How did they fall so far so quickly? Based on the Wisconsin first half, NU will not win another B1G game this year. See Ya'll in 2026.
Collins, apparently, has a lot of work to do.
- Thread starter stpaulcat
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I mean, the season is obviously not over - literally and figuratively - but anyone who is not concerned is lying. This team doesn’t rebound well, doesn’t play with a ton of energy and isn’t a defensive stalwart. Could that change? Yes. But early indications are not good.
Not disagreeing. Singleton did a better job today in the boards, which was encouraging. Need much better guard play offensively and defensively.
Based on my experience, tonight was not serious basketball, do you think?. If NU can recover, great, but I do not see it, this year.
The Wilcats out rebounded Wisconsin, whereas this season almost all opponent teams out rebounded them.
Playing closer to the boards got more rebounds and enabled 3 point shooters more space..
Playing closer to the boards got more rebounds and enabled 3 point shooters more space..
It is a very young team and they are trying to learn to fit together and that takes time. Growing pains are to be expected. They have only one returning starter. Team depends on a lot of young guys. And this is a month before they would have played a conference game in the past.
Page is showing to be better than expected. Singleton looks like he has the potential to be one of the very best we have ever had play here. Clarvino has made some good strides . I could go on but sufice it to say, this is gonna be a fun team to watch develop but it is gonna be frustrating too
This is the time of year when we realise how much past players (like Barnhizer) did for us. Or even Lumpkin in an earlier era. Not insurmountable - if the coaching, chemistry and work ethic are right, we can still achieve a lot this year.
Young team and new pieces. The team you see on the floor in February will be much better than what they are right now. But yes, they’re currently a bit of a mess.
Exactly how I feel. It’s a whole new group, and many of them have not played college ball. They will get better.
Minnesota kept 7-0 Indiana in the 60’s.
Our biggest problem is not just rebounding. It’s defense overall. It’s mistake after mistake. I don’t even think WI is better than average in the B1G. Though the Kohl center is notoriously hard to play in.
I want to leave it at that and not go into speculation about hustle/effort.
Game threads and post game comments tend to be over reactions. We are not as bad as we looked in the 1st half tonight. But we are going to be very frustrating to watch. So, so naive.
Our biggest problem is not just rebounding. It’s defense overall. It’s mistake after mistake. I don’t even think WI is better than average in the B1G. Though the Kohl center is notoriously hard to play in.
I want to leave it at that and not go into speculation about hustle/effort.
Game threads and post game comments tend to be over reactions. We are not as bad as we looked in the 1st half tonight. But we are going to be very frustrating to watch. So, so naive.
We need the KJ Windham I saw at the end of last year to emerge. Reid has been pretty bad the last three games and he is a defensive liability out there. And the 3-point shooting has been downright terrible the last two games.. How about trying KJ at the point?
That transfer guard for Minnesota, Reynolds, really caught my eye last night. He plays like a power forward, can handle the ball and shoot from the outside. I’d love to have a guy like him on this team.
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Another not-so-fun fact: we're now the worst P5 defensive rebounding team, just behind St. John's. We're also forcing fewer turnovers than any year since the 2019-20 season, which also happens to be the last time we had 3+ freshmen in the rotation.
This combined with atrocious 3 pt shooting is a recipe for a lot of losses. Let's hope we catch fire on Saturday. I want to see Max Green given more run.
And Wisconsin is a program that lives on the 3s. I think they still got something like 13 OR so ...
True but cleaning up rebounding minimizes those second chance points and tends to improve the D. Still have stuff to clean up but not as much
A lot of weaknesses are appearing now that we are playing better teams. Rebounding, 3 point shooting and guard defense are the most glaring deficits. The newcomers have not adjusted to Lowery's man to man switching defense. I think CC has to have a zone backup plan when NU is getting torched in man. Remember BC, with inferior man to man. talent, employed a 1-3-1 with some success. NU has to have a change of pace "D". Our rebounding is also problematic, but it could not be any worse in an occasional zone.. 3 point shooting is not easy to remedy. Reed is a point guard , not a shooting guard. I also could see more playing time for Wyndham. Hall evidently can shoot but he has a lot to learn about defense. GC seems to be reluctant to shoot
. NU's offense has not been able to create open 3 point shots. Blackwell was great but many of his 3's were wide open, NU' 3's are usually forced. Page seems to be an extremely adept passer, so maybe kick outs to perimeter shooters could work when he gets doubled or tripled
I still like the talent on the team but some new ideas/ combos should be tried
. NU's offense has not been able to create open 3 point shots. Blackwell was great but many of his 3's were wide open, NU' 3's are usually forced. Page seems to be an extremely adept passer, so maybe kick outs to perimeter shooters could work when he gets doubled or tripled
I still like the talent on the team but some new ideas/ combos should be tried
Saying this team will gel by February is pointless… if we don’t beat OSU, Butler and the cupcakes - not even mentioning January - we are barbecued chicken. So they better get it figured out before Saturday.
Let's see if the squad can play better at home and hopefully go from there. We've suffered bad road losses in tourney seasons too. I'm not trying to be pollyanish, I'm just crossing my fingers it goes well.
My basic premise is correct. My knee-jerk reaction, not so much, but I still do
believe they will challenge again at the earliest 26-27.
