Wisconsin Basketball 2025-26

[Samurai Bucky]

59 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Think of the shots HP made in the last 5 minutes. Miss one of them & we're probably all in a better mood. We weren't good enough today but I think this was much more a case of them winning than us blowing it, or being an "embarrassment" or other such nonsense.

When they are shooting it from 5' just past the half-court stripe and draining it with 5 minutes left to go, I knew the Badgers were sunk.

I know High Point pressured the ball, but there were a lot of turnovers and poor shots that could have been avoided.  It appeared that there was a bit of panic with the Badgers.  Focus is one thing when times get tough, but I thought there was more panic -- "I'm going to take the ball and I'm going to get it done."

I don't think it is an embarrassment.  Probably more like wash, rinse, repeat...

[Jim French Stepstool]

34 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

When they are shooting it from 5' just past the half-court stripe and draining it with 5 minutes left to go, I knew the Badgers were sunk.

I know High Point pressured the ball, but there were a lot of turnovers and poor shots that could have been avoided.  It appeared that there was a bit of panic with the Badgers.  Focus is one thing when times get tough, but I thought there was more panic -- "I'm going to take the ball and I'm going to get it done."

I don't think it is an embarrassment.  Probably more like wash, rinse, repeat...

  I know. The 'embarrassment' comment was in reference to another post.

I thought UW mostly handled the pressure pretty well outside of the 5 TO from Blackwell---on this stage he needed to be better in ball security. He probably forced things a time or two in the 2nd half.

AFA the shot quality, on the surface I agree but here's a nugget. They shot 23 3pt shots today---There was only ONE game this season when they shot fewer, and that was 22 (UWM). And their 3pt % today was higher than the season avg. So, maybe they should've put up more threes? It flies in the face of the size advantage they had, but that's never really been what they've hung their hats on this season. And that hat-hanger has beaten Michigan, Illinois twice, Purdue & MSU, with only one of those games at home.

My final assessment is: UW wasn't good enough to win but they were far from horrible, HP was very, very good & obviously made more plays late, and there was some weirdness to the statistical breakdown. Frustrating way to end the season. Oh, and Gard sucks & needs to be fired🤪😆🤣🤪🤣😆.

 

 

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, AKCheesehead said:

The thing I hate about getting bounced early is it that I just kind of check out on the tournament after that happens.

Just frees up more time for the inevitable.  Now I can do whatever I want on Saturday.

With pay for play and the portal, on top of the randomness of a single-elimination tournament of the top ~40 or so teams in the country, UW isn't going to realistically compete for a national championship in football or basketball.  They'll have good seasons, but a final four isn't happening in today's college sports environment.

That's the flip side with Boyd - you don't get the hero without the hero ball.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Games like that are what the tournament is about. It sucks to be on the other side of it, but that was one of those classic March games everyone not in the Cardinal and White will appreciate.

As others have said, Boyd is a super fun player. He had a great year and shouldn't get blamed. That said, there did need to be more touches for Blackwell down the stretch. High Point played with more freedom and fluidity, and being unable to extend an 8-point lead with about 8 minutes to go really hurt.

Obviously, the last two offensive possessions were really not good. Rohde had Blackwell open at about midcourt, and I'd just rather him dribble into a 35-footer there than through to the FT line. Even if Rapp catches that, he's not Laetner. 2 seconds left, I get it, but still.

The 11 seconds possession was worse. High Point played it perfectly, and it was emblematic of the late game stall. A lot of standing around watching Boyd.

Winter obviously not 100%, didn't get much from Carrington and I thought a pretty poor performance from AB, who looked like he didn't belong in a game played at that pace.

Some things you'd like back, but, like @Jim French Stepstool said, it's hard to rewrite too much. Sometimes, the other guys have a moment, and Johnston got his. That's what it takes for mids to win, and this one unfolded to the upset script.

Feel for a team and coaching staff that's going to take a lot of unfair criticism. You want to know what it's like for basketball to be truly irrelevant, go ahead and fire a coach that's been a consistently good seed in March. Ask Minnesota or Memphis how that can work out.

[homer]

sigh

 

that is all.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Games like that are what the tournament is about. It sucks to be on the other side of it, but that was one of those classic March games everyone not in the Cardinal and White will appreciate.

As others have said, Boyd is a super fun player. He had a great year and shouldn't get blamed. That said, there did need to be more touches for Blackwell down the stretch. High Point played with more freedom and fluidity, and being unable to extend an 8-point lead with about 8 minutes to go really hurt.

