2024 - 25 Wisconsin Basketball Thread

[Oxy]

Looking forward to today's game.  I'll say that things go opposite to script.  MSU makes shots in the half court, but turn it over to give UW more opportunities.  UW rebounds and takes care of the ball, but only shoot okay.  If the refs call it fair I'll say UW pulls it out, but if it's a wrestling match or Blackwell/Tonje get in foul trouble MSU wins by 10.

[RedStickBrew]

It will be difficult to get the road W today. Klesmit being out makes it more difficult. Limit the turnovers and shoot it well from 3 will be key. I think UW has an advantage with the bigs. MSU bigs aren’t that great maybe they can exploit that

[RedStickBrew]

2/13 from three so far is not gonna get it done

[RedStickBrew]

Shooting 2/16 from three. 38% overall and stilll lead at halftime. This team just continues to impress me

[Jim French Stepstool]

Obviously, 2 for 16 or whatever it is from three won't get it done. But despite that they go into the locker room with a lead, plus most of them were good looks & if they revise to the mean It could be an edge for UW in the 2nd half. I was actually more concerned about the 2nd & 3rd shots for MSU. Looks like MAYBE that got cleaned up late in the half.

The zone is a two-edged sword. AFA the quality of shots allowed to MSU it worked OK. But the lack of boxout vs this team is a little scary.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, RedStickBrew said:

It will be difficult to get the road W today. Klesmit being out makes it more difficult. Limit the turnovers and shoot it well from 3 will be key. I think UW has an advantage with the bigs. MSU bigs aren’t that great maybe they can exploit that

I think MSUs' bigs are OK, in that they epitomize the cliche 'they stay within themselves'. And they hit the boards hard. I would agree we have more firepower with Crowl & Winter.

[RedStickBrew]

4 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I think MSUs' bigs are OK, in that they epitomize the cliche 'they stay within themselves'. And they hit the boards hard. I would agree we have more firepower with Crowl & Winter.

To clarify my advantage statement, I mean that we have an advantage when our bigs stretch the floor by hitting threes and forcing them to guard the perimeter thus pulling them off the glass. We haven’t done that yet

[jason21nl]

Keep jacking up contested crappy 3s boys…..

[yourout]

Getting away from them. 

Spartys D is good.

[AKCheesehead]

Tonje fouled on the first 3 attempt that last possession from the left side of the arc.  The officiating is a little bizarre.

[Jim French Stepstool]

5 minutes ago, jason21nl said:

Keep jacking up contested crappy 3s boys…..

There are a lot of contested ones. But some good looks too, that just won't go down. And we're looking to drive the ball, but that isn't quite as successful as we're used to. Like @youroutsaid, good defensive team.

[yourout]

8 minutes ago, AKCheesehead said:

Tonje fouled on the first 3 attempt that last possession from the left side of the arc.  The officiating is a little bizarre.

And he just got hacked and the defender hits it while out of bounds and no call.

[yourout]

11 minutes ago, AKCheesehead said:

Tonje fouled on the first 3 attempt that last possession from the left side of the arc.  The officiating is a little bizarre.

Dupe. 

[yourout]

Not going to get any calls down the stretch.

[yourout]

Complete collapse down the stretch.

[RedStickBrew]

13 minutes ago, yourout said:

Complete collapse down the stretch.

Didn’t make shots, gave up too many offensive rebounds and the home whistle were too much to overcome today. 

[yourout]

3 minutes ago, RedStickBrew said:

Didn’t make shots, gave up too many offensive rebounds and the home whistle were too much to overcome today. 

The whistles after IIzzos little tirade got terribly one sided. 

Contact called on one end but not the other.

[RedStickBrew]

3 minutes ago, yourout said:

The whistles after IIzzos little tirade got terribly one sided. 

Contact called on one end but not the other.

