2024 - 25 Wisconsin Basketball Thread

[Oxy]

I think Tony Bennett will coach somewhere eventually.  If there is a governing body for college sports that instills some enforceable rules to create some order in the current NIL landscape it will be somewhere like MInnesota--a struggling high major program that has potential...or maybe even someplace that doesn't appear to have potential a la Washington State. If the chaos continues, I could see him going DIII or NAIA or something like that.

It won't be this coming year though, and probably not the year after that either.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

2 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

 

Feel kind of bad for Drake. They go Medved, Devries, McCollum, and lose all three to bigger jobs (in all likelihood). That's gotta sting for the Valley, still a really darn good basketball conference that just can't quite find the breakthrough NCAA tourney wins a la Gonzaga or the A-10 schools.

 

 

Yep. It's the way of the world for mid-majors, made worse in that it now includes players. UWM is losing two of their starters to the portal, a guy that scored just under 15 a game & another that averaged a double-double. It would be a real challenge for me to be an alum of a school like that & be asked to contribute to & cheer for what amounts to a AAA farm team. Sad.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

1 hour ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Yep. It's the way of the world for mid-majors, made worse in that it now includes players. UWM is losing two of their starters to the portal, a guy that scored just under 15 a game & another that averaged a double-double. It would be a real challenge for me to be an alum of a school like that & be asked to contribute to & cheer for what amounts to a AAA farm team. Sad.

Makes Gonzaga and Saint Mary's (especially Saint Mary's) all the more impressive. Randy Bennett should be a Hall of Famer. I know he's only got the one Sweet 16, but winning in that place for this long is a crazy accomplishment. Between them and Gonzaga, you have two schools that just decided to be great at men's basketball and made it happen. Major respect for that. Wish more schools would forget about football and follow that model. It's better for the whole college IMO.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

Halfway through, I don't have a lot of complaints. Badgers are playing a real strong team (emphasis on TEAM) that's been playing well for quite some time now. I loved the poise after falling behind by eight & not seeing a lot of 3pt shots drop. Looked like the emphasis on driving the ball was renewed a little later in the half, fortunately.

Blackwell was short-changed on what as it turned out should've been a goal tend. Live, I thought it was a good block. But KEEP YOUR POISE. The dropping-the-ball-on-the-opponent stuff can't happen.

I think they guarded about as well as you can ask in the last 6 min or so of the half. Keep looking to penetrate, and show the veteran poise when the inevitable push comes from MSU.

All the bench guys did some real nice work in the 1st half.

[AKCheesehead]

Lol @ announcers not thinking that was a foul 🤣

[AKCheesehead]

Yassssssss!!

[young guns]

Wow what a game!

[Jim French Stepstool]

I'll get a couple negatives out of the way first. When MSU came back from 7 down to make it tight, there were a lot of 50-50 rebounds & they got just about every one. Frustrating, but really no one does that crap better than Izzos' teams. And when we were up seven & had the ball, Blackwell found a seam but blew the layup, apparently anticipating a phantom block. Other than that I got nuthin'.

Poise, poise, poise. Really impressive. Loved seeing the work turned in during the stretch of the 2nd half when we were going w/Tonje & four subs. Gard always talks about 'growth'. Growth, guts, and smarts personified. Hard to imagine this is the same group that spit the bit vs Penn State.

I imagine someday there will be a dictionary published and under definition for "Last laugh" there will be a pic of Carter Gilmore. I just hope that with all the crap & nonsense prevalent in the college game, there will always be a niche for people like him.

Damn, that's a tough team to beat. Just can't say enough.

[yourout]

If the zebras were only going to get one call right down the stretch they picked the perfect one.

[Jim French Stepstool]

51 minutes ago, yourout said:

If the zebras were only going to get one call right down the stretch they picked the perfect one.

Yep. And the play late where Blackwell was fouled. It was the right call, but I could see them letting that be a "play on". Fortunately they didn't.