Obviously, the last two offensive possessions were really not good. Rohde had Blackwell open at about midcourt, and I'd just rather him dribble into a 35-footer there than through to the FT line. Even if Rapp catches that, he's not Laetner. 2 seconds left, I get it, but still.

The 11 seconds possession was worse. High Point played it perfectly, and it was emblematic of the late game stall. A lot of standing around watching Boyd.

Winter obviously not 100%, didn't get much from Carrington and I thought a pretty poor performance from AB, who looked like he didn't belong in a game played at that pace.

Some things you'd like back, but, like @Jim French Stepstool said, it's hard to rewrite too much. Sometimes, the other guys have a moment, and Johnston got his. That's what it takes for mids to win, and this one unfolded to the upset script.

Feel for a team and coaching staff that's going to take a lot of unfair criticism. You want to know what it's like for basketball to be truly irrelevant, go ahead and fire a coach that's been a consistently good seed in March. Ask Minnesota or Memphis how that can work out.

Good stuff.

I mentioned it earlier too, about the 8pt lead not being extended. What was frustrating was that IIRC we got maybe 3 stops in a row at that juncture, which was kinda rare today. chance to go up 10-12---woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Your last point is golden. Another way of looking at it----whatever Gards' record is since 15-16, I invite anyone to find a coach with that record or better, that's been canned. And guys getting fired for legal/behavioral issues don't count.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, LouisEly said:

 

That's the flip side with Boyd - you don't get the hero without the hero ball.

True dat. And with his success rate it's not easy to go away from it in crunch time.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

1 hour ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Good stuff.

I mentioned it earlier too, about the 8pt lead not being extended. What was frustrating was that IIRC we got maybe 3 stops in a row at that juncture, which was kinda rare today. chance to go up 10-12---woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Your last point is golden. Another way of looking at it----whatever Gards' record is since 15-16, I invite anyone to find a coach with that record or better, that's been canned. And guys getting fired for legal/behavioral issues don't count.

Yeah, bingo! I said to my wife, "up eight heading into the last couple media timeouts, you feel pretty good." Not to be today.

One thing that surprised me was the athleticism of High Point's guards, especially Martin. That guy was outstanding today.

They go 15/40 from 3, outscore us by 18 there, and Johnston goes 4/6 off the bench. Kid has 1 two-point FG all year, and it's the game-winner. That's March.

I have seen so many mid-major wins unfold just like that. A confident team, launching triples, good guards, and they get a big contribution from off the bench. Not making excuses, but early tip out West seemed to impact us a little bit too.

Also, add Louisville to the list of schools that fired a solid coach and then wandered the wilderness. Gard's the right guy here, and he deserves more credit than he gets.

 

[MrTPlush]

Gard is probably the guy for Wisconsin (not a WI fan fwiw), but that guy is an absolute pro at being a total choke job in the tourney.

3/3 losing in the first round to a 12 seed.

2/2 failing to make the Sweet 16 as a 3 seed. One time failing to score 50 points against a double digit seed.

One has to wonder what Gard/WI does to game plan for these impromptu games against unknown opponents. Clearly it isn’t working. 

[yourout]

Wisconsin women win their first round NIT game.

[homer]

People said Bo couldn't win in the tourney until he did. 

[CheezWizHed]

13 hours ago, homer said:

sigh

 

that is all.

[Jimbo]

10 hours ago, yourout said:

Wisconsin women win their first round NIT game.

Yep, ironic the women are still playing after the men are done.  IIRC, this happened a couple of years ago as well.

[tmwiese55]

14 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Good stuff.

I mentioned it earlier too, about the 8pt lead not being extended. What was frustrating was that IIRC we got maybe 3 stops in a row at that juncture, which was kinda rare today. chance to go up 10-12---woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Your last point is golden. Another way of looking at it----whatever Gards' record is since 15-16, I invite anyone to find a coach with that record or better, that's been canned. And guys getting fired for legal/behavioral issues don't count.

If I recall the two possessions after the 8 pt lead there was a Blackwell drive that could easily have been a foul and a Boyd one that could.  Instead, both were let go resulting in HP 3s on the other end (I think one was the 40 footer).   Nothing egregious or anything to overly complain about, borderline calls that go either way.  Anything in that sequence goes the other way (refs call fouls, or HP misses those 3s) and you likely comfortably drain out the clock.   Probably got bad luck with how refs have the subconscious bias to give breaks to the team that's losing.  I'm not blaming here, its part of the game, just getting at the butterfly effect of 50/50 calls.  That's just the flukiness of a one game tournament. 

