2020-2021 B1G Basketball Thread

[betarhoalphadelta]

Purdue radio legend Larry Clisby died today at the age of 74 after battling cancer. 

Dakich just got choked up talking about it on the Illinois/Wisconsin broadcast. 

[ELA]

The state of Indiana, between Peyton Manning and Isaac Haas, is responsible for the two biggest overreaching rule changes in sports history.

[TyphonInc]

The state of Indiana, between Peyton Manning and Isaac Haas, is responsible for the two biggest overreaching rule changes in sports history.

Explain?

[ELA]

Explain?

The Colts whined until the NFL decided to enforce Illegal Contact, and the hook and hold is a result of the Isaac Haas elbow injury.  Two totally unnecessary rules

[ELA]

I like how they act like it's amazing D'Mitric Trice was shockingly underrecruited based on his name, as though Travis Trice was some legend.  His older brother was also lightly recruited.  Dayton was his only D1 offer until MSU offered late after they lost out on another recruit (maybe Tracy Abrams?), and only then because they had seen him playing on Brenden Dawson's AAU team.  And he was a serviceable PG, who blew up in the last month of his senior year.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Wow, what an ending!

[NickSmith4Three]

Wow, what did Trice have?  Like 19 points in about 2 minutes?

Glad to get a win there without Ayo.

[847badgerfan]

UW is NOT a tourney team. Something is wrong. Very wrong.

[bayareabadger]

UW is NOT a tourney team. Something is wrong. Very wrong.

I mean, they’re going to go to the tournament. This season has been so odd because four or three veterans who you expected to at least be decent Big Ten players have been some variation of garbage for two months now.

feels like the surprisingly bad shooting has compounded into pressing. When you were not consistently hitting makeable open shots, everything else kind of goes to hell

[MaximumSam]

UW is NOT a tourney team. Something is wrong. Very wrong.

What's wrong is everyone is really good.

[bayareabadger]

What's wrong is everyone is really good.

So, this is a part of it, but just a part. Everyone is very good, but UW is also good enough to not go 0-7 against the top 4. Maybe that number should b 1-6 or 2-5, but they should be good enough to pull one of those out. 

They've been able to close in at points 2-3 of those seven games. Today's they rallied after just a garbage first 35 or so minutes. Mix in getting incinerated for a half against Maryland and a kinda of wonky loss to Penn State, they possess the ability to be in a better station than thy are.

If nothing else, they have five scholarship seniors and four are not playing up to snuff. Here's where they are:
Brad Davison - He's a low-ceiling guy, but he's mostly been an efficent off-guard. This year, he's gone to hell in terms of 2-point shooting and it's dragged him down. A lot of pressing, too much trying to draw contact, plus some uncalled contact that links to his style of foul-drawing wearing thin. It's been not ideal.
Nate Reuvers - Third-team all-conference last year, he was expected to pair with Micha Potter for 40 minuets of decent to good to sometimes very good Big Ten center. He's been solid enough on defense, the reason he was expected to play more, but his offense has been a mess. He's shooting 46 percent from 2, 26.9 from 3, few free throws. He was supposed to be a post anchor for much of games.
Potter - He's been good statistically, but he's seemed to move away from effective/assertive post play of late. He's also at 32.8 on 3s in conference play, which is bad because he takes mostly very open ones and can hit them. His defense was bad early last year, and might be worse this year. If he was solid, he could stay on the floor most of the game.
Aleem Ford: I always assumed he’d be inconsistent, but after a really nice finish last year, he’s just been unimpressive. His shooting has been highly spotty. I thought he could go either way, but he’s gone the wrong one, which hurt when his backup, future starter Tyler Wahl, scuffles.

So UW is playing worse than its ability in a tougher conference. Like all manner of Wisconsin teams have issues, but this one has been a bit more ragged in some key areas.

[MaximumSam]

So, this is a part of it, but just a part. Everyone is very good, but UW is also good enough to not go 0-7 against the top 4. Maybe that number should b 1-6 or 2-5, but they should be good enough to pull one of those out.

