College Basketball 2011-2012

[fondybrewfan]

UW can get away with those long lulls against teams like Purdue, Illinois, and Minnesota. They can't get away with that in the NCAA tourney when they might have a #4/5 Seed in the 2nd round. UW is a hell of a defensive team; but the lack of offense will hurt them in the end. I have been critical of Evans this year but I will say he has improved dramatically since his freshman year. They will need similar progression from guys like Gasser and Brust next year.

[thebruce44]

Nice to see them go inside to Evans a little.

[homer]

Nice to see them go inside to Evans a little.

Agreed. The Badgers needed (need) another post presence other than Berggren. Even if he's missing his shot I feel like more good things happen when they go inside than when they pass around the perimeter for 30 seconds.

[RockCoCougars]

UW can get away with those long lulls against teams like Purdue, Illinois, and Minnesota. They can't get away with that in the NCAA tourney when they might have a #4/5 Seed in the 2nd round. UW is a hell of a defensive team; but the lack of offense will hurt them in the end. I have been critical of Evans this year but I will say he has improved dramatically since his freshman year. They will need similar progression from guys like Gasser and Brust next year.

Exactly. While any road win in the Big 10 is big, the Badgers' play over the last 10 minutes last night didn't inspire any confidence in me that they are more than one and done at best in the NCAA. To me, these guys seem to have the ability oppose their will on defense against a substandard offense, but if they play a team that gets some torrid shooting or low post scoring, they will get crushed. I know the tournament is all about defense, but you simply cannot have these 4 point/10 minute stretches (or 8 minute droughts) and expect to win. These have been all too common this year for this squad.

[homer]

I don't think anyone has any illusions about this team making a final four run. Obviously it could happen if they get hot but odds are against that happening. And as usual it all depends on matchups in the tourney. If they get in a bracket with a lot of up tempo teams that don't really play much defense I like their chances (i.e. Mizzou, Duke). But if they play a team that also plays outstanding D (i.e. Kansas, Kentucky) they need to get hot from three or they are probably done for.

[RockCoCougars]

What are we looking at as far as seeding as we stand? I'm guessing that they are headed dead on for a four/five seed unless they collapse down the stretch or win the conference tournament.

[homer]

What are we looking at as far as seeding as we stand? I'm guessing that they are headed dead on for a four/five seed unless they collapse down the stretch or win the conference tournament.

Yeah. I'm thinking four seed most likely unless they completely crap the bed and lose to someone other than OSU or MSU. Lunardi has had them at a four for a few weeks now.

[bacon06]

I think the Badgers' droughts on offense is due to their high level of defense. They are expending a lot of energy chasing and closing out etc. so when they go on the offensive end and need their legs to shoot, they are too fatigued to shoot consistently. Because if you look at non-conference games where they blow teams out, part of that is the lesser quality of opponent than a Big Ten 10 team, but they are also using less energy on the defensive end, so they shoot a higher percentage. I believe that if they ever had a rotation of more than 8 guys, they wouldn't be as poor on offense.

[fondybrewfan]

I think a 4 or 5 seed is a lock at this point; but they could sneak into a 3 with a strong finish. I suppose a worst case scenario would be a 6; but they probably need to finish terribly to drop that far. There just aren't that many quality teams this year. Plenty of teams worthy of 1 or 2 seeds; but after that it is a big mess.

[homer]

I think a 4 or 5 seed is a lock at this point; but they could sneak into a 3 with a strong finish. I suppose a worst case scenario would be a 6; but they probably need to finish terribly to drop that far. There just aren't that many quality teams this year. Plenty of teams worthy of 1 or 2 seeds; but after that it is a big mess.

UW had a better team in 2004 (Harris' last year) and were hosed with a 6 seed so anything can happen I guess.

[Glennron]

I went to the Marquette game yesterday and would just like to say that DJO is 10 times more impressive in person. It's just insane how explosive he can be on fast breaks or just getting to the basket in general. I can think of at least three and 1's he had where I still don't know how he made the shot. His draft status has to be skyrocketing.

[Oldcity]

 

In most games, if you take away the last minute when we have the lead and teams have to foul, we probably only average like 8-10 FT attempts a game.

Very true, but the fact is that in games they're leading late, they're going to get fouled, so making those at the end of the game will be a big boost.

 

Meanwhile, Marquette keeps rolling. Buzz is building up a great program.

[brwrsfan]

I think a 4 or 5 seed is a lock at this point; but they could sneak into a 3 with a strong finish. I suppose a worst case scenario would be a 6; but they probably need to finish terribly to drop that far. There just aren't that many quality teams this year. Plenty of teams worthy of 1 or 2 seeds; but after that it is a big mess.

UW had a better team in 2004 (Harris' last year) and were hosed with a 6 seed so anything can happen I guess.

 

 

If I recall correctly, wasn't the "tradeoff" for being a six seed the fact that they placed the Badgers in Milwaukee? I agree though, they got royally screwed that year and wound up playing Pitt in round 2. It was a matchup that most people thought should have been a regional final as both of them were badly underseeded. You just never know with the tournament committee. They move teams around to help with the logistics and whatnot, and sometimes they just seem to over/under value teams WAY more than the rest of the country.

[owbc]

Yes they got the 6 seed in 2004 in exchange for playing at the BC. It was a fair tradeoff in my opinion. 90%+ Badger fans in the building. I was at the first round game vs. Richmond and the second half was the loudest that I ever heard that building. I think the Badgers scored on something like 17 straight possessions. The Pitt game was a 2-point loss.