[JosephC]

Time for the AD to step in a hire a coach to move this program forward.

Then the basketball team can go 5-15/12-20.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Just two morning after thoughts.

Good to see the High Point coach call out the scheduling issues that really hurt D-1 hoops as a whole, both in the on-court postgame and the presser. He's right. I'd actually like to see Gard schedule more home-and-homes and neutral site games against good mid-majors. Go to Illinois State or Bradley (Wardle has such Wisconsin connections, I'm shocked this game hasn't happened already). Play UIC or Loyola in Milwaukee (honestly, I really miss the in-state round-robin that was part of this schedule for so many years--when Iowa lost the Des Moines showcase where ISU and Iowa played Drake and UNI, it really symbolized the consolidation of power in the sport). I know scheduling space is limited. And I know high-majors want home games, but the basketball benefit to a game like that is so much better than hosting the kinds of buy-game opponents we usually see. Seeing teams like that can really help when you're up against a good 11, 12, or 13 in March. A few years back I think we played (and lost to) Saint Mary's on a neutral, but that might have been an MTE. At the very least, I'd like to see something like BracketBusters come back. The idea that something like that wouldn't benefit EVERYONE (you're telling me coaches wouldn't scout potential transfer candidates?) is pretty crazy to me.

Second, you know a healthy Winter makes the difference in a one-point game. I thought our bigs were really bothered by High Point's skill on the wings and in the post. The defense was a bugaboo all year. It looked like it was improving in late February and March, but some old habits came back to bite. We'll finish in the 50s in defensive efficiency at KenPom, which isn't going to get it done most years, even with a borderline top-10 offense. I like the shift to a more up-tempo style. It's important for drawing talent in this era. But you've got to be able to gel that talent on both ends of the floor. Something was missing on that end this year, and hopefully they can fix it as they build to next season.

[adambr2]

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

If I recall the two possessions after the 8 pt lead there was a Blackwell drive that could easily have been a foul and a Boyd one that could.  Instead, both were let go resulting in HP 3s on the other end (I think one was the 40 footer).   Nothing egregious or anything to overly complain about, borderline calls that go either way.  Anything in that sequence goes the other way (refs call fouls, or HP misses those 3s) and you likely comfortably drain out the clock.   Probably got bad luck with how refs have the subconscious bias to give breaks to the team that's losing.  I'm not blaming here, its part of the game, just getting at the butterfly effect of 50/50 calls.  That's just the flukiness of a one game tournament. 

Yeah, with the 8-point lead we drove the ball two or three times in a row, and had the right guys doing it. Came up empty. AFA the 3s on the other end were concerned, HP made five of their last seven shots from deep. Most were IMO guarded anywhere from reasonably well to very well--the one that was wide open, well, I guess that's on Greg Gard for not emphasizing enough that we need to get up in the shorts of a guy shooting a running 35-footer. Not a set shot, not a jump shot---a RUNNING 35 footer. Just another way of saying that yes, UW could have been better than they were but when you look at the last 6 minutes & check the game stats, this was much more a case of High Point winning then UW being 'embarrassing' or 'blowing it' or other nonsense.

Refs giving a subconscious break to the team trailing, yeah, I've felt that way for a long while. And Bucky has benefitted from it at times too. Like you said, part of the game. Check out when a team is trailing late in a game & drives to the hoop for a layup. If the defender makes any kind of motion to defend--or looks at the opponent funny---whistle, and-1. Like the threes HP hit late. If we defended any closer there's a real good chance you're getting whistled for fouling a 3pt shooter.

If High Point can hang around Saturday to where they're in the game late, and then finish like they did yesterday, they can win. Will they perform that well again? Doubtful.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Just two morning after thoughts.

Good to see the High Point coach call out the scheduling issues that really hurt D-1 hoops as a whole, both in the on-court postgame and the presser. He's right. I'd actually like to see Gard schedule more home-and-homes and neutral site games against good mid-majors. Go to Illinois State or Bradley (Wardle has such Wisconsin connections, I'm shocked this game hasn't happened already). Play UIC or Loyola in Milwaukee (honestly, I really miss the in-state round-robin that was part of this schedule for so many years--when Iowa lost the Des Moines showcase where ISU and Iowa played Drake and UNI, it really symbolized the consolidation of power in the sport). I know scheduling space is limited. And I know high-majors want home games, but the basketball benefit to a game like that is so much better than hosting the kinds of buy-game opponents we usually see. Seeing teams like that can really help when you're up against a good 11, 12, or 13 in March. A few years back I think we played (and lost to) Saint Mary's on a neutral, but that might have been an MTE. At the very least, I'd like to see something like BracketBusters come back. The idea that something like that wouldn't benefit EVERYONE (you're telling me coaches wouldn't scout potential transfer candidates?) is pretty crazy to me.

