brwrsfan

I'm not a fan of Kirk in any way, but if they cut him...who are the backup outfielders? Gennett and Perez? Who plays CF when Broxton needs a day off or comes out of a game? Are you saying the Brewers are going to keep someone like Reed on the roster too?

Conference titles aren't what they used to be. For starters, most conferences don't play a true round robin any more because they have so many teams. So schedules certainly make a HUGE difference. You also get in the spot in major conferences, where there easily could be 5-6 teams in the top 25, winning a conference like that is simply not an easy thing to do. Finishing in the top 4 for 15 years in a row or whatever it is, that's pretty impressive. Wisconsin has made 19 straight tournaments, 3 final fours (also very difficult to do), the sweet 16 6 of 7 years, etc. The one thing probably missing is that national title, but again, that's incredibly hard to do. Without the title, they maybe aren't "elite" but they're certainly about as close as you can get. They don't seem to get the recognition they deserve maybe due to the type of players we get and we rarely have any leave early (and no one and dones) but WI basketball has been consistently very good for the better part of 2 decades, and even better the last 5 years. Moving forward, going to really depend on the freshman but they have some good ones coming, nationally ranked guys like King, Herro, Reuvers (maybe Hauser?) so it's not dire straights, but they'll have to rely on freshman a lot more than usually.

Epic meltdown by the Badgers tonight. Not sure if it's going on in the locker room or it's a coaching issue but this team has mailed it on. Something happened a month ago and they can't get over it. If they were playing well this game wouldn't be a big deal but the way they're playing this seems like a death blow. Up 5 with 1:30. Can't inbound it twice, give up 4 points. Miss an open three. Get a stop. Miss two ft. Give up an offensive board and an open three. Then Bronson misses a bad (though open shot to tie - either shoot a three Or drive). Terrible terrible loss to what should be an inferior team. Scored only 57 against the B10 worst defensive team...went 5-14 from the FT line, just gave it away. This team is hard to watch it it seems like they'll play the next three games and the season will be over.

Just looked at Lunardi's bracket. Has Marquette out of the play in games, but still an 11 seed (he has two other 11's in a play in game) so they're right there on the edge - and who knows if the committee agrees. They'd be much better served just winning another game (or two) and not sweating it. He also has Wisconsin as a six seed...in Milwaukee. Not sure I see that happening, not with that low a seed.

It depends who they wind up playing in the BE tournament. Right now, they'd avoid the first round (I think). I think it's possible they wind up playing Creighton again (could happen win or lose on Saturday I believe). If they were to lose to Creighton twice, it would hurt but not necessarily knock them out. Would depend on what some of the other bubble teams do. But I'm with the rest of you, win either Saturday or the first BE game and they should be in - just about every projection has them in now. Though some have them in the play-in games which I'm sure is something they'd much rather avoid.

Marquette has to be one of the worst teams in the country in the last 5 minutes of games. They just simply find ways to NOT win games. They very easily should have beaten Providence twice (especially this past Saturday). They completely blew the SH game around New Years and they let a 15-18 point lead slip away in the second half against Butler. They just have poor execution and very little defense. If they won even two of those games, they're sitting in quite comfortably right now. Every bracket I see has them in right now - but usually in the "last 4 in" and in a play in game. That's a very precarious spot to be - teams can steal bids winning their tournaments, a bad loss can knock you out or a team in the "last 4 out" can easily jump past you with a big win or two. And that's assuming everyone agrees they are actually in right now - which is far from certain. They really, really need to win these last two games. A split wouldn't be the worst thing, probably keeps them right where they are going into the BE tournament.

Yeah, the way OSU made ridiculous shot after ridiculous shot in the second half made a comeback impossible - luck had a lot to do with that but they still count. My bigger issue was that for the entire first half, the Badgers just seemingly had no energy. They were getting destroyed on the glass, and much of it was just due too lazy boxouts and a general lack of hustle - and there is just simply no excuse for that at all. Yeah, the offense might have been struggling, but there's no reason to just stand around on defense or not box out. Coming off the Maryland win, coming out completely flat in this one is somewhat baffling. Part of me is getting irritated with Gard - I have issues with the fact that the offense hasn't adjusted or we don't really ever run any set plays to get guys open it seems, but my bigger issue is that I want to see him get fired up. When we come out flat, I want him to send a message. Yank a player and chew him out, or bench the starters. Do something to get the message across. For a team full of senior starters, they seem incredibly disinterested a lot of the time - especially Nigel Hayes. He's seemingly loafed through this entire season. Frustrating. Hate to say it, but with the way they're playing and their inability to beat double teams or make open shots, this certainly feels like a team right now that will be lucky to even win a game in the tournament. Still have a couple weeks to get it turned around, but after 8 games like this, that feels very, very unlikely.

