Wisconsin's Basketball Revenge Ax

This week is a revenge reunion tour for Wisconsin Badgers basketball team with playing Minnesota and Michigan, two teams they lost to earlier this season. They had a chance to not only avenge a couple losses but also make a move in the B1G standings. Badgers took care of one last night by beating Minnesota, 78-70, with a big Ben Brust performance, Badgers earning it from the free throw line and Wisconsin becoming an all-around good team again for the first time in a long while. 

This is one of those games where it is not really considered a blowout, but Wisconsin held Minnesota at bay for the majority of the game. The closest Minnesota got in the second half was five points twice, but really this game resembled the first one except the other team won the game. Badgers put the Gophers into submission, and never let them even sniff a lead in the second period. This was a dominating win for the Badgers even if the box score does not completely reflect it. 

Ben Brust is having a good season, but I do not think many people are realizing it. He does it in such a quiet manner. Brust is averaging 13.2 points a game which is two points above his junior year average and a career-high for him. No one talks about Brust as everyone is talking about Sam Dekker and Nigel Hayes. My assumption is Brust does not care, and he will keep grinding. Last night, he played great with going perfect from three making four threes and had 20 points, a near season-high for him. Additionally, this was a great bounce back for him as he only had five points against Michigan State including a big free throw miss late in the game that nearly cost Wisconsin. If Brust becomes more of an offensive threat than just a three-point shooter, Badgers will be much better.  

Wisconsin and the free throw line have a bizarre relationship. It does seem like when the Badgers settle for 3-pointers they do not typically win games. Weirdly enough, Marquette and them, are similar in that way minus the fact Wisconsin can nail down threes. They got to the line 36 times last night with a big night at the line from Frank Kaminksy. For the season, Big Frank shoots about 80 percent from the line, and he went perfect yesterday going nine for nine. The nine free throw attempts were a season-high for Kaminsky. Wisconsin did a great job feeding him in the post, and Kaminsky made sure he forced contact drawing the attempts. Another guy that earned it from the line again was Nigel Hayes. This is the second straight game where he shot above 75 percent as he went five for six from the charity stripe. If Hayes continually shoots about 70 percent from both the field and the free throw line, Wisconsin will be very strong as a unit. 

It seems like for the first time in weeks, Wisconsin figured things out with both offense and defense. The last three games have been supremely encouraging for this team, and Wisconsin might be hitting their collective stride at the right time. Michigan State was a close win by box score terms for the Badgers, but really, they had control of the whole game until the final moments where they could not make a shot. Further, that's the only game in the three where they have went cold for a long period of time. Badgers are still three games back from the B1G lead, but they could push towards the top in the coming weeks. 

Revenge tour makes a stop at Ann Arbor this Sunday taking on Michigan, a team that gave Wisconsin all sorts of trouble at home. Badgers hope to repay the favor. This will be the Badgers first visit to Crisler Arena since 2011-2012 season where they only scored 41 points. Hopefully for Wisconsin, history does not repeat itself. 

Charlie. 

LOST: Wisconsin Badgers Defense

In no sport more than college basketball can teams come crashing down to earth quickly and rapidly. A team may get off to a fast start given playing mostly cupcakes with a couple strong wins thrown in there. Other times, the team has some nice strong wins coupled with the cupcakes. Wisconsin Badgers would probably be the second version. They were 16-0 to begin the year with one of their best starts and the hype building around them. Wisconsin careened since then losing their third straight game at Minnesota last night, 81-68, in a complete defensive blowout.

Wisconsin's defense looked bad in the last two games against Indiana and Michigan, but it was completely exposed in the game against Minnesota. The defensive numbers were stunning showing arguably one of the poorest efforts in the last couple of years.  Wisconsin only had six stops in 27 possessions for Minnesota in the second half. Badgers also gave up 48 of the 81 points in the paint meaning nearly 60 percent of their points happened inside the circle. Further, Wisconsin never led in the game and the closest they got in the second half was 41-35 with 17 minutes left to go into their game. This is rock bottom for this Badgers team meaning where do they go from here? 

My biggest concern about the lack of defensive effort from Badgers perspective is if Frank Kaminsky gets into foul trouble, this team is completely screwed. Vitto Brown did not play well in the post nor did Nigel Hayes really have a strong defensive game handling low post players. With teams having this on tape, isn't their first plan of attack for opposing teams to go right at Kaminksy and try to get him into foul trouble earlier than later?  Additionally, Kaminsky needs to stay down more and go for the defensive stand versus the shot block. When people are suggesting Evan Anderson would not hurt inside, there are some bigger issues than I think any of us realize right now (Anderson had a load of talent out of high school; he also is a load, curious about his conditioning if Wisconsin gives him extended minutes).

