Let’s control our destiny and win AT LEAST six out of those next eleven games!
Wisconsin and Illinois is a great game early on
Wisconsin does seem to be greater than the sum of their parts. Davis has been really good - which I guess was a fair assumption that he would before the season began - but Gard has them playing well. Now, I admit that I have NO idea who they have played so far this year besides MSU who beat them without Wahl.
It perplexes and frustrates me that a team with Wisconsin’s talent that is coached by Greg Gard has such mediocre efficiency stats but has the resume of a top ten team. Davis has been great, but he’s exceeded even optimistic preseason expectations. Wahl is decent. Davison is who he is. How are they good??
Wisconsin has the efficiency stats of a bubble team and the conference record of a contender.
Basically, they’ve just been really really good in close games.
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I’m trying to make sense of it too. They rank 9th in the luck metric on KenPom FWIW. I think Dylan has mentioned it is part of Wisconsin’s system to play close games so this is somewhat natural. Don’t want to give Davison credit, but possibly having that super senior leadership helps in this case plus having Davis that can just get a bucket at the end of games.
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What part of the system? I think it’s more than they just aren’t that good.
I do think having someone like Johnny Davis is pretty helpful in close games. The system of “have Johnny Davis” get a bucket every time down the court doesn’t lead to efficient offense, but in a “need a score” late game possession it is a great option.
Well, they play low possession games that use the whole shot clock, they limit extra attempts by having few turnovers and rebounding well. Basically every game is a slog so they aren’t going to blow teams out or get blown out often. Then to your point, use your star player late to get baskets.
I am still selling their stock. Seems like an early exit team to me.
Why is this true? You can still blow teams out in a low possession game. That’s one of the reasons that people have said that teams like Loyola and Wisconsin end up overrated by KenPom in previous years.
This Wisconsin team also plays significantly faster than previous Wisconsin teams (faster than this year’s Michigan team, for example).
In Big Ten games, Wisconsin is ranked 3rd in tempo this year.
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Perfect description. Thank you!
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Can’t wait to pick that 2nd round upset for Wisconsin on my bracket
TO Dylan’ point, this is actually unusual for Wisconsin. IIRC At one point KenPom had to tweak things once because Wisconsin was being so highly ranked in his metrics. Just last year they were 14th on KP but a 9 seed in the tournament, so it’s not at all a case of metrics being unfair to them due to their play style
THAT is not something I’d ever expected to hear…
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Dick Bennett is trying to climb out of his grave to stop it.
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Wisconsin is also 13th nationally in FT defense. Another big benefit of their system? 
Credit for winning games, etc. but it is being billed as a Greg Gard breakout coaching season I feel like and they are worse than last year in most meaningful metrics. Feels like the Northwestern NCAA Tournament season a bit where it was great they made it but reading into it as longterm successful thing is a big mistake.
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I can’t see Greg Gard’s name on here without unconsciously adding on a descriptor like “rodent excrement” before it.
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Gard is going to get some huge contract after this season for living on the margins and when Johnny Davis leaves it will be interesting to see what happens. This reminds me of that Brady Hoke season in 2011 where the team was pretty good but it wasn’t nearly as good as the record or ranking because of some fumble luck, catching some teams at the right time, etc. We saw how that played out.
How would the track record of a coach play into belief factor?? You mention Hoke but that was his 1st year at Michigan. Gard is in his 7th year at Wisconsin consistently wins around 12 conference games a year, won a conference title, couple runs in the NCAA Tournament. Is this Wisconsin team any different than prior ones??
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Does this sound a little like the early Bielein teams before they got the offense revved up?
Yeah I mean Gards decent. Not bad, not Ryan where they’re near the top of the conference every year. His best year is not really even as good as the worst Ryan teams in his last decade. They have some decent young talent that looks interesting. at one point he was close to the hot seat but their hot run in 2020 kept it away and thats pretty far in the distance at this point.
I’m not a huge fan of his and I don’t think he’s a coach that can reach a ceiling of anything much better then the S16. But he’s got a long enough track record at this point to avoid Hoke comparisons
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I’m still having trouble buying into Gard long-term, but if he is a step down from Ryan and they can buy into that as a fanbase, that probably is a realistic ceiling.
That is where I am having a disconnect, because this team doesn’t seem any better and maybe worse than previous team. Davis obviously is a standout, Wahl is a nice piece and Davison is what he is but outside of that I am not real sure. Line them up against their team last year and I like lasts years team way better, but they had some serious chemistry issues. Maybe this years team is just the reversal of that.
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