Cool Hand Lucroy

The thing I like so much about Boyd is that he really doesn't force as much as some guys his type. He's pretty efficient for a guy with the ball in his hands as much as he has it. Drawing fouls is a big part of that, but he's also good at finding the right pass from underneath the hoop when he gets stuck. You'd expect that from a Dusty May/Brian Dutcher guy. I can see why the staff saw something in him. I don't think Boyd is a Devin Harris level player, but that's the Badger PG he most reminds me of. They have the ball a lot. They distribute well. They get to the line. Doubt Boyd will have nearly as successful a pro career, but they strike me as similar college players.

Good analysis, as usual. Lots of teams have really been trying to go zone against us, and, honestly, we haven't looked great against it. But when you've got a tertiary scorer like Rapp stepping up and having a big half, it really, really helps. Carrington absolutely belongs as an athlete, and he's a big part of this team's backcourt advantage. There aren't many teams that can throw three guys as good as him, Boyd, and Blackwell. The blueprint for beating the Badgers just has to be shutting down the driving lanes, slowing the pace, probably throwing in a few different looks defensively, and hoping you don't have Winter, Rapp, or JB get hot from deep. Impressed with what Janicki's brought in a Showalter (Showalter+, probably) kind of role. That was nice today when Rohde couldn't go. Now's when we find out what this team is made of. Mid-week bye before trips to Bloomington and Champaign. Get a split there, and you're feeling good. Gotta figure 3-2 in the next five puts them in darn good shape for a bid. Any better and you're getting closer to avoiding the 8-9 line.

A weird thirty minutes of hoops, considering the last 10 of the USC game and the first 20 of this one. Glad they managed to pull it out. The win @Michigan is still carrying this profile, but they'll have 7 Q1 opportunities in their last ten, and the home game against OSU is borderline. Could rise to that level if the Buckeyes string some wins together. Difficult as it is for some (I've come around on Gopher hoops post-Pitno--even the Ben Johnson teams played hard and together in the face of a lot of adversity), we should be big Minnesota fans the rest of the way. Be helpful if they could finish the year top 75 in NET (83 now). Where the Badgers sit, every Q1 win matters. Going to be hard to keep them out if they even get to 3 or 4 of them. The only serious CAN'T LOSE game from here on is the home date with Maryland. Other losses will simply be missed opportunities. Still, it's a weird situation. The Badgers could close 4-6, feel like they're not playing great, and drastically improve their tournament standing. The back half of this schedule is loaded, which is why the disastrous 4th quarter against USC still stings.

Well, that's not the Badgers the best win of the year, but it's probably their most impressive performance. Never sneeze at any road win. Getting one by 30 is great. Right now, this team is playing very well and playing together. If they continue to put in this kind of effort, their bracket standing is going to be a lot better than the 8-10 range they're currently showing up in mocks.

One hope I have here is that it ends the Turang to SS idea, which I hated when it was broached last year in ST and hate just as much now. Preserving Brice's value at the keystone is a marginal consideration with this deal, but it's still a consideration from where I sit. Chalk it up as a fringe benefit.

Big game tonight in State College. Get past this one, and you've got three nice home games before a brutal seven-game stretch that includes tough roadies @Indiana, OSU, and Illinois, home chances against MSU and Iowa, and the west coast trip to Oregon and Washington. I suspect there will be multiple losses in there, so it'd be nice to bank another Q2 win tonight.

The advantage of being small market is that you can leverage big teams who have to win the press conference. Our FO decided long ago that the press conference does not matter. That gets you a trade like this, which is massive controllable upside for one-year of top-tier SP (Freddy may not be ELITE, but he's really, really good and durable) and a Myers, who is....a guy. A guy I like. But not someone you can't find or re-create. Doesn't mean this will work out, but the team is making a play to be at the top of the Central and in playoff contention for multiple years. It's re-opening the window. You can like that philosophy or not in terms of its playoff impact, but the team has thought about it, committed to it, and made moves consistent with it for a while now. Way better return than I thought.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I thought I saw the double-tap too, but I think that 's fine under the rules. Issue was ball was still on the rim. As the (excellent) crew mentioned on the broadcast, that's a clear basket under FIBA rules. Just not NCAA ones.

