Scouting Wisconsin

[hhcmatt]

Wisconsin has been very good in conference

 

It's helpful that two things they don't excel at are offensive rebounds and generate fouls.

 

Happ is a ridiculously good college basketball center. The offense flows through him as he leads the team not only in shot/points but in assists. He can go left or right at will.  His weakness in FT shooting is still there.  If for some reason he gets in foul trouble So. Nate Reuvers is just a haircut away from transforming into the next Wisconsin big man.

 

The big difference between this and last year is there is a lot better team behind Happ.  Reuvers, Trice, and Davison are all shooting 40% from 3 and other guys who also take and make 3s.  Pick your poison.

 

Defensively they take away the 3 and let you take mid-range 2s. Reuvers is an elite shot blocker and Happ an elite rebounder.

[Huskerpapa]

I would say we may need to play hack-a-Happ, but I am not sure we have the bodies/fouls to give to do that.

[ladyhusker]

I would say we may need to play hack-a-Happ, but I am not sure we have the bodies/fouls to give to do that.

I may be making this up but I thought I saw once that Justin Costello was our strongest player, weights-wise. If that's true, I wouldn't be all that sad to have him play the Mike Peltz "hitting people is fun!" role... not that I'm advocating violence but if we're going to foul, let's make it memorable, not the Roby-style "I stood still and that guy ran near me" kind.

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[LNKtrnsplnt]

They are AP ranked now. Take that for what it’s worth, but definitely would be a bigger win/possible springboard. 

[tcp]

30 minutes ago, ladyhusker said:

I may be making this up but I thought I saw once that Justin Costello was our strongest player, weights-wise. If that's true, I wouldn't be all that sad to have him play the Mike Peltz "hitting people is fun!" role... not that I'm advocating violence but if we're going to foul, let's make it memorable, not the Roby-style "I stood still and that guy ran near me" kind.

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Happot and Costello? 

 

I'll be here all week, ladies and germs. Please tip the wait staff. 

[ladyhusker]

 Is there an option to upvote via groan?

[hhcmatt]

Here is Nate Reuvers.  Note his size between freshman and sophomore years and note the increase in performance.  This is sort of what I hope we see from Brady next year after he puts on some much needed weight.

 

 

 

[AuroranHusker]

52 minutes ago, ladyhusker said:

I may be making this up but I thought I saw once that Justin Costello was our strongest player, weights-wise. If that's true, I wouldn't be all that sad to have him play the Mike Peltz "hitting people is fun!" role... not that I'm advocating violence but if we're going to foul, let's make it memorable, not the Roby-style "I stood still and that guy ran near me" kind.

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I thought Miles should have brought Costello in instead of Thor late against Ohio St. Justin is a good three-ball shooter, and he'd be able to foul with authority !

 

 

 

[hhcmatt]

 

[Huskerpapa]

26 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

Here is Nate Reuvers.  Note his size between freshman and sophomore years and note the increase in performance.  This is sort of what I hope we see from Brady next year after he puts on some much needed weight.

 

 

 

That deserves an AMEN!!!

[throwback]

Early line / NU -2

[hhcmatt]

2 minutes ago, throwback said:

Early line / NU -2

 

Already down to a pick'um

[throwback]

1 minute ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Already down to a pick'um

Didn't figure that number would last.

[cipsucks]

Wouldn't shock me if Wisconsin is favored by 3 at tip-off.

[formerlybis]

Hey guys, Wisconsin fan dropping by. Love the tempo-free analytics - I, too, am a devotee. I co-write a post on buckyville called "box score observations" that looks at these sort of metrics after every game. I had the last game, so my partner has this one.

 

Sucks about Copeland. I think you have the horses to make up for him on the offensive production end, but what are your thoughts about making up for his defense? I've seen some posts about zone - the truth is that not many teams have employed that against UW this year, so I can't comment intelligently except to say that UW is always fundamentally sound and spaces the floor exceptionally well. Happ is really an elite passer, too, so I'd expect him to flash to the FT line and find the open man pretty regularly against that. But, like I said, haven't seen a lot of zone this year, so not a lot of experience attacking it.

 

In attacking man defense, everything centers around Happ. Happ is a good ballhandler and will even bring the ball up court a lot, but he will turn it over from time to time. Some teams aggressively double team Happ when he has the ball in the post (drawback: sets up the assist and 3-ball), and some try to do the best they can one-on-one and try to not let the other players beat them. UW has lost games when Happ scores a lot of points, so that latter strategy has some logic. Illinois, of all teams, actually did a very creditable job on Happ with the former strategy, too, but couldn't make shots on the other end. Reuvers is different from Happ (duh) in that he isn't as crafty in the post - mostly power - but he is a decent 3-point shooter, which makes him a difficult assignment for most bigs. 

 

Any questions for me?

[hal9000]

With our luck Happ will hit his 2nd career 3-pointer against us, as he did last year with his first. 

[hal9000]

2 hours ago, tcp said:

 

Happot and Costello? 

 

I'll be here all week, ladies and germs. Please tip the wait staff. 

...and try the veal. 

[tcp]

Probably have to pack it in a bit and hope for a cold night for the Badgers. 

