College Basketball Thread 2013-14

[FVBrewerFan]

Johnson looks talented and athletic, but I see why people critiqued his ugly shooting form.

 

Yea Johnson's shot is ugly, but he's still shooting 48%! Yea, that's a lot of lay-ups but that proves my point of why he should be playing PG- at least this year. He can penetrate, create his own shot, score in transition, etc. Also, he's really good at the line- yet another thing Derek Wilson is horrible at. Plus, I would bet anything JuJuan Johnson would have a higher Assist/minute ratio at PG than Derek Wilson has right now.

 

Someone mentioned earlier about D Wilson being a great defender, and I don 't see that either. He's solid, but it's not like you put D Wilson on the other team's best perimeter player and he can lock him down. J Johnson is more athletic, and longer- no reason not to believe he would play just as well defensively.

 

Buzz just has too many players on the court at the same time that simply can't score, so I have no idea why he wouldn't play a guy who can.

[owbc]

Wisconsin sure looks like final-four contenders but as always, the tourney draw is crucial. A one-seed and a trip to Milwaukee would be huge but there are three potential 1-seed candidates in the B10. The RPI advantage over MSU and OSU will help and they play both only at the Kohl Center.

 

If there was ever a year to make it to the final-four, this is it. Several of the usual final-four teams are weaker than most years. Less potential for getting upset because of the balanced offense. We know they can beat good teams, but can they beat elite teams?

[fondybrewfan]

Next year they should be just as good if not better. They only lose Brust and everyone has another year of experience. Plus they are bringing in some size next year. Badgers are great this year and assuming Dekker comes back they will be great again next year and probably should be the preseason favorite in the B10 since OSU and MSU will have a lot of graduations/losses next year.

[jjfanec]

Next year could be great at UW. I think Koenig and Hayes are only scratching the surface of how good they can be. Losing Brust will be tough. He is having a very good year and he can really shoot. But they will have another roster with a bunch of guys who can score.

[fondybrewfan]

Marquette probably has to win out just to make the tourney now; not good. 9-7 with only a couple of strong teams remaining.

[jjfanec]

Marquette probably has to win out just to make the tourney now; not good. 9-7 with only a couple of strong teams remaining.

 

Marquette could be a .500 team shortly. They host Seton Hall, and then travel to Georgetown and Butler and then host Villanova. 2-2 on the stretch would be impressive for Marquette right now. They definitely wont be favored in the last 3.

[brwrsfan]

I think Marquette's only shot is going to be winning the conference tournament. I can't see them winning out, they just simply aren't that good. The half court offense is just terrible. They played a decent schedule, they just didn't beat anyone.

[DHonks]

Fondy, I'm not worried about that. 9-7, but not a single bad loss. The problem is that they have no good wins. If they can go 11-6, that puts them at 20 wins with a fairly decent schedule. There's been years where Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big-12 and Pac-12 teams have gotten in with barely .500 records. They won't be better than a 12-seed, but there's a legit chance they can get in.

[owbc]

The committee mostly uses RPI for bubble teams and that leaves Marquette way out of the tourney at this point. What do they have, like one win against the top 100? How are they going to win 10 or even 8 conference games when they haven't been able to beat anyone? Right now they are a low seeded NIT team at best, so they seriously need to start getting wins to even get back in the bubble conversation.

[Funketown]

UNC and Duke are now 1-5 combined in the ACC. UNC was never a serious contender without Hairston, and Duke can probably be crossed off that list at this point too. Syracuse is the only team that has a title shot out of the ACC, I wouldn't be completely shocked if they run the table (and in classic Syracuse fashion bow out in the Sweet 16). I'll be surprised if the title goes to a blue-blood with Kentucky and Kansas struggling as well.

 

Wichita State has a very good chance at entering the tourney, so seeding could be interesting for them.

