College Basketball Thread 2014-15

[BrewBalls]

The Badgers didn't seem to use as many shot fakes as they normally do to draw contact. I think Dekker is more suited for an uptempo offense where is athleticism can be better utilized. Although I think Keith Van Horn is a good comparison.

[patrickgpe]

obviously MU will not have an answer for UW's bigs. They beat Tennessee and Ga Tech with hot shooting by Carlino and Wilson. Its going to take similar performances by both to stay close.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Terrible performance offensively by both teams.

[FVBrewerFan]

I don't need a 94-89 game to be entertained, I don't mind a low scoring game at all if it is well played. That thing was UGLY!

[LouisEly]

Give credit to Wojo as he knows that the best way to combat their lack of height is to go to a matchup zone, slow the game down, and prevent their biggest mismatch - one-on-one post matchup - as much as possible. For a while I thought I was watching a poor-man's Syracuse defense. Give credit to their players for buying into the coaching and executing the defense. Unfortunately Marquette tried too hard to get to the hoop. They did fine from the perimeter (42% from 3), and probably should have stuck to that more.

 

Scary to think where Marquette would be without Carlino.

[patrickgpe]

Burton and Dawson have decided to leave the program. I understand Dawson since he was clearly the last man on the bench, but not sure what is up with Burton.

 

http://www.gomarquette.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/120914aaa.html

[LouisEly]

Tell Diamond Stone to bring all his buddies here because there are plenty of scholarships available. [sarcasm]Can they offer Stone two scholarships?[/sarcasm]

 

Even with adding Fischer they will still have only eight scholarship players next semester. With Anderson, Wilson, and Carlino graduating/using up their eligibility, at this point that means ten scholarship players next year. Three open schollies.

 

Maybe it wasn't Buzz, maybe there's something deeper and more fundamental about the program. Guys left under Buzz, now guys leaving under Wojo.

[hurricanecrush]

The guys that are leaving are Buzz's guys though. If Wojo's guys leave at the same rate, then there may be bigger issues. I'm have a feeling that Wojo's won't have as big of a problem as Buzz did but we will see.

[young guns]

Could have used this dekker against duke. Hopefully this means his ankle is 100% now.

[LouisEly]

Who did Nebraska lose to tonight?

 

Incarnate Word??? Who the hell is Incarnate Word???

[patrickgpe]

The guys that are leaving are Buzz's guys though. If Wojo's guys leave at the same rate, then there may be bigger issues. I'm have a feeling that Wojo's won't have as big of a problem as Buzz did but we will see.

 

I think Burton was frustrated by his lack of PT. He was playing the 3rd fewest minutes on the team.

Dawson was burried on the bench.

 

I would be more concerned if someone like Wilson wanted to transfer.

[fondybrewfan]

Wojo made reference to Burton being way to one dimensional and not providing and defense or rebounding. If Burton deserved to be playing he would have been.

 

This year will be a struggle but this team will turn around quickly next year. Duane Wilson and Luke Fischer will be great players and then they are adding Ellenson and some other strong recruits. They should be ranked fairly high next year. For now they probably should shoot for the NIT and just work on improving the young guys. This team might have been different if Mayo stuck around.

[Funketown]

I get a sense that Kentucky and Duke might be scary good this season. After Kentucky, the rest of the SEC is really bad this year. If UNC (unlikely) or Louisville (good shot) can't knock off Kentucky in the next couple of weeks, it's going to take an ice-cold night of shooting for them to be beaten. It will probably happen over the course of 30 more games, but hopefully it happens sooner than later so we can be spared from listening to the talking heads nonsensically rambling about how UK are better than the 76ers...Duke's ACC doubles this year are Wake, Syracuse, UNC (21), Notre Dame (25) and they also have to go to Louisville and UVA so they'll drop a few games.

 

I'd bet on Wisconsin still grabbing a #1 seed. The Big Ten is deep but pretty soft at the top after Wisconsin, so they might get through the Big Ten season with 1-2 losses, whereas UVA will likely drop a few games in conference play.

