College Basketball 2010-2011

[RockCoCougars]

I was impressed with Butler, but I do think the main reason the Badgers were missing was on them. I only got to watch the second half but they had a ton of good, open looks but they could not hit anything. Butler plays extremely hard, but a great team would have blown the Badgers out last night. Instead, Butler let it get very close and needed a Mack fade away late to keep it from getting really tight

I'd argue that the Badgers were blown out. I would bet, however, that Florida is dusting off the full court press as we speak.

[jjfanec]

I was impressed with Butler, but I do think the main reason the Badgers were missing was on them. I only got to watch the second half but they had a ton of good, open looks but they could not hit anything. Butler plays extremely hard, but a great team would have blown the Badgers out last night. Instead, Butler let it get very close and needed a Mack fade away late to keep it from getting really tight

I'd argue that the Badgers were blown out. I would bet, however, that Florida is dusting off the full court press as we speak.

How can you be blown out when you have numerous chances to cut it to a one possession game in the final minutes? Sure they we beat up early but you can get blown out of a game you had a realistic chance of winning at the end.

[homer]

"Not impressed with Butler at all."

 

Really? What do they have to do, go to another Final Four?

 

They are now 8-1 in the last two tournaments. (Only one other team can say that right now.)

 

Butler is a very good and very well coached team.

 

Madison wasn't hitting shots last night, but credit must be given to Butler having a hand in their face on almost every shot taken. I don't think those Badger kids were ready for just how physical the Dawgs play. Bo knew it was coming, I don't think his players believed him. I'm not saying they don't see it in the Big Ten. I'm saying they didn't expect the same type of play from little 'ol Butler.

Badgers missed a TON of open looks where the Butler defense was a step late. And I can't give Butler credit for all the turnovers either since most were self imposed. I will give them credit for playing hard, getting after the boards, and hustling. They beat the Badgers to almost every loose ball and for that they are to be commended.

[MJLiverock]

Announcers and fans of the Bo system love to point out the lack of turnovers and taking care fo the ball, and WI's assist to turnover ratio. Wi's tempo is so freaking slow that of course they don't have many turnovers, there are fewer possesions to even turn the ball over in. WI had one of the lowest assist totals in the Big 10, they were 10th in the league.

 

I don't mind working the clock to get a good shot but how many times do they just pass it around, not attacking and throw up a bad shot as time winds down. That is not productive use of the clock. Whenever WI has these games where they can't score it gets blamed on bad luck or just a poor night. WI fitters away time and then shoots a contested or off balance jumper from 19-22 feet and misses, and it's bad luck? I'd bet that over half of Taylor's jumpers last night were with a hand in his face or he was falling one way or another. Not to mention the times they give up driving to the basket and kick it back outside. Can anyone on this team take it to the rim or does that get a guy benched for scoring too quickly? When Taylor had the ball in the lane in a one on one situation and then kicked it back to a not wide open player on the perimeter I wanted to scream. If he can't take it the rim one on one at this point then he isn't the guard everyone gushes over.

 

And seriously what was Bo complaining about the intensity question at the half? If his players were intense and trying their hardest then to me that says they must be as slow and unathletic as often portrayed because if that was their best effort they weren't getting to anything.

 

Milquetoast. That is the word I think of when I think of this offense.

 

Taylor was completely gasses in the first half, leaving FT's short, getting blown by on D, bent over grasping his shorts during breaks, yet he can't come out because WI only manages to recruit one ball handler at a time? Wquentin Smith answers an ad in the school paper and becomes the primary back up point guard? Bo's agent's kid gets into games despite not being able to guard a statue or get any closer to the basket than 3 point land and Rob Wilson still can't get off the bench. At some point the staff needs to stop trying to prove how good of coaches they are by coaching up walk ons and guys they landed in recruiting battles with North Dakota State and Drake and start coaching some guys who can turn into more than role players.

 

As you can tell I am ticked off and tired of watching more Bennett Ball 2.0.