Second, you know a healthy Winter makes the difference in a one-point game. I thought our bigs were really bothered by High Point's skill on the wings and in the post. The defense was a bugaboo all year. It looked like it was improving in late February and March, but some old habits came back to bite. We'll finish in the 50s in defensive efficiency at KenPom, which isn't going to get it done most years, even with a borderline top-10 offense. I like the shift to a more up-tempo style. It's important for drawing talent in this era. But you've got to be able to gel that talent on both ends of the floor. Something was missing on that end this year, and hopefully they can fix it as they build to next season.

I don't blame the HP coach for getting up on the soap box when he had the chance. And if I was him maybe I'd say the same things. But the simple fact is that high majors play in leagues that do more than enough for their SOS which makes games with good mid-majors a "no win" proposition. Four or eight-team tourneys in Hawaii or the Bahamas w/other high majors, sure. That's where the losses that don't hurt you too much w/the computers come from. Nowadays getting into the tourney is so important that no coach relishes hampering that by losing to someone who might be on the same 'bubble' as you on selection Sunday.

He mentions how his team & Miami(O) are now 2-0 in quad one games. Yep. Well done. But does he really think that's going to inspire high major coaches to pick up the phone this summer asking him for a game? More likely the opposite. He also mentioned the NCAA "doing something" about it. What, exactly? We're talking about an organization that now has guys playing at four different schools in four years. For all intents and purposes being paid directly by schools. Guys are coming from pro leagues in Europe, in one or two cases the G-League. Those are the battles the NCAA should be fighting. 

Perhaps these promoters who set up some of the non-con games could factor in. Money talks. But even then, are they more likely to pump money into a Duke-St John's matchup, or Duke-High Point? LSU-UCLA, or LSU-McNeese?

I agree with you regarding the Bracket Buster. Never should've gone away. I think the mid majors' best bet is to bring that back, create inter-conference matchups (Mid-American-A10 Challenge, Summit-MVC, Horizon-Patriot League, etc) And just keep making calls. Someday, the High Point coach may have the head job at Wake Forest, or Maryland. I suspect he'll view it a bit differently then.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

 

Second, you know a healthy Winter makes the difference in a one-point game. I thought our bigs were really bothered by High Point's skill on the wings and in the post. The defense was a bugaboo all year. It looked like it was improving in late February and March, but some old habits came back to bite. We'll finish in the 50s in defensive efficiency at KenPom, which isn't going to get it done most years, even with a borderline top-10 offense. I like the shift to a more up-tempo style. It's important for drawing talent in this era. But you've got to be able to gel that talent on both ends of the floor. Something was missing on that end this year, and hopefully they can fix it as they build to next season.

The recruiting strategy has changed at UW, along with the new landscape. The way GG would like to defend, the way Bo liked to defend, is largely dependent on guys being immersed in it for at least a year or two to where it's second nature. That's not as likely to happen now, so he's finding scorers that he thinks (hopes) are smart enough to pick up enough of the rudiments semi-quickly & allow you to maybe not hold people to 64 pts, but 70-75 while you score 85. In that regard I think Gard has succeeded, they improve defensively as the year goes along. But the consistency isn't what it used to be.

Kamari McGee made himself into a real nice defender, Carter Gilmore was good at it & vastly under-rated. Nolan Winter has gotten to the point where he can even step out & defend on the wing a little. And Jack Janicki is an effective defender. All those folks spent 3 years at UW minimum. I guess I'm saying that unless you recruit someone with a natural knack for defending (or get guys to buy in & stick around), it is what it is.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

2 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I don't blame the HP coach for getting up on the soap box when he had the chance. And if I was him maybe I'd say the same things. But the simple fact is that high majors play in leagues that do more than enough for their SOS which makes games with good mid-majors a "no win" proposition. Four or eight-team tourneys in Hawaii or the Bahamas w/other high majors, sure. That's where the losses that don't hurt you too much w/the computers come from. Nowadays getting into the tourney is so important that no coach relishes hampering that by losing to someone who might be on the same 'bubble' as you on selection Sunday.

