Wisconsin Basketball 2025-26

[Samurai Bucky]

There was a timeout in the first half where Gard must have ripped them a new one.  The next trip down the floor, the Badgers were moving the ball around the perimeter (mentioned by the play by play team) and stepped it up on defense.  That was the turning point.

Different people stepped up for sure. 

Sure, Bieliauskas hit a bunch of 3's in the second half and that was HUGE.  However his defense on Mara might have been even more of a factor.  Yes... he got played at the beginning of the game.  As time went on, Mara was not as much of a factor as I thought he would be.

I do believe the refs did have an impact on the game, but probably not in the way that we might expect.  When the Badgers started to play more aggressively in the first half, I was expecting the zebras to be blowing the whistles a lot.  That didn't happen.  In the second half, there were more "nickel-dimers" that were called along with swallowing the whistle on some obvious Michigan fouls.  The Badgers just scored.  Like we said earlier this week -- if they hit their threes, they can beat anybody.  Also, there wasn't as much standing around on offense.  There was more movement on the five-out... and maybe less of the five-out.

I hope the Badgers can keep up the momentum.  Everyone drink to the first quad 1 win of the year!

[Playing Catch]

Just a wonderful feeling, winning in Ann Arbor.

The Badgers' effort/concentration/attention to detail in this game never wavered. All 5 guys on the court were active and aggressive defensively, and on the glass; their closeouts were crisp. The depth really showed up in all of those effort plays.

As mentioned from everyone here, Bieliauskas and Carrington were great today. Aleksas was the 5th option at every point of the game, and UM wanted him shooting those shots. They just fell. He and Carrington should probably take most of Rapp's minutes, as it allows Winter to play the 4 a lot more.

And speaking of Winter, he had a quietly excellent game. Michigan took him away, and he had to body their bigs the whole game, but his focus was excellent, going 3-4 from deep, and with some key hustle plays.

And Boyd. Wow. Blackwell, excellent. That Rohde 3 late. Just a complete performance. Michigan has a higher gear, but the Badgers wouldn't let them hit the turbo, playing much better defensively than 88 points allowed would suggest.

[Playing Catch]

Also... Greg Gard. Outcoached Dusty May today. He adjusted on BOTH offense and defense. The Blackwell inbound off Mara's leg on the inbound in order to save a timeout/make subs.

3 consecutive victories for an unranked Badger team on the road, against a top 2 team. That's coaching and culture.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

28 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

Also... Greg Gard. Outcoached Dusty May today. He adjusted on BOTH offense and defense. The Blackwell inbound off Mara's leg on the inbound in order to save a timeout/make subs.

3 consecutive victories for an unranked Badger team on the road, against a top 2 team. That's coaching and culture.

Was going to say this about Gard too. The possession with about 4:25 left, where Boyd had four fouls, but Gard goes offense-defense with him after we get fouled was a great little moment that shows he was on top of his game today.

I also thought the defensive game plan was really, really good. Michigan made some shots and got points at the line. There were one or two breakdown possessions you'd like back (I think we hit a three to go up seven with about 13 min left only to have Michigan answer back within like 4 seconds), but, other than that, that's a game where, sure, you give up 88. But it's a lot of hard-earned buckets.

Still soaring on this one. We've got to back it up @Minnesota already on Tuesday, but this is a stretch of games where you could look up and be 8-3 in the B1G. Really hope they make this W payoff. It really is a MASSIVE win. Hard to believe anyone in the country will post one clearly better.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, RedStickBrew said:

Great win today.  Going nuts from 3 was pretty obviously a big reason for W.  

I still don’t really have a good feel for this team and have been hesitant to jump to conclusions about how good they can be. But a couple things stood out for me today. One is that they are getting better defensively, especially on the interior, with the help side D, and cleaning up the defensive boards. Secondly, Carrington’s presence on both ends has been a boost to the team. Why has he not had more minutes?

Basically this team has won every game they should have this season and now have their first Q1 win for their tournament resume. 

Good comments. They were outrebounded by 3 or 4 today, but if this game was like some of our earlier efforts Michigan would've eaten us alive on the boards. 

Carrington IMO hasn't always played real smart basketball before today. Bad TOs, not real good judgement & I haven't felt his defensive work has lived up to the solid rep he came in with, maybe due to taking awhile to understand the way Gard wants the help, hedge & recover to work. Ton of credit to him for righting the ship. A long list of guys they don't win today without, and he's certainly on it.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

 

Sure, Bieliauskas hit a bunch of 3's in the second half and that was HUGE.  However his defense on Mara might have been even more of a factor.  Yes... he got played at the beginning of the game.  As time went on, Mara was not as much of a factor as I thought he would be.

