2012-2013 College Basketball thread

[LouisEly]

Anyone know why Matt Thomas chose Iowa State? I know it's not that far from Onalaska, but Madison isn't far either. Hoiberg sounds like a good recruiter, and they have six seniors this year so there will be opportunity for playing time right away next year. Bo's style of play, or general reluctance to play freshmen have anything to do with it? Sounds like UW or Marquette weren't even finalists with him. I can understand not choosing Marquette because of the depth at guard there.

[TooLiveBrew]

Except the next class may be his best with some very good players like Koenig, Nigel Hayes, and Vito Brown to go with Dekker.

Well I hope they prove my pessimistic p.o.v. wrong. I'd love to see a roster loaded with good athletes.

[jjfanec]

Anyone know why Matt Thomas chose Iowa State? I know it's not that far from Onalaska, but Madison isn't far either. Hoiberg sounds like a good recruiter, and they have six seniors this year so there will be opportunity for playing time right away next year. Bo's style of play, or general reluctance to play freshmen have anything to do with it? Sounds like UW or Marquette weren't even finalists with him. I can understand not choosing Marquette because of the depth at guard there.

 

 

Wisconsin and Marquette got in the game late. He had built up a great relationship with Hoiberg and ISU pulled out all the stops. Wisconsin was considered to be in his final 3 but ISU was the clear leader. I think he thought his game resembled Hoiberg and Fred would develop him well. He wasnt a Badger or Marquette fan growing up either so he didnt have much loyalty for either team.

[jjfanec]

Except the next class may be his best with some very good players like Koenig, Nigel Hayes, and Vito Brown to go with Dekker.

Well I hope they prove my pessimistic p.o.v. wrong. I'd love to see a roster loaded with good athletes.

 

Koenig and Dekker will be a very good combo. Hayes looks like the real deal. Brown is a little more of an unknown. Bo isnt recruiting a ton of tall guys anymore so i am wondering if he is moving toward a smaller lineup where the center is more of 6'9 type guy

[Menotti80]

New # 1 after Butler's win. Good for MU, great for Duke!!!

[owbc]

Wisconsin and Marquette are both 3-0 in conference play. Who saw that coming?

[brwrsfan]

Both 3-0 but i wouldn't go punching any dance tickets yet.

 

MU has looked better but they need to learn how to close games. They've won but they are really, really making it hard. Last two games came down to being up 3, with less than 5 seconds left. Against GU, they fouled a three point attempt with 2 seconds left (guy missed one), today, up 3, they turn it over with 20 seconds left, then on an inbounds play with 1 second remaining, literally don't cover a guy behind the arc and he hits a wide open three to send it to OT, they won both, but they really dodged bullets. Did show a lot of poise today in dominating the OT.

 

WI looked dreadful in it's first two games and if they weren't playing arguably the two worst teams in the B10, those are both losses. They smoked IL today, but IL was incredibly flat. This was the best they've looked on offense basically all year (but making lots of 3's will do that). Dekker looked like a different player today, hope we see more of him. They play Indiana on Tuesday, so we'll see if they can even give them a game as IU is just dismantling people right now.

[fondybrewfan]

UW will be lucky to stay within 20 against IU tomorrow. The schedule for the next month is increidbly difficult. OUt of the next 10 games; 8 are against teams ranked in the Top #25. In order to have a legitimate shot at the tourney they have to beat at least a couple of those ranked teams. Home against MSU and Minnesota are probably the most likely. There last 5 games are incredibly easy with 4 of them against NW, Nebraska, Purdue, and Penn St. UW still has some work to do before I think they are in the tourney, but things are looking better.

 

MU has definitely improved there stock in the last couple of weeks; still could use another win or two against ranked teams. It will definitely help them if UW goes on a roll.

[homer]

Biggest problem with UW is that Ryan's slow, boring offense doesn't attract top recruits.

 

Michigan plays almost as slow as UW. They average a little more than 1 possession more per game. Florida plays super slow as well.

[fondybrewfan]

Tonight's game should be a pretty good indicator on how good UW is. If they stay within 10 then they probably have what it takes to make the dance; if they lose by 30 then I am not so sure. They are going to have to hit some 3's; can't rely on Berg to score points tonight.

[jjfanec]

Tonight's game should be a pretty good indicator on how good UW is. If they stay within 10 then they probably have what it takes to make the dance; if they lose by 30 then I am not so sure. They are going to have to hit some 3's; can't rely on Berg to score points tonight.

 

I dont think they need to stay within ten to have what it takes to make the dance. I do think staying with in ten would show they are team that could potentially win a couple in the dance

[bjkrautk]

UW will be lucky to stay within 20 against IU tomorrow.

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8084/8375336128_f85912b0d9_z.jpg

 

Just slow and boring; nothing to see here.

