2024 - 25 Wisconsin Basketball Thread

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

7 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Yes. I'd put Tennessee in that last group too. Toughened by that SEC grind, & I feel they may have a bit more in them than they've shown.

Agreed. Shouldn't have left them off. The SEC is terrifying, and there about four other teams there you could really see going on a run. I mean, I have seen Miss St look incredible at times, and bracket matrix has them as a 7. 

[Oxy]

While the Purdue game was very easy to predict how the game would be played and what each team wanted to do, this one is a complete mystery.  Even with Johnson out the Illini have at least 6 guys who could go for 20+.  They could hit their threes, UW could be cold and Illinois would win going away.  Or the opposite.  Or anything, really.

[yourout]

Not going to be able to run and hide from these guys. To many athletes

[Oxy]

6 minutes ago, yourout said:

Not going to be able to run and hide from these guys. To many athletes

This is true...but it's Jake Davis and Ben Humrichous going 4-7 from 3 that are keeping the Illini in the game--along with UWs 8 TOs.  If UW rebounds like that though, one can almost tolerate the sloppiness.

[Jim French Stepstool]

It really says something about the offensive capabilities of this team, that they could display the sloppiness they did at times in the 1st half & still go into the break with 47 points. Almost looked a little like UW was getting too gassed to guard the last 6-7 minutes of the half. That IS a team with talent on the offensive end though. Hated to see Riley get going late. And Humrichous kinda saved them from maybe being down 18-20 at one point.

Crowl scoring inside & out is great to see. Illinois is on the verge of some foul trouble. Keep looking to drive.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Just now, Oxy said:

 one can almost tolerate the sloppiness.

ALMOST. Well, maybe not.😛

[owbc]

Haven't watched much this year…wow this team can put up points. Crowl is having a heck of a game. 

[yourout]

3 minutes ago, owbc said:

Haven't watched much this year…wow this team can put up points. Crowl is having a heck of a game. 

It's just so hard to get your head around after the Bo Ryan era.

[homer]

This team is so fun to watch.

[Oxy]

😮  I haven't had a drink since New Years eve, but I'm feeling a little lightheaded.  I watched the Maryland B1G tourney game at the Target Center last year with @Playing Catch, and after that one he said that he felt like he ate too much cake.  Same vibes now, except kicked up a notch against this kind of "competition". Too many baskets.

[Jim French Stepstool]

I thought the defense WAS a little better in the 2nd half. Don't know what the pace of the game was AFA how much of the shot clock was being used, but it was brisk & that probably had something to do with Illinois getting into a rhythm. Bottom line, if you can limit Smith & Jakucionis like they did the last two games you're doing something right.

I thought Crowl & Winter were both real good on both ends tonight, esp Crowl obviously.

Enjoyed the 'one-man delay' from Blackwell late in the game both Saturday and tonite. To not give up the ball, slither through the defense after 20 seconds & wind up with a bucket is pretty demoralizing for a defense. So too, is Tonje being Tonje. I don't know what an opponent can do with someone who scores in so many ways.

[Jim French Stepstool]

39 minutes ago, yourout said:

It's just so hard to get your head around after the Bo Ryan era.

The impressive thing is to do it w/o robbing Peter to pay Paul. Any coach can get in front of a mic on media day, say "we're going to be exciting, we're playing up tempo, yadda yadda yadda." But if you have defensive principles in place &value making good decisions, being physical & taking care of the ball, it's easy for all that to go out the window in the process. I think maybe the most impressive thing about Gard is they've done this on a more gradual plain, upping the ante pace-wise while still valuing the basketball & emphasizing fundamentals & defense. And now, here we are. The defense seems to get better as the season unfolds, and any turnover issues this season seem to get cleaned up after halftime. And this team tonite punished them on the boards in Champaign, and UW totally flipped that script (granted, Illinois was short a couple of guys from the 1st meeting). 

Just really impressive.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Ho-hum. Another blowout win against a good team.

I was a little worried about this one because Illinois is weird. But, man, did UW run away with things late. Illini couldn't keep up. 

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

 

I was a little worried about this one because Illinois is weird. 

 

They can score in bunches; I was concerned too. Maybe losing Johnson & having Ivisic under the weather took a little toughness out of them. Not a consistent season from them but maybe that's what you get when you have an entirely new roster save for one or two guys.

[yourout]

42 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I thought the defense WAS a little better in the 2nd half. Don't know what the pace of the game was AFA how much of the shot clock was being used, but it was brisk & that probably had something to do with Illinois getting into a rhythm. Bottom line, if you can limit Smith & Jakucionis like they did the last two games you're doing something right.