 

I thought there were a few sequences where Bieliauskas did pretty much all he could, but couldn't win the battle because he couldn't stop Mara from being 7'4" or whatever he is. Probably his best job of neutralizing him was hitting the five 3's & keeping Mara on the bench due to his not being able to guard out there. Winter hitting three 3's was huge in that regard, too.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Rewatching the Michigan game a bit this weekend and thinking it's exactly what happens when you have two stretch bigs knocking down shots: it frees up Blackwell and Boyd.

Those two are ELITE college guards, and elite college guards means you are capable of beating anybody. 

Let's roll up a few wins here and start building a serious profile. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

16 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Rewatching the Michigan game a bit this weekend and thinking it's exactly what happens when you have two stretch bigs knocking down shots: it frees up Blackwell and Boyd.

Those two are ELITE college guards, and elite college guards means you are capable of beating anybody. 

Let's roll up a few wins here and start building a serious profile. 

I rewatched some of it too. It's amazing how well the inversion of the offense (bigs taking threes, guards driving) works when you have BOTH bigs knocking them down as you mentioned. Almost like Bo's swing offense except the guards are driving the ball rather than posting up. Some have mentioned how that could be a problem for Michigan going forward w/Mara unable to guard out there, but I don't know if they'll run into this again where there's no one he can leave alone on the perimiter. But it sure had them in a vise Saturday; they even went zone for a bit.

I like where the team is trending, but road challenges always need to be taken seriously. I would say Medved has Minnesota playing more consistently than I would've expected this early in his tenure. I don't know if they switch 1-5 on screens but looking at the personnel I would say they're capable of doing it. Might be a game where UW should be a bit more cognizant of Winter getting the ball in the post. No Mara, Jacobsen or Cluff down there.

Since he's been in the league I don't know if there's anyone better at getting hustle, heart & relentlessness out of his team when playing at home then Pikiell at Rutgers (except for last year when they had the freshmen 'superstars', all of whom are gone). You always expect a rock fight there, which is why I'm happy that we seem to be getting more connected on the defensive end. Tariq Francis is a transfer guard from NJIT. Sorta like Boyd in that he gets into the lane & gets to the FT line. Northwestern had all kinds of trouble stopping him the other day.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

6 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I rewatched some of it too. It's amazing how well the inversion of the offense (bigs taking threes, guards driving) works when you have BOTH bigs knocking them down as you mentioned. Almost like Bo's swing offense except the guards are driving the ball rather than posting up. Some have mentioned how that could be a problem for Michigan going forward w/Mara unable to guard out there, but I don't know if they'll run into this again where there's no one he can leave alone on the perimiter. But it sure had them in a vise Saturday; they even went zone for a bit.

I like where the team is trending, but road challenges always need to be taken seriously. I would say Medved has Minnesota playing more consistently than I would've expected this early in his tenure. I don't know if they switch 1-5 on screens but looking at the personnel I would say they're capable of doing it. Might be a game where UW should be a bit more cognizant of Winter getting the ball in the post. No Mara, Jacobsen or Cluff down there.

Since he's been in the league I don't know if there's anyone better at getting hustle, heart & relentlessness out of his team when playing at home then Pikiell at Rutgers (except for last year when they had the freshmen 'superstars', all of whom are gone). You always expect a rock fight there, which is why I'm happy that we seem to be getting more connected on the defensive end. Tariq Francis is a transfer guard from NJIT. Sorta like Boyd in that he gets into the lane & gets to the FT line. Northwestern had all kinds of trouble stopping him the other day.

Yeah, this is for sure going to be a three-game stretch that tests the focus. You've got the road games against decent teams, playing hard and together, wrapped around the no-win home game against Rutgers. In theory, we should be favorites in all three. Like you said, though, Pikiell is a good coach. Rhodes at PSU too, and Medved may have been the home run hire of the coaching carousel, given where Minnesota was and where they probably should be given their location. 

Team deserved to celebrate the Michigan win. But breaking serve against Sinner or Alcaraz doesn't mean too much if you can't consolidate the break and hold serve. It's hold serve time for Wisconsin.

We've got more talent than Minnesota 1-5. I think it's all about controlling pace. They are going to be hard pressed to keep up offensively in a game that runs 70+ possessions. We want this thing played in the 70s or 80s for sure.

[yourout]

What a terrible finish to the half.

[yourout]

Foul differential of 8 to 3 seems a bit excessive.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Minnesota is running some real good, disciplined stuff offensively but we're helping immensely by allowing dribble penetration. 