I mentioned that but it could not be much worse than the current situation. If anyone coaches youth teams, the 1-3-1 is difficult for kids to play against
If NU employed a 1-3-1 , I would think Reid or Wyndham would be up front, followed by Martinelli, Page and Singleton with GC or Hall on the baseline. I would prefer a taller player on the baseline relative to what BC employed. I included Wyndham and Hall to possibly help with 3 point shooting
I think our expectations at this point should be every year is a team like this or better. This year’s team still looks like ita preseason projections, which is a fringe tourney contender that could make it if the majority of things break right. Teams like that every year mean we make it every 3-5 years when things go well. I’m starting to feel like that as a baseline with hopefully some higher years punctuated in is a realistic baseline. Last year is what happens when everybody gets hurt and it’s a tough season, and yet we reloaded with viable pieces. Collins is navigating the modern basketball world quite well, more resources for him would be well spent.
Looking at the stats coming out of the Wisconsin game, a couple positives - we forced them into more midrange shots than they usually shoot, and they didn't make any 3s off the dribble. They also went just 3-13 shooting after getting an offensive rebound, when they are usually much more efficient. On our side, we were forced into more midrange shots, but were more efficient than usual. We also got more offensive rebounds and second chance opportunities than we had been getting this year.
The problems came in transition, where we normally are very good at limiting teams from running on us - they actually had a higher percentage of transition plays than usual and were lethally efficient. They were also incredible with their ball movement, particularly with three point shooting, as all 11 3s were assisted against just 8 of 17 2s. Boyd had 0 made shots and just 2 points in the first half, but then scored 6 unassisted layups as part of scoring 18 points on 7-11 shooting in the second half to keep us at bay. Meanwhile Blackwell shot 7-11 in the first half, including going 5-6 from 3 in a 5-minute span when the lead went from 21-12 to 41-18, but shot just 1-7 in the second half. Props to Gard on changing his gameplan, leaning into Rohde's playmaking past as he came in averaging 1.8 assists per game and ended up tying a career high with 9.
The Badgers also limited our drives to the rim and our transition game significantly, and while we had more 3-pointers off of drive and kick or inside-out opportunities, we were woefully inefficient at converting those. Likewise with the second chance opportunities, we had been scoring 1.4 points per possession on those this year, but just 1.1 in this game.
Flush it and move on to tomorrow against an OSU team that I think looks better statistically than they actually are.
The problems came in transition, where we normally are very good at limiting teams from running on us - they actually had a higher percentage of transition plays than usual and were lethally efficient. They were also incredible with their ball movement, particularly with three point shooting, as all 11 3s were assisted against just 8 of 17 2s. Boyd had 0 made shots and just 2 points in the first half, but then scored 6 unassisted layups as part of scoring 18 points on 7-11 shooting in the second half to keep us at bay. Meanwhile Blackwell shot 7-11 in the first half, including going 5-6 from 3 in a 5-minute span when the lead went from 21-12 to 41-18, but shot just 1-7 in the second half. Props to Gard on changing his gameplan, leaning into Rohde's playmaking past as he came in averaging 1.8 assists per game and ended up tying a career high with 9.
The Badgers also limited our drives to the rim and our transition game significantly, and while we had more 3-pointers off of drive and kick or inside-out opportunities, we were woefully inefficient at converting those. Likewise with the second chance opportunities, we had been scoring 1.4 points per possession on those this year, but just 1.1 in this game.
Flush it and move on to tomorrow against an OSU team that I think looks better statistically than they actually are.
KJ looks lost out there. We got too many guys that have the same style of play. I want an aggressive KJ. Shoot the ball, please. That’s his role. CCC needs to tell him shoot shoot shoot. If he misses shoot again. Way too tentative. If he doesn’t shoot, plant him on the bench. Green is similar except he is not bashful. Neither play enough defense to guard a top level scorer. We don’t need AP shooting a bunch of 3’s when we have these two. When Clayton outscored both of them combined we aren’t going to win.
The guy in the doghouse is apparently Mullins. This is the guy I would play a lot more. We don’t need him to put up 12 ppg. We need someone to slow down Blackwell or Smith in Purdue, who may get 35 on NU. The parts don’t fit yet. Priorities for CCC and the Wizard has to be to find the best defensive unit. If you can defend at least adequately, you shouldn’t play,
I'm not a big fan of this plan because from what I've seen, running the 1-3-1 really well takes as much practice and awareness as the man switch they're already trying to learn, and running it poorly is just giving up easy baskets and open shooters. If you want a zone, a base 2-3 is probably easier to be mediocre at in a pinch.
+1000. Two games in a row where Mullins should have been deployed immediately to cool off a hot shooter. We know he has holes in his game, but against Wiscy the game ended when Blackwell turned into Steph Curry and our best defender remained plastered to the bench. I have not understood CCC’s usage pattern with Mullins at all since he became a Wildcat.
Given that he's been here for three seasons, and has been regarded as a hard worker and appears to have built up his body - I, too, am surprised how much he gets a quick hook. At this point, he and Ciaravino do the same thing - 3 and D/slash - so perhaps there's something that Gelo is doing that aligns more with what Collins wants.
This is likely too much gambling - but if you had Gelo/Mullins out there at the wings, you potentially have some good point of attack defense - but you'd need Reid out their playmaking for them.