College Basketball 2010-2011

[packfan79]

Leuer needs to stay down low and kick the ball out to the shooters. I can't remember him making a three in awhile. There offense has not been right for awhile, hopefully with a couple extra days off and a good match up they can win a couple games in the tournament. The way they have been playing lately I'm not sure that is gonna happen...

[GoudaBrew]

The washington/Arizona game was fantastic. Gus johnsons call down the stretch and on the final play was great, as usual.

[SheetsCyYoung04]

I guess there is some leg room on the Wisconsin bandwagon for me. Id much rather have lost like that than lost 86-83. The two things that concerned me most about Wisconsin were defense and key players wearing down, and I feel slightly better about both after last night. Defense stepped up last night and kept a good, not great Lions offense to under 40 points and under .9 per possession, and rallied them from a 16 point deficit. As for the tired legs, I dont think it would be good for a team who realies so heavily on thier stars and really only goes so 6 deep (sorry Evans, Valentine, and Berggren are only effective when they match up well with an opposing player) to play 3 games in under 48 hours so Im not too disgusted about the early loss. I'll set myself up for heartbreak as I still think Wisconsin will get to the sweet 16 or beyond. Hopefully, Bruesewitz will be healthy. As long as there opponent doesnt shoot 14 of 15 from three or they dont shoot 2 of 21, Wisconsin will still be a tough out.

[trwi7]

I wish the Bucks would be in a position to draft Derrick Williams.

[danzig6767]

Yesterday's game is what i've feared and been saying about this Badgers team, they are so incredibly reliant on the jump shot. It's 80 percent of their offense and when it's not falling, they really have nowhere else to turn to score points.

 

Not only are they completely reliant on the jumper in general, but the team was just clueless on offense for the entire game. All PSU had to do was jump out well on screens, double the ballhandler, & then fall back. UW was never really able to exploit their aggressiveness.

 

I loathe the swing offense, and I thought PSU exploited its general lack of versatility quite well. Why the Badgers didn't just keep dumping the ball down to Taylor or Leuer posting up on the blocks is beyond me.

Part of their problem though is that teams know that Taylor and Leuer are really the only two guys who can consistently score and it's even worse almost anytime they play away from the Kohl Center. Yesterday, Taylor and Leuer combined to take 38 of the Badgers 51 shots. Wisconsin kept running nearly 30 seconds off the shot clock on many possessions and Taylor was left trying to create something out of nothing, but PSU knew this an regularly doubled him in those last few seconds of the shot clock. It lead to him taking some very contested and ugly shots which he missed.

 

To show just how slow of a pace the game was played at yesterday, Penn St. only took 39 total shots along with only shooting 8 free throws. That's incredible. On the same night, Jimmer Fredette look 37 shots just by himself in the BYU win over New Mexico.

 

Speaking of pace, i saw this elsewhere

2. Meanwhile, some degree of punishment is appropriate for Penn State and Wisconsin, which

forced fans at the Big Ten tournament to endure a 36-33 quarterfinal

(won by the Nittany Lions) that featured just 42 possessions, making it

the slowest D-I game since 1998, according to @bigtengeeks.

Talor Battle has become a scoring legend over his four years in the

league, but on the night of Jimmer and Kemba, the fact that Battle led

PSU with nine points — nine! — was somewhat embarrassing.

[TooLiveBrew]

Wisconsin kept running nearly 30 seconds off the shot clock on many possessions and Taylor was left trying to create something out of nothing, but PSU knew this an regularly doubled him in those last few seconds of the shot clock. It lead to him taking some very contested and ugly shots which he missed.

 

Like the end of the game, when Nankivil was wide open on the wing with 4 or 5 seconds left... just before Taylor forced up that terrible final shot. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

[LouisEly]

It may kick them down to a 5 seed, but in reality the difference between a 4 and 5 seed is probably the smallest of any two seeding spots in the bracket. One gets a 12 seed in the first and a 4 in the second, the other gets a 13 in the first and a 5 in the second. I might almost prefer a 6 seed as I don't think there is much difference between a 3 and 5 seed this year and you avoid the 1 seed in the 3rd round if you get that far.

 

UW's problem will be the 2nd round game because their lack of depth forces their starters to play a lot of minutes. Two games in 3 days - when their starters play 36-38 minutes a game - is not a recipe for success.

 

Marquette is not getting a lot of help - Temple lost in their tourney, giving the A-10 conference another team in the tourney. Washington was probably in already but now are automatic. And if Penn State can pull off the upset - albeit unlikely - that's another non-tourney team that makes it in, although their run to the Big 10 championship might get them in. The one thing helping Marquette is UCONN winning the Big East tourney; since Marquette swept them that increases Marquette's RPI and SOS.

[Glennron]

Marquette isn't really that close to being one of the last few teams in, they have nothing to worry about. Also, they split against UConn.

[LouisEly]

Marquette with a very favorable draw - I think they can beat Xavier in the first round, and while I am surprised to see a potential matchup with Syracuse in the 2nd round they beat Syracuse the only time they played them this year (albeit at home).

 

Apparently they are viewing 8/9 seeds as being lower than 10/11 seeds as Michigan and Tennessee are not better than Marquette.

 

Also, when did the Midwest bracket become the Southwest bracket?

