Wisconsin Basketball Thread 2017-18

[homer]

Brad Davison is a heady basketball player

[pacopete4]

Davison and Happ are about the only two reasons I watch this team right now. Davison could be a very fun player to watch grow and get better the next four seasons.

[RobDeer 45]

Was that Davison play a charge or a block? Because we were on O, should it be a block? I heard the announcers going wild saying the ref called it a block and that's why the coach was mad. I think he called it a block because the other team was on D. I could be way over thinking this!

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I'm with you. If the foul is on Davison, the signal is the same as for a moving (illegal) screen. That's what he's doing on the baseline, setting a screen. To call it a charge would indicate a change of possession.

 

That said, the block motion is confusing down there. I don't know if it's technically the right call, but you'd think a push-off or elbow motion would be better.

 

It's getting into the weeds of officiating mechanics, but it didn't look to me like there was any way that foul could have been called on Davison.

[homer]

Good explanation. I was confused watching it live and it kinda looked like Davison was as well.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Hard to say much about the last few Badger games, but wins are good. The Chicago State performance was ugly. The thorough handling of Mass-Lowell yesterday was better.

 

Obviously, neither of those teams are that good. Curious to see how the B1G goes. Home v. Indiana, road v. Rutgers, and then road v. Nebraska. I could really see anything from 3-0 to 0-3 and not be surprised. If they can win these winnable games, that might build some confidence heading into Purdue.

[pacopete4]

Badgers need a near perfect beginning to the B10 schedule now if they want to make their 20th consecutive trip to the tourney.

[Baldkin]

I know he's only a Junior but I'm gonna miss Ethan Happ once he's gone.

[pacopete4]

Ethan Happ is just too much fun to watch. I agree it will be sad when he's not a Badger anymore.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Two winnable road games coming up. Need to take care of business at Rutgers tonight.

 

Crazy to think this team has been giving serious minutes to Schlundt and Moesch, but that's where things are. And the funny thing is, I look at the rest of the league and, outside of MSU, Purdue, and Minnesota (who I don't think is that good but is definitely talented), I don't see any team I don't think the Badgers can beat. This could be a fourth-place B1G team again, though OSU is much more athletic and talented to my eye (still say that game at the Kohl was the worst performance I've seen from the team in a decade).

 

Looking forward to Friday night Big Ten basketball.

[pacopete4]

Let's make it 6 in a row tonight at Rutgers!

[tmwiese55]

Three of the next four are winnable. Get all 3 and I'd say the tourney discussion can open up again. Should get Trice back around that time too to fix the G depth to not rely on walkons like now.

[pacopete4]

Welp. That wasn’t good. Happ played a terrible game and they just didn’t shoot well enough to win. Needed this one.

 

Oh and I can’t express enough about how much Pritzl annoys me. His buzzer beater tonight just made my skin crawl. When is this guy ever actually going to make an impact when it matters? Man I miss a guy like Showalter.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

This team will never win games making only 2 three-pointers. They need to get open looks and knock down outside shots to win. When no one is able to do that consistently, there will be problems.

 

Pretty ugly performance. I think that's kind of to be expected when your second scoring option is a freshman point guard who's a more natural shooting guard and is playing functionally one-handed.

 

I'm not so much annoyed at the loss as just the inconsistency so far in conference play. Four games in and each has been wildly different.

[superfly]

Not the Wisconsin basketball i've grown up with the past 15 years.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I know it's weird and a little masochistic, but I'm interested to see how the Badgers perform at Purdue tomorrow night. Purdue is a 16-point favorite right now, which is warranted. Weird to see a Wisconsin line that high, though.

 

I'm hoping they can stay competitive and maybe knock down some shots. Also, taking care of the ball and playing better defensively. Happ vs. Haas is a pretty fun matchup down low.

 

Anyway, hoping for progress, though not counting on it.

[ZBTMP]

Starting a game down 12-0, 4 possessions in was an efficient way of ending that one early. The careless turnovers need to be cut back. Id rather have multiple shot clock violations than watch Happ blindly throw it out of the post multiple times. Its easy to blame the current struggles on the 3 power forwards who haven’t developed (AI might have been the brightest spot last night), but taking Dearing and Jordan Hill were also killers they just aren’t around to point a finger at. Neither were B1G level players and both had no other power 5 offers yet it was somehow the best we could do. Either Bo was distracted late in his career, or the staff felt emboldened to keep reaching deeper into the recruiting pool.

Iverson’s lack of defensive development is stunning to me. I’ve come to expect a great athletes like Flowers and Evans to develop into strong defenders but for some reason it hasn’t happened here. Pritzl needs to make more 3s especially if we are going to be designing plays for him to shoot. Davison’s bum shoulder was finally exposed last night. Credit Purdue, they were a strong team. Amazing they haven’t had any kind of tournament run recently.

[pacopete4]

I'm starting to wonder about Gard. It's easy to lay blame on the coach but this is downright awful. This isn't the Badgers basketball that we have been accustomed to.

