2024 - 25 Wisconsin Basketball Thread

[Oxy]

As could be said for EVERY game, this one will come down to turnovers, rebounding and fouls.  And shooting (lol).  Seriously though, it would behoove UW to force Purdue's non-stars to handle the ball and make plays, or at least shots.  Easier said than done.  If UW takes care of the ball they will get lots of good shots up.  Make them.  Use our depth...work B Smith on both ends of the floor as much as possible.  Run the floor like deer and force the action against Smith and TKR to hopefully draw some fouls against them.

I've been preparing for a 10 pt loss all week, and expect that will be the case today....but dang...it sure seems to me that if UW plays well it will be hard for Purdue to keep up.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, Oxy said:

I've been preparing for a 10 pt loss all week

I know how you feel. Very difficult environment & Purdue is coming off a loss. As good as they are though, they're a little more conventional w/o Godzilla anchored in the paint. Not necessarily an easier matchup for Crowl but a vastly different one.

I agree re forcing PU to get down the floor & defend. And the TOs of course.

[yourout]

Getting a well-officiated game in West Lafayette is about as rare as finding an honest politician.

[Oxy]

Good half all things considered.  If it wasn't for 3 plays, it would be a great half:

1. The Tonje turnover when he went baseline led to an immediate wide open transition 3 by Loyer.  Can't have live ball turnovers, and for the most part UW avoided them.

2. Blackwell fouling Loyer on the 26 footer. Just terrible.  Although it did get UW out of playing that silly zone...

3.  Obviously, the stupid call on McGee.

Great bounceback after Kamari got kicked...Janicki came up with a couple huge plays.

Keep on keeping on in the 2nd half.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Big credit to the team for pulling back to within 1 at the half minus McGee & Blackwell. Janicki & Amos deserve attaboys.

The story so far to me is that we're making them uncomfortable w/our halfcourt defense some of the time, and they're making us uncomfy pretty much all the time, and allowing no runouts either. I think we're mostly  defending Smith pretty well.

I get Crowl not posting a lot; you want the middle to be open for drives. Sometimes I'd like to see him set up at the FT line, like you would if facing a zone. Take advantage of the passing ability. But a bit more selective aggression might work.

Blackwell took himself out of the later stages of the half w/two fouls, both committed by fouling a jump shooter. Have a better half young man. 

Nice finish to the half for Tonje after a regrettable start. Please continue.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

8 minutes ago, Oxy said:

Great bounceback after Kamari got kicked...Janicki came up with a couple huge plays.

Yeah. Looked a little like a 9-pt lead ready to become 14. Terrific resolve.

[yourout]

That is clearly a flagrant one against Purdue

[homer]

fantastic win

[Oxy]

Wow.  What can you say?  

[yourout]

Monster win

[RedStickBrew]

This team just keeps getting better. Great road win. 

[Oxy]

What a beautiful, clean game of basketball.  THREE TURNOVERS? Seriously?  Everybody played well.  Shut down Braden Smith.  So many MVPs of this one--but I'm going with Jack Frickin Janicki.  That rejection of Smith right after Kamari got booted was magnificent.  Not that Smith could get any shots off against anybody else, either.  Cox hit some threes for them...good for him.  TKR got his, but we made it as difficult as possible.

Milwaukee is in the cards for the first round, but there is still a lot of basketball left.  On Wisconsin.

[yourout]

To eject kamari on that after review and not give Perdue a flagrant one on that layup attempt means you're either incredibly incompetent as an official or your corrupt.. there's no other options.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Fifty-eight points in a half for an opponent in Mackey Arena. The answer is 'probably' since the building's been around since the 60s, but I have to wonder if that's ever happened.

How much fun is it to have a run where you take control & have Jack Janicki be in the middle of it? His turn to have a 'Gilmore moment'.

This coaching staff, wow. How many times have they gone into the locker room at halftime, figure something out & come out like gangbusters?

Among the obvious heroes, let's not forget Klesmit w/a superb 2nd half. Also Winter & Blackwell. Crowl & Gilmore with some impressive dirty work as well. Loved the defense on Braden Smith.

Without having access to the bench or locker room, I'd bet there was some kind of monumental circling of the wagons after McGee was removed from the game. Just so, so impressive to do what they did in that place.

94-84. So much for my "rock fight" prediction.😛

[Jim French Stepstool]

8 minutes ago, Oxy said:

THREE TURNOVERS? Seriously?

Hadn't seen the stats yet & didn't realize that. Holy crap.

[homer]

 

 

[homer]

and KenPom himself chimes in

 

 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

So many things to say. First, the most obvious. Ridiculous call on McGee. Barely a common foul, let alone and F2. Okay.

Second, my favorite thing about this game was how Tonje knew when to be assertive and when to throttle back. Just an awesome team effort. Every guy contributing on every level.

