Anybody giving us a chance to win? I know everybody’s down but Wisconsin is the better version of us. Multiple weapons, junior and senior led roster. Much like us they have 4 or 5 guys who could kill you, except their guys are consistent with it.
I’m worried because they said they had that player only meeting before last game and they stil came out flat and weak and almost disinterested imo. I wish I had seen them much more aggressively on defense and on the boards ect. Like they were playing for their season. Which they kinda are over the next five games.
I’m glad Walton woke up offensively late to save the season but let’s come out like a bat out of hell from the tip. It’s going to take their best game for them to win this road game.
The positive is there’s a nice resume builder here. Win at the kohl center and suddenly you regain the committees attention and the big tens attention. Really hope Walton sparked them and that they play tough here.
If their flat for even four or five minutes their through and will get beat badly.
DJ, Wagner, and Irvin are going to have to hold their own against Happ, Brown and Hayes. I could see foul trouble for that trio doing us in. If we have to ask Duncan to guard Vito or Hayes for sustained minutes, we’re in trouble.
On the flip side, if we can get one of those 3 Wisky players in foul trouble I give us a puncher’s chance (25% for the upset).
If our guys played well I could see us scoring with anybody, they displayed that in the ucla game first half. What was so frustrating about that ucla game was we normally would have had a huge lead on them with how well our offense was churning. We actually defended pretty well. UclA hit many contested tough/ bad looks that on a normal shooting day they don’t hit imo in that first half They often score that much but they weren’t getting great looks like we were. Oh well
They really have to step up today. You can look at it two ways a bad matchup , or a great opportunity to build a resume
Wondering if we will see more Zak guarding Vitto/DJ guarding Hayes. Hayes posts up more, so maybe DJ guarding him makes sense? Vitto likes playing on the perimeter, so Zak wont have to bang down low as much. Regardless, both Zak and DJ must defensive rebound worlds better. And Duncan matched with either is a nightmare.
I am hopeful for an upset. I am assuming we matchup Dwalt-Showalter MAAR-Koenig Zak-Hayes DJ-Brown Wagner-Happ defensively. Zak needs that elbow jumper tonight Wisconsin gives that up a lot. A win tonight will be HUGE for a turnaround. Difficult, Yes Possible, very
Yea i can’t see that. I think it’s dj all day on Hayes. Hayes will just catch and shoot right over zak inside or outside, put zak on brown.
I wonder if Maar draws Bronson. At times last game Maar looked like he was ready and working hard on d. Hopefully he comes in with a lock down mentality and gets right in Bronson’s shirt. If he hits more then one fake crossover pull up three I’m gonna go insane. It’s his go to move and so easy to read. I can call it every time he is about to pull it. Maar or d Walt hopefully study this and time that up to strip it or be right in his grill. Every white pg has that in his arsenal as his go to move. So easy to stop if you realize this.
I totally forgot about showalter. I haven’t watched Wisconsin all year. I thought he graduated. This game could send our season in two directions. Get us back into the thick of things for big ten or send us on a downward spiral. Sooooo bitter we blew that Iowa game and then let Illinois do that. This team should be in great shape heading into the meat of it. Instead their clinging to life.
Badger fan/interloper here. I saw somewhere that Bielein is 2-15 against Wisconsin and about 20 games over .500 against the rest of the league. I don’t have an explanation for that. There’s been a couple of real heartbreakers for you guys in that streak on buzzer beaters and half-court shots, but that’s been a few years ago, now. Anyway, I like your young bigs - Wagner in particular looks like he would fit right in with the classic Badger type of big who draws the defense out to the arc. Ironically, this UW team doesn’t really have that kind of guy - at least not any who are getting major minutes (Illikainen & Van Vliet are that type of player, but they’ve been pretty buried on the depth chart). Sure Brown and Hayes can hit a 3 (the former more than the latter), but they really aren’t 5s the way Kaminsky/Berggren/Nankivil/Butch were.
Also, Greg Gard has subtly changed the style UW plays - Bo used to eschew the offensive rebound in order to get back on D, but this team (which struggles with shooting at times) has hit the O boards more while still limiting transition baskets. This might be more personnel related because of Happ being an elite rebounder, but it is a rather stark departure from long-established trends.
Wisconsin kicked Ohio State’s can two games ago in the Kohl Center. Thing that struck me about this season’s Badger team was it’s depth. They always have a core of rock solid players. This season the Badgers feature Happ, Koenig, and Hayes, who are supported by Brown and Showalter. They bring an efficient freshman PG off the bench in D’Mitrik Trice, brother of MSU’s Travis, and he shoots the three about like his brother. Also, Khalil Iverson comes off the bench and is a powerful, do it all sophomore who doesn’t make a lot of mistakes.
Interchangeable parts.
The Badgers hit 12-22 threes on Ohio State in that game. Big challenge for anyone who plays them is to get out on the threes and still be able to limit their chances at the rim.
I think Michigan can score well enough to win. UM D will need to get some stops. Always tough to win there.