Is it 2009 or 1999?

Having the pleasure of attending the OSU game on Saturday night, here are my observations:

• Wisconsin still has the ability to play solid defense if they work at it. Clearly this was lacking during the losing streak, but the pep-talk/beat-down administered by Greg Gard seems to have done the trick. J-Bo was all over 3-point shooter guy, we adjusted to the backdoor lob to the ugly monster and made him disappear, and we were able to shut down Turner (who we apparently almost signed) when we needed to at the end.
• Our offense is monotonous, overly methodical, and painful to watch. Nobody was working for/getting post position in the post. That is one of the flaws that I see in the swing. If you can't immediately establish post position, you clear out. Most of our points came in the paint, and when we got the ball to the block good things happened. Evidently Angry Bobby said that we just needed to run the offense more quickly to get better looks. I agree. The pass the ball around the perimeter for 20 seconds and then have Pop drive offense is not a reliable strategy.
• Thank God for our rebounding. Beating them by 10 overall and by 12 on the offensive glass won the game for us. I can almost guarantee you will not see us give up 60% FG% and win again.
• The students finally brought it. My favorite was when huge monster man was at the line and he made his first. Then the students began chanting "SHAVE YOUR MUSTACHE!" with the requisite hand claps. Hillarious, and he missed the second. That guy has no hands by the way. Every time he touched the ball in the low post it was a turnover.
• At the end of the game I realized that the pain I experienced was familiar. Painfully slow offense, good hustle defense...hmmm. It's Dick Bennett basketball! Hopefully we can turn on the offense for IU and Sparty.
• Finally, if anyone can explain the mysterious 24 hour recruiting methods of one Thad Motta that would be great, because Turner would make our team pretty scary.

The Big Ten Season Begins: Meeeechigan

"In watching us on tape [after the Texas game], there is a lot of room for improvement, so that is the encouraging sign. I don't think we're anywhere close to where we can be. The question is whether we'll get there or not." --Wisconsin men's basketball team assistant coach Gary Close

In a word, yes. A few more minutes of solid effort (to invoke the Rudyard Kipling poem cited by the soon-to-be-indicted governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, a few more seconds worth "of distance run") and the Badgers would be 11-1 and solidly ranked in the top twenty. But thems the breaks. Crappy free throw shooting and poor defensive rebounding against Texas, and a failure to get the rolls in the last few minutes = loss. Going cold down the stretch and not locking down defensively on Jerel McNeal at Marquette = loss. The question is whether the Badgers have learned from that, whether they're taking those lessons and running with them and improving. Whether they'll get there or not, to quote Coach Close.

This afternoon, well, we'll see whether the Badgers are anywhere closer to getting there. Wisconsin plays at Michigan in a 1 pm Central game on ESPN2. Michigan is vastly improved over last season (as should have been thought, given their coach's consistently outstanding record of turnarounds). They lost to Duke on a neutral floor, and at a decent Maryland team in a close game in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. But they beat Duke at home a few weeks later in a rousing performance, beat UCLA at the start of the season, are undefeated at home this year, and have yet to lose since the Maryland game four weeks ago. They're currently ranked 24th. They have the best pure two-guard in the conference in Manny Harris, a sure fire All-Big Ten pick if there is one (Harris turned down a schollie offer from the Badgers, choosing to stay in Michigan), a big talented forward in DeShawn Sims (he lit up Duke), and the just-cleared-waivers transfer from Arizona Laval Lucas-Perry. Jim Beilein has surrounded these legitimate talents with some decently skilled holdovers, like guard Kelvin Grady, and heady role players, like newly acquired three-point sniper Zack Novak.

The play a wacky 1-3-1 zone defense that gives up offensive boards, but is designed to force lots turnovers. They work the ball around the perimeter a fair amount and shoot a lot of threes, but Sims is an excellent interior player and will challenge Landry/Leuer/Nankivil. Harris is excellent at hitting mid-range jumpers off the dribble, and will be a tremendous defensive challenge for Hughes/Krabbenhoft/Wilson. The main key to watch out for, I think, is whether Wisconsin can take care of the basketball. In Michigan's biggest wins this year, they've forced a fair number of turnovers. This is a difficult task, as I don't know if UW's seen a 1-3-1 this season, and even if they have, it's not likely they've seen one as effective as Michigan's. Anyhow, fun stuff and it should be a revealing challenge for the Badgers. If you have to work today (like me, sigh...) set your tivos.