I thought Crowl & Winter were both real good on both ends tonight, esp Crowl obviously.

Enjoyed the 'one-man delay' from Blackwell late in the game both Saturday and tonite. To not give up the ball, slither through the defense after 20 seconds & wind up with a bucket is pretty demoralizing for a defense. So too, is Tonje being Tonje. I don't know what an opponent can do with someone who scores in so many ways.

Tonje is kind of the Russell Wilson of Wisconsin basketball being a one year assassin.

[Playing Catch]

Will this end up being the best shooting Badger team of our lives? It is the best eFG% team in the T-Rank era, including the F4 teams. Although the landscape of college basketball has changed, so every team is shooting better than they used to.

Makes me feel like I haven't been appreciating them enough.

In the early days of the season, I was pretty concerned about the lack of beef in the middle. But those concerns have been buried under this shooting barrage. I'm a little surprised that they're only 29th in the country in eFG% (although 8th vs. quad 2 or better teams).

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

42 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

Will this end up being the best shooting Badger team of our lives? It is the best eFG% team in the T-Rank era, including the F4 teams. Although the landscape of college basketball has changed, so every team is shooting better than they used to.

Makes me feel like I haven't been appreciating them enough.

In the early days of the season, I was pretty concerned about the lack of beef in the middle. But those concerns have been buried under this shooting barrage. I'm a little surprised that they're only 29th in the country in eFG% (although 8th vs. quad 2 or better teams).

I'm starting to hear the national folks giving lots more love to the Badgers (Field of 68 even directly said they hadn't talked enough about how good they are), so I think a lot of people are starting to realize how good this team is.

In December/January, I wasn't sure how good the team WAS, but I could see how good they might be. They've really come into their own over the last few weeks.

It's hard to explain how good these guards are. Blackwell, Tonje, and Klesmit are not national names, but that is a true, three-headed, backcourt monster. And then you can bring in McGee off the bench, who is just the perfect role-player, someone who can score if you need him to, but is fully capable of putting in dirty work.

Up front, Crowl has shot it this year, and that is just a killer from an eFG% perspective. Dude is creeping up on 40% from three. Makes it a true pick your poison kind of offense. And if you get Crowl in foul trouble, Winter can do a lot of those same things.

And then throw in Gilmore, who is a classic dirty work guy that's gotten more confident offensively, plus the athleticism and shooting you can get from Amos and Janicki.

That's 9 guys who all fit together really, really well. I don't think there's a star in the bunch (I could see Tonje or Blackwell making NBA rosters, though), but the cohesion and ability to get points in myriad ways make them a nightmare to defend. You can't isolate Johnny Davis or Storr (like JMU did last year in the tourney). It's wild.

Of course, three-point shooting is always fickle, but at least there are a lot of options, and it's not like the team can't get to the line or the rim (or backcut you to death) if the shots aren't falling. They're a matchup nightmare for most teams.

[Samurai Bucky]

11 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

The impressive thing is to do it w/o robbing Peter to pay Paul. Any coach can get in front of a mic on media day, say "we're going to be exciting, we're playing up tempo, yadda yadda yadda." But if you have defensive principles in place &value making good decisions, being physical & taking care of the ball, it's easy for all that to go out the window in the process. I think maybe the most impressive thing about Gard is they've done this on a more gradual plain, upping the ante pace-wise while still valuing the basketball & emphasizing fundamentals & defense. And now, here we are. The defense seems to get better as the season unfolds, and any turnover issues this season seem to get cleaned up after halftime. And this team tonite punished them on the boards in Champaign, and UW totally flipped that script (granted, Illinois was short a couple of guys from the 1st meeting). 

Just really impressive.

One word that has been somewhat unwritten and seldom mentioned is Chemistry.  Of course, winning helps, but I truly believe the players have each others' backs.  It is more than that, but it is getting the right pieces to fit with the plan.

My daughter asked me last night where Tonje came from.  I mentioned that he came from Omaha (and Colorado State and Missouri) which reminded me of Chucky Hepburn.  There was some rumblings that Tonje was coming to Wisconsin to play with Hepburn before Chucky left.  I don't know if that is true or not.  What I do know is Tonje has really fit in well.  The other pieces fit well, too.  Last night, I was getting frustrated at some of the shots that were going up.  Then I mentioned, "but they are up by 10," or, "but they have 80 points."

I think I have been so programmed by Bennett-ball and Ryan-ball that I get uneasy when they don't take care of the ball.  Time to get with the times, Samurai.

[Samurai Bucky]

The thing that stuck out to me during the Illini game was the crazy defense by the Badgers.  They covered, helped, and moved HARD.  This was everybody.  It might be the best defensive effort of the year.  If they can keep it up, look out!