I agree. Honestly I think that ultimately works against them when it comes tourney time. MSU is going to get absolutely rolled by a team that gets hot from three and there will be no Big refs to bail them out

[Jim French Stepstool]

Let's face it, once MSU settled in they guarded really well. UW needed to make the open looks they DID get, and that didn't happen. This was one of those games where you could've used a 'true' PG, invert the offense a little, and get Tonje/Blackwell the ball in a post up situation. But we don't really do that.

I don't know how many 2nd-3rd chance points MSU had. But I DO know that this was the type of game where you might shoot like crap from three, so you'd better not give up extra looks. And Izzo found something w/his bigs rolling to the hoop for the lobs. Way too easy.

Janicki & Gilmore were the most impressive guys on the floor for Wisconsin, just based on defense & toughness. It was that kind of game. And considering what he went up against, I thought Winter competed well.

[Samurai Bucky]

If the game is close towards the end, the Badgers are done.  The turnover by McGee with around 1:30 to go was a nonchalant garbage pass.  It looked almost like the pass Crowl had against Oregon.

It would seem like the coaching staff needs to come up with something a little different in these close, end-game situations.  Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me.

 

[yourout]

Its been a good year and a fun team to watch but just a bit short on talent to win any hardware.

[RedStickBrew]

29 minutes ago, yourout said:

Its been a good year and a fun team to watch but just a bit short on talent to win any hardware.

I would still give them a chance to win the conference tournament. As far as March Madness, they could do some damage but there are realistically 6 teams that are clearly in a tier above most other teams. Duke and Auburn might be in a tier all their own above all 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Seeing a little more pessimism than I thought here.

Honestly, my ultimate takeaway was: this team is really going to be tough to beat in March.

Are there things to work on? Yes. They struggle a little against ball pressure and can make lazy passes from the wing to the top of the key. Turnovers are an issue. They have gotten a lot better defensively but are not the toughest UW team I've seen in my time, not by a fairly wide margin. In this game and the MD game (kind of carbon copies of each other), all that resulted in them playing okay but breaking down in the last minutes in a way that caused the score to get out of hand.

Still...

1) They weren't going to win @MD or @MSU. Not generally, but especially not considering how those games played out.

2) They shot awful from 3, got outrebounded by quite a bit, took six fewer shots, and were on the road against a really good team, probably the team playing the best in the league right now. It's March, and Izzo is looking for a B1G title.

And yet they were in this game. They had TWO chances to take the lead late after cutting it to one. Right in this game despite doing a lot of things wrong and getting some bad breaks and playing against a team with more toughness and defensive chops. We played in the 130s against a top-5 dEF team. And were dead there playing their preferred style. Obviously, it's an L. Boo L's. But I really can't expect much more.

Weirdly, I think this week shows us something. Minnesota has been playing well. Penn State not so much, but they're not bad either. Let's continue to work on things, play well, and head into the B1G tourney looking like a real contender

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

40 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

 

Are there things to work on? Yes. They struggle a little against ball pressure and can make lazy passes from the wing to the top of the key. Turnovers are an issue..........

Weirdly, I think this week shows us something. Minnesota has been playing well. Penn State not so much, but they're not bad either. Let's continue to work on things, play well, and head into the B1G tourney looking like a real contender

 

I wish Crowl/Winter could spend a little more time trying to get postups (Crowl anyway). It seems like Gard feels he needs bigs as a release valve vs pressure in the half court. Just about all teams use their bigs in that way, but maybe our reliance on that takes away from the offense. Sure, if you're Crowl & you get a good look or two from deep, let it fly until you've shown you just don't have the touch that day. But I'd like to see him get fed down low more often, at least to see if there's going to be a double-team.

Nothing should be taken for granted vs Minnesota. Ben Johnson is a pretty good coach who the powers that be up there hoped would get more of the big-time talent from the TC to stay home.

[RedStickBrew]

Looking through some stats from yesterday’s game and saw that Winter ripped down 17 rebounds. His size, athleticism and ability to shoot the three make him an NBA prospect. He really needs to work on getting stronger and could really be a beast next year