Time to Start Thinking Like a Michigan State Fan

Woooooo. So, that was a fun game. Until, I guess, the final two minutes or so, where Texas just made a couple plays (chasing down that offensive board, nailing that Brian Butch-at-Indiana-esque shot late, playing tough switch defense on Hughes) and Wisconsin didn't make enough. Maybe I should be pissed off. Maybe I should be wondering where Wisconsin's offense went in the last few minutes, or why they couldn't chase down that long rebound late. But I'm not too upset. Stuff like that happens. This game is entirely different if either Kevin Gullickson or Tim Jarmusz or Pop Hughes hit two more free throws. And Texas wins a tough game on the road by hitting an absurd 15 of 16 free throws (they were averaging 62% foul shooting on the season). The Badgers miss seven, Texas misses one. There's the difference. Twas a tough, hard-fought game against a very solid, talented Texas team, and in those situations, it often comes down to those details-- last minute execution, and foul shooting. But a good, good game.

Anyhow, I think the take away is that they're close. This Wisconsin team is pretty decent right now, and is close to being pretty damn good. The defensive rotations are vastly improved. The increased number of post touches were excellent (I love seeing Krabbenhoft exert himself down there like he did tonight). Leuer is looking more and more like Dirk Novitzki every day. The thing is, it's all still a work in progress. The freshmen guards are just not contributing enough to properly spell Bohannon and Hughes. Nankivil flashes and disappears. Against big opponents, Marcus plays tight and ends up a bit overaggressive (his foul trouble this game reminded me of his struggles against UConn). A little bit more scholarship frontcourt depth (hello, Ian Markolf) would be helpful. (Gavinski being a total noncontributor in his third year in the program is a real bummer. A servicable big body would have been a big help last night.)

Given all of that, I don't really see Wisconsin being a legitimate contender for the Big Ten title. The league is quite deep, and while the season-long trajectory should be up, this team's learning process just seems like it's going to continue to take some time. Thus, I'm going to act like a Sparty fan, I've decided. "The regular season doesn't matter! (Except when we win.) It's all about the post-season, man! Come tournament time, it's going to be on." This team should continue to grow and improve as things progress. They'll likely be some stops and starts, and also some big encouraging moments. But my goals for the regular season are pretty limited-- one loss or less at home during the conference season, qualification for the tournament, and single digit tournament seeding. Really, I'm getting psyched for the tourney already-- because that's when this Badger team should be peaking. Hey, only two and a half months away, right?

Badgers Beat Wiley Patsy

So the Wisconsin men's basketball team took down Coppin State in a mostly middling performance last night. Maybe after finals week and all that the team was a little out of it. There were stretches of good defense, generally solid rebounding, and some possessions with excellent passing, but there were a few too many turnovers (10) for how slow paced a game it was (53 possessions), and the Badgers seemed to run out of gas in both halves, scoring few points in the last five minutes or so of both periods. But they were generally in control the whole way-- working a double-digit lead early and milking it for the rest of the game. Although you would have liked to see them really put the pedal down and blow out a 1-6, now 1-7 Coppin State team.

Anyhow, the reason Coppin State is wiley is the following. They play in the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) wtih teams like the traditional black universities Hampton and Bethune-Cookman (where the Packers' Nick Collins went to college). When you play in that small of a division, you know that you're not going to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. And thus, the only way to make the tournament, and, really, the only part of your season that matters is your conference schedule, and, in particular, your conference tournament. Knowing this, Coppin State volunteers to play one of the roughest non-conference schedules in the country. They've played 8 games so far this season, and 7 have been on the road, against teams like Wisconsin, Dayton, Kansas, Purde, and they have games coming up at Missouri and Oklahoma. Yeesh. The idea is obvious though. Play against tough competition early and the games that matter, the conference games, will feel easy in comparison. So these tough early losses (if the team's psyche can withstand all the losing) help prep them for the conference season. And it's worked! Coppin State made the tournament out of the MEAC several times in the last dozen seasons. (Last year, they lost in the play in game to Mount St. Mary's.) Plus, playing the patsy to all these big schools early in the season results in Coppin State getting a ton of money. In fact, the first ten or so games of the men's basketball season funds the rest of the athletic department. That's a wickedly smart set-up, and one any small conference D-I coach would be smart to emulate.