He mentions how his team & Miami(O) are now 2-0 in quad one games. Yep. Well done. But does he really think that's going to inspire high major coaches to pick up the phone this summer asking him for a game? More likely the opposite. He also mentioned the NCAA "doing something" about it. What, exactly? We're talking about an organization that now has guys playing at four different schools in four years. For all intents and purposes being paid directly by schools. Guys are coming from pro leagues in Europe, in one or two cases the G-League. Those are the battles the NCAA should be fighting. 

Perhaps these promoters who set up some of the non-con games could factor in. Money talks. But even then, are they more likely to pump money into a Duke-St John's matchup, or Duke-High Point? LSU-UCLA, or LSU-McNeese?

I agree with you regarding the Bracket Buster. Never should've gone away. I think the mid majors' best bet is to bring that back, create inter-conference matchups (Mid-American-A10 Challenge, Summit-MVC, Horizon-Patriot League, etc) And just keep making calls. Someday, the High Point coach may have the head job at Wake Forest, or Maryland. I suspect he'll view it a bit differently then.

All totally reasonable, though I think I'd disagree about the "no-win" part. Coaches seem to say this, but good mid-majors tend to rate at Q1 on the road. Borderline Q1 (more Q2) neutral, and Q3 if you play them at home. 

Where I sympathize is that it's hard to predict how mid-major rosters will do over the long haul. You schedule Baylor in November, on a neutral, it's pretty likely they're not going to be Q3 by the end of the year, because of how the NET works. Drop a game to Miami or Bradley, and there's a MUCH bigger chance that goes to a Q3 or Q4 loss. Definitely not blind to that.

Still, scheduling good mid-majors doesn't have to compete with scheduling high-majors in road/neutral environments. It just has to be better than your buy games. Nobody learned anything when the Badgers beat Campbell this year. UW also played 3 MAC schools at the Kohl. Playing Bradley on a neutral is a better game than all of those. So is a home-and-home with UNI or Drake. Especially if you're scheduling the Valley, you know the programs are strong. If every high-major gave up ONE easy buy game and did a home-and-home or neutral-site mini exhibition with the St. Thomases and NDSU's of the world, that's really not a huge sacrifice, and it's much closer to a first-round tourney game than a beatdown of UMKC or something. 

I DO think the MAC or A-10 and the Valley should be doing an annual challenge. Heck, a Big East-A-10 challenge is a great thing for the sport of basketball, especially in November when you can get non-football campuses really into a televised athletic event. 

More 5-12 style regular-season matchups would be good for the sport, and I genuinely think it would be good for borderline top-25 high-majors and bubble teams. 

[yourout]

5 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Oh yeah....

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

All totally reasonable, though I think I'd disagree about the "no-win" part. Coaches seem to say this, but good mid-majors tend to rate at Q1 on the road. Borderline Q1 (more Q2) neutral, and Q3 if you play them at home. 

 

I didn't think of games with good mid-majors being that much of a discrepancy, home to neutral to road. But even given that, don't forget the money aspect. You have a payroll now. I would think there almost HAS to be some kind of guarantee to offset the home game "house" and I don't know how that would work, or if it even COULD work if you went into Oxford, Ohio or Peoria or wherever.  

I think the only thing they learned from the Campbell opener, is that if they played a good mid-major they would've started out 0-1. That was IIRC a 3 point game with about 6-7 minutes left. That's always going to carry a lot of weight; admittedly maybe more than it should given how the quad rating breaks things down, but still. I'm not some huge insider but I've had enough conversations with coaches that I think home-and-homes with some of these teams is never going to happen to any great extent if at all because in their world it just doesn't need to. It's a big part of the reason (along with salary obviously) why mid-major coaches make the jump when given the chance, and why assistants who get those gigs look at it as a steppingstone. That's how it worked with a former schoolmate of mine who recently hung up his whistle.

It's interesting though to wonder how/if this would effect Bo if he were coaching in the current landscape. He went TO UWM four times. To UWGB three times. Played Ohio U twice in the state of Ohio. Went to Penn, Xavier, Temple, Pepperdine, UNLV. But like I said, now you have to pay players. You get a damn guarantee for an exhibition (Oklahoma), for crying out loud. The promoters send you to Salt Lake City and bring you back (probably) to Milwaukee for a rematch, neither team having to play a true 'road' game. Villanova comes into Milwaukee. Maybe next season they play 'Nova in New Jersey somewhere? And it's always a nice thing for recruiting to send the kids somewhere warm for 3-4 days. Not much sked remaining for high majors looking to do what some of us might see as the 'right thing'.