[fondybrewfan]

Well I'll be damned; talk about a statement win. Jackson had some stupid fouls but he is getting so much better every game

[PeaveyFury]

The progression of this team between the Florida game and tonight is remarkable, and may well be Bo's best coaching job yet.

 

Whenever I think Wisconsin is due for a poor year and might miss the tourney, they pull it together and have a solid season. There are enough winnable games left on the schedule to get them the 18-20 wins they need at this point.

[brwrsfan]

I'm just downright stunned they won tonight. They didn't steal a win either...they were in control from start to finish really. Great, great win in a game I figured they'd get destroyed in.

 

The way I see it is that they need 5 more wins to make it. That ensures a .500 B10 record. .500 in this conference, with a win at IU and at home against Illinois is probably enough to make it into the dance. Need to avoid a big letdown at Iowa this weekend.

[TooLiveBrew]

Just slow and boring; nothing to see here.

They were fantastic tonight, and I hope they continue to make me eat those words. Great win.

 

And actually, the Berggren posterization dunk around the 14 minute mark tonight is one of the best finishes I've seen by a Badger under Ryan. I literally jumped off the couch and yelped some version of, "wooooooo!"

[brwrsfan]

The picture of Bergerron dunking is on the front page of ESPN right now. I have it saved on my computer but I can't for the life of me figure out how to post it here (someone please explain this to me at some point).

[trwi7]

Upload it to some image site (imgur, tinypic etc.) and then get the url, paste it in here and then highlight it and click the "Img" bar above.

[fondybrewfan]

Berg surprises a lot of people with how quick he can jump. He is pretty athletic. With a road win against Indiana, UW will basically have to collapse to not make the tourney. That is rather remarkabe considering how awful they looked against Florida and Marquette. It really all comes down to getting better gaurd play. Dekker has also taken on a bigger role which is nice to see; he isn't afraid to take a big shot. Evans is still very disappointing to me though. His confidence is shot and he has taken a major step back this year.

 

This year is turning out much better than expected; but in the back of mind I can't really figure out who Bo is going to come up with to play the 4/5 next year. They wll have Gasser, Brust, Jackson, and Marshall at the 1-2; Dekker at the 3, and than what at the 4-5? Kaminsky is no where near big enough to handle the 5 and no other big guys even sniff the court.

[RobDeer 45]

Wow, great win. I didn't think they even had a shot at them! Fun stuff.

[brwrsfan]

I don't actually think Evans is playing all that badly. His FT shooting is abysmal, no doubt, but the rest of his game is still pretty good. The poor FT shooting isn't effecting his jump shot, he's still making those consistently and rebounding pretty well.

 

He's playing about 2 minutes less per game so far this season but his PPG is up from last year (11.5 from 11). His shooting % is almost identical (44.0 last year to 43.2 this year) and his rebounds are up a full board a game from last year (7.8 this year from 6.8). Blocks and steals are very slightly up as well. If he can just get his FT's to just be average, he's having a fine year.

 

That being said, it was inexcusable for Bo to have him on the floor in the final minute last night. Not once, but TWICE the ball was inbounded to him but IU chose to trap rather than put him on the line. That was a huge mistake and easily should have been avoided. If you want him in for defense, sub him in AFTER the foul or have him inbound the ball. Don't even give the team the chance to foul your 30% FT shooter with the game still in doubt.

[homer]

Here's a link to the highlights. Berggren's dunk is the first thing they show.

 

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?categoryId=2459792&id=8848513

[homer]

Berg surprises a lot of people with how quick he can jump. He is pretty athletic. With a road win against Indiana, UW will basically have to collapse to not make the tourney. That is rather remarkabe considering how awful they looked against Florida and Marquette. It really all comes down to getting better guard play.

 

Jackson is light years better than he was even a month ago. You could see small flashes last year that he wasn't intimidated by situations and I assume that comes from having a father that played in the NBA. His decision making is still a bit suspect at times but I really like what I see out of him.

 

As for next year.....they might struggle with a guard heavy team but the next two years after that - watch out.

[LouisEly]

Need to avoid a big letdown at Iowa this weekend.

 

Iowa is having a special ceremony to honor the memory of Chris Street, who died exactly 20 years ago Saturday in that car accident. Seems like whenever things like that are going on the affected team plays their game of the season. Going to be really tough for Bucky to pull one out under those circumstances.

 

Funny that Crean is 0-9 against UW. That's what he gets for leaving Marquette - a curse cast on him that he will forever lose to Marquette's in-state rival.

[jjfanec]

I dont even know if I would call losing at Iowa a letdown game. Iowa lost by 4 and 3 at home against Indiana and MSU. they got crushed on the road against Michigan and crushed Northwestern on the road. They will knock off some teams in conference play and i wouldnt be shocked if the Badgers were one of those teams. Iowa swept them last year. I am glad Bucky played a Tuesday game because they have a good amount of time to get refocused on Iowa!