I think the PHD message has been received well:  Poor, Hungry, Driven.

[Oxy]

33 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

I think I have been so programmed by Bennett-ball and Ryan-ball that I get uneasy when they don't take care of the ball.  Time to get with the times, Samurai.

I am totally in this camp.  In the past there was always this comforting feeling whenever UW had a 10 point lead because of the boa constrictor nature of how they played.  When you play slow, don't turn it over and lockdown on D it's just so demoralizing to the other team (for any youngsters who didn't live through the Dick Bennett Final four run in 2000 it is worth a re-watch).  When you play fast, a turnover and 2 missed shots *BOOM, a 10 point lead is a tie game 2 minutes later.  I realize, this also works in reverse, so I'm getting used to that too (see the quick swing at the end of the 1st half vs. Purdue on Saturday when it seemed like the game might be slipping away after McGee's ejection).

Just don't let it turn into undisciplined basketball.  Take decent shots, take care of the ball and still play defense and they can play as fast as possible.

[owbc]

4 minutes ago, Oxy said:

I am totally in this camp.  In the past there was always this comforting feeling whenever UW had a 10 point lead because of the boa constrictor nature of how they played.  When you play slow, don't turn it over and lockdown on D it's just so demoralizing to the other team (for any youngsters who didn't live through the Dick Bennett Final four run in 2000 it is worth a re-watch).  When you play fast, a turnover and 2 missed shots *BOOM, a 10 point lead is a tie game 2 minutes later.  I realize, this also works in reverse, so I'm getting used to that too (see the quick swing at the end of the 1st half vs. Purdue on Saturday when it seemed like the game might be slipping away after McGee's ejection).

Just don't let it turn into undisciplined basketball.  Take decent shots, take care of the ball and still play defense and they can play as fast as possible.

The crazy thing is that it doesn’t feel like they are playing fast. They are just efficient. They get into their half court set and 5-10 seconds later they have found a high percentage shot. 

[Oxy]

1 minute ago, owbc said:

The crazy thing is that it doesn’t feel like they are playing fast. They are just efficient. They get into their half court set and 5-10 seconds later they have found a high percentage shot. 

They definitely don't walk it up the court anymore.  We used to play so hard and so intense on defense that we almost HAD to slow it down and walk it up because we had to catch our breath and rest a little bit. This team is deeper so we can afford to push the ball and rest guys on the bench instead of the first 10-15 seconds of our offensive possession.

[Underachiever]

They had 72 possessions last night. That is above average. I don’t know how much crossover this BF group of posters has with Buckyville, but there is fantastic analysis of each game. Posters Turomon and Formerly BIS (someone new, EdBadger, did last night’s game) have tons of good data. Worth checking out. The rest of the site is a lot of shouting, but that postgame thread is gold if you like data.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/buckyville/illinois-round-2-observations-t107467.html#p2477208

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, Samurai Bucky said:

  Last night, I was getting frustrated at some of the shots that were going up.  Then I mentioned, "but they are up by 10," or, "but they have 80 points."

I think I have been so programmed by Bennett-ball and Ryan-ball that I get uneasy when they don't take care of the ball.  Time to get with the times, Samurai.

Yep. And I loved the way they played under Bo. And contrary to many, I thought the way they played under Bennett was beautiful in its' effectiveness & relentlessness on defense and just the overall intelligence they showed. Under both those guys the players fit the system extremely well.

Your 1st couple sentences above pretty much mirror how I sometimes feel. And let's face it, Tonje is making some deep shots that a lot of coaches would cringe at. But the pace is comfortable to them, and as long as they keep the bedrocks in place---the defense, rebounding, taking care of the ball---it's working.

I find it interesting, the last couple games, to see where they take the foot off the gas w/a late lead & start to melt the clock. looks to be around 4 minutes. And Blackwell seems to have a good feel for orchestrating that, which is gratifying since that role was thrust upon him.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, Samurai Bucky said:

The thing that stuck out to me during the Illini game was the crazy defense by the Badgers.  They covered, helped, and moved HARD.  This was everybody.  It might be the best defensive effort of the year.  If they can keep it up, look out!

I think the PHD message has been received well:  Poor, Hungry, Driven.

@Oxy Made a good point the other day, about who gets the opposing shots. On the perimeter Saturday it was guys not named Smith & Loyer. Last night, Humrichous was put on the spot. He & Gibbs-Lawhorn both provided some pretty good offense, but in both games making life tough for go-to scorers paid off in the long run.

Yeah, the helping & hedging has been really good lately.