I think if this were discussed among all high majors sitting at a table, Iowa would look at Minnesota who would look at Nebraska who would look at Wisconsin who would look at Indiana & they'd all be saying the same thing: "You first".

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

38 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I didn't think of games with good mid-majors being that much of a discrepancy, home to neutral to road. But even given that, don't forget the money aspect. You have a payroll now. I would think there almost HAS to be some kind of guarantee to offset the home game "house" and I don't know how that would work, or if it even COULD work if you went into Oxford, Ohio or Peoria or wherever.  

I think the only thing they learned from the Campbell opener, is that if they played a good mid-major they would've started out 0-1. That was IIRC a 3 point game with about 6-7 minutes left. That's always going to carry a lot of weight; admittedly maybe more than it should given how the quad rating breaks things down, but still. I'm not some huge insider but I've had enough conversations with coaches that I think home-and-homes with some of these teams is never going to happen to any great extent if at all because in their world it just doesn't need to. It's a big part of the reason (along with salary obviously) why mid-major coaches make the jump when given the chance, and why assistants who get those gigs look at it as a steppingstone. That's how it worked with a former schoolmate of mine who recently hung up his whistle.

It's interesting though to wonder how/if this would effect Bo if he were coaching in the current landscape. He went TO UWM four times. To UWGB three times. Played Ohio U twice in the state of Ohio. Went to Penn, Xavier, Temple, Pepperdine, UNLV. But like I said, now you have to pay players. You get a damn guarantee for an exhibition (Oklahoma), for crying out loud. The promoters send you to Salt Lake City and bring you back (probably) to Milwaukee for a rematch, neither team having to play a true 'road' game. Villanova comes into Milwaukee. Maybe next season they play 'Nova in New Jersey somewhere? And it's always a nice thing for recruiting to send the kids somewhere warm for 3-4 days. Not much sked remaining for high majors looking to do what some of us might see as the 'right thing'.

I think if this were discussed among all high majors sitting at a table, Iowa would look at Minnesota who would look at Nebraska who would look at Wisconsin who would look at Indiana & they'd all be saying the same thing: "You first".

All completely true.

I think it would benefit everyone from a hoops perspective. Obviously, the financials are different.

I'd really love to get a look at a budget someday. What do you make from a buy game after the payout? I doubt those $$ have too much impact on player salary pools at the end of the day (I mean, the Badgers share of B1G media deals and NCAAT payouts have to be WAY more, though I understand that that money isn't just basketball specific), but that's based on nothing but gut feeling.

Bo definitely played those games, probably partially out of wanting to go back to Philly every so often. I think GB beat one of those Badger teams during their last good year (that I remember). 

The MTEs have a big role here too, of course. A10 schools with some pedigree can usually get in (Saint Mary's gets in, Belmont or UNI can get in), but you'd love to see some of the bigger ones set aside a spot for a prior season's MAC or Valley champ. Charleston Classic does right by the mids. One more of those kind of things would go a long way.

Overall, though, I totally agree that the current orthodoxy makes it seem very unlikely. I really believe it's much more of an "afraid to lose" thing than anything else, but I don't get get to see the financials [shrug].

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

I'd really love to get a look at a budget someday.

You & me both😄.

Do you make more from a buy game after the payout, then you would taking a guarantee from a Southern Illinois, Bradley, Western Ky, etc? Good question. My guess is you do make a bit more staying home; just a guess though. Do they make more on the TV deals? For sure. But that's a slice of the pie everyone in the B10 gets evenly. It would be the other stuff that could cause a little separation.

GB DID beat a Bo-coached team up dere in Titletown, hey. He never lost to UWM home or road. One of those games was played at the Klotsche Center. Just insane to think of ANY B10 team going into that place (I think Dick Bennett took a Badger team in there, too).

Great call on the Charleston Classic, by the way. UWM kinda-sorta did some similar stuff a time or three; but I suspect it wasn't totally their baby but had outside money backing it. Now that I think of it there was some kind of doubleheader years ago & Tony Bennett brought in Wazzou to play UWM at the MECCA. His dad was in the stands & I was lucky enough to have a short conversation. Such an incredibly nice man.

Spoiler

nm