 

What really matters is the matchups anyway. Of course you don't want to travel halfway across the country, but the Badgers seem to have unusually bad luck running into hot teams at the wrong time. It really hurt to lose to Butler last year since they finally had a winnable path to the final four.

[brwrsfan]

Yeah, the seeding helps, but it's more who you are playing. Badgers have had some good things happen in that regard with some higher ranked teams losing in front of them, but they've also run into teams that just flat out couldn't miss and got smoked (Davidson and Cornell come to mind).

[thebruce44]

I went to the Marquette game yesterday and would just like to say that DJO is 10 times more impressive in person. It's just insane how explosive he can be on fast breaks or just getting to the basket in general. I can think of at least three and 1's he had where I still don't know how he made the shot. His draft status has to be skyrocketing.

 

Its been a long time, and I am not saying he is the better long term NBA prospect, but it seems like DJO is playing at a higher level than Wade did his final year at MU. He gets to the basket like Wade and finishes, but when he gets hot with the outside shot he is unstoppable. Last I checked, he was looking like a mid second rounder though. I hope he can sneak into the first round.

[Menotti80]

I went to the Marquette game yesterday and would just like to say that DJO is 10 times more impressive in person. It's just insane how explosive he can be on fast breaks or just getting to the basket in general. I can think of at least three and 1's he had where I still don't know how he made the shot. His draft status has to be skyrocketing.

 

Its been a long time, and I am not saying he is the better long term NBA prospect, but it seems like DJO is playing at a higher level than Wade did his final year at MU. He gets to the basket like Wade and finishes, but when he gets hot with the outside shot he is unstoppable. Last I checked, he was looking like a mid second rounder though. I hope he can sneak into the first round.

 

 

There is no way DJO is playing lose to what Wade did his Junior year. I saw every home game and NCAA tourney game that year and while DJO is playing amazing this year, he is not playing on the same level as Wade.

[Glennron]

I went to the Marquette game yesterday and would just like to say that DJO is 10 times more impressive in person. It's just insane how explosive he can be on fast breaks or just getting to the basket in general. I can think of at least three and 1's he had where I still don't know how he made the shot. His draft status has to be skyrocketing.

 

Its been a long time, and I am not saying he is the better long term NBA prospect, but it seems like DJO is playing at a higher level than Wade did his final year at MU. He gets to the basket like Wade and finishes, but when he gets hot with the outside shot he is unstoppable. Last I checked, he was looking like a mid second rounder though. I hope he can sneak into the first round.

 

Of course I don't remember where I found it now, but I was checking out a couple mock draft sites the other day. One had him something like #41 overall, but another that was updated Sunday had him as the last pick in the first round. If he keeps it up I wouldn't be surprised with that.

[thebruce44]

I went to the Marquette game yesterday and would just like to say that DJO is 10 times more impressive in person. It's just insane how explosive he can be on fast breaks or just getting to the basket in general. I can think of at least three and 1's he had where I still don't know how he made the shot. His draft status has to be skyrocketing.

 

Its been a long time, and I am not saying he is the better long term NBA prospect, but it seems like DJO is playing at a higher level than Wade did his final year at MU. He gets to the basket like Wade and finishes, but when he gets hot with the outside shot he is unstoppable. Last I checked, he was looking like a mid second rounder though. I hope he can sneak into the first round.

 

 

There is no way DJO is playing lose to what Wade did his Junior year. I saw every home game and NCAA tourney game that year and while DJO is playing amazing this year, he is not playing on the same level as Wade.

 

Looking at the stats, you are right. Of course, Wade shot pretty poorly down the stretch (which is mostly what I remembered) but he did a lot more than just score and he didn't have the other options DJO has.

[brwrsfan]

Marquette was a different team back, played a bit different style and was built differently but I'm not so sure DJO has that many more options than Wade had.

 

One, Wade had a post presence in Robert Jackson (he averaged 15 and 8 that year). He also had Travis Deiner and Steve Novak both playing significant minutes, both were very, very good shooters who could knock down open shots, and both went on to play in the NBA. Scott Meritt was also on the roster and played. Novak was a freshman but still played. Deiner, Jackson and Merritt all averaged more than 10 points a game.

 

I'm not saying that team was better, but I'd say it certainly had many other options that just Wade and I think it's pretty comparable to the current roster.

[brwrsfan]

So it appears that Gardner is out AGAIN this week against UConn. This will now be 5 games missed I think about 3 weeks of action. For an injury that was "day to day". 3 weeks huh. This just feels like the Otule injury. He's hurt, might come back, we get no real information on it. Listed as week to week, then eventually, just, yup, he's done for the year.

 

I know they don't really have to release a valid injury report in college, but MU is really horrible at this. If you're going to list someone as day to day, they shouldn't be out 3+ weeks. I don't buy the "this makes it harder to prepare for MU" angle either. It's not like a QB in football where it could be completley different.

[brwrsfan]

Big game for Wisconsin tonight too, I don't know if this team can pull off a win at MSU but we'll see. Win would get them right back in the title picture. We just seem to lose crazy heart-wrenching games there.

[jjkoestler]

Big game for Wisconsin tonight too, I don't know if this team can pull off a win at MSU but we'll see. Win would get them right back in the title picture. We just seem to lose crazy heart-wrenching games there.

 

I want Taylor to sink a half court bank shot at the buzzer to win by 1 point.

[Oldcity]

Yeah... Nothing heart-wrenching about that. They just got crushed. MSU is my pick for conference champ.

[TooLiveBrew]

I might have to hop on the Marquette bandwagon this year