Wisconsin Basketball 2025-26

[Jim French Stepstool]

46 minutes ago, yourout said:

Buckys defense looks bad early.

I thought the D looked not great but acceptable early on. As the half wore on, the defense was simply being beaten by Braden Smith. I get sick of hearing game announcers constantly kiss his arse whenever he's on the floor but dammit, he's a terrific PG. I think they just need to make his shots as tough as possible & seldom if ever help off the other players.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Despite the bad foul on the 3PT shooter Janicki had a pretty active half, making good decisions & even contributing on the boards. That said, you might be getting closer to Carrington taking some of his minutes, assuming he can lock in consistently on the defensive end.

[yourout]

The lack of another decent big is death against these guys.

[yourout]

This is AAU slop ball

[yourout]

The route is on. 

Purdue is good and buckys absolute ceiling is making the dance.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

It's really hard to know what to think of this team. They have beaten everyone they should've beaten and lost to everyone better than them (maybe TCU excepted).

Still a lot of game left here, but Purdue seems better by a lot, as was previously mentioned.

Teams like Wisconsin have lots of opportunities to get big wins. They still have a lot of chances, but you have to start taking them. My worry is this team isn't capable of beating the top 4 or 5 B1G teams, even at home. You just HAVE to get one or two of those to have any shot at dancing. Right now, my assessment is what it was after the Nova game: this Badger squad CURRENTLY looks like less than the sum of its parts.

[adambr2]

Me: (gets home, thinks “hmm, let’s see how the Badgers are doing before I turn on football.)

(flips on the Badgers)

”ah nevermind, football it is.”

[yourout]

Badgers have 2 starters that would not start on another B10 team right now.

[yourout]

Janiki was a nice story but should never play more than 5 minutes in a B10 game

[yourout]

I think the loss of Kirk Penny is going to end up being a real massive one.

[Jim French Stepstool]

49 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

 this Badger squad CURRENTLY looks like less than the sum of its parts.

Well-put assessment. Another way to look at it is the age-old consistency lament. If you take the best of Bieliauskas & the best of Rapp, and get that 3 or 4 out of every five games you're most likely OK. Even the best of Garlock IMO makes him an acceptable 4th big. Is it youth (we're talking a SO & two FR), and with time the consistency eventually comes? Or is the ceiling just not that high? One thing to keep in mind is that judging them strictly on today vs Cluff, Kaufmann-Renn & Jacobsen is a test many bigs won't pass. But the big oppo Winter definitely has to get better. The opponents where you can consistently play Carrington or Jones at that spot & go small are few & far between from here on out, and they don't seem compelled to do that anyway.

[Jim French Stepstool]

16 minutes ago, yourout said:

I think the loss of Kirk Penny is going to end up being a real massive one.

I loved what he brought to the program, but it was mostly on the offensive end & IMO that isn't what's going to hold them back. Defense & overall toughness; 50-50 balls.

If you're talking recruiting, I hope he still can be in the ear of kids in the NZ-Australia area. If that dissipates then yes, it'll be a challenge.

[yourout]

5 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I loved what he brought to the program, but it was mostly on the offensive end & IMO that isn't what's going to hold them back. Defense & overall toughness; 50-50 balls.

If you're talking recruiting, I hope he still can be in the ear of kids in the NZ-Australia area. If that dissipates then yes, it'll be a challenge.

I think Blackwell is going to miss him the most.

[Jim French Stepstool]

37 minutes ago, yourout said:

Janiki was a nice story but should never play more than 5 minutes in a B10 game

He's a better defender than anyone else coming off the bench, which is why he plays. And his decision-making is usually solid (it wasn't as good tonite). I think Janicki is a backcourt version of Carter Gilmore (before Gilmores' SR year), when he was offensively challenged but still saw a lot of minutes due to the toughness, defense & good decisions in the halfcourt. 

I made the comment in this thread about Carrington maybe taking minutes from him. Carrington is physical enough, but especially tonite just doesn't look as connected on the defensive end as you'd hope from a vet. He came in with a decent rep in that area but I don't see it right now. I hope that changes as he can provide offense, but Gard isn't going to play someone in that role who might score seven & give up ten. 