They aren't a top 16 team the way they are playing, not even close. They got super lucky to win the previous 4 games, and a loss was inevitable at some point. Schedule doesn't get any easier going forward either. The problem is pretty simple - nobody can make open shots. And Happ seemed incredibly unprepared for the double teams - seems like bad coaching. And when he actually was, he'd kick it out and we'd miss the open three. Right now, teams have no fear of us actually hitting the jumper, so the perfect play is aggressively doubling Happ. Bronson is clearly hurt, he really should have just sat down for a couple games. He is really, really hurting the offense, not just by not making open shots, but he's not able to penetrate or facilitate in any way. Marquette on the other hand...big trouble. They're likely in the last 4 in/4 out area. They've laid several eggs after beating Villanova and are in some serious danger of missing the tournament without some wins.

Yes, the absolute worst case scenario if you foul is the make a FT, miss, tap it out and hit a three at the buzzer and you lose. But realistically, what are the odds of that actually happening? Lots of teams have fouled, and I can't remember it ever going down like that (though I'm sure it has at some point). But if you foul, you have several different ways of winning - missing the first FT, getting the rebound on the second FT or if they do happen to get the rebound, getting a stop. And unless the ball gets tapped out and you get really unlucky, with just 1-3 seconds left, whoever rebounds the ball is likely going to be the one taking the shot - meaning a two pointer. Just my thoughts - I'd foul every time. Chances are in your favor of winning as opposed to letting the game get to overtime. Yes, they did wind up with a 13% shooter taking a stepback, which is probably the best scenario they could hope for if someone is going to shoot it...but he made it. I wouldn't even give them the shot, but I also agree that Koenig played poor defense. No reason to double the guy, cover the big and let Happ cover the guard on the switch. Make him shoot over...if he drives by Happ with 4 seconds left, so be it. Happ did struggle with the double, which was unusual as he's seen it all season. What's gotta be getting frustrating for him is that when he does find the open guy (which always seems to be Vitto Brown), he keeps missing wide open threes. I think Vitto Brown is something like 2-26 on threes the last 4 games, almost all of which are wide open. I keep thinking they'll erupt for like 55 in a half, as this team was scoring ton of points the first 16 games of the season, but it's just not happening. Both the last two games they started off well, then went in massive slumps. You'd think a hot start would give them confidence, but it just hasn't happened. Hopefully soon.

Badgers find another win on the road despite a very bad offensive showing (again). Shot just 36% for the game, gave up a ton of offensive rebounds...and still won. Gotta figure they're going to get burned here sooner or later if they don't snap out of this offensive funk. It's been 4 games now (albeit all wins amazingly). I will complain about this though, I will NEVER understand why you let a team attempt a tying three point shot with less than 5 seconds left in college basketball. I know the guy that hit the shot tonight is a big guy, who was 13% for the season on three pointers taking a step back shot...and it was pretty lucky that it went in given those factors, but why even let him shoot it?? I know people argue both ways, but for me, if you foul with less than 5 seconds left - a LOT has to go wrong for you to lose or not get to overtime. Sure, maybe they call a cheap foul and give 3 FT. Maybe they make one, tap it out and hit a three, but those are longshots. A vast majority of the time, the absolute worst case is they make it, get the board and tie it. More often than not, they won't get the second rebound and/or score. Just my take on it, but I'd take my chances fouling and just simply make them do all those things right, as opposed to letting them take a three to tie - even if it's a prayer, it has a better shot of going in then making a FT, missing and scoring again IMO.

While it certainly looked bad, and I'd guess a torn ACL again, we'll just have to wait and see what the MRI says. Expecting the worst, but it's not impossible that he avoided that. If he did, man, that one stings. And it's a real question as to if he can come back and be even remotely the same player coming off two torn ACL surgeries.

He gets a lot of blocks but he's not intimidating down there to me. Guys don't shy away from him by any means. He also sometimes seems to get caught in between, where he wants to contest, but he also seems to pickup fouls pretty easily. And if he fouls out or has to go to the bench, there's just nobody else behind him. I don't view him as a great post up defender either. He's not horrible and teams could do worse certainly but he's really the only option and that creates problems when he can't necessarily defend as aggressively as he might want to. The penetration is the bigger issue though, teams seemingly get in there at will and from there, yeah like you said, it causes a ton of issues.

