College Basketball Thread 2014-15

[PeaveyFury]

Making the trip down tomorrow morning- wouldn't miss this one for the world!

[Funketown]

I'll be curious to see how Bo Ryan decides to deal with Jahlil Okafor. From watching Duke a lot of times this season, it seems like those teams that fall into the trap of doubling Okafor in the post leave themselves susceptible to kick-out threes, which is rough as Duke has several guys who can probably hit ~50% of their good looks outside (obviously they're worse with contested looks). Notre Dame basically spent the first half of the ACC championship game giving Okafor room inside and never bringing in help and it worked really well for them. Late in the game, they just put him on the free throw line.

 

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400784978

[FVBrewerFan]

Terrified of Duke. They're athletic, they can shoot, they can penetrate...and oh yea they have the best offensive post player in college basketball.

 

My key is the same as the KY game, UW needs to stay out of foul trouble. Just hang around and be close going into the last 4 minutes. If they do that, The Badgers are the best team this year closing out games. They are a team in every way, and have a ton of maturity.

[adamb100]

People that have off today: I'm Jealous. A great day for Wisconsin sports.

 

On Wisconsin!

[GAME05]

I'm supposed to pick someone up at the airport tonight (leave no later than 10:00). It looks like that would mean missing the last quarter of the game. I don't know if it would be rude or not, but I'm thinking of paying to have them take a cab home. Of course all the non-sports people are telling me to record it, but I think we all know that's just not really an option.

 

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I'm certainly not as nervous about Duke as I was with Kentucky. We didn't double Townes so I'm sure we won't double Okafor. They dominated us in Madison, but we basically didn't have Dekker at the time and that's a pretty big difference. But Duke's defense has been unbelievable during the tournament.

[Menotti80]

My analysis is below. (keep in mind this is coming from a Duke fan first who also roots for Bucky)... actually I have 3 teams - Marquette/Duke are 1 and 1a, then Wisconsin. I root for Wisconsin when they are playing anyone but MU and Duke. I have seen a lot of Badger games and I have seen almost every Duke game this year.

 

Anyways...

- Duke owned UW in the first match up. But...

- Duke shot lights out. They wont shoot 65% tonight. (Good for UW)

- UW got very little from Dekker. (Good for UW)

- Duke had Sulaimon, who played well. (Good for UW)

- Hayes will do better than he did in December. (Good for UW)

- Duke is a much better defensive team now. (Good for Duke)

- UW got a career game from Jackson. I dont think Jackson + Koenig can get 28 pts tonight. (Good for Duke)

- Winslow is wayyy better than he was in December. (Good for Duke)

- Matt Jones is no longer a non-existent player like he was in Dec. (Good for Duke)

 

Overall, I think Dekker and Winslow are pretty evenly matched.

Same with Okafor and Kaminsky.

Same with the bench players (Dukan/Jackson/Showalter/Brown vs. Jefferson/Allen/Plumlee).

I think Hayes (if he's right) gives UW an advantage, but Cook/Jones could give Duke a slight edge in guard play.

UW has the "experience" and they are "closers". But Duke has Coach K, and some freshman who dont play like freshman.

 

- All in all, I think it's a great game, likely to go down to the wire.

- UW is susceptible to long droughts (Duke should take advantage to a UW drought better than Kentucky)

- Both teams are good closers, especially when they have any sort of lead in the last 4 minutes. Uw slightly more so.

 

My pick:

- My analysis and recent history tell me UW wins a close game... But Duke has been completely under the radar, and that should scare Bucky fans. Plus UW to me has a bigger chance of laying an egg after that Kentucky win. (it honestly seemed like UW won the championship Saturday night)

 

I think Duke wins by 4.

[AZBrewCrew]

I'm supposed to pick someone up at the airport tonight (leave no later than 10:00). It looks like that would mean missing the last quarter of the game. I don't know if it would be rude or not, but I'm thinking of paying to have them take a cab home. Of course all the non-sports people are telling me to record it, but I think we all know that's just not really an option.

 

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I'm certainly not as nervous about Duke as I was with Kentucky. We didn't double Townes so I'm sure we won't double Okafor. They dominated us in Madison, but we basically didn't have Dekker at the time and that's a pretty big difference. But Duke's defense has been unbelievable during the tournament.

Given the magnitude of the situation, a cab or shuttle is more than acceptable.

[GAME05]

if I don't have to leave until 10:00, think I'll be able to watch the whole game? Maybe catch the last bit on the radio on the drive there? Assuming it's on the radio that's probably how I'll go.

 

I've become the only one in the family who watches sports. I've found non-sports watchers never understand the importance of an event. It's useless to argue.

[AZBrewCrew]

Keep in mind if they have checked bags that will add another 15-20 minutes onto their arrival.

[young guns]

I've found non-sports watchers never understand the importance of an event. It's useless to argue.

