Wisconsin Basketball Thread 2019 - 20: BIG TEN CHAMPS & BPI NCAA Champs!

[yourout]

They will make it. The Big 10 provides pretty much all decent to good wins and the top teams are great, but very beatable...thus they should still get some nice statement wins. I just don't see them missing it even if they have a decent amount of losses because they will at least have the resume of wins to make it look palatable.

 

I have to disagree. The NIT is the ceiling for this group.

You just can't win with the guards that they have

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Yeah, I think they are going to be right around the cut line barring big wins against, say, MSU.

 

That said, they put up a good half today. See if they can close it out. This is about the most mercurial Badgers team I can remember.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Yeah, I think they are going to be right around the cut line barring big wins against, say, MSU.

 

That said, they put up a good half today. See if they can close it out. This is about the most mercurial Badgers team I can remember.

[homer]

That's a nice road win. Penn St was #20.

[homer]

That's a nice road win. Penn St was #20.

[brooks_quichenick]

Micah Potter! He needs to start over Ford pretty soon

[brooks_quichenick]

Micah Potter! He needs to start over Ford pretty soon

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Man, could be 4-1 in league if they'd finished on Thursday. Oh well. If Potter and King are this good, there is reason to hope.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Man, could be 4-1 in league if they'd finished on Thursday. Oh well. If Potter and King are this good, there is reason to hope.

[Oxy]

They will make it. The Big 10 provides pretty much all decent to good wins and the top teams are great, but very beatable...thus they should still get some nice statement wins. I just don't see them missing it even if they have a decent amount of losses because they will at least have the resume of wins to make it look palatable.

 

I have to disagree. The NIT is the ceiling for this group.

You just can't win with the guards that they have

 

Unless they are playing Tennessee, Ohio State or Penn State...on the road. Or Indiana. Or Marquette. Or Illinois (shoulda won).

 

So they CAN win. It just doesn't seem like they SHOULD win. Then they go out and win.

 

Obviously the ceiling is much higher than the NIT though. NIT should be the floor.

[MrTPlush]

They have already proven they can beat good opponents. I think the Big Ten is overrated as a whole, but it will provide what will be considered as “quality/good” wins. The only way they don’t make it is if the entire Big Ten just beats up each other to the point the committee just hates the conference in general...thus they don’t want to take many teams.

 

Don’t get me wrong, the Badgers aren’t a good team and the guard play is bad...I just think they will get the statement wins to be in if they are on the bubble. Too many bubble teams are massively irrelevant when it comes to quality wins...Badgers won’t have that problem. There is a lot of season to be played, but I think they will do enough to be in...that coming from a non Badgers fan/homer point of view who still watches them quite a bit.

[LouisEly]

Illinois and Rutgers are quietly showing themselves to be very good teams. Rutgers has been a little up and down, but a few weeks ago they beat Seton Hall by 20. Their two conference losses so far are at Illinois and at Michigan State. Those will not be bad losses.

[homer]

The Big Ten is really deep this year. You've got MSU at the top and then other than Northwestern and Nebraska everyone is the top 40 in the KenPom rankings.

[yourout]

Trice might be the worst starting point guard in the B10.

[wildcat83]

Nice win over a ranked team, but why on earth is Potter sitting on the bench the last 10 minutes?

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

What a win. Feels like thievery.

 

But, you have to win quad 1 home games and they did. 1-1 was probably the best you could hope for this week, so MSU Friday becomes house money now.

[yourout]

Nice win over a ranked team, but why on earth is Potter sitting on the bench the last 10 minutes?

 

Was wondering the same thing. He must have done something to piss off Gardo.

[homer]

I think Potter is a bit weaker of a defender

[IIAY]

Potter was getting abused defensively on screens. He is still trying to pick up the nuances of the team defensive principles that are vital to the Badgers’ success. He provides a nice spark off the bench with some much needed offense when he is in but he won’t be in at crunch time unless he becomes much better defensively.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

NIT ceiling is a ridiculous statement. There's unprecedented parity this year. If they go 9-5 they're 100% in and they probably don't have to do that. I'm by no means a big UW fan but they're getting in unless they finish out .500. You might think they're on the cutting line until you actually look at the bracket. They're getting in.

[DuWayne Steurer]

The NIT is absolutely not the ceiling for this team. They obviously have problems with guard play, and they'll lose some games they shouldn't but they have several nice resume building wins and they're second in the Big Ten right now. If they can pull off a win in the Breslin Center Friday they are ranked, no question about it.

[pacopete4]

If they didn't blow that Illinois game, this team would probably already be ranked. They are a tournament team and one that wouldn't shock me to see win a tournament game or two.

[adambr2]

Agreed the NIT is the floor, not the ceiling. Ceiling is probably a 5 seed and a Sweet 16 appearance (realistic ceiling, obviously things happen).

 

In the end I expect them to be a bubble team but more on the comfortable side of the bubble and 7 or 8 seed. I agree with TPlush that they'll have enough quality wins where they shouldn't have to sweat too much on selection Sunday unless they really go on a bad run.

[jjfanec]

Every computer ranking I have seen (Kenpom, BPI, RPI) all have the Badgers in the top 25 as of right now so I dont think they even qualify as a bubble team at the moment. They are solidly in. Now they are a lot of potential losses on the schedule still with how even the Big Ten appears to be, but there are also a lot of potential solid wins. This isnt a great team but from what I can tell they dont really have a bad loss (Richmond and New Mexico have solid records) and current have the most quality wins of any team according to BPI

[tmwiese55]

It's actually crazy to think how close they are to undefeated in conference. At the very least, just flip that ILL game and they're at 5-1. For how blah the team is that's crazy. And I guess for all the Gard bashers, after 6 games in the B1G they've been in every single one until the end. Chances are that's not the case on Friday vs MSU but considering how things looked at 5-5 overall it's kind of impressive.