College Basketball 2016-2017

[pacopete4]

Badgers played about as selfish as I've ever seen. Happ was just flat out awful. If all it takes is dropping a second man to Happ for our out team to fall apart, I don't see much hope in this season.

[rwa12]

Creighton figured out that the whole offense was to swing the ball until :05 were left on the shot clock, and then chuck a long 3. They still need to figure out who the "man" is on this team. Koenig, Happ, Hayes? Need to establish someone, and let the other guys work when they compensate. I wouldn't call Happ selfish last night, he drove and kicked like he was supposed to. Hayes needs to work the post more, IMO. He's more valuable as an inside outside guy.

[Baldkin]

They're taught to shoot 3's when they are open. In the first half Creighton didn't even bother guarding the 3 point line for the last 10 minutes and the Badgers went collectively ice cold. It happens, but the 16 turnovers was a bigger factor in why they lost then the poor shooting.

[rwa12]

I'm fine with taking open 3s, that is the way of basketball now. Going to be hard going forward if that is all you do though. I'm not panicking, I think they'll figure it out.

[MrTPlush]

Not a Wisconsin fan, but that team can't depend so much on the 3 ball. If you are going to live by the three you are going to die by the 3 and it won't take very long into the tourney for that to materialize. They outrebounded Creighton by a wide margin. They need to get into the paint and score easy baskets or get to the line. I know that is not particularily Wisconsin's type of game, but it still has to happen to some degree. Trying to win games shooting 39 3's probably isn't going to be a recipe for success.

[tmwiese55]

I know this game was out of the ordinary with so so many 3s. I'm not advocating that as the norm. But this is a common complaint I have among our fans, we have been completely reliant on the 3 for a long long time now and we continue to win, as someone said it is the way of basketball. But our fans often forget all the games won by good shooting 3s as soon as they have an off game. The two FF runs were because all 7 regular players could drill 3 pointers.

 

I don't advocate for 40 per game like last night but with the way they were defended they somewhat didn't have a choice, if they threw to the post they were immediately double teamed, sometimes triple. no choice but to kick it out. And if you are being defended like that they need to put another shooter out there instead of Thomas, Iverson, Hill and others. Have to clean up the D, turnovers. And I'd really like to see Nigel fed in the post a good amount instead of being all on the wing. Also would like to see more PnR action similar to the NBA to start the ball movement rather than just post kickouts. PnR action will often lead to more drives rather than only 3s. The last FF team started tons of possessions with a Frank/BK PnR.

[DHonks]

MrTPlush, one reason Wisconsin typically out-rebounds opponents is because they shoot so many long shots. It's not always easy to anticipate the long rebounds.

 

One thing I don't hear the Wisconsin fans mentioning is that Creighton is a very fine team. They're well-coached, nationally ranked, play in a tough environment, and are in a strong conference. It's better to lose early than late, so this is a good learning experience for the Badgers if they allow it to be.

[MrTPlush]

Always applaud teams that actually schedule good non conference games. Gets you prepared better and helps players grow. Its a good loss for Wisconsin. They can better see their weaknesses against good competition. Not to mention in the end the committee won't knock you too much for an early season loss, but a game vs. a highly ranked opponent will do you generous favors to your SOS whether you win/lose.

[patrickgpe]

my biggest concern of Marquette was a lack of size and that was exploited last night against Michigan, especially when Fischer sat. also they couldn't defend the 3, way too many open 3's by Michigan

 

also Marquette unveiled a 6th uniform last, while grey looks cool, this is complete overkill. just wish they kept to yellow, navy, and white.

[pacopete4]

Really fun matchup early in the season between the Badgers and North Carolina tomorrow night (Weds). Should be a good test to an experienced Badgers team.

[stoutdude04]

Bucky looked pathetic last night. Good for my wallet. Bad for me the badger fan.

[superfly]

When Hayes decides to be brutal, he has to be one of the best in college basketball at it. Pathetic showing.

[MrTPlush]

Just an observation from the outside, but when you are a senior who has averaged 10+ points over the last two years you have absolutely no business going 1-13 with 1 assist in 28minutes. For a team that will depend on experience and consistency from those guys that was a pretty bad showing for Koenig.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Then they come out last night and dominate Syracuse. Ethan Happ had a monster game and Hayes missed a triple double by one point. Very jeckyl/hyde performance from this team so far this young season.

[pacopete4]

Then they come out last night and dominate Syracuse. Ethan Happ had a monster game and Hayes missed a triple double by one point. Very jeckyl/hyde performance from this team so far this young season.

 

Last night was awesome to see Hayes not play selfish. If he repeats the performance of last nights game throughout this season, this team is scary good. He got everyone involved and is a huge reason Happ had the big night. Also helps that Koenig shot lights out.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Duke standout and karate kid 4 wannabe Grayson Allen got exactly one game for kicking a player for the third time in a calender year. What an absolute joke. I'm tired of coach kreshelewasebaleszkowalski holding himself up as the absolute moral authority in college hoops. That the acc is ok with this is also a joke.