Anyhow, random stats and analysis follows. The Badgers were efficient, despite the turnovers, scoring roughly 1.09 points per possession. And they held Coppin State to a dour .87 PPP. So it was a pretty solid performance, it's just that the pase was so darn slow (largely due to the refs calling all of two shooting fouls on both teams combined--- they must have made a pact to try to get home before 8), the game seemed closer than it was. And it didn't help that Coppin State's various zones lured Wisconsin into a throwing up too many three pointers-- and the Badgers made less than a quarter of their attempts. (Pop Hughes was guilty of several especially heinous long range shots.) However, the lack of foul shots and the not-so-hot three point shooting was overcome by complete dominance on the boards. Wisconsin rebounded superbly on both ends of the floor, pulling down 86% of the available defensive boards and 44% of their own misses. Both superlative percentages.

Anyhow, Tuesday night's game in Madison against the Texas Longhorns is now looming. They're probably still pissed about Michael Flowers' ridiculous clutchness stealing that game from them last year. And I can't tell whether it's a good or bad thing that they lost a close game to Sparty (in a weird not really very neutral game in Houston) yesterday. It should be a tough one, and Wisconsin is going to need to show that the team that got beat down by UConn and lost its cool at Marquette (and nearly lost to Idaho State) has grown and matured into a better squad. The dominant win over UW-Green Bay sure made it seem like they had. Last night's game makes you wonder a bit though. Should be a fascinating match-up.

The Badgers Rebound, Literally

Don't have too much time to rehash Wisconsin's thoroughly satisfying win over a pretty solid UW-Green Bay team, but here are some random stats. Wisconsin managed an excellent 1.14 points per possession, and held UWGB to a thumping .85 PPP. That's a very solid performance. And they, at long last, dominated on the boards like they can--- with an 84% defensive rebounding performance. (Consider--- UWGB missed 34 field goals, and only grabbed 6 boards.) That, again, kicks ass.

In re individual performances, Pop Hughes did a great job of driving to the hole. Krabby looked for his shot and was efficient. And Nankivil hit the boards hard, grabbing 11, and slamming two dunks on drives and dishes (although he meeked out on a couple of moves in the paint). That kind of performance out of Keaton is what the Badgers need to become a good team.

Nice....

The facing by Idaho (related below) has been noted and relayed by Wisconsin men's basketball beatwriter Rob Schultz. If you have an opinion on the matter, I strongly encourage you to air it in the comments section below his article. The only way things will change is if people become aware of the problem.

What an ending...

Holy cow. Wisconsin blows a nine-point lead with a minute left, despite only committing one turnover and one bad foul and making its free throws, because the Hokies are totally on fire from outside, in particular one forward/guard known as A.D. Vassallo, who hit UW up for 24 points in the second half, including at least four 3s. That guy was ridiculous. Most of his shots were contested in some form or other, but he scored inside and out. Wild stuff. I can't remember when I've seen a guy be that on fire against the Badgers. I guess Curry in the tournament last year, but Vassallo was more efficient. This was actually similar to Wisconsin's near loss at home against Winthrop two seasons ago.

I definitely have never seen a team rally from that far down in a college game against a team I support. I mean, from a nine-point lead to a tie in one minute? Totally crazy. You won't see that happen very often. But Pop saves the game, and the Badgers make it happen with no timeouts left. Sometimes it works out best that way. Instincts take over, and leaders step forward. Well done, Pop, and well done, Badgers. A gutty performance in a tough environment in the face of ridiculous performance by Vassallo. Random thoughts---

- The defensive rebounding was much improved in the second half.
- Rob Wilson got a ton of minutes this game. That's excellent to see. Plus, the 80% underclassmen group on the floor of Leuer, Taylor, Wilson, Jarmusz and Landry didn't give away the store, like they did against UConn. The younger guys seem to be coming along.
- But they still have a ways to go. Wilson's aggressiveness is great, but he needs to be better from the line. Nankivil needs to be strong in the post. He looked afraid of taking the ball in there and going to the hoop. He's a good offensive option when he gets the ball in the right position. He needs to take his shots. And he also needs to be strong on the defensive boards. Leuer also has some rebounding issues. His positioning was often a bit off. And of course Jon's foul on a Hokie three attempt late in the game, when the Badgers were clinging to a four-point lead, can't happen.
- Joe looks like he lost some quickness. I like him in the post on a guy about his size. I don't like him facing up his guy and driving to the basket, unless he's guarded by a larger, slower defender.
- What ridiculous outside shooting for both teams. Wisconsin shot 12 for 18, but was outdone percentage wise by Tech's 11 for 16 performance. At least four of those came in the last minute or so.
- Just a great college basketball game. Hard fought, magnificent plays by both teams right until the end. An excellent win for Wisconsin. Despite their three losses, Va Tech should make the tournament this season. They have a fair amount of talent, and the ACC looks pretty top heavy. Virginia Tech should really be able to make a strong push for third, or for second, over Duke, if they continue to improve.