"Play within yourself" is something Janicki usually espouses on offense. Not tonite so much. Certainly needs to be better.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

11 minutes ago, yourout said:

I think Blackwell is going to miss him the most.

Interesting thought. It looks to me like the shots he got last year, are mostly the shots Boyd is getting now. I loved the idea of Blackwell playing off the ball but like a lot of stuff w/this team, it's an adjustment, a process. Stay tuned, I guess.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Another test tomorrow vs UCLA. A challenging one for sure, but focusing on the bigs not named Nolan Winter I'm still looking for some sort of watermark between feast & famine. Bieliauskas & Rapp (even Garlock) are mostly fine vs the people you'd expect them to be fine against, and vs someone with one good post player & another one who's average or better it's been tough. In UCLA I see a middle ground between the low-to-mid majors we've played and Nebraska & Purdue AFA toughness and effectiveness around the hoop. And Michigan looms next. #'s 22, 23 & 32------it's time.

An interesting history lesson, at least to geeks like me: this is UCLAs' first visit to Madison since 1962. That's pre-Alcindor. And two years later (Dec '64) UCLA played in the Milwaukee Classic. I once read that they sponsored a coaches' clinic featuring the four coaches in town for that tourney. That would be UW coach John Erickson, along with Bob Cousy, John Wooden, & Al McGuire. And given the era & the fact it was sponsored it was probably free. That just blows me away.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Rapp out tonite. Unspecified (as per usual).

Also Skyy Clark out for UCLA. Pretty hefty hefty absence for them. Averaging over 13 per game & just under 49% from three.

[RedStickBrew]

14 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Rapp out tonite. Unspecified (as per usual).

Also Skyy Clark out for UCLA. Pretty hefty hefty absence for them. Averaging over 13 per game & just under 49% from three.

As I recall they were pretty physical with us in the paint last year. Hopefully we can match the physicality and shoot the three

[yourout]

I miss the days when a 20-point lead was almost a guaranteed win

[Jim French Stepstool]

Nice half shooting the ball, and the defense in the first twelve minutes or so was great. But let's be honest, UCLA stunk up the joint early. Their problem is that the positive run they had to end the half was fueled by aggressiveness on the defensive end, and they have a little bit of foul trouble as well as some people banged up so hopefully they run out of gas.

They started to play through Bilodeau, which caused problems for Bucky. The bigs defending him w/o fouling might be job#1 in the 2nd half.

TO bug seemed to be nonexistent tonite, then reared its' ugly head again for a few minutes. If UW is smart & takes care of the ball there should be FTs & some cuts to the rim coming.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, RedStickBrew said:

As I recall they were pretty physical with us in the paint last year. 

Yeah, from Bilodeau, also Kyle & Mara who are both gone. I get the feeling UW might use up a lot of fouls on Bilodeau in the 2nd half. We'll see.

[yourout]

They are going to lose this game aren't they.

[da swedish german]

"there's some nervous energy here in the kohl center."

nah......just 3 hours past most of the crowd's bedtime  

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Game slowed down a bunch in the second half, which is how UCLA wants to play. Badgers just built too big a lead for it to matter.

That's a nice win. Probably the best of the year to date. I don't think they can beat Michigan, but I'd like to see them keep it competitive. Wolverines have been untouchable at home, though they really had to hang on in State College tonight.

[Jim French Stepstool]

13 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Game slowed down a bunch in the second half, which is how UCLA wants to play. Badgers just built too big a lead for it to matter.

 

If I'm Cronin, going into the 2nd half I'm feeding Bilodeau a LOT more than they were. Thank you very much. Never should've let the thing get even remotely close to uncomfortable, but after UCLA made their run Janicki & then Rohde hit huge threes to keep them at arm's length. Kudos to a couple guys who haven't always put points on the board but combined for 18 (combined 6-11 from the floor) tonite.

Blackwell wasn't great tonite but IMO was 'better'. But Boyd really profiles as the team leader, which is fine with me but not something I expected.