[superfly]

Last one out make sure the lights are turned off. This is downright pathetic basketball, I don't care how young the team is.

[FVBrewerFan]

This season could just be a blip, but I fear this era of great UW basketball is done. Sure, they are young...more recruits on the way, but I really believe the strength of the program was sustaining success, gradually adding in another piece or two as guys graduated. Now they have to build it back up from the ground, and I'm not real optimistic Gard can do that. To be fair, tough to do for anyone.

 

I think the time has come to move on, find a big name coach, and in addition to recruiting WI/MN, really hit Chicago hard. Finally time for style of play to change to. They already lost out on Ellington, Housers, Hero, countless others. While Bo had it humming, it worked so why mess with success. But now is the time to flip the switch and move on.

[stoutdude04]

15 turnovers in the first half...I mean, that's pathetic.

[pacopete4]

All I know is Ethan Happ doesn't deserve to play on this team. He deserves a hell of a lot better. Sad that he'll finish his career on such a stinker. And yes, I know they will be probably better next year but it won't be much better. The cupboard is bare.

[PeaveyFury]

The cupboard is bare.

 

I don't think this is accurate. They had three 4-star recruits in their class last year (their best in a very long time), and have another 4-star coming in this year along with a 3-star big. The problem with the team isn't with the cupboard, it's with what's ahead of them. Bo's complete disaster of his last recruiting class has destroyed the team in the short term. Five players who are basically roster filler that were counted on to step in when the Dekkers, Hayeses, and Koenigs of the team graduated are basically taking up scholarships to be bad. How do you whiff on FIVE GUYS?

 

That's left the team reliant on a bunch of 1st or 2nd year players (minus Happ, of course) to fill out four of the five positions at this point. Add in two significant back court injuries, and here we are.

 

I think it's perfectly reasonable to start wondering about Gard, but next year is a more fair evaluation, IMO. If we're in a similar situation next January, the seat should be hot, and rightfully so. But I'd say its reasonable if not more likely to think that there'll be substantial improvement next season.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I don't question Gard's recruiting ability at this point. As has been mentioned, the Davison, Reuvers, Ford, King class was one of the best I can remember in terms of ceiling and depth if not immediate impact.

 

Let's also not forget that, though the Badgers were remarkably consistent under Bo, it really took pairing Dekker and Koenig (two once-in-a-decade players, I think--Dekker for sure, and Koenig was an incredible College PG) with an absolute Kaminsky breakout to make the team a NC contender. Yes, there was Gasser and Brust and the usual bruisers along the way, but the program's recent ceiling is unrealistic to expect at this point. I think Davison has some Gasser DNA, so we'll see what happens with him (and Reuvers looks like big, goofy, FY Frank, with the gawky mechanics and slow but sweet J--he won't be near the same player, but he's a contributor certainly).

 

That said, this team is absolutely brutal right now offensively. Somehow still only 101 in KenPom (90 overall), but, man, I've seen MVC teams pretty regularly and they look better. Worst of all, there have been at least two games (OSU and Purdue) where the team hasn't looked ready to play, and that's on the staff. I get the talent level is low, but the effort level isn't great either, and that's inexcusable for a Badger team. You can sense Happ's frustration, and it's almost like they expected to be run off the floor last night. That's at least partially on the staff, and GG and co. do need to get it figured. That's my biggest disappointment so far.

[Baldkin]

I don't question Gard's recruiting ability at this point. As has been mentioned, the Davison, Reuvers, Ford, King class was one of the best I can remember in terms of ceiling and depth if not immediate impact.

 

Let's also not forget that, though the Badgers were remarkably consistent under Bo, it really took pairing Dekker and Koenig (two once-in-a-decade players, I think--Dekker for sure, and Koenig was an incredible College PG) with an absolute Kaminsky breakout to make the team a NC contender. Yes, there was Gasser and Brust and the usual bruisers along the way, but the program's recent ceiling is unrealistic to expect at this point. I think Davison has some Gasser DNA, so we'll see what happens with him (and Reuvers looks like big, goofy, FY Frank, with the gawky mechanics and slow but sweet J--he won't be near the same player, but he's a contributor certainly).

 

That said, this team is absolutely brutal right now offensively. Somehow still only 101 in KenPom (90 overall), but, man, I've seen MVC teams pretty regularly and they look better. Worst of all, there have been at least two games (OSU and Purdue) where the team hasn't looked ready to play, and that's on the staff. I get the talent level is low, but the effort level isn't great either, and that's inexcusable for a Badger team. You can sense Happ's frustration, and it's almost like they expected to be run off the floor last night. That's at least partially on the staff, and GG and co. do need to get it figured. That's my biggest disappointment so far.

 

I'll absolutely understand the OSU game. They went in thinking that 3 guys were going to play all the guard minutes, then suddenly, 2 of them were out.

 

The Purdue game, well, they looked like a team starting 3 freshman on the road against a top-5 team.