WOW. That is a fist-pump, emotional catharsis kind of win. EARNED EVERY BIT. And did a lot of good work with Boyd on the bench in foul trouble. Obviously, getting all those points from Bieliauskas was huge. Credit to Carrington for a great game, despite two big FT misses down the stretch. And Kinzinger put in some HUGE possessions and did good work on the defensive end. That's the win that separates you from a very messy bubble. A true road win @ the consensus best team in the country (or at least the consensus co-best team) is going to vault your standing. These guys are going to have to back it up, but let's hope they found something today. It's the kind of performance you were just waiting for, knowing the talent and understanding that these pieces SHOULD fit together. A team win. One of the best ones this program has had in a long time. Going to enjoy the heck out of it!

I don't think they can overturn this call. If they do, it'll take a friendly Wolverine whistle and make it genuine home-cooking. Call stands. Interesting situation here. I would probably foul if I'm Michigan. Gotta make a front end.

Can't fault the effort today. Shooting crazy hot from 3 obviously helps. Holding their own defensively, Michigan getting a good whistle. Bring it home. My biggest worry defensively is the inability to create turnovers. Guys shoot SO well these days. That big run they had in the first had a lot to do with grabbing a few steals. No TOs in the 2nd half for Michigan.

Badgers are 19.5 point underdogs in Ann Arbor tomorrow. That is...crazy, but you can't say Michigan hasn't earned it. Obviously, not a game you expect to win, but looking at the schedule, there aren't too many marquee opportunities left for the Badgers. @Indiana? Iowa at home? For sure @ Purdue and Illinois and MSU at home. @Minnesota is a higher quality game than the computers think right now, I guess. I like this Gopher team. They look like they are rounding into form. We'll see if they can beat USC (late in OT as I post). Not getting Nebraska, Illinois, or Indiana at home hurts. Those would all be winnable Q1 opportunities. Point is, it's a quirky B1G schedule situation, so this team is going to have to either a) get on a real roll in all their non-marquee games or b) win some games as at least moderate underdogs.

Good thoughts. Noted that sequence too. Wasn't going to matter for the result, but hopefully more teaching material. About halfway through the year, and it's weird to not have more of a sense of what this team can be. The good news is, more than any other sport, you just have to be playing your best in the last two weeks to make a lot of noise. That's still my hope for this crew. Get one big win that kind of pulls it all together, and there are advantages to that coming mid-January as opposed to mid-November.

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.

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.

I severely dialed back my NFL consumption after that loss to the Seahawks in the NFC title game. I'd like to think it was because that was the year the Frontline doc on CTE came out. It probably has just as much to do with the nature of the loss. I caught the end of the game last night, and, while there was some residual feeling, the biggest thing I focus on is just the nature of the contact. Every play. You have to wonder how sustainable that is, but the cultural reservoir runs deep. It did for boxing way back when too, so who knows. The real leverage point may come in 2028, with flag coming to the Olympics in LA. Does that sport get on a growth curve that starts to, bit by bit, diminish the NFL? Seems unlikely, but football at all levels feels more and more like a bubble to me. It might take 20 years to pop, but I'd short it long-term if I could.

I am reminded a little of the 2015-16 team a that started 9-8 and then Bo abruptly retired. Lost to Western Illinois out of the gate. Took some time to gel. Ended up one possession away from the Elite 8. I don't think this team can be THAT good, but it's a hopeful comp.

Yeah, great thoughts in both posts. I think you're especially right about the defense looking improved, and that's a positive takeaway. We might look back on this one in February and think it said more about Nova than Wisconsin. Let's hope so. Looking at the noncon, we didn't take any bad losses. That's good, since, provided we take care of CMU and Milwaukee, there are not many bad losses left on the schedule. Maybe a Q3 here or there if we really play poorly at home against a bottom of the B1G opponent. But that's not a bad place to be in. Of course, this team is going to have to win some games against much better competition than Villanova to have a real shot to do anything in March. I think it's fair to call Nov/Dec a clear disappointment. Luckily, what matters in NCAA is how you play in the new year. This team still has potential. It's just gotta find the right combo and get some of the bench guys to take a step up, as you said really well.