[LouisEly]

Might be another transfer coming Marquette's way. Duke forward Semi Ojeleye has announced he is leaving the program. With only 10 scholarships accounted for next year, there are three open. Hopefully Wojo has a good relationship with him and can sway him this way.

[jjfanec]

Might be another transfer coming Marquette's way. Duke forward Semi Ojeleye has announced he is leaving the program. With only 10 scholarships accounted for next year, there are three open. Hopefully Wojo has a good relationship with him and can sway him this way.

 

Reports are UW already reached out to him. UW recruited him heavily the first go around and he was just in Madison for the Duke-UW game. He spoke about how much he liked the atmosphere and that he wanted to go to a team that he would be in the NCAA tourney with. I would guess both UW and Marquette are up there as potential landing spots

[LouisEly]

Luke Fischer looking really good so far. Really good - came off the bench and in ~6 minutes so far has six points, a couple blocks, and altered several shots resulting in misses. Moves really well for a big man. He is adding another dimension to this team.

 

Fischer at half: 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks... and gets the first basket of the 2nd half and another block on ASU's first possession.

 

Looks like a totally different team.

[DHonks]

Fischer looked great. I hope Marquette keeps a heavy dose of zone to keep him out of foul trouble. He committed 3, but appeared lucky to not get called for contact on several more. I haven't seen post moves like his in a very long time. I think Marquette is now suddenly a tourney team. Maybe 12-seed, but still tourney. We'll see if I'm being too bold, but they're showing lots of positive development so far this season.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Starting to think Kentucky may not lose a single game.

[Funketown]

Odds are Kentucky will drop a stupid one at some point, but it's not that unlikely that they get through the regular season at some point. Florida (#14 kenpom), South Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas (30's) could knock off Kentucky if they shoot lights-out (is that possible vs. UK's defense?).

 

Just looked at Wisconsin's schedule and it's pretty bare until mid-February. They shouldn't lose more than 2-3 games in conference play.

[patrickgpe]

 

Just looked at Wisconsin's schedule and it's pretty bare until mid-February. They shouldn't lose more than 2-3 games in conference play.

 

big 10 is pretty bare this year. Alot of teams are disappointing through pre-conference play.

[Funketown]

Michigan State vs. Maryland is ugly.

 

UVA and Davidson in a barnburner. Davidson might be a team to look out for; they're in the high 30's in ESPN's BPI but it's a bit harder to fly under the radar in the A10.

[fondybrewfan]

Well Kaminsky is obviously pretty important to the team. I can't believe how hot Rutgers get in the 2nd half. They were hitting everything and many of them were contested.

 

Hayes is clearly the 2nd best player on the team; with Kaminsky out Dekker had a chance to prove himself a bit more and he really didn't show up. Hayes might have a better NBA future than Dekker at this point.

 

Also early rumors are Jackson is going to be out a long time with the ankle/foot. Koenig will step in and play fine but they are down to only a 6 man rotation. Showalter is now forced to play I guess.

 

A crappy loss but those are going to happen; especially without your best player on the road.

[bjkrautk]

Hayes is clearly the 2nd best player on the team; with Kaminsky out Dekker had a chance to prove himself a bit more and he really didn't show up. Hayes might have a better NBA future than Dekker at this point.

 

Sam had 10 in the first half, and was a big part of when the offense was working. He did disappear a bit in the second half, but he finished with 15 on a night when his outside shot wasn't dropping. I do agree that Hayes is looking like a better NBA prospect right now, but scouts were raving about Dekker's game during the off-season camps; they're both going to be really good. Gasser had quite a few wide open looks from 3 which he didn't convert; his getting into foul trouble after the Jackson injury made it tougher for Wisconsin to get into their offense. And Rutgers hit 2/3rds of their shots in the second half...not unlike the other game they lost this season.

 

Still hard to win on the road in the Big Ten...especially with the big man on the shelf.

[TooLiveBrew]

I know I saw this mistake last year or the year before, but ESPN again just ran an incorrect stock shot of the "Wisconsin Capitol" during tonight's IU@UW broadcast -- iirc the last time I posted about this, another poster noted that it was the Minnesota state capitol.

 

*shake of the head*

[pitchleague]

I saw that too this evening and thought, "Um, that's not Madison."