What I'm saying is that it's fine to stick to "normal" rotations, but you have to be able to adjust. When you have a guy come out on fire, scoring 18 points in the first 10-11 minutes of the game, you don't take him out for the next SEVEN game minutes (including a quarter break and 2 media time outs). He's on fire, let him ride it out. I know he needs a break, but come on, that's just too long to put someone that hot on the bench. Especially as Phoenix makes a run and started cutting into the Bucks lead. Having a set plan is fine, but game flow is something that warrants attention as well.

Kidd and his rotations are a bit baffling sometimes. Take the other night (I think Saturday but could have been Friday). Giannis scored 18 in the first 11 minutes. Then promptly sits on the bench until the under 6 timeout of the second quarter. Guy is on fire, they can't guard him, and we put him on the bench for over 7 game minutes. Why??? And with the bigs all sucking, we can't find consistent minutes for Maker - at least 6-10 a game?

Bucks have been rumored to have wanted Rubio for a long time. He's got an even bigger contract than Henson. So hopefully they're sure. I guess that would mean moving Giannis off of the PG spot though. Are they really done with that after the numbers he's put up this year? I guess they could move him to SG instead. Rubio is a very good distributor - over 8 assists a game, not a great shooter though. But with Giannis, Parker and Middleton, they wouldn't need him to score much. Be an interesting move. If that's the real offer, with no picks involved, I'd take that pretty quickly. Henson is a backup and doesn't really fit here. Delly is just another guy to me.

I guess if you want to make the argument that the pass on third and one was an ok option...that's fine. But why not a play action pass (I could be remember this wrong, sorry if it was)? Why not a safe, quick pass? They did a deep drop on that play, 5 or 7 steps, giving the defense plenty of time to react and get to him. Even if you want to pass there, I think the pass they chose was very poor as well.

Wisconsin keeps winning, but man is the offense in trouble right now. 3 straight games where they just really, really struggle to score and have a ton of turnovers. The offense seems fine, they've just basically forgotten how to make shots. The whole team is struggle - I think the last 3 games they are 14-67 on threes. And that's just brutal. They've found ways to win, but they need to shake out of that funk. Just way too many 4-5 scoring draughts. And they've had stretches in all three games where they played 20+ minutes of basketball with only 15 or less points. That's just terrible. Despite all that, they've avoided losing games to inferior teams (unlike everyone else ranked these days it seems). All the way up to 7th in the AP poll, despite how they've been playing. Hope they get it together and I hope Pritzl keeps getting good minutes like he did yesterday. Vitto Brown is just flat out killing the offense...yesterday IU was doubling Happ, Brown had at least SIX wide open threes when Happ passed it out...missed them all. Marquette...well they have no problems scoring, but they just have no defense at all. And they seem to find ways to NOT win games they easily could. They're still in the tournament for now (barely I think) but they're going to need to keep winnings games they should. Be nice if they could find a way back in this year. They play a bit wild but man this team can put up points in a hurry when they're on. Unfortunately, the defense is equally as bad, if not worse. They just can't stop penetration and Fischer provides very little interior defense.

The other part of all of this (and I agree with all of you that it was a huge mistake both times), but was the fact that Atlanta WAS RUNNING THE BALL EFFECTIVELY. They were getting over 5 yards a carry. It's not like they were getting stuffed and kept going three and out. They simply got too cute or outsmarted themselves. The Packers certainly got over-conservative, but it still took a near miracle for Seattle to win. We didn't make any stupid decisions like this or turn the ball over. And the other difference, we were up 16. They were up TWENTY FIVE. Those two pass play calls are ultimately what cost them the game. Yes, they could have gotten stuffed on third and 1 (doubtful IMO) and sure, Freeman could have fumbled but nobody faults you for doing the right thing. And sure, they could have missed the FG too, but that's not the coaches fault. Coaches need to put their teams in the best positions to win, and smart decisions and play calling are part of that. And Atlanta completely screwed themselves there - take it a step further, despite being the ones winning all game, they were out of timeouts with 57 second left only needing a FG to win, might not have mattered, but that last drive might be different with 2-3 timeouts at your disposal.