[jjfanec]

Fondy, I'm not worried about that. 9-7, but not a single bad loss. The problem is that they have no good wins. If they can go 11-6, that puts them at 20 wins with a fairly decent schedule. There's been years where Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big-12 and Pac-12 teams have gotten in with barely .500 records. They won't be better than a 12-seed, but there's a legit chance they can get in.

 

I dont think the committee is impressed by no bad losses. 20-13 will not be enough for Marquette with that RPI and no quality wins. There have been other schools that got in with a record like that but they were from true power conferences. That is most definitely not the case with the Big East this year. Right now they have one team that would be a 5-seed or better.

[DHonks]

jjfanec, I assume Marquette will win a couple solid games. Butler (2), G'Town (2), Nova (2), Xavier (1), and Creighton (1) are still left. I think back to last year when Wisconsin was 14-7 and fans were saying they'd be lucky to sneak into the tournament. Then they got very hot and played into a decent seed. Or when Butler followed up it's 2010 runner-up by sneaking into the tournament by winning their conference tournament. They were a team that had no chance as their bubble had burst in early February, yet they wound up reaching the finals again. They were 14-9 in early February.

 

My bigger concern is that Buzz needs to learn to use the redshirt. It was upsetting that he allowed Cadougan to waste this year. Really, Marquette should be a top 10 team this year with a backcourt of Cadougan and Blue. After reading some websites about redshirting, it would seem that if Marquette doesn't play Steve Taylor, jr again, and they play in 37 games, then there's a good chance he'll be allowed to redshirt. That would give MU three years of Taylor and Fischer upfront together. To reach 37 games, Marquette needs 6 post-season games (conf tourney and one of NCAA, NIT, CBI, etc). Of course, the NCAA seems to make these decisions arbitrarily, so who knows.

[jjfanec]

jjfanec, I assume Marquette will win a couple solid games. Butler (2), G'Town (2), Nova (2), Xavier (1), and Creighton (1) are still left. I think back to last year when Wisconsin was 14-7 and fans were saying they'd be lucky to sneak into the tournament. Then they got very hot and played into a decent seed. Or when Butler followed up it's 2010 runner-up by sneaking into the tournament by winning their conference tournament. They were a team that had no chance as their bubble had burst in early February, yet they wound up reaching the finals again. They were 14-9 in early February.

 

My bigger concern is that Buzz needs to learn to use the redshirt. It was upsetting that he allowed Cadougan to waste this year. Really, Marquette should be a top 10 team this year with a backcourt of Cadougan and Blue. After reading some websites about redshirting, it would seem that if Marquette doesn't play Steve Taylor, jr again, and they play in 37 games, then there's a good chance he'll be allowed to redshirt. That would give MU three years of Taylor and Fischer upfront together. To reach 37 games, Marquette needs 6 post-season games (conf tourney and one of NCAA, NIT, CBI, etc). Of course, the NCAA seems to make these decisions arbitrarily, so who knows.

 

I still think Marquette could make it but you made the distinction right there between UW last year and Marquette. UW was 14-7. Marquette is 10-7. That have to win 4 more in a row just to get to that record. The other distinction is UW played in a conference with top seeds like Michigan, Indiana, OSU, and MSU which gave them a lot of chances for quality wins. Marquette probably has 2 games left with teams of that quality, maybe 3 with Creighton. Butler and Georgetown are bubble teams right now so those wins don't help a ton. Marquette needs a high quality win or two and they dont have a ton of chances. They need to win those games.

 

From what I have read Taylor's redshirt possibility is now gone. I didnt think post season counted. I am probably wrong though

[Oldcity]

All I can say is this UW season has been incredible so far.

 

I hate watching Trae Jackson. For every nice scoring drive he has a boneheaded turnover. The more minutes Koenig takes from him the rest of the way, the better.

[FVBrewerFan]

Marquette needs a high quality win or two and they dont have a ton of chances. They need to win those games.