On the other end, we looked fine until they went to the zone which we responded to terribly. We're flashing people across to the FT line against it--sometimes. I'd rather see someone immediately position on the FT line vs the zone. Preferably Winter, but SOMEONE.

Always adjustments at the half. We'll see how UW decides to attack it. You know we'll see it (zone) due to their success with it & lack of depth.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 minutes ago, yourout said:

Foul differential of 8 to 3 seems a bit excessive.

Yeah, but I don't think Minny really fouled more than that. Our being whistled for 8 might be more than it should be though.

[yourout]

2 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Yeah, but I don't think Minny really fouled more than that. Our being whistled for 8 might be more than it should be though.

The one on Blackwell was a phantom.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 minute ago, yourout said:

The one on Blackwell was a phantom.

Yeah, that whistle didn't look like it needed to be blown.

[yourout]

11 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Yeah, that whistle didn't look like it needed to be blown.

There is another on Bialoskis

And no call on Blackwell getting clobbered on the curl

[yourout]

Refs are pissing me off.

[homer]

Yes

[yourout]

I think Winter owes Blackwell a steak dinner.

[Jim French Stepstool]

BOOM!!!! What a 2nd half from Blackwell & Carrington. My goodness.

Feels great, yet a little weird in the sense that they didn't finish very strong--the missed FTs, going back to letting Minn get in the lane, a bad foul by Janicki allowing the 2 throws, then a too-good look from three.

But along with the two mentioned above, Janicki deserves a ton of credit for his work on the defensive end.

Medved, it almost looks like he's skipped a few rungs on the ladder. By that, I mean they're playing waaay better than I think a team should reasonably expect w/the player turnover combined with a new coach. Coming from nine down late, we helped them some but it was still really impressive.

To me this is one of those schools/gyms where you're happy with a win, no matter how it's achieved. At Rutgers is kinda like that too.

[RedStickBrew]

With about 3:00 left in the game, I was thinking this is going to be the best W of the season. Unfortunately, they did not close it out very clean.

Still it was going to be a tough game to win against this MN team. They play hard and disciplined on D and slow the pace offensively.
 

I think going forward we will see more smaller lineups with Carrington and Janicki instead of a true 5. It worked well in this game and will against most teams they will play outside of the Michigan and Purdue type teams

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

2 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

BOOM!!!! What a 2nd half from Blackwell & Carrington. My goodness.

Feels great, yet a little weird in the sense that they didn't finish very strong--the missed FTs, going back to letting Minn get in the lane, a bad foul by Janicki allowing the 2 throws, then a too-good look from three.

But along with the two mentioned above, Janicki deserves a ton of credit for his work on the defensive end.

Medved, it almost looks like he's skipped a few rungs on the ladder. By that, I mean they're playing waaay better than I think a team should reasonably expect w/the player turnover combined with a new coach. Coming from nine down late, we helped them some but it was still really impressive.

To me this is one of those schools/gyms where you're happy with a win, no matter how it's achieved. At Rutgers is kinda like that too.

What a finish. That was a sloppy victory, but a cathartic one. You're absolutely right on that you take anything you can get against that squad in that gym.

It's not a great performance. I think the defense could have been better, especially late in the game. Some bad fouls, and if it weren't for Minnesota missing some free throws, that would've wound up an L.

Still, you've got to credit getting almost nothing from the frontcourt and still pulling it out. Blackwell was awesome. Carrington too. The offense kind of rode about 8 great minutes to a W, but that's sometimes all it takes.

If MN plays like this, that's going to end up a Q1 game by the end of the year. Really impressed by their effort and toughness.

[Underachiever]

9 minutes ago, RedStickBrew said:

With about 3:00 left in the game, I was thinking this is going to be the best W of the season. Unfortunately, they did not close it out very clean.

Better than Michigan? C’mon man.

It was won in the best possible way. Rip their hearts out. Two road wins in the Big Ten is better than I expected.
 

[RedStickBrew]

1 minute ago, Underachiever said:

Better than Michigan? C’mon man.

It was won in the best possible way. Rip their hearts out. Two road wins in the Big Ten is better than I expected.
 

Obviously Michigan is the best win. I was just convinced this was going to be a letdown loss coming off that win and was pleasantly surprised by how they came out and played in the second half

[Jim French Stepstool]

11 minutes ago, RedStickBrew said:

Obviously Michigan is the best win. I was just convinced this was going to be a letdown loss coming off that win and was pleasantly surprised by how they came out and played in the second half

Hear ya. Losing this after winning in AA might put one in a little bit of a question mark mode---exactly how good are they? With another roadie coming up Saturday this was huge.