I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot more of that approach. 

Without Cope, we're going to need to limit the ridiculous numbers of 2d plus chances we give other teams. 

Allen's going to have to be a lot more aggressive with the ball, too, and he and Watson need to look to score. If we just let James try to make it up on top of his already high load we're going to lose a lot. 

[Huskerpapa]

3 hours ago, formerlybis said:

Hey guys, Wisconsin fan dropping by. Love the tempo-free analytics - I, too, am a devotee. I co-write a post on buckyville called "box score observations" that looks at these sort of metrics after every game. I had the last game, so my partner has this one.

 

Sucks about Copeland. I think you have the horses to make up for him on the offensive production end, but what are your thoughts about making up for his defense? I've seen some posts about zone - the truth is that not many teams have employed that against UW this year, so I can't comment intelligently except to say that UW is always fundamentally sound and spaces the floor exceptionally well. Happ is really an elite passer, too, so I'd expect him to flash to the FT line and find the open man pretty regularly against that. But, like I said, haven't seen a lot of zone this year, so not a lot of experience attacking it.

 

In attacking man defense, everything centers around Happ. Happ is a good ballhandler and will even bring the ball up court a lot, but he will turn it over from time to time. Some teams aggressively double team Happ when he has the ball in the post (drawback: sets up the assist and 3-ball), and some try to do the best they can one-on-one and try to not let the other players beat them. UW has lost games when Happ scores a lot of points, so that latter strategy has some logic. Illinois, of all teams, actually did a very creditable job on Happ with the former strategy, too, but couldn't make shots on the other end. Reuvers is different from Happ (duh) in that he isn't as crafty in the post - mostly power - but he is a decent 3-point shooter, which makes him a difficult assignment for most bigs. 

 

Any questions for me?

Thanks for stopping by.  

 

I believe it would be fair to say that Husker fans and the team to a lesser extent, are not in a very good place right now.  We were riding pretty high until the last few weeks.  First, we are not playing well and then the injury to Cope was a real gut punch.  There is still hope, but we are not sure what to expect from this point forward.  As you can imagine, Coach Miles has been a central point of discussion, which thrills some, and is agonizing others.  So, Tuesday night will be interesting, to say the least.

 

I have one question, what is your overall evaluation of Brad Davison.  He was a good story last year, but an outside perception of him is that he is somewhat of an overachiever and perhaps the type of player that people will love to hate him.  What sayeth you., 

[Tallbaby21]

Could someone please create a “Making a Murderer” head cutoutfor the students?

[formerlybis]

Thanks for stopping by.  
 
I believe it would be fair to say that Husker fans and the team to a lesser extent, are not in a very good place right now.  We were riding pretty high until the last few weeks.  First, we are not playing well and then the injury to Cope was a real gut punch.  There is still hope, but we are not sure what to expect from this point forward.  As you can imagine, Coach Miles has been a central point of discussion, which thrills some, and is agonizing others.  So, Tuesday night will be interesting, to say the least.
 
I have one question, what is your overall evaluation of Brad Davison.  He was a good story last year, but an outside perception of him is that he is somewhat of an overachiever and perhaps the type of player that people will love to hate him.  What sayeth you., 

Well, Davison is the classic guy who you love if he's on your team and hate if he's not. Especially on defense where he makes refs make block-charge calls a lot - he now has a reputation for flopping, so there have been instances where he's taken legit charges but gets called for the block, maybe because of the reputation. Boy cries wolf, but he is generally in good position. Do not play a drinking game for every time he is picking himself up off the floor, though.

He had to play PG last year because of Trice's injury. This year, he's had some adjustments to playing with Trice - there have been games where he disappears a bit offensively, but lately the team has adapted by having him playing with the ball more. He takes and makes the contested shot better than anyone on the team, Happ included. The team turns to Davison a lot when Happ is having trouble. Trice is a better shooter overall, but he's smaller and needs more space to get his normal shot. In fact, Trice had been in a bit of a slump until Saturday - if he's on, UW is hard to deal with.

[Handy Johnson]

Q: What’s the difference between a Catfish & a woman from Wisconsin?

A: One of them has whiskers & smells like a fish, & one of them IS a fish...

[HB]

I tell you what, the line is holding this morning at NU -1 to -2.    Very intriguing.   I would think we would be a dog.    Vegas may be up to something.   Or maybe I'm just looking for a reason to be hopeful.  

[ladyhusker]

I tell you what, the line is holding this morning at NU -1 to -2.    Very intriguing.   I would think we would be a dog.    Vegas may be up to something.   Or maybe I'm just looking for a reason to be hopeful.  

Whatever it is, I like it. Dark HB kind of bummed me out.

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[jayschool]

14 hours ago, tcp said:

Probably have to pack it in a bit and hope for a cold night for the Badgers. 

I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot more of that approach. 

Without Cope, we're going to need to limit the ridiculous numbers of 2d plus chances we give other teams. 

Allen's going to have to be a lot more aggressive with the ball, too, and he and Watson need to look to score. If we just let James try to make it up on top of his already high load we're going to lose a lot. 

And one last strategy: