Wisconsin Basketball 2025-26

[Jim French Stepstool]

Just to put this whole ugly thing to bed once & for all, video & stills are coming out showing that on the last foul Blackwell & Wilkerson had their legs tangled & IF the ref who made the call actually saw that then you could justify a foul call. In real time, I have no idea if that played into the call as referees seldom are looking at guys' feet when someone is trying to back down a defender. And I'm still ticked when you throw that into the hopper with the other 4 or 5 calls that went against UW in the latter minutes of the game.

Anyway, on to Tuesdays' matchup vs the Eastern European Sports Collective.

[homer]

1 hour ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Just to put this whole ugly thing to bed once & for all, video & stills are coming out showing that on the last foul Blackwell & Wilkerson had their legs tangled & IF the ref who made the call actually saw that then you could justify a foul call. In real time, I have no idea if that played into the call as referees seldom are looking at guys' feet when someone is trying to back down a defender. And I'm still ticked when you throw that into the hopper with the other 4 or 5 calls that went against UW in the latter minutes of the game.

Anyway, on to Tuesdays' matchup vs the Eastern European Sports Collective.

There was a foul call on Winter near the end of regulation that looked like a block to me. The guy who called it was behind Winter and 15 feet away. Zero chance he actually saw contact. He guessed.

[Jim French Stepstool]

15 minutes ago, homer said:

There was a foul call on Winter near the end of regulation that looked like a block to me. The guy who called it was behind Winter and 15 feet away. Zero chance he actually saw contact. He guessed.

After Winter hit the three to put them up four, yeah. Maybe not an egregiously bad whistle, but it certainly had elements of being a coin flip type of call. And UW was getting none of those late in the game. You don't expect to get your share on the road, but getting just one might've been enough.

 

[yourout]

3 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

After Winter hit the three to put them up four, yeah. Maybe not an egregiously bad whistle, but it certainly had elements of being a coin flip type of call. And UW was getting none of those late in the game. You don't expect to get your share on the road, but getting just one might've been enough.

 

The sequence with the charge almost looked like the refs were looking for something they could legitimately tag Wisconsin with especially when they let the obvious intentional foul go.

[Playing Catch]

It has been impressive that the Badgers have seemed to manage all of winning and losing games with late comebacks, winning and losing tough grinders, winning and losing blowouts, and all of them due to offensive and defensive intensity, or lack thereof.

This is the weirdest Badger team I can think of.

[Samurai Bucky]

After watching the last 10 minutes of the Arizona / Kansas game, I believe there is, subconsciously, home cooking by the refs.  That isn't why Arizona lost, but it fits into the discussion.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

It has been impressive that the Badgers have seemed to manage all of winning and losing games with late comebacks, winning and losing tough grinders, winning and losing blowouts, and all of them due to offensive and defensive intensity, or lack thereof.

This is the weirdest Badger team I can think of.

The 'lost a blowout' category hasn't really reared its' ugly head since early January but yeah, other than that it's been a season marked by inconsistency--even within the 40 minutes of each game. I would love to see them come out better in the first 10 minutes, especially defensively.  But they seem to make their adjustments & settle in eventually. For sure, you can show 8-10 minute stretches of the season, both good & bad, and find it hard to believe it's the same team.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Illinois is good enough as it is---seeing them in the FF wouldn't be shocking---but they're returning home after a tough loss & that doesn't help matters any. Izzo didn't do us any favors.

Obviously the size is an issue. They out-rebound their opponents by almost 11PG & average btwn 4 and 5 blocks per outing. Not a super deep bench but the couple they rely on (Humrichous & Davis) have been playing at a high level.

You'd like to force their bigs away from the hoop w/Bieliauskas, Rapp & Winter hitting some shots, otherwise Boyd & Blackwell will find the going extremely difficult on penetration. The biggest key is probably Wagler. The kid is very talented & plays well beyond his years, but he shot poorly at MSU. He's important to what they do, even moreso with Kylan Boswell still being out. If UWs' bigger guards can rotate on him & make life tough you might be able to hang around.

[valpocrewsader]

Is tonight's game on Peacock or something like that?

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, valpocrewsader said:

Is tonight's game on Peacock or something like that?

Yes. 44-38 Illinois at half.

[Jim French Stepstool]

UW is mostly doing a lousy job defending the screen-and-roll. But when you're facing 7-footers who have skills, a very good PG, and they shoot 50% from 3PT range I'm not sure what you can do. UW also needs to contest better on threes, but guys sometimes shoot less than 50-50 in an empty gym, too. Just a real talented team.

[yourout]

That is a monster win. 

 

[rickh150]

Under the category of key calls missed and not talked about AT ALL….

With around 24 sec. Left in regulation, tie game, Badgers should have been called for a 10 sec. Violation bringing ball up court (check Badger assistant coaches going nuts)…knew it was close. Backed it up and yes, it was.  Coulda shoulda changed the whole game giving Illinois bill back to close regulation.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Whoa.

That looked done and dusted a few times for the Illini (and once for us). Massive, massive win. 1-1 on this trip is a good result, and if you were only getting 1, this is by far the one you'd pick. 

I loved the willingness of Rapp and Janicki (who missed his, but still) to shoot down the stretch. Even though the Badgers defer to Boyd and Blackwell, other guys are going to take open looks. Huge winning play from Winter to secure an OReb and call TO late. 

I give massive, massive credit to Carrington for knocking down two huge free throws. Not only that, but his defense on Wagler was excellent down the stretch. Badgers were totally comfortable switching Winter on Wagler too, and Nolan was up to the task. Genuinely well done. A team win.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

How in the world did THAT happen? First, more shots at the rim for UW (76-60), due mainly to Bucky only being outrebounded by 2 vs a huge team, and crushing the TO battle (only 4 to Illinois' 13). I think I heard 23-6 in favor of Wisconsin in PTS off TO. Also a big thank you to the home team for going 11-19 from the line. I don't know what UW shot from deep in the last 5 minutes + OT but it had to be impressive. At one point in the 2nd half Illinois was over 50% from three, and UW wound up virtually matching them (16-36 to Illinois' 15-33).

Austin Rapp, AGAIN. 18 pts w/5 boards & 3 assists in 31 minutes---and zero turnovers. He & Carrington are becoming 2nd to none in the conference as a bench duo. Boyd & Blackwell combined for 49 pt & shot a combined 50% from three. Considering the size he faced, I thought Bieliauskas competed really well & is slowly causing the empty 'non-factor' minutes to become fewer & fewer. And he gets criticism, but other than not providing a lot of points I think Rohde is playing some really solid ball.

Like at Michigan, no way did I expect this. But damn, they deserved it---especially after what happened in Bloomington.

[Jim French Stepstool]

30 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

Under the category of key calls missed and not talked about AT ALL….

With around 24 sec. Left in regulation, tie game, Badgers should have been called for a 10 sec. Violation bringing ball up court (check Badger assistant coaches going nuts)…knew it was close. Backed it up and yes, it was.  Coulda shoulda changed the whole game giving Illinois bill back to close regulation.

Didn't notice that (or didn't want to lol). I'll have to look at that again.

If so, I'm surprised Underwood didn't throw a few verbal grenades.

[Jim French Stepstool]

18 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Whoa.

That looked done and dusted a few times for the Illini (and once for us). Massive, massive win. 1-1 on this trip is a good result, and if you were only getting 1, this is by far the one you'd pick. 

I loved the willingness of Rapp and Janicki (who missed his, but still) to shoot down the stretch. Even though the Badgers defer to Boyd and Blackwell, other guys are going to take open looks. Huge winning play from Winter to secure an OReb and call TO late. 

I give massive, massive credit to Carrington for knocking down two huge free throws. Not only that, but his defense on Wagler was excellent down the stretch. Badgers were totally comfortable switching Winter on Wagler too, and Nolan was up to the task. Genuinely well done. A team win.

 

I think Rapp was on Wagler some, too. And you're right, they did about as well as you could ask. As for Carrington, it's so valuable to have a veteran willing to accept the role he fills. He almost HAD to know he was coming off the bench when he came here. Terrific piece to the puzzle.

Glad you mentioned Janicki's shot. There were four scorers on the floor with him, and sometimes he's just gonna wind up with that look. Unless you're really early in the clock yeah, he has to hoist that.

Winter---four points, no makes from deep, yet maybe the play of the game. A lot of heroes.

[Samurai Bucky]

31 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Also a big thank you to the home team for going 11-19 from the line. 

Those clangs were very, very loud.

BTW:  did the rim on the right hand side of the TV screen sound weird?  It was probably just me.

[Samurai Bucky]

49 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

Under the category of key calls missed and not talked about AT ALL….

With around 24 sec. Left in regulation, tie game, Badgers should have been called for a 10 sec. Violation bringing ball up court (check Badger assistant coaches going nuts)…knew it was close. Backed it up and yes, it was.  Coulda shoulda changed the whole game giving Illinois bill back to close regulation.

I saw that, too.  I think it was because there was a lot more effort trying to secure the rebound.  Boyd needed to be more aware.

[Jim French Stepstool]

7 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Those clangs were very, very loud.

BTW:  did the rim on the right hand side of the TV screen sound weird?  It was probably just me.

Just you🤪.

Mirkovic & Wagler were both shooting over 80% from the line coming into tonite. They shot a combined 8-14. After Saturday's game, thank you very much, basketball gods.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, rickh150 said:

Under the category of key calls missed and not talked about AT ALL….

With around 24 sec. Left in regulation, tie game, Badgers should have been called for a 10 sec. Violation bringing ball up court (check Badger assistant coaches going nuts)…knew it was close. Backed it up and yes, it was.  Coulda shoulda changed the whole game giving Illinois bill back to close regulation.

I couldn't find the entire sequence yet. But I saw the front end of the play, frame-by-framed it, and by the time Austin Rapp cleared traffic & secured the ball the shot clock was already at 28, and the game clock btwn 34 & 33. Seems like an awfully quick start to the shot clock. But if they crossed midcourt around 23-24 then yeah, it sounds iffy.