[Oxy]

15 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Yep. And the play late where Blackwell was fouled. It was the right call, but I could see them letting that be a "play on". Fortunately they didn't.

Yep, but the made up for it with the call on McGee vs Richardson 10 seconds later where they got their feet tangled up and MSU had already thrown the ball away.

[Joseph Zarr]

Congrats, Bucky fans! Big Dub!

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

The technical on Blackwell in the first half was weird, and there were some small whistles late while bigger stuff got let go, but I thought the officiating ended up being pretty good overall. At the very least, it was even.

What a win for the Badgers. Their best of the year, and a great time for it. Like I said, I don't think they can get up to a 2 no matter what (and the committee cares zero about the B1G title game given it ends like 10 minutes before the bracket is released), but hard to see them slipping to a 4 now.

More importantly, they get to play for a banner. Always fun. And hopefully a chance to redeem a mediocre performance at this time last year. It'll be Michigan, and they scare me less than Maryland, though only by a little. I think we match up okay with Goldin and Wolf and have better guards. Might have to get some minutes from Ilver, or go small with Amos and throw some athleticism at them.

I'll say this: Tonje is a on a heater, and if Michigan sells out on him, Blackwell will hurt them. Whatever the case, team is playing very well after a really disappointing regular season finale. Maybe the PSU game really taught the lesson I thought the Oregon game would. That win today was the toughest we've looked all year.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Two quick thoughts on end-of-game scenarios:

1) I've never understood why more teams don't try to throw up high, long passes/shots when up 1 or 2 late and under ten seconds left, kind of like a coffin-corner punt. That's going to take up like 3-4 seconds, you could try to tap it back up, and even if the other team grabs it, they'd still have to go length of floor in remaining time. ESPECIALLY with like 5 seconds left, you could take up the whole clock. We've figured out the backtap on the offensive glass; it's the same principle. I get being worried about loose ball fouls, and it seems simple to make free throws, but I still think it's worth some thought.

2) Even more, I don't understand why teams up three late don't pull out their down three late defense. Like, full-court press and trap. I get the risk of a scramble situation, but you're also fine with a foul there. And you can cause a lot of time to run off. Teams SHOULD do this more.

I bring these up only because Gard always seems unsure and hesitant up three late. I'm a full-on foul person, so it always makes me nervous when the Badgers find themselves in that situation. I am deeply scarred from the Florida game when they made a free throw to go up 2 and then got beat on a buzzer three. Just miss the free throw! Tap it around! Okay. Now, let's win the Big Ten.

[LouisEly]

2 hours ago, yourout said:

If the zebras were only going to get one call right down the stretch they picked the perfect one.

And for all of the goaltending non-calls that have been happening since the beginning of time, the refs know that a whistle and a goaltending call allows it to be reviewed but no whistle no call prevents it from being reviewed.

SO IF IT'S CLOSE BLOW THE WHISTLE AND MAKE THE DAMN CALL SO IT CAN BE REVIEWED!!!!!

[RedStickBrew]

Wolf and Goldin destroyed us in Madison. Hope we have a better plan on D for that pick n roll action tomorrow. Gilly might be the key in that interior D lineup. I think we can match up ok with them on the perimeter 

Should be a good game  Hope we saved some legs for day 4

 

[RedStickBrew]

2 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Congrats, Bucky fans! Big Dub!

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Two quick thoughts on end-of-game scenarios:

1) I've never understood why more teams don't try to throw up high, long passes/shots when up 1 or 2 late and under ten seconds left, kind of like a coffin-corner punt. That's going to take up like 3-4 seconds, you could try to tap it back up, and even if the other team grabs it, they'd still have to go length of floor in remaining time. ESPECIALLY with like 5 seconds left, you could take up the whole clock. We've figured out the backtap on the offensive glass; it's the same principle. I get being worried about loose ball fouls, and it seems simple to make free throws, but I still think it's worth some thought.