My takeaways from this one: To start, college basketball seasons are funny things. You play thousands of possessions. Flip a dozen, and it's the difference between elation and devastation. This was one of those games tonight. It's a big dividing line in the season (the end of competitive nonconference play), and the result is the difference between feeling pretty good and being clearly disappointing. We ended up on the wrong side of that tonight. It doesn't mean the season is over. It just means that, RIGHT NOW, we're on the outer edges of the bubble as opposed to the inner ones. Carrington being hurt really impacted us. This was his kind of game, and him being unavailable meant we were without a confident, athletic guy when we really could have used one. Rapp, Bieliauskas, and Janicki all looked tentative and didn't bring anything to the table offensively. They looked clueless at times. Willard went zone at some key points, and we really struggled with it. I thought that flipped the game after we cut it to 5. He goes zone, Nova gets a couple stops and goes on a 7-0 run of their own. Some bad luck/tough whistle situations too. The possession where we had a stop but Nova threw up prayer and got tangled up with Blackwell hurt. I also thought we failed to clear the defensive glass at several points early in the 2nd, which made it harder to get back in it. When we pushed pace, we had more success. A couple of sloppy dribbles from Boyd, but I'll live with that in a game where you really want to speed the other team up. One issue I have with Gard is that he has never really been quick to allow full-court pressure. He's not a great switcher of defenses, and it hurts us in games like tonight. When you play fast and you have really good guards, you need to ask them to exert pressure in the backcourt more often. Not doing that allowed Villanova to limit possessions more effectively, and it made getting to overtime feel like a massive victory. Villanova reminded my of some of the old Badger teams. They were ANNOYING. Scrappy, slowed us down. Was totally fine grinding the game out. Made it feel like a 6-point deficit was 14. In some ways, their style hurt them in the last 5 minutes. Letting Lindsay cook in regulation might have saved them from OT. But he hit the shots when it mattered. We didn't. Give credit to this team for finding a way into the extra session. They need to play with 2nd half urgency all game. Consistency is the biggest thing I see during this competitive portion of the schedule. You get it from Boyd and Blackwell. Maybe Rohde, who knows his role well. Winter was great tonight. If he plays like that, we'll probably get things corrected. Boyd will be kicking himself for missing a couple FTs. Nova missed a key front end too. Like I said, thin margins. Go get 'em in the B1G, after some get-right buy games.

Still time in this one, but Nova really slowed the pace and defended well in the half court in the first half. Not a lot of energy in the building, and the Badgers not providing much of a reason to get excited. Combine that with Villanova shooting really well, and you get a 13-point deficit at the break. Really need to push pace and play with a bit more confidence in the second half. Villanova will grind us up if we let them.

Kind of a prove-it game for both sides tonight. Each has a top-40 KenPom rating (surprised to see Nova slightly ahead at 34 v. 39) and some good performances, but no real marquee wins to speak of. Badgers are maybe a surprise favorite, giving 4.5. The computers seem to like Nova better. Easy analysis is that this will be decided by pace. Villanova is one of the slowest teams in the country, while the Badgers are running a top-60 tempo. We'll see if Wisconsin can speed up the Wildcats. I expect they will, but I'd probably take Villanova to cover. Hope I'm wrong. Willard's experience in the Big East and this being a huge game for that league, in a building with which Nova has a lot of familiarity, all that makes me a bit nervous. As of today, this is a Q1 opportunity for Wisconsin. It's a major chance to get a Q1 win against a good but not great team, close to home. A loss would be disappointing. A win probably makes the noncon a success overall. A loss, and I think we're all a bit on edge heading into buy games and league play. It never comes down to one game, but this is bigger that I think it would seem given that it's December 19th and neither team has a number beside their name.