[brwrsfan]

Been awhile in this thread, thought I'd revive it after two pretty big wins over the weekend for Marquette and Wisconsin.

 

Badgers had a tough one in MN, and the Gophers probably played their best offensive game of the season - and still lost. Some pretty poor execution in the last minute of regulation and overtime for the Badgers, but they were able to get the win. Nice quality road win. I know there are quite a few teams bunched together at the top of the B10, but I think the conference is certainly theirs to win at this point. Unfortunately, they have no real good wins which is going to hurt come tournament seeding time. They got a bit unlucky in that they played a lot of big names in the non-conference (Georgetown, Syracuse, Oklahoma, Marquette), but none of them are really any good this year. And the few they did play - UNC and Creighton, both beat them.

 

Marquette with a really nice road win at Creighton (without Watson). I think they are right on the bubble of the NCAA right now, so they really need all the wins they can get - big one with Nova tomorrow night. They really seem to have a knack for blowing big leads (Butler last week, almost with Creigton)...they really have no interior defense, which just kills them. Fischer is big, but he just doesn't do much on that end of the court.

 

I know a lot of you are either for WI or MU, I have no ties to either and cheer for both and it would be nice if they could both find their way into the tournament again, it's been a few years for Marquette now.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Badgers can't figure out if they want to be elite or not. They have an absolutely superb trio of players in Happ, Koenig, and Hayes, and the rest of the guys are all really good, but they just can't....quite... put it together for the really dominating wins you'd think they are capable of. All that said, they're top 15, and should be a lock for a 4 or 5 seed, barring a major injury or a major late season slide.

[patrickgpe]

Lundari now has Marquette in the field of 68 (all be it in the play in game)

 

tomorrow is a huge game for MU, a win over Villanova would go a long way in March.

[brwrsfan]

Badgers can't figure out if they want to be elite or not. They have an absolutely superb trio of players in Happ, Koenig, and Hayes, and the rest of the guys are all really good, but they just can't....quite... put it together for the really dominating wins you'd think they are capable of. All that said, they're top 15, and should be a lock for a 4 or 5 seed, barring a major injury or a major late season slide.

 

They go through stretches where they seem really really good - like the last 5 minute against Michigan for example last week. Then they go through spurts (like the first 35 minutes of that game, or a lot of the second half against MN) where they seem to just be going through the motions or bored or something. I'm sure they aren't, but a lot of times it's like they go out there just knowing (or thinking) they are the better team. They keep winning, but it's just weird to watch them play. I don't really know how to explain it.

 

One thing that almost certainly WILL cost them a game at some point is the FT shooting - it's just flat out terrible. Can't consistently shoot 60% from the line and expect to win games, just leaving too many points on the floor, especially late in games. Other than Bronson and to some extent Showalter, I don't trust anyone at the line to actually make FT when it matters.

[nate82]

What a game by Marquette.

[brewcrewdue80]

Wow, just watched replay of MU game. What a comeback! I think it was 13pts with under 7mins in the midsts of about to miss 6of8 FTs.where instead of being down 4 with under 4:30left they were still down 10. Also overcoming what I thought were terrible foul calls boxing out on Villanova Offensive rebounds. Over the back mauling and the refs called Marquette for great box outs. The lack of calling fouls on Villanova led to them being so aggressive jumping over or around Marquette defenders on pretty much all their scoring in the 2nd half. To win that game, Reinhardt was big time. Signature win stamps them an auto bid so long as they reach 19wins from here. 18 would put them on the bubble

[brwrsfan]

Wisconsin keeps winning, but man is the offense in trouble right now. 3 straight games where they just really, really struggle to score and have a ton of turnovers. The offense seems fine, they've just basically forgotten how to make shots. The whole team is struggle - I think the last 3 games they are 14-67 on threes. And that's just brutal. They've found ways to win, but they need to shake out of that funk. Just way too many 4-5 scoring draughts. And they've had stretches in all three games where they played 20+ minutes of basketball with only 15 or less points. That's just terrible. Despite all that, they've avoided losing games to inferior teams (unlike everyone else ranked these days it seems). All the way up to 7th in the AP poll, despite how they've been playing. Hope they get it together and I hope Pritzl keeps getting good minutes like he did yesterday. Vitto Brown is just flat out killing the offense...yesterday IU was doubling Happ, Brown had at least SIX wide open threes when Happ passed it out...missed them all.

 

Marquette...well they have no problems scoring, but they just have no defense at all. And they seem to find ways to NOT win games they easily could. They're still in the tournament for now (barely I think) but they're going to need to keep winnings games they should. Be nice if they could find a way back in this year. They play a bit wild but man this team can put up points in a hurry when they're on. Unfortunately, the defense is equally as bad, if not worse. They just can't stop penetration and Fischer provides very little interior defense.

[owbc]

Marquette has the look of a team that is going to pull off a 12 vs. 5 seed upset in the first round of the tourney.

[hawing]

I was just happy that the Badgers beat Tom Crean (again) on Sunday. I'm not deep into the UW-Marquette business; I just think Crean looks like a doofus. Plus he's my age.