[RockCoCougars]

Blowout or not, the game was nowhere near as close as the final score. They were down 20 midway through the second half and were still walking the ball up court and running the shot clock down. They did whittle the score down when they started pressing and hit a couple of threes, but I never thought they had any chance of winning. Perhaps if they would have played with some urgency and started driving to the basket and/or pressing earlier they could have gotten back into the game. Instead, they played to Butler's strengths and got manhandled in the process.

[TooLiveBrew]

Wquentin Smith answers an ad in the school paper and becomes the primary back up point guard?

 

Haha -- well-played http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

 

I wanted to re-visit some comments before the Butler game

If Wisconsin wins tonight: "But they haven't beat a team that's seeded higher than them! Just like the last time they made the Elite 8!"

 

If Wisconsin loses tonight: "They lose to a mid-major team AGAIN!"

For me, this isn't what it's about. It's about the quality of athletes that Ryan & his staff are (or aren't) able to entice to attend UW. The team that happened to beat them was a lower seed, sure, but that's not what bugs me one way or the other. If they'd gotten to face Florida, I have little doubt that the Gators would've shredded the Badgers... unless of course the Badgers' threes were falling, aka the only way this team could win.

 

 

Bo's ten year record is so phenomenal, any doubters are just absurd.

The doubters that dislike Ryan's system not being able to recruit better athletes are absolutely not wrong. In general, the Badgers couldn't guard this season, nor could they get to the hoop, & both are due almost 100% to an overall lack of athleticism. Bo's system is too heavily reliant on jump shooting imho.

[Baldkin]

Announcers and fans of the Bo system love to point out the lack of turnovers and taking care fo the ball, and WI's assist to turnover ratio.

Assist to turnover ratio. That is independent of time. The pace has nothing to do with it. They simply do not play sloppy.

 

Saying the offense doesn't work and it's bad luck isn't a cop out, when it doesn't work 3 times out of 35 games this year, it really is bad luck. They had the open looks in both halves. Go back and look at it. They just consistently clanked everything the entire game.

[M Skjellyfetti]

Announcers and fans of the Bo system love to point out the lack of turnovers and taking care fo the ball, and WI's assist to turnover ratio. Wi's tempo is so freaking slow that of course they don't have many turnovers, there are fewer possesions to even turn the ball over in.

 

Wisconsin led the nation in TO rate, also (and it's not even close...2nd place is .9% back, 11th place is already 3% back). That's % of possessions resulting in a turnover. It's a stat that's completely independent of time, and it tells you more than A/T ratio. Not turning the ball over is a ton more important than assisting on baskets. Blaming the Badgers' low turnover totals solely on their slow tempo of play would be severely misguided.

[bjkrautk]

Announcers and fans of the Bo system love to point out the lack of turnovers and taking care fo the ball, and WI's assist to turnover ratio. Wi's tempo is so freaking slow that of course they don't have many turnovers, there are fewer possesions to even turn the ball over in. WI had one of the lowest assist totals in the Big 10, they were 10th in the league.

For what it's worth, Ken Pomeroy (the college basketball equivalent to Bill James), ranks teams based on the number of points they score (and allow) over 100 possessions, thus controlling for pace of play, and then adjusts for strength of schedule.

 

Wisconsin currently ranks 2nd, including last night's game, in Adjusted Offense (behind Ohio State). They've been one of the most efficient offenses all year, and for the better part of Bo's tenure.

 

 

I agree with a good deal of your criticism of last night's game; it bothers me that Leuer couldn't hold his spot on the low block to use his height advantage, like he has most of the season. I would like to see more penetration and cutting to the lane by players other than the PG (Gasser is the PG in-waiting, FWIW). That's also something they did well in the game against K-State. They didn't show a lot of life last night, and didn't play the type of game I would expect out of them (loose balls / rebounds, drawing charges, limiting turnovers, etc.).

 

All that said, the Badgers offense is predicated on working the ball around and finding an open shot. They did that; sometimes the shots don't go in.