Bo Ryan is an ardent defender of man-to-man defense. Rarely, if ever, do we see Wisconsin go into a zone, but it has to happen at some point. It is not like Wisconsin needs to be in zone for the entire game, but if they change it up for two minutes or so, they could definitely help confuse the opposing offense. They are all expecting man-to-man right now as Ryan's defense lacks all sorts of creativity. The best part about zones is it does not have to be just one. He could mix in a 1-3-1, 2-3, Matchup, Box and 1. All of those could at least help this team right now whom simply does not look like they can play a man-to-man defense for a full 40 minutes. 

If Wisconsin is this bad defensively, the importance of making 3-pointers become even more critical for them to win basketball games. Badgers went 5-20 from outside, and that is telling to their struggles on Wednesday night. And going to the free-throw line 23 times is very encouraging, and it means Wisconsin did attempt to go the basket more than other games. Badgers want to win high-profile games, they honestly might need to score around 80 points which is unheard of in Ryan's system but it makes no sense for this team to control the clock. Wisconsin seemingly did that in the first 16 games, but now the offense is in a bit of a rut as well against good teams. 

The final question is are the Badgers a two or three seed?  Or did they play above their heads for the first part of the season, and reality is they are only a four and five seed with maybe an outside chance at a three? I lean towards the second one. They head to West Lafayette this Saturday for a matchup with Purdue who only scored 58 in double-overtime against Northwestern. There is no better time for Wisconsin to figure out their defense, and if they do not against the Boilermakers, more questions need to be asked about this team.

Charlie.  

Sportandfashion-news Bowl Predictions: Troops, Texas & Baseball Stadiums

Military Bowl 

Marshall vs. Maryland 1:30 pm ESPN - It is always cool to see teams who have not played in a bowl game for a couple years get the opportunity to play in one again. This is Maryland's first bowl since 2010 and Marshall's first one since 2011.  Both teams had respectable years with Marshall nearly winning Conference USA. Maryland had a bounce back year with Randy Edsall, and beat the teams they were supposed for the greater part minus a bad Wake Forest defeat. My only real concern is Maryland's injuries might limit their potential missing C.J. Brown at quarterback and Stefon Diggs at wide receiver. Terrapins will need to find some offense in this one. All of Marshall's four losses came against bowl teams, and the only game they were blown out was the final one against Rice. Quarterback Rakeem Cato is a beast for the Herd, and he can definitely have a big game against an average Maryland defense. I am very tempted to pick Marshall here but I am going to go with Maryland. Tough, gritty win. MARY 23-21   

Texas Bowl 

Syracuse vs. Minnesota 5:00 pm ESPN - This is Minnesota's second straight trip to the Texas Bowl, but this year, the Golden Gophers are much improved. Sometimes bowl games will display a team on the rise, and they will completely blow out the team they are playing catching the eye of all national media. After years of futility, Syracuse is playing in their third bowl game in four years, and a change of pace this year playing in Houston. The Orange definitely rely on their defense to make plays for the most part. If you look at their wins and it is usually pretty ugly. Same goes for Minnesota meaning we might not see a ton of points in this one. I think it comes down to who can pass the ball better. Both teams are in the 100's when it comes to throwing the football, but if one team can do it better, I think they win the game. Minnesota avoids another Texas Bowl collapse, and wins this one going away. MINN 20-10  

Fight Hunger Bowl 

BYU vs. Washington 8:30 pm ESPN - To me, this has potential to be game of the day. Basically what I
want to watch in this game is Kyle Von Noy versus Bishop Sankey. That's a matchup of a generation there. I expect worlds colliding. Alright, I am making a bigger deal out of it than it already is but still it should be fun to watch these two go at it. BYU needs to find a way to control the clock, and do something on offense. They are a solid defensive team, but their offense is very inconsistent. If the offense comes to play, they can keep Sankey and Washington off the field. As for the Huskies, they are without a coach which always makes me leery. Currently, teams without their head coaches are 1-3 thus far. I feel like Keith Price is due for a big game as he did not really impress his senior year. Washington is a good football team. They lost to Oregon, Arizona State, Stanford and UCLA. No real bad losses there. Huskies take control and win this one going away. WASH 33-21  

Bowl Record: 6-2

Charlie.