[Playing Catch]

10 hours ago, rickh150 said:

Under the category of key calls missed and not talked about AT ALL….

With around 24 sec. Left in regulation, tie game, Badgers should have been called for a 10 sec. Violation bringing ball up court (check Badger assistant coaches going nuts)…knew it was close. Backed it up and yes, it was.  Coulda shoulda changed the whole game giving Illinois bill back to close regulation.

I was really concerned with this in live time. It happens a lot, and I suspect that in practice, the coaches blow the whistle after the first team secures the defensive rebound. They need to start making sure they can cross half court first. This has long been "a thing," that I've noticed. But as I type this, it also sounds like a classic fan's lament. I'm sure Gard has made this clear many, many times.

10 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Austin Rapp, AGAIN. 18 pts w/5 boards & 3 assists in 31 minutes---and zero turnovers. He & Carrington are becoming 2nd to none in the conference as a bench duo.

Rapp deserves so much credit for his improvement. He's been so much better lately, and not just because the shots are falling. His 6' 10" athleticism is starting to show, and all of those practice reps are becoming 2nd nature. All of the bigs did a better job last night of keeping their chests in front of their opposites.

As awesome and exciting the win was, and no disrespect to the quality of the win, but playing without Boswell and Stojakovic is pretty substantial for the Illini.

Every so often, Rohde comes out of the gates with his hair on fire, and he played that way last night. This Badger team demonstrates more inconsistent effort on both ends than any Badger team... in my lifetime?? I think a lot of it comes down to Boyd and Rohde. Boyd's effort is super-inconsistent possession-by-possession, and Rohde's seems to come and go game-by-game. If they played that hard all season, I think they'd have two more wins (Villanova and USC).

With that said, we saw this last season as well with the 3 guards seemingly "trading" possessions off, in order to rest. At times, Boyd has to put in so much effort offensively, that I think his defense suffers, and I think for Rohde, it's kind of the opposite. I think there is a yang to the yin of playing up-tempo.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I saw the backcourt violation in real-time as well. I remember Koenig have something similar happen in an NCAAT game I think? Just bringing the ball up a bit casually. It did feel like a quick start to the shot clock, and I'm not sure if Boyd had one point (the ball, maybe?) over the line at 20, but he certainly wasn't across until 19. 

Putting that in the "evens out" category after Indiana. 

I thought Illinois really got away from ball movement and post up action late in the game as well. It was a lot of just high ball screen, let Wagler either step back or drive, and live with whatever he puts up. He was great again tonight, but very high usage rate late. If not for Humrichous hitting a ridiculous three late, this is a more comfortable win.

Controversial, maybe, but I thought the Badgers handled the last possession of regulation reasonably well. Blackwell ran down the clock, and got a decent look (he made a similar one in OT). In that instance, I think the denial of another possession for Illinois is worth the lower percentage shot, especially since a two-point lead still puts you in jeopardy. 

2-1 before the next West Coast trip would be excellent for this team. 

Have to think a 6-7 seed is the absolute ceiling, but it's certainly in play. Be nice to avoid the 8-9 line, as always. I'd rather be a 10.

[homer]

From the game recap:

Quote

UW’s seven road wins over top-10 teams since Greg Gard took the reins in 2015 are tied for the most in the country.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

I saw the backcourt violation in real-time as well. I remember Koenig have something similar happen in an NCAAT game I think? Just bringing the ball up a bit casually. It did feel like a quick start to the shot clock, and I'm not sure if Boyd had one point (the ball, maybe?) over the line at 20, but he certainly wasn't across until 19. 

Putting that in the "evens out" category after Indiana. 

I thought Illinois really got away from ball movement and post up action late in the game as well. It was a lot of just high ball screen, let Wagler either step back or drive, and live with whatever he puts up. He was great again tonight, but very high usage rate late. If not for Humrichous hitting a ridiculous three late, this is a more comfortable win.

Controversial, maybe, but I thought the Badgers handled the last possession of regulation reasonably well. Blackwell ran down the clock, and got a decent look (he made a similar one in OT). In that instance, I think the denial of another possession for Illinois is worth the lower percentage shot, especially since a two-point lead still puts you in jeopardy. 

2-1 before the next West Coast trip would be excellent for this team. 

Have to think a 6-7 seed is the absolute ceiling, but it's certainly in play. Be nice to avoid the 8-9 line, as always. I'd rather be a 10.

I remember Koenigs' violation. Total brain cramp. Vs Florida maybe?

I agree, in hindsight Illinois should've done more posting up & feeding the post. We weren't doubling (which I mostly agree with), and if we did you're talking about skilled bigs who can kick out to a step-in three. It's almost like an unwritten rule in CBB---you have a high-volume scorer in the backcourt, he HAS to have the ball in his hands halfway through the clock in a close game, and never give it up. Not saying it's dumb when you have a Wagler (or a Boyd, or Blackwell), but those are some talented bigs that Illinois was kinda freezing out.

Agree in the last possession strategy. Unless you feel like Boyd has a huge advantage on a switch or something, the ball in Blackwells' hands works for me. Just keep the head up in the lane; in Bloomington he might've had Winter.