I am kicking myself for not posting ahead of tip, but I really thought this was a favorable matchup because, as good as Brayden Smith is (he is Klesmit if Klesmit were a better ball handler and passer), our guards are just way more athletic than he and Loyer. Just didn't think they'd be capable of stopping us, and they certainly weren't in the second half.

Honestly, I like our roster better than Purdue's. We earned that one.

Finally, we have a signature win. Not many teams are going to be able post something as strong as a W at Purdue.

Big picture, two things:

1) I thought Gard's lineup management was awesome. Tonje got some good rest and was able to key big possessions late. This really wasn't a Crowl kind of game, so going with the smaller lineup more often worked (I know Crowl had foul trouble, but Gard felt no pressure to force it and managed the guys really well without McGee.

2) We can win so many ways, that it's going to be difficult to matchup with us in the NCAA tourney. It is a good March roster. Let's hope it delivers.

One issue: @Jim French Stepstoolmentioned a couple of defensive breakdowns against Iowa. Same thing happened here. We give up open 3s at bad times. Rotation around the perimeter needs to be a bit better. Minor gripe.

Big big win!

[Oxy]

16 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

 

One issue: @Jim French Stepstoolmentioned a couple of defensive breakdowns against Iowa. Same thing happened here. We give up open 3s at bad times. Rotation around the perimeter needs to be a bit better. Minor gripe.

Big big win!

This is true...but it was totally by design.  If you've seen Purdue recently, Cox and Colvin and Heide couldn't hit a shot and Braden Smith has been the second coming of Steve Nash.  We sold out to keep Smith contained, basically doubling him AND hedging toward TKR (as unsuccessful as that was...when he got the ball it went in the hoop).  If Purdue was going to beat us, we were going to make those guys hit threes, and they did.  Good for them.  The same thing happened against Maryland, but we couldn't score against Maryland the way we could against Purdue.  They had no answers.

[RedStickBrew]

1 hour ago, homer said:

 

 

[ErnieRilesBrianGiles]

One of the best things I like about the team this year is how calm, cool, and collected they are. Other than maybe the Marquette game, they've been in every game this year. When they were down 9 vs. Purdue today, they did not look rattled at all. Every game I've watched, I feel like they're confident they're going to make a run or hold on to a lead.

Second thing I love is how strong their "starting 9" really is. For some reason, my third grade son regularly asks when watching games with me, "Dad, whose the worst player on the badgers right now." If I say Crowl, Klesmit, Gilmore, Mcgee, today Janicki, they seem to have a good game. 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

1 hour ago, Oxy said:

This is true...but it was totally by design.  If you've seen Purdue recently, Cox and Colvin and Heide couldn't hit a shot and Braden Smith has been the second coming of Steve Nash.  We sold out to keep Smith contained, basically doubling him AND hedging toward TKR (as unsuccessful as that was...when he got the ball it went in the hoop).  If Purdue was going to beat us, we were going to make those guys hit threes, and they did.  Good for them.  The same thing happened against Maryland, but we couldn't score against Maryland the way we could against Purdue.  They had no answers

Thanks. This is good! They gave Loyer some good looks I'd like back, but this takes some steam out of any criticism I have for sure.

[LouisEly]

3 hours ago, yourout said:

To eject kamari on that after review and not give Perdue a flagrant one on that layup attempt means you're either incredibly incompetent as an official or your corrupt.. there's no other options.

Yeah, that was absurd.  One was clearly "flagrant" and one clearly was not.

And if the call on McGee is the "letter of the law", then I'd have guys pretending to get hit in the balls on screens every game.

[Jim French Stepstool]

5 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

 

1) I thought Gard's lineup management was awesome. Tonje got some good rest and was able to key big possessions late. This really wasn't a Crowl kind of game, so going with the smaller lineup more often worked (I know Crowl had foul trouble, but Gard felt no pressure to force it and managed the guys really well without McGee.

Whether you want to laud GG or the players, that stretch in the 1st half where they lost McGee, then went down nine yet came back to make it a 1pt game at halftime was humongous. And I agree getting Tonje some rest, rotating bigs, going a small stretch w/o Winter after he was slightly hobbled & doing all of this w/o McGee was masterful coaching.

Agreed, not a Crowl sort of game. I thought we may have found something when he hit the 3pt shot, then followed with a really pretty high-low feed to Winter for a bucket. But I'm just glad he's putting in some real concentrated effort in the paint & not letting his lack of offense be a bother. Only one rebound today but 3 helpers & no TOs.

[Samurai Bucky]

18 hours ago, yourout said:

To eject kamari on that after review and not give Purdon't a flagrant one on that layup attempt means you're either incredibly incompetent as an official or your corrupt.. there's no other options.

FIFY 😉