 

Too late. They aren't even close to being a bubble team, RPI is way down the list. Their only shot is to win the Big East tourney. That's possible, they just need to get as high a seed as possible, and get hot at the right time. Not like they'll do anything in the big dance, but it would be nice to keep the tourney streak alive.

 

Really hope they can pull it off, legit chance for WI to have 3 teams in the tourney then. No discussion about UW-GB here, but that is a solid team righ there. UWM is no slouch either. (Insert Judge Smailes reference here.)

[owbc]

Wisconsin goes down! Huge game by Yogi Ferrell on Indiana, Wisconsin missed some wide open 3's during Indiana's big run in the second half. They let a winnable game slip away, but in the long run it will be nice to have the undefeated season/winning streak talk over sooner rather than later.

[adamb100]

The first game I watch (no cable) and they lose.

[fondybrewfan]

Jackson also had a couple bone headed turnovers again. UW did miss a lot of open 3's in the 2nd half. A game like this was bound to happen. Still a 3 point loss on the road to a good team isn't a bad loss by any means.

 

Dekker needs to step up his game again; he was MIA during a large part of the game today

[Baldkin]

Defense gave up 31 the last 11:30. That is terrible.

Managed to only shoot 4 FT's... Indiana shot 10, completely unlike a Bo Ryan team.

 

I hate to say it, but glad they lost. It will get that undefeated monicker off them, and hopefully the team realizes they aren't so good that they can stop playing defense up 10, with 12 minutes to go in a game.

[brwrsfan]

Two things killed them:

 

1 - missed lots of open looks in the second half

2- they flat out couldn't stop the IU guards from getting to the hoop

 

The second is a legit concern as Iowa did the same thing. IU could get to the hoop virtually any time they wanted. The guards couldn't contain and our bigs did almost nothing to defend the hoop. It was certainly a winnable game, and without the almost 5 minute scoring drought in the second half, it's probably a win. Had to lose at some point, it's just annoying that it's to Crean and Indiana.

[fondybrewfan]

I will 2nd the concerns about dribble penetration. That is probably a blue print to beat UW right now. Fast quick guards that can penetrate; no one could stay in front of Ferrel. Obviously UW has no interior presence to put up a fight if they do get into the lane. UW was also broke from 3 in the 2nd half and had a lot of looks; perhaps on a normal night they knock a couple of those down and win.

 

UW will still be fine; probably will end up with 3-4 losses and a seed somewhere around 2-4. Come tourney time the poor on ball defense and rebounding are major problems depending on what their draw looks like.

 

Jackson had a great shot going last night; but he absolutely should be a SG and not a PG. He is just not very natural as a PG and makes some questionable decisions.

[FVBrewerFan]

This one is on Bo. I know WI hardly ever plays zone, but if there ever was a game when they needed to go zone, this was it. Also, Jackson needed to stay low on the picks, but kept going around the top of them. That's just basketball 101, no reason Bo shouldn't have seen this and made the correction.

 

On offense, most (maybe all) of the 3s they took were good shots if I remember right. So hard to argue, except they had a lot of guys on the court who had the advantage posting up. Or driving into the lane.

 

Just bad game management. You get up by 10, that's when it's time to start drawing fouls and get in the bonus. I did see this one coming, but as bad as IN shot the ball from outside, this should have been a relatively easy win for WI.

[brwrsfan]

The outside shooting of IU was a non-factor, because they could get to the hoop any time they wanted. And of course, they did make 2 threes in the last ten minutes too, which didn't help.

 

Just have to move past it. Game they probably should have won, but hopefully they learn from it and move on. They have to keep guards out of the lane or that's going to be exploited a ton in the last two months of the season.

[jjfanec]

Badgers defense is terrible right now. Marquette's offense is horrible. The two Wisconsin teams are struggling. Luckily Wisconsin built up a nice buffer

[TooLiveBrew]

What concerns me is that the Badgers' perimeter defenders look like they can't keep guys in front of them. I hope that's coachable, but for now it looks like it's down to athletic ability.