Cool Hand Lucroy

And, hey, Bauers heard me!

What do we have so far this series? 2 HR? In that ballpark? That's not enough in today's game.

This series is a disaster. It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but still frustrating. Honestly, the Yankees are going to club a lot of people. But between our pitching being a mess and the offense really struggling to get runs on the board without help (Devin's walks Thursday, the errors in the second yesterday), it's hard to see a lot to be happy with. I think we'll turn it around this coming week. And, hey, we swept the Mets to start last year, and they ended up having a nice little playoff run.

I mean, this pitching situation is...not good. Someone's going to have to throw multiple innings out of the pen. I get "not letting Judge beat you," but, like, the dude strikes out a lot. Maybe avoid throwing a grooved fastball?

Yeah, and some of it is just having 16 extremely well-founded schools in a talent-rich area. You outspend people like this, you're just going to hit on a year like this one.

Texas Tech had that game. Wow. First, Clayton is just an assassin. Hit two huge threes to take a six-point lead to nothing while Tech was missing front ends. A couple of uncharacteristically bad defensive possessions from Tech too. It just looked like they saw that 9 point lead shrink to 3 in a blink and couldn't regroup. Florida got a VERY friendly whistle, I thought. Obviously there's the free throw differential, but they were getting some calls on jump shots and on drives that Tech could not sniff on the other end. Good game. I am rooting for the Houston/TN winner (like both those teams a lot), the Auburn/MSU winner (appreciate that Izzo's done it his way, and have always appreciated Pearl's personality), and, somehow, Duke. I actually like Duke's players. I can't believe it, but it's true. Basically, I am anti-Florida and Alabama. Anyone else, okay, tournament gods?

Noticed that too. Negativity sells, but, mainly, weekday afternoon versus weekend afternoon probably has more to do with it 😁.

Really good info! I was thinking we were sort of due for a bad start. This team feels like one that is going to need some coming together (Yelich returning, adjusting to Adames being gone, all the injuries on the pitching side). I also think we've been spoiled with really really good starts lately. The early schedule is difficult, too, opening in NY, and then getting a home week before traveling out west. All in all, I'm going to feel fantastic if we are at .500 end of April. I'm giving this year's team much more leash than in years past, especially because I think the NL is going to be a logjam all year, at least after the Dodgers.

Some positives: We only play the Yankees one more time this year. I would've definitely taken 1 win in this series. Still time for that. We scored some runs against a lefty starter today (albeit with the help of some shoddy defense). Still feels like spring training somehow. I expect we'll turn it around once back home. Better ABs today. We're going to figure it out. Probably tomorrow.

Yeah, Alabama was going to have a game where they made 15 threes, and they would have beaten anyone. Never thought they'd hit 22, though.

It's crazy for BYU to only be down 11 after Bama outscored them by 30+ from three. Whoa. Maryland missed a chance to have a little mini-run but goes into half down 2 and taking every Florida punch. Everyone talks about Queen, but this game will come down to Gillespie, I think.

I thought Turang should have held off 3-1, but what are you gonna do there? That's the fastball you're looking for, not that far off from the zone. I get being a little overzealous and trying to do damage. Chuorio tipped his cap to Devin on K number 5, as he should have. Just a filthy change-up and it was a strike. Nothing you can do. Devin was early-season Devin. Fought it, found the change, and escaped. Hard to think he's available Saturday after nearly 40 pitches, at least. Generally speaking, that felt like a typical early season game. Yankees got all the breaks (really probably should have only had 1-2 runs), and we struggled to get the big hit. Good fight in the ninth. Good battle from the bullpen.

And a poor throw from Chuorio. I've seen better Opening Days, but I have also seen a lot worse (2015 is seared into my brain because the Badgers lost to Duke in the national title game the same day).

Not getting the breaks today. All three Yankees runs lucky.

All in all, glad baseball is back. Glad we get cheap HRs, weird check swing calls, and a home plate ump with little clue. It's like we never left!! Seriously happy for Capra. That was crushed.

We are the worst team in baseball at scoring a runner from third with less than two outs. I know this to be true.

I was more optimistic than most last year. The injuries have me concerned so far this year. I would take 90 and run. I think 85 is more realistic. But, hey, let's play and see how it goes.

Gophs hiring Medved, Iowa gets McCollum. The neighbors made good hires. I like that, honestly. Makes things more fun and competitive.

