has anyone seen them play? they have had an impressive start to their season. I thought they had a bunch of their top players leave last year and that Gard might be in trouble.
Wisconsin
- Thread starter kurt cloverdales
- Start date
I'm like you..
Only seen impressive scores..
We're about to find out where IU stands this week...
I chuckle when the "Wisconsin is surprisingly good" post start. They're solid, to good, basically every single year. They play a style that's difficult to play against early in seasons. But they're Wisconsin. They'll compete for a B10 title. And they'll lose early in the NCAA. Purdue is likely back to that as well.
they lost Storr to Kansas and I think the dude with the Bleach spot left for Louisville. seemed like both were late transfers which puts the coach in a difficult spot. thought there were a lot of complaints they weren't being competitive in NIL
There was...they get undervalued early in every season. Their program gets them to the point where they're overvalued by the end of the season. It would be emotionally difficult to experience, I would think, being a Wisconsin bball fan.
'dude with the Bleach spot'....LMAO. That was Chucky Hepburn, correct?
Wisconsins Tonje is having a MVP type year, their guards now are probably the best in the BT, combined with a veteran Crowl at center they are going to be really tough out. This morning ESPN has them as a 1 seed! Purdue is a 5 seed, Ohio State as a 6 seed, Oregon a 7, Nebraska and IU tied as 9 seeds. Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Nebraska have played tough schedules. Michigan has played a average schedule, the rest is weak!
Yup...fairly predictable trend. Wisky picked middle of pack in B10. Wisky has 2-3 players emerge as "stars". Wisky wins a lot of games, competes for a B10 title, gets top 4 seed in NCAAs. Wisky fails to make 2nd weekend in NCAAs.
They run a very efficient style. Gard, I'm sure, is a process guy and they can run all their principles in their sleep. Early on in seasons, when most teams are still learning together, Wisky takes advantage because the swing offense, and the pack line defense, when executed, are hard to prepare for, and they produce great metrics for Wisconsin.
Then they play teams like Illinois or maybe Rutgers?? at the end of the year, and lose. And then run in to an athletic team like Florida or Baylor or a rematch with Baylor, and they get bounced early from the tournament.
What am I missing? They have beaten Arizona, who at least right now is very mid, and not really anyone else. Zona lost their starting center from last year 
and Caleb Love is doing Caleb Love things... scores 30 one night, then against Bucky shoots 15% for 6 points in the loss.
and Caleb Love is doing Caleb Love things... scores 30 one night, then against Bucky shoots 15% for 6 points in the loss.I would say Wisky, Illinois and Purdue are your top 3 so far. Rutgers and Nebraska are dangerous and MSU and OSU will be tough to beat at their place.
Looking forward to seeing where Iu is this weekend. Louisville got drilled by Tennessee so maybe that’s a good sign for us.
Looking forward to seeing where Iu is this weekend. Louisville got drilled by Tennessee so maybe that’s a good sign for us.
Which has won more than our high ceiling low floor guys. Not sure what the right mix is but wisky will be a very tough matchup for us this year. Rebound well, defend and play hard.
They aren’t but they will put up 30-35 threes against our soft ass perimeter defense.
Wut? It's the one thing we've been doing fairly well.
A mixture of the two would be perfect and more competitive in March.
How about some high floor/high ceiling players/coaches/standards. Not sure why this needs to continually be hashed out. I want IU to be as good as Wisky and/or Purdue...as long as that lasts for about a month on an otherwise upward trend more towards being more like Kansas, Jay Wright like Villanova, recent Hurley like UConn, etc...
Have to work up to that. Currently don't have the clout to attract those coaches. This program already killed two careers.
I don't think we need a "big name". Just go find a consistent winner, that has proven they can recruit well for their level. And pay attention to the style that they play as well. Doesn't have to be Loyola Marymount run and gun, but someone very forward thinking.
Haven't thought about it since last year, but I'd scour the D3, NAIA, D2, lower levels of D1 ranks... I honestly don't think going after the big fish like Donovan, Stevens, etc... is the right approach any more anyways. The reason you mentioned is one of them. But another is its not necessary any more. NIL can do a lot of the heavy lifting recruiting wise. Just need someone that can manage that, is dynamic, and is an actual damn good basketball coach.
Sorry for butting in - first the Az game: Love was shackled by Blackwell and took a dumb T in the first half to get to 3 fouls (maybe that's the kind of thing implied in "Caleb Love things" - he was a non-factor). Bucky was 41-47 from the FT line, including 21-22 from Tonje (of his 41-burger).What am I missing? They have beaten Arizona, who at least right now is very mid, and not really anyone else. Zona lost their starting center from last year
They just beat UCF and Pitt in the holiday tournament in a ballroom in WV. Pitt is ranked #25 in one poll. I believe they're the only B10 team to claim 3 P4 victories at this point of the young season.
Now the bad: they nearly got beat - maybe should have gotten beat - by the scrabble-rack team known as UTRGV in Madison, UW was completely baffled by their offense and had to take out the two bigs in order to match up defensively (their coach is in his first year, coming from BYU). Defense is an issue this year (and btw UW hasn't run packline defense since Bennett left, and the offense isn't the swing anymore, either). Blackwell had 30 in that game, btw - Tonje is the one everyone is focusing on, but Blackwell has stepped way up, too.
They'll play at Marquette in a couple weekends after the two early B10 games (home Michy, away Ill). They were picked 12th in the B10 because of the loss of Hepburn, Storr, and Wahl and seemingly not a lot to replace them. Tonje and Blackwell had other ideas.
This is a much more coachable team for sure. Looking ahead, they start two bigs so we can match up favorably with them. It will put Mgbako on either Klesmit or Tonja and that will be disastrous. I think Storr was addition by subtraction for them. I've seen them play 3 times and Tonja gets to the line alot.
We are giving up 27 attempts a game. A bunch are clean looks. It concerns me with a team like Louisville who wants attempts. We have the guys to guard better than that.
That's the part I'd argue. KC and MM are doing a decent job rotating and covering their space. As long as they make the catch semi-uncomfortable, if you get what I mean, get there on the catch or before the player loads it up, regardless if they shoot it, then its a good cover. Of course, that defense when not played well can get opposing teams rolling. We'll see ...
More concerned about the ball watching and anticipatory leaking on def boards. The guards and wings especially need to do better on long rebounds.
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That too. Rebounds off missed 3s kill us. The defense so far has been inconsistent. I’ve seen them lock down but like you said they watch a lot.
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