They've been able to close in at points 2-3 of those seven games. Today's they rallied after just a garbage first 35 or so minutes. Mix in getting incinerated for a half against Maryland and a kinda of wonky loss to Penn State, they possess the ability to be in a better station than thy are.

If nothing else, they have five scholarship seniors and four are not playing up to snuff. Here's where they are:
Brad Davison - He's a low-ceiling guy, but he's mostly been an efficent off-guard. This year, he's gone to hell in terms of 2-point shooting and it's dragged him down. A lot of pressing, too much trying to draw contact, plus some uncalled contact that links to his style of foul-drawing wearing thin. It's been not ideal.
Nate Reuvers - Third-team all-conference last year, he was expected to pair with Micha Potter for 40 minuets of decent to good to sometimes very good Big Ten center. He's been solid enough on defense, the reason he was expected to play more, but his offense has been a mess. He's shooting 46 percent from 2, 26.9 from 3, few free throws. He was supposed to be a post anchor for much of games.
Potter - He's been good statistically, but he's seemed to move away from effective/assertive post play of late. He's also at 32.8 on 3s in conference play, which is bad because he takes mostly very open ones and can hit them. His defense was bad early last year, and might be worse this year. If he was solid, he could stay on the floor most of the game.
Aleem Ford: I always assumed he’d be inconsistent, but after a really nice finish last year, he’s just been unimpressive. His shooting has been highly spotty. I thought he could go either way, but he’s gone the wrong one, which hurt when his backup, future starter Tyler Wahl, scuffles.

So UW is playing worse than its ability in a tougher conference. Like all manner of Wisconsin teams have issues, but this one has been a bit more ragged in some key areas.

I mean, yes, they have been having some struggles.  But compared to last year, Wisconsin is currently 12th on KenPom at +23.10, verses  last year at 22 with a +18.95. Last year they had losses to Richmond and New Mexico, and were blown out by Minnesota, Purdue, and NC State.  They finished on a great winning streak, but a team can't be defined by how good they are during a winning streak.

[medinabuckeye1]

Minnesota may just have fallen into "Need to win BTT" territory. 

Their resume is strange with great wins and bad losses.

[bayareabadger]

I mean, yes, they have been having some struggles.  But compared to last year, Wisconsin is currently 12th on KenPom at +23.10, verses  last year at 22 with a +18.95. Last year they had losses to Richmond and New Mexico, and were blown out by Minnesota, Purdue, and NC State.  They finished on a great winning streak, but a team can't be defined by how good they are during a winning streak.

The bolded is true, and the balance of the year is better. And maybe it's just a case of trading non-conference losses for conference wins. Still, watching this team, there's just an element of a lot of these guys being less effective. 

Three of the seniors mentioned are posting worse season-long efficiencies than last year. One is posting his worst since he was forced into the lineup as a freshman who should've redshirted. Another is posting a career worst efficiency. I don't think they're world beaters, but this is a dip. (The last senior is mostly fine on offense, even if I think he has more to offer from 3. He's just not adapted on defense nearly as well as expected)

In any case, the ranking part kinda points to where we are. UW is 12th, 2.6 points behind that top 4. They're just a hair ahead of Purdue, three ahead of Rutgers and 4.5 or more ahead of the bottom seven. They're going to need an upset to avoid 10-10 in the league. Even if we argue they're schedule is better (for now it ranks worse), they're having trouble on the margins. 

I'll put it this way. I've seen some not-great UW teams be very competitive with some really good teams in conference. I think this UW team has played a certain level of well, but just from watching, a batch of players are simply underperforming what they're capable of. If they were performing better, they might well have the same record, but they'd be more competitive than they've been with that top echelon. 

(Today was a good example, against a very good but not unreal defense missing a top player, they scored on two of their first 16 possessions at home. Illinois is good, but it ain't that good. The OSU game is another good example. OSU is not very good on defense. Wisconsin scored at a worse rate than 15 of OSU's conference opponents. It's just been odd and ragged)