1G schedule. First four after Detroit are very winnable games. I'm going to be disappointed if they don't go at least 3-1.

Good news is, the Pitt win on a neutral looks AWESOME. Bad news is Arizona stinks. That's a Quad 2 win right now. Hopefully the Wildcats get it together in a tough Big XII.

My expectation is this team ends up in that 7-10 seed range, but, who knows? Maybe they improve and manage to bump that up.

Decent win. 

Some good . Bigs played well

Some bad . Max getting picked and then not hustling and getting a foul to boot. (In the old days they would have spiked Bo's blood pressure by at least 10 points)

 

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

Nolan Winter showed a glimpse here & there of his ability last season. Now it really seems to be coming together. The next step is to add strength & good weight, and in doing so not lose what foot speed he has (not a lot, but a decent amount for a 7-footer), or shooting touch. If he can do that successfully he'll be the best post guy since Kaminsky.

Not the best post defense in the world by Butler, but good enough that Crowl's performance was certainly noteworthy. Comes at a good time for him too, since Gilmore might be playing his best ball right now.

Damn, I'd really love it if Freitag was 'readier' so perhaps he & McGee could share the PG role. Not that Blackwell isn't mostly doing a nice job there, but I'd love to see the opportunities he'd get spending most of his time maneuvering off the ball, slashing on the wing, even posting up from time to time.

Other than some late closeouts I thought it was a decent performance.

[worm81]

3 turnovers and 2 missed free throws stick out as nice stats to me. I didn't watch much of the second half though.

[Jim French Stepstool]

39 minutes ago, yourout said:

 

 

Some bad . Max getting picked and then not hustling and getting a foul to boot. (In the old days they would have spiked Bo's blood pressure by at least 10 points)

 

 

A "yell at the screen" moment for sure. If Bo was still coaching Klesmit would immediately turn & go to the bench w/o bothering to look if there was a sub coming.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 minute ago, worm81 said:

3 turnovers and 2 missed free throws stick out as nice stats to me. I didn't watch much of the second half though.

I realized they took pretty good care of the ball, but hadn't seen the stat sheet yet & did not know they only had 3 TO. Even against an opponent that didn't pressure the perimeter much, that's outstanding.

[RedStickBrew]

Solid effort today. It’s difficult to play with and keep the lead all second half like they did. Butler really never made it all that close after half time. 
I liked the pick n roll action with our bigs today. Hopefully that can work again against teams that don’t feature 7 footers that we can take advantage of 

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

Detroit Mercy today, in what on paper looks like the last of the "breathers" on the schedule. The Titans are trying to recover from a disaster of a 23-24 season. Former Izzo player & assistant Mark Montgomery is in his 1st year at the helm of what to me looks like a guard-oriented team on the offensive end.

My biggest concern is taking the court with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. If their minds & hearts are already thinking about being home for Christmas you could see a start similar to the first 10 minutes they turned in vs Holy Cross. Hopefully that lesson has sunk in.

Would love to see Nolan Winter continue to trend upward.

[yourout]

3 fouls in a half for Iowa?

[young guns]

That was wow.  2nd most points scored in school history, record is 120 vs SMU in 67.  Breaks school record for 3s in a game. I was wondering if we had ever broken 100 in conference play and I believe this is at least the first time since 93 vs NW.

[igor67]

62 points in a half, that was enough to win most games back when I was at UW.

[Oxy]

Okee Dokee then...Any chance UWs boosters can contribute to Iowa's "Hire Fran McCaffrey for life" fund?  Good Lord. I haven't seen that many open 3s since the NBA 3 pt contest, and almost as many makes.  It isn't even shooting above their skill level if they are going to get 2 seconds to shoot and NOBODY even closes out on them let alone actually guard them. 

Unfortunately kind of a throw away game to be honest.  Like a badly scheduled buy game.

[Jim French Stepstool]

I was cautiously optimistic early on, when Iowa was shooting so well, because we were staying mostly within 3-4 points & you figured they'd cool off a little. What I didn't expect was how the defense picked up. In the middle 20 minutes of the game UW held them to 35, which doesn't sound great but is way under their average for a 20-minute stretch & gives you a great chance to open up a lead against a team whose halfcourt defense traditionally ain't none too good.

Safe to say I also didn't expect 116. It's so fun when a team shares the ball & multiple guys are hitting shots. Even Klesmit, who only scored 8, had all his points in a quick spurt that got them their first separation in the 1st half.

Lost in all the carnage------a 37-21 edge in rebounding makes me smile. And 26 assists is a heck of a high number. And again with the FTs--15-17.

Thirteen turnovers, Damn, we could've scored OVER 120.😛

[Jim French Stepstool]

47 minutes ago, Oxy said:

Okee Dokee then...Any chance UWs boosters can contribute to Iowa's "Hire Fran McCaffrey for life" fund?  Good Lord. I haven't seen that many open 3s since the NBA 3 pt contest, and almost as many makes.  It isn't even shooting above their skill level if they are going to get 2 seconds to shoot and NOBODY even closes out on them let alone actually guard them. 

Unfortunately kind of a throw away game to be honest.  Like a badly scheduled buy game.

I dunno if I'd dismiss the win to that extent. We guarded pretty well for a little over half the game & they still scored 85. Payton Sandfort had a lousy day, but everyone else for them mostly shot the ball pretty well. That team can score points & will beat some folks.

But I agree, the success they have will be in spite of the defense. The press is the only consistent looking thing about their D since Fran's been there. You start up the fund; I'll contribute😉.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, young guns said:

That was wow.  2nd most points scored in school history, record is 120 vs SMU in 67.  Breaks school record for 3s in a game. I was wondering if we had ever broken 100 in conference play and I believe this is at least the first time since 93 vs NW.

I'd guess they scored triple-digits in the league at least a couple times when Stew Jackson was the coach.

That '67 game vs SMU was in Milwaukee, in the holiday tournament that was once held in the old arena.

EDIT: You are correct. Only once under Jackson. They scored 97 vs NW in the Van Gundy year a couple years later, and 95 vs Illinois in 2014.

[homer]

1.53 points per possession is insane.