 

(I'd actually love to see Bo show that full court trap more often, since that is the type of play I was expecting when he first came to UW.)

[adamb100]

15-40 at the half. ouch.

[jjfanec]

Are people going to be calling for Buzz's offense to go after the start of this game? 15 points against a defense that let Washington score at will last week.

 

It will be interesting to see of Marquette can cut into that 25 point lead. We have seen teams make big comeback - MSU and Wisconsin - only to fall short. Johnson-Odom has been invisible so far. He is too good a shooter to look this bad for a whole game

 

Not a good offensive showing for the state of Wisconsin in the Sweet 16. Both teams missing open jumpers and turning it over too much

[Glennron]

Well, Gardner has looked pretty good.

[jjfanec]

Well, Gardner has looked pretty good.

He moves well for a big guy. Nice save attempt between his legs. He has a third of Marquette's points at the 11:30 mark.

 

This may have the been the point the Badgers started their run yesterday. Actually I think they started at the 8 minute mark and they ran out of time. Marquette still has time to make a run if DJO or some gets hot from outside but it is easier to comeback against an offense like Butler than one like UNC.

[MJLiverock]

I understand the turnover percentage of possessions is important and a very good stat for efficiency. It just bugs me when announcers keep playing up the, "only 7 turnovers a game" line which is related to pace of play.

 

Regarding Pomeroy, yes the are efficient, but Pomeroy also ranks them 345/345 teams in adjusted tempo. The slow pace isn't a myth.

[RyDogg66]

Just when I thought there was no way Marquette could look worse than Wisconsin yesterday.

[Glennron]

I think Wisconsin's biggest deficit was 20, MU was already down 33. Pretty big difference. I'm just happy they're finally playing better the last few minutes.

[jjfanec]

I think Wisconsin's biggest deficit was 20, MU was already down 33. Pretty big difference. I'm just happy they're finally playing better the last few minutes.

Down 20 now. UNC has gone really cold, but yeah 33 is pretty ridiculous to come back from. However I would say down 20 at the pace of that Butler/Wisconsin game is similar to down 33 at the pace UNC/Marq are playing

[LouisEly]

Inside play is often opened up by outside shooting, and of course vice versa. The lack of outside shooting allowed Butler to double down low. If UW had made some outside shots it would have opened up the low post. When you aren't making either outside or inside shots... that's when you get down big and lose. If UW makes just 4 of their first 16 shots in the 2nd half instead of 1/16 they may have had a legit shot of winning. The silver lining is that Bruser seems to have found his confidence and assertiveness as he's been all over the court the last 2-3 weeks. I think he's going to be a beast next year.

 

Not that it would have made a difference, but some very inconsistent officiating in the Marquette-UNC game. Marquette would still be losing, but it would at least be a close game.

[jason21nl]

The officiating in the Kentucky/OSU game has been heavily favored towards OSU.

[jason21nl]

WOW, what a great game!

[jason21nl]

FSU failed to get off a shot 3 times with plenty of time on the clock. One at halftime, one at the end of the game, and again at the end of OT.

 

A couple of great games after the first 2 blowouts

[Hofbraunhaus]

Both Wisconsin and Marquette lost their games in the first half. Frustrating couple of days for me as a fan of both. The positive from this is that Bo Ryan's Badgers will be back next year of course and I really think Buzz Williams is just starting his own streak of successful Marquette teams. Neither team was expected to make it this far (especially Marquette) so I think we should be proud. Even better, the teams were nice enough to take us to the week of opening day for the Brewers. Also, in regards to some previous posts, I think Gardner is going to be an absolute stud in a year or two.

[crewcrazy]

I can't be the only person in the world that picked UK beating Ohio State in my bracket, can I? Listening to some of the talk about the game, you'd think it was the biggest upset of the tournament.

[RyDogg66]

One person, one, in my building's office pool as a Kentucky/Butler Final. they are looking pretty good right now.

[razzzorsharp]

Wow, Butler.

 

If Kansas continues winning they won't have to play anyone higher than an 8 seed before the championship game.