One question I have in the wake of this Badger season is: Going forward, is this about where the expectations for the Badgers should be? Does losing a really good regular season, a B1G tournament title game appearance, an NCAAT win, and a close, round of 32 game loss against a team that was probably a little bit underseeded constitute success? I would say: yes. I'm curious what others think. Bo had the two FFs and hit S16s and E8s a few times before. Gard has the two S16s since. We're now pushing a decade without a S16, so I understand wanting a little more. On the other hand, the landscape has changed so much, and I think being at this level is about where we want to be. As long as Gard keeps this up, I could see another 10-12 years of this kind of situation, and I would take that. He's still only 54. Even 5 or 6 years (coaches age more quickly in the NIL era) is great with me, hopefully with a graceful exit and transfer to the next dude. All to say, I think this program is in a good spot. I'm also a little worried the ceiling isn't as high as it once was. Marquette certainly seems to have a higher ceiling in some ways. I think the BEast was down this year, but Pitino, Shaka, Cooley at Georgetown, even Holtman looking to turn around DePaul, Nova getting a needed new coaching hire, and that's not even mentioning "the best ***** coach in the sport" (he ain't wrong), I think that league is on a rocket for the next couple years. We'll see what comes, but definitely curious what the smarter-than-me, more behind-the-scenes Badger followers on this board think.

Yeah, they gave up the 9-0 run up 64-59. That was killer. Nearly overcame it, but Queen just made the better play at the end.

Tournament needed that. Great game. Was hoping for the Rams there, but not at all disappointed to see a fun, really good Maryland team pull it out. They have a much better shot against Florida.

Bama seems vulnerable, and that game is a true class of styles. I just don't trust SMC against that kind of athleticism. Vandy was a great matchup for them. I think Randy Bennett deserves a second S16. That program does. I will be rooting for it like crazy, but I don't have a lot of belief. Florida just made clutch shots and UCONN didn't. Failure to rebound missed free throws killed them, along with the ball turnover into the under 4, where they had the ball up 3. Duke took some gearing up, but they are now making this a blowout. Good team there. I weirdly like their guys a lot. If not for the name on the jersey, I'd almost be cheering for them.

Especially with replay, the umps argument is nuts. Bad work. Bad union leadership. Pros of this FAR outweigh the cons. First base has always been a footrace scenario. Footraces work best with finishing lines and not finishing points. Anyone who has ever done musical chairs with grade schoolers knows that races to points are a recipe for injury.

They had already used one at 25-11 or something? 26-12? So, they didn't have the use it or lose it, and you did end up needing the last TO for Gilmore to secure the possession at the end. I think Tonje could have been better there. The feed to Crowl is something you should ignore. Wasn't like he had a massive mismatch. Now that Marquette and UW are both gone (yeah, it's good to see both teams win, especially in March), as are most of the underdog stories, I'm finding myself drawn to Houston because their long-haul build. I also really like Texas Tech because Grant McCasland has a great defensive mind, and I liked him a lot at North Texas. Turns my stomach to root for Hurley today, but at least Danny's just a garden-variety jerk. Golden I find much more troubling, for reasons that have been widely reported. Outside the Big 12 teams, who I find pretty universally fun to watch because of the way they defend without really trying to ugly it up too much, I also like Tennessee. Maryland is a team I'm really high on, but of course I'll be all Ram and Gael this afternoon, hoping for a true, outside-the-power-structure team in the S16. Same goes for New Mexico, who I think has the best chance of the bunch, though I've seen the Mountain West crap the bed often enough that I can also see Izzo just giving the coup de grace to the Pitno family. Excited for one more day of wall-to-wall hoop, even if I find Oregon-Arizona the blah of all blah to close the night.

Lots of good post-mortems here and thoughts ahead to next year. I thought BYU was the much looser team, with more guys playing with more confidence for more of the game. The more I think of it this biggest issue with Badger teams of recent vintage is that they lack some of that. This year, we had Tonje and Blackwell. Last year, it was pretty much Storr. Davis before that. Lots of deferring to those key pieces. I think this year's team was very balanced, but comparing it to the Hayes, Kaminsky, Dekker, Koenig, Gasser (or Brust in 14) teams....you can see the huge gap. All five of those dudes wanted the ball but knew their roles (I know Nigel faded a little in 2015). Plus, they could bring an insanely confident Showy or Duje off the bench for either energy or shot-making. That's hard to find these days and harder to build at UW. And, really, it goes for about every non top-4 team this year. One thing about the portal is that these become a bit more like NBA teams, where everyone knows the hierarchy, and BYU had none of that. It is five on the floor, ten deep, everyone sharing and running pace and firing when they sight the hoop. You could see that tonight (I second "playing scared" as ridiculous--that team was feisty and up front all night, they just got the flagrant 2 and turned it over and finally missed shots in the last 3 min). Underrated credit: BYU's defense. We missed some open looks, but they mixed zone and man effectively and generally stopped our drives to the hoop (Blackwell excepted, I thought he played an incredible game). They forced the ball to Crowl and Gilmore, and though the former made some shots early, he wasn't much of a threat beyond the first quarter. And they were willing to live with his occasional three. Good strategy, well-executed. Tonje and Blackwell got theirs, but BYU defended especially well in the first 35 minutes. Some fun teams still left. I really like the Big 12 teams as a group. Different flavors but a lot of toughness and fluidity from Tech, Houston, BYU, and Iowa State. For all the SEC talk, would not shock me one bit, if we've got two of those teams in the FF.