2) Even more, I don't understand why teams up three late don't pull out their down three late defense. Like, full-court press and trap. I get the risk of a scramble situation, but you're also fine with a foul there. And you can cause a lot of time to run off. Teams SHOULD do this more.

I bring these up only because Gard always seems unsure and hesitant up three late. I'm a full-on foul person, so it always makes me nervous when the Badgers find themselves in that situation. I am deeply scarred from the Florida game when they made a free throw to go up 2 and then got beat on a buzzer three. Just miss the free throw! Tap it around! Okay. Now, let's win the Big Ten.

#1 kinda reminds me of Mike Flowers down in Austin, Texas when he got his hands on the ball as he was falling out of bounds, flipped it up in the air & the clock ran out before it came down.

As for #2, I think most coaches like setting up conventionally so they can plan to switch through a screen (or not), and the potential 'scramble' mode you refer to probably makes it easier for someone to get screened without chance for recovery. But if you're talking 4-5 seconds then yeah, 3/4 court pressure is a good idea.

I DID want to see them 'press up' on the 3pt line when they were up 5 & Kohler hit the three. One of those situations where I really want them shooting inside the arc. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, RedStickBrew said:

Wolf and Goldin destroyed us in Madison. Hope we have a better plan on D for that pick n roll action tomorrow. Gilly might be the key in that interior D lineup. I think we can match up ok with them on the perimeter 

Should be a good game  Hope we saved some legs for day 4

 

Fortunately we're guarding much better now. The screen & roll was ridiculously easy for Michigan last time.

Real tough matchup no matter who we'd play tomorrow, but If I had my choice I'd take Michigan because they're much more likely than MD to make dumb decisions on offense & turn the ball over. And MAYBE Crowl/Winter can effectively pull their defenders away from the cup.

It's too bad Greppi was on again, off again healthwise this season. Had he had a full season of daily work this would be a perfect game to get him 2-3 minutes of warfare in the post. I don't think Ilver would be much help in that regard.

 

[Underachiever]

5 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Fortunately we're guarding much better now. The screen & roll was ridiculously easy for Michigan last 

 

I was at that stupid game. I agree that they struggled with Michigan’s bigs, but they still only gave up 67 points. UW only scored two points in the last four minutes. Gave up the last 6 pts of the game and lost by three. Make a shot, make the free throws, they walk out winners.

[AKCheesehead]

If you're concerned about facing Michigan, just think how concerned their fans must be about having to face Wisconsin.

[adambr2]

So, probably a 3 seed with a win today and a 4 with a loss?

[RedStickBrew]

13 hours ago, AKCheesehead said:

If you're concerned about facing Michigan, just think how concerned their fans must be about having to face Wisconsin.

Most would appear to agree. Looks like we are 3.5 point favorites with a 61% win probability 

[RedStickBrew]

14 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

So, probably a 3 seed with a win today and a 4 with a loss?

Most every projection I have seen has us locked into a 3 seed regardless of result today. 

[Playing Catch]

I know that announcers routinely talk about teams "missing open looks," but there's a reason MSU has one of the best 3% defenses in the country. Teams may be "open" enough to take a good shot, but there's always a guy right there, ready to nick the shooter's elbow. The Badgers hitting 31% on 29 3-point attempts was a strong shooting performance yesterday.

The Badgers are good enough in all areas of the game that when they shoot well enough from 3, like yesterday, they are final 4 good. This team wouldn't be able to repeat the gauntlet of teams the 2014-15 team went through to get the Final, but with a couple of fortunate bounces, this team can win their region.

As JFS mentioned earlier, Carter Gilmore was terrific against the Spartans yesterday. Perhaps it's from sitting courtside for 4 years, but he seems to sense the game's rhythm. He seems to step up when Tonje and Blackwell are gassed, or when the offense stagnates a little bit. This team needs big moments from him and McGee to keep winning.