This is so true. My wife is a non-sports watcher and its like pulling teeth to watch sports. If its not packers, brewers, badgers, i get a stern look and the comment "its not even the ____ playing". its not common to have days off together and today is one of those days. I pretty much had to give her the rest of my day to be able to watch tonights game live. [sarcasm]Good thing the brewers season doesn't start till tomorrow[/sarcasm] cause i had no shot at watching both games today.

[superfly]

[sarcasm]Good thing the brewers season doesn't start till tomorrow[/sarcasm]

 

 

Are you sure it starts tomorrow? I'm thinking we might just head to the offseason.

[adamb100]

Wisconsin is playing like garbage in the critical minutes of this game.

 

Doesn't help the refs appear to have been paid by Duke.

[superfly]

This is absolutely ridiculous. Somebody should be fired for that NON out of bounds review call.

[jjkoestler]

I'm not one to complain about the refs, but wow. Just wow.

[fondybrewfan]

Damn, tough loss there.

 

That was a very questionable out of bounce call.

 

Dekker just was off all night, Frank had a great game.

 

Tyus Jones was just nuts; he hit some really tough shots.

 

Awesome year regardless though

[adamb100]

The offense was vanished in the last 5 minutes.

 

I also haven't seen refereeing that bad since the fail mary game.

[young guns]

Im so heartbroken right now. Dukes big guys being in foul trouble the whole game helped them, because we neither took advantage of it nor finished them off. They were able to come in well rested at the end and Frank especially was visibly tired. And the refs...dont get me started. They ruined a very good game.

[fondybrewfan]

Koenig took some absolutely awful shots down the stretch too. He airballed a contested layup and took a pointless long 3 pointer. Ball should have been going through Dekker and Kaminsky.

 

That still was the greatest season of all time for UW; but it sucks that they played so poorly outside of Kaminsky down the stretch.

 

I thought when they got up 9 mid way through the 2nd they were going to pull away; but everyone just went cold.

 

Dekker having a poor game maybe slightly increases his chances of coming back but probably not happening

[AZBrewCrew]

Badgers took a 9pt lead and all of a sudden the fouls started getting called on UW. I hate blaming the refs but how do you screw up replays like that? Its hard to beat the refs 2 games in a row.

[owbc]

Duke was the better team and it didn't surprise me that Tyus was the best player on the court. Still, it really sucks to lose that one, especially knowing that they will probably never have that good of a chance to win it all for a long long time.

[DHonks]

adam, I agree. 3 Okafur fouls shouldn't have been called. Wisconsin was very physical but they somehow managed to get away with everything in the first half. The second half the calls caught up with them.

 

AZBrewfan, the refs didn't blow the call. There's no visual evidence the Duke guy touched it from the awkward angles. Plus, the Badger delivered two blows to the head to the Duke player going for the board. Surprising how the refs called no-ticky tack fouls all game, except on Okafur. Still, a heck of a game and a fun one to watch.

 

As a side note, it's been fun watching Frank's development these last two years. One of the best players in recent history for the state of Wisconsin's D1 teams. Hopefully he has a nice career in the pros.

[RobDeer 45]

Man that was tough to swallow tonight. We had them on the ropes and couldn't hold them off. We did have a few calls go the other way but can't say that changed the outcome. I do think Dekker should stay after tonight. He needs to work on his one on one moves when he gets a guy right up in him. He disappeared with ball pressure today. He helped on the boards and by hustling but he dissapeared. Frank was really good but needed him to put the team on his back the whole game. He did that vs AZ and seemed to be a touch passive at times, especially early on. Man, could have had that one.

[ELCABALLO45]

I hate to sound like a bitter fan but I have never watched a game where the referring absolutely cost a team a chance worse then I watched tonight. The ball clearly and I mean CLEARLY went out on Winslow, followed by a 3 by Tyus Jones basically sealed up the game. Just unreal.

[davego]

I thought there was some poor calls, too. However, Wisconsin had or could have overcome those with a bit better guard play. I wonder if the collective energy was just spent.

 

What a great two-year run! I grew up in the Yoder years, so it's pretty easy to have gratitude for all this.

[fondybrewfan]

I don't know how anyone can say that Winslow didn't touch that ball; the CBS replay clearly showed that it did. That being said I am not upset about that since that happened after Koenig took a terrible shot. He just didn't run the offense effectively down the stretch.

 

Tyus Jones absolutely was the best player on the court last night; he was clutch on those late jumpers.

 

Also I was not expecting Grayson Allen to save Duke's butt; he is the one who stepped it up after UW got up 9.

 

A absolutely great season; the last 2 years have been a blast. No doubt next year will be a bit of a rebuilding year but they still have enough talent to make the tourney and perhaps make the 2nd weekend. With or without Dekker. A lot of young guys will be depended on but Bo always finds a way