UW- Va Tech Basketball Tonight!

Well, it's time to try getting over the whole "the Packers are playing for pride for the rest of the season" thing, and there should be some decent tonic this very evening. The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team plays at Virginia Tech in the first game of the Big Ten-ACC Beatdown, strike that, Challenge. This will be UW's first true road game this season, and Va Tech has made two straight appearances in the tournament, and has a bunch of starters returning. Should make for an exciting game. It airs on ESPN2 at 6 pm Central.

Huh

I think Wisconsin men's basketball fans, myself definitely included, may have gotten a bit overconfident after Tuesday's beat down of SIU-Edwardsville. And that's because the Badgers just had to go to overtime to beat Iona. Of course, since the game wasn't broadcast anywhere, there's no way to know what was going on really. Although from reading uwbadgers.com's blog entries, it sounds like UW went absolutely ice-cold in the second half, hardly scored for long periods of time, got whistled for a ton of fouls, and was down four points with a minute or two left. Then they gutted it out, tied the game, started playing decent defense, getting a few foul calls and making some free throws. Though not enough to make it comfortable-- they won by two, 60 to 58. Phew.

San Diego beat Valpo, so UW will play them on Sunday evening in the semi-finals of the illustrious Paradise Jam. The game will allegedly air on some derivation of Fox College Sports, apparently Channel 617 on DirecTV, but we'll see. San Diego is the team that beat UConn in the tournament last year, and has returned all five of their starters. They've lost once this season, a 5-point season opening loss at UNLV, where they were missing three starters, including all all WCC player. Yeah, all three of those guys are now back. They did only beat Valpo by seven, earlier today, but still-- Sunday's contest should be a very tough one. And you can't have a lot of confidence in Badgers after tonight's near loss. Thankfully, the season is long, this team is pretty young and still getting its act together, and has lots of potential. There's a lot of time to get better.

LOO--ER!

Last night was a bit of a coming out party for the young man from Long Lake, Minnesota (and an alumnus of the same high school as three of my cousins). Of course, SIU-Edwardsville is not a great team. Heck, I'm willing to bet if one checked the Pomeroy ratings at the end of the season, siue (their bizarre uniforms had all the letters in lowercase) would be in the bottom fifty. But man, Jon Leuer looked exactly like you hoped he would when you first read about him two years ago-- a collegiate Dirk Nowitzki, just with better hair. Dunks, mid-range jumpers, facing up his man and driving to the basket, snatching boards. Woo-hah! Good stuff.

Don't have much time to discuss things today as work has gotten pretty hectic all of a sudden. But other random observations---
- Landry continues to look like the man, and like he knows he needs to be the man. He's developing a really excellent touch around the basket.
- Krabby hasn't had the greatest start to the season. It looks like he's pressing at times, especially on offense when he looks for his own shots. Although he did nail both of his free throws last night.
- Tim Jarmusz is the king of hustle. Bo was right-- he busts his ass constantly and makes good decisions offensively. Not a huge talent, but talented and smart enough to be a very good college player, I think. Plus, he showed excellent touch on his two jumpers. Now if he could just start making more of his free throws.
- For some reason, Keaton Nankivil got pulled kind of early and didn't get back in much. He must have screwed up defensively in some sort of difficult to measure kind of way. Or they weren't interested in having him and Leuer on the court at the same time, and Leuer was playing excellent offense.
- True frosh Ian Markolf is no longer a redshirt candidate. He got some garbage minutes last night. Actually, so did everyone except for Jared Berggren and Ryan Evans. Evans is a declared redshirt, and Berggren must be pondering one.
- The order of the subs was the starting five, then Leuer, Jordan Taylor, Jarmusz, and Rob Evans. That really kind of looks like the rotation right now-- nine men, with Evans likely to get smaller minutes than the other three guys off the bench. After that, Gullickson came in, followed by Gavinski. Markolf got in later when the bench emptied. What was neat was the quality of play didn't drop off much when the other guys got in. Gullickson, for one, looked good.
- Tempo Free Stats for the game: Wisconsin's points per possession: 1.29; SIUE's points per possession: .85

Nice story

Here's a nice story to make you feel better after yesterday's debacle:

Spot on UW's bench thrill a minute for Smith

I can just imagine the repeated conversation:
"Wuhquinton?"
"Uh, no just Quinton. The "W" is silent."