[M Skjellyfetti]

Yikes. If UW is going to make it to the sweet 16, they'll probably have to beat the two best cinderella candidates. Then, if they do that, Bo will get no credit from anyone because they'll only beat a 13 and a 12, even though Utah State and Belmont are both better than 5 seed Kansas State.

[Glennron]

Guess I was wrong about Marquette. There's about 4 or 5 times seeded ahead of them that shouldn't be.

 

I hate the Belmont matchup for Wisconsin.

[GoudaBrew]

Ugh, Belmont. The one name I didn't want to hear. I don't know....maybe I spend too much time on Ken Pomeroy's web site, but that looks like a brutal draw.

 

edit: A second round matchup of #12 Utah St vs #13 Belmont will be a trendy pick I'm sure. This always seems to happpen to UW. Why couldn't we have gotten Oakland, Morehead St, or Princeton?

[crewcrazy]

Tough draw for Bucky. That regional is looking brutal. 30-win Belmont as a 13, Utah State as a 12, Old Dominion as an 8. Could very well have a mid-major in the Sweet 16 or even Elite Eight.

[Hofbraunhaus]

I like the draw for Marquette although Syracuse in the 2nd round will be a tough one. Wisconsin has a tough game against Belmont coming up but if they can get past them, I think they go to the sweet 16.

[GoudaBrew]

Belmont looks like a deep team. They averaged 80 points a game, but their leading scorer was at 12.4 ppg.

[Oldcity]

Brutal matchup. Belmont should have been a 10 or 11. I think Marquette and Wisconsin are probably both out in the first round.

[owbc]

Wisconsin's going to be ready. Belmont hasn't played anyone of Wisconin's caliber the whole year. They lost to Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Wisconsin is bound to be a popular upset pick because of the 33 point performance. It's almost a reverse upset because of the predictions, but I'll take UW to the Sweet 16.

[Glennron]

Obviously they don't have the best SOS, but they also lead the country in scoring margin. Just cause they haven't played anyone of Wisconsin's "caliber" doesn't mean they can't beat them. If I had to bet I'd pick Wisconsin, but it's more like a 60/40 chance. Edit: Apparently Belmont fouls a ton cause they press a ton. It'll be interesting to see how UW handles the press, Taylor won't be able to rest much. Good news is UW should be able to get to the line a lot.

 

Funnily enough their region has the weakest 2 and 3 seeds, and possible the weakest 1 seed, but the 12/13 teams are super tough.

[Baldkin]

WI definitely got put in the "weakest" bracket, in that, the 1-3 seeds simply aren't as good as in other brackets. But, cripes, how do they get Belmont who was getting votes to be in the top 25 this week?

[owbc]

Wisconsin plays at 6:30 on Thursday and Marquette plays at 6:30 on Friday. Both games are on reportedly on truTV--I wonder if they will be on CBS in the Milwaukee area.

[carniesandrubes]

Wisconsin plays at 6:30 on Thursday and Marquette plays at 6:30 on Friday. Both games are on reportedly on truTV--I wonder if they will be on CBS in the Milwaukee area.

Now that they have 4 networks, I don't think they will do that. And TWC doesn't have the HD version of truTV which makes it suck even more.

[Glennron]

http://awfulannouncing.com/

 

Announcing schedule for the first two rounds. Wisconsin will have Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner and Sam Ryan. Marquette will have Gus.

[danzig6767]

I like the draw for Marquette although Syracuse in the 2nd round will be a tough one. Wisconsin has a tough game against Belmont coming up but if they can get past them, I think they go to the sweet 16.

I love the draw for Marquette, it at least gives them a slight chance at a Sweet 16 run. I expected them to get a 9 or 10 seed, but i prefer the 11 seed over a 9 seed because if a team has a 8/9 seed and wins their first round game, it's almost certain elimination the next game vs a one seed.

 

For example, i was surprised to see Michigan get an 8 seed and Villanova a 9 seed.

 

Michigan has to first beat Tennessee who arguably would be as tough or

close to as tough to beat as Xavier and then if Michigan can beat

Tennessee, they are staring at a 2nd round matchup with Duke.

 

So for those three teams dreams of a run to the Sweet 16 at least, would people rather likely have?

 

MU-- Xavier/Syracuse

 

Michigan-- Tennessee/Duke

 

Villanova-- George Mason/OSU

 

I'd

gladly take our path even though Michigan and Nova were given higher

seeds. So even though MU easily could end up losing either of those two

games, i'd like to thank the selection committee for the draw given to

Marquette. Now it's just up to the players and coaches to try and make

something of this draw. Xavier is a quality team, but it's not as if Marquette isn't battle tested after facing numerous teams in the Big East who were as good or better than Xavier.

[danzig6767]

http://awfulannouncing.com/

 

Announcing schedule for the first two rounds. Wisconsin will have Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner and Sam Ryan. Marquette will have Gus.

Sweet, great to hear Gus Johnson will be calling the Marquette game.

 

It was funny listening to him try to make that UW/Penn St. debacle interesting as the two teams combined to score less than 70 points.

[Roscoe Chill]

Apparently they are viewing 8/9 seeds as being lower than 10/11 seeds as Michigan and Tennessee are not better than Marquette.

 

I haven't watched enough of Tennessee, but Michigan is getting better and better, and I think they're definitely better than Marquette right now. I could see them winning the Big 10 next year.