Brewers tack on a whole bunch of theme nights again - including three bobbleheads - only one of which is even Brewers related (the Jedi Keon). Not sure how I feel about Charlie Brown (with a Brewers hat on) and Iron Man in Brewers colors. As like every other year, they give almost no notice on this as tickets go on sale Friday. http://m.mlb.com/brewers/tickets/theme-tickets/

The big issue for me isn't that he's missed on draft picks (though the number he's missed on is slightly alarming). But the bigger issue is his pure stubbornness about it. It should be clear that a pick has failed, but he sticks with them way longer than he should in most cases. And when it becomes clear there is an issue, he just flat out refuses to use the other avenues to build a team (trades and free agency). It's glaringly obvious that our defense is slow and lacks coverage skills and playmakers...it cost us our season this year and without Rodgers performing at an unreal level the last 6-7 games, we likely miss the playoffs solely because of it. it's very hard or almost impossible to win a Super Bowl with a defense in the bottom 5 of the entire league.

A prime example of this would be someone like Jared Cook. Offense was badly in need of a tight end that can work the field. Nobody really fell to them in the draft....so we sign a cheap, veteran FA. Who immediately steps in (despite injuries) and fills a huge void in the offense. Sure, there won't always be all-pro caliber players in FA, but there are quality guys that can start. And just about anyone in the secondary would seemingly be better than they have right now. Look at the NYG for example, terrible defense last year, went out and got 4-5 defensive starters to completely revamp the defense and they were much, much better this year. Draft and develop really only works if you nail EVERY draft, which Ted clearly hasn't done. When that doesn't work, it leaves massive holes which for the most part, he has failed to fill in FA, and the results on the field have shown that. He's also decided not to pay for two DB's that we did draft and develop - House and Hayward. He's just so stubborn on the price he wants to pay, and it's let guys get away that certainly could have fit in here. It's great always having a ton of cap space, but it means nothing if you never actually go out and use it.

They go through stretches where they seem really really good - like the last 5 minute against Michigan for example last week. Then they go through spurts (like the first 35 minutes of that game, or a lot of the second half against MN) where they seem to just be going through the motions or bored or something. I'm sure they aren't, but a lot of times it's like they go out there just knowing (or thinking) they are the better team. They keep winning, but it's just weird to watch them play. I don't really know how to explain it. One thing that almost certainly WILL cost them a game at some point is the FT shooting - it's just flat out terrible. Can't consistently shoot 60% from the line and expect to win games, just leaving too many points on the floor, especially late in games. Other than Bronson and to some extent Showalter, I don't trust anyone at the line to actually make FT when it matters.

Been awhile in this thread, thought I'd revive it after two pretty big wins over the weekend for Marquette and Wisconsin. Badgers had a tough one in MN, and the Gophers probably played their best offensive game of the season - and still lost. Some pretty poor execution in the last minute of regulation and overtime for the Badgers, but they were able to get the win. Nice quality road win. I know there are quite a few teams bunched together at the top of the B10, but I think the conference is certainly theirs to win at this point. Unfortunately, they have no real good wins which is going to hurt come tournament seeding time. They got a bit unlucky in that they played a lot of big names in the non-conference (Georgetown, Syracuse, Oklahoma, Marquette), but none of them are really any good this year. And the few they did play - UNC and Creighton, both beat them. Marquette with a really nice road win at Creighton (without Watson). I think they are right on the bubble of the NCAA right now, so they really need all the wins they can get - big one with Nova tomorrow night. They really seem to have a knack for blowing big leads (Butler last week, almost with Creigton)...they really have no interior defense, which just kills them. Fischer is big, but he just doesn't do much on that end of the court. I know a lot of you are either for WI or MU, I have no ties to either and cheer for both and it would be nice if they could both find their way into the tournament again, it's been a few years for Marquette now.

I primarily use Twitter for sports stuff - virtually everyone I follow (other than my friends) are sports writers, broadcasters, inside guys, etc. I don't post a ton, but I find Twitter extremely useful for finding out information, getting breaking news, that type of stuff. I realize that these people can post whatever they want, but when you're a twitter verified sports celebrity, most people are following you for your sports knowledge. Lately, a TON of people I follow have been going on long political rants and posting very pointed thoughts about Trump, Hillary, etc. They are entitled to their opinions certainly, it just drives me nuts that they use their sports celebrity to essentially blatantly promote their political views (Seth Davis is the worst right now IMO, every other post of his is about politics and not sports). Yes, I know I can unfollow them, it just really bugs me. People are following you for sports, without sports, nobody would even know who you are, enough with the political agendas.

If he stays anywhere close to the path that he's on, he likely won't have to worry about will he make it or not. The way he's going, he's going to be a perennial all-star. Let's just hope it's all in a Bucks uniform.