Wow! They did Frank right!
54 of 57 points scored by the starters. Yikes... but hey, the kids have been taking it on the chin all season. They finally got one to smile about.
Gard can coach? Who knew? 
It sure looked like the boys played with some urgency and were fired up for Frank. I finally saw some tough Badger defense as the game went on. Crappy call on Happ's 5th Foul. The ref's fell for the ol' "I'll shoot a 3 and kick out my legs and get the ref to call a foul" play there.
Resilience.
It's just too bad they lost some tough games earlier. I do believe the Badgers would've earned a #65-68 spot had they won a few of those games. It's just a darn shame that their NCAA streak will come to an end.
The good news is next year looks promising!
Music City posted:Wow! They did Frank right!
54 of 57 points scored by the starters. Yikes... but hey, the kids have been taking it on the chin all season. They finally got one to smile about.
How awesome a night.....huge win for Bucky, and Frank's number going into the rafters. Loved these photos:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/sp...f5-584fadf1b796.html
I thought the Grateful Red was better than storming the court.
and you were rong
again
predictably
Well Elk-Con-De, I was rong that I thought they were better than this. A program of this caliber should not feel the need to storm the court after beating the #6 team in the country at home.
well victimboy, I guess you can champion teenagers not having fun. It;s been a long season of ****ty basketball and they beat the #6 team in the country. I think it was an OK time for them to cut loose.
College kids want to have fun. After a long season of mediocre (if that) basketball...to beat a top tier team is exciting....no one expected it....so, let the kids be kids -- you remember, right?
Thursday night in college - a little weed - sneak in some rum to pour in your diet Coke - a chance to get laid - throw in an exciting game - and voila - a fun night for young adults.
What mind? Oh yah, the Viking Troll mind.
Bucky up by 1 on the Goophers at the half, 35-34.
MichiganPacker2 posted:Gophers making anyone but Happ beat them and it's working
Davison and Pritzl keeping them in it. Happ has 3 assists, but could easily be 8-10 if guys like Reuvers, Ford, and Illikainen had hit some wide open 3s.
What an OT so far. 2 3s by Pritzle, a steal and drawing a charge by Happ plus a 2 pointer.
Outscored them 14-4 in the OT. F'UM BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did I hear the announcer correctly? Bucky with a 28-5 run to send the game to OT? I didn't realize that.
EDIT: It was a 22-5 run to end regulation AND the OverTime.
so much fun to beat the gophers
We knew we liked that @braddavi34 guy... 😏 #OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/CFY2EytAnB
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) February 20, 2018
Some observations from last night.
1. Gard has got this team playing hard despite no chance for the post-season. They could have thrown in the towel several games ago. Heck, they could have thrown in the towel 2-3 times last night. They fought back each time. The jury will still be out on whether Gard can recruit, but he's got an undermanned team playing hard.
2. Nate Reuvers really needed to red shirt. He battles hard, has all-Big10 level potential, and may end up Wilkinson-like in 2-3 years, but there were 4-5 times last night when he was just bullied to the basket by a Gopher. He just is not physically ready. Getting beat up on defense probably also tires him out on offense. Give him a year in the weight room and he'll be the bully next year.
3. How bad must Charlie Thomas be in practice to not get a minute last night. They really needed a guy to spell Reuvers who was just out-muscled last night. Instead, they played two walk-ons (Moesch and Schlundt) for 8 minutes last night instead.
4. Same thing goes for Van Vliet (0 minutes) and Illikainen (6 minutes). When walk-ons are getting minutes instead of three highly touted junior recruits, it's a sign somethings going on in practice we don't see.
5. Props for Iverson. He doesn't score, but he does everything else well. He's the Showalter glue-guy type. He plays hard, guards multiple positions, rebounds, and seems to steady things.
6. Ethan Happ had to be frustrated last night, but he battled through it well (he had 4 shots in the first 35 minutes of the game). He was getting triple teamed and about 15 time would find a wide open Reuvers, Ford, or Illikainen who were a combined 1-12 from 3 (and then Reuvers and Ford must have passed up about 5 other wide open 3s). After guys would pass up wide open 3s, the ball would go back into Happ with about 7 seconds on the shot clock and he'd have to repeat the whole sequence.
Luckily, Pritzl and Davison turned into Brust, Gasser, and Koenig types last night.
7. Happ, Iverson, a fully healthy Davison, Pritzl, a stronger Reuvers, and Trice and King are going to be a load next year for a lot of teams. The Badgers are literally going to lose no one and get 2 guys who should have been starters and two guys who should have redshirted in previous years and will be vastly improved next year (Reuvers and Davison). I could see them being top 3 in the Big 10 next year. They'll have 5 legitimate 3 point shooters to put around Happ and Iverson.
8. They'll have 3 scholarship seniors playing 0 minutes next year.
El-Ka-Bong posted:so much fun to beat the gophers
Storm the court fun?
Yeah, I can't help myself…
MichiganPacker posted:8. They'll have 3 scholarship seniors playing 0 minutes next year.
I have a feeling at least one of them doesn't come back
chickenboy posted:
Van Vliet with 11 in the first half tonight. He's had 3 points in the Big 10 this year.
The 9th seed in the B1G Tourney. Guys played a nice game tonight. Pritzl with a huge 3 with almost no time on the shot clock near the end to go up by 4.
I have no understanding of Gard's rotations, but good for him for getting them to work lately.
I think this winning is counterproductive- they need to be thinking about the draft pick.
Says the guy with an NBA logo as his avatar
That means beating MSU Sunday and then winning the 1st 2 in the B1G Tourney. That is a tall order.
I think your right EC PACK...
Lets just beat Sparty on sunday, and win the 8 vs 9 game in the big ten tourney next thurs maybe we'll be considered .
I didn" know the nit had a bracketology, on their web site from two days ago they had Northwestern under consideration
Bucky took care of that Thurs nite....
I don’t think they’re NIT bound. If they were 17-13 or right now, maybe. They’re 14-16.
I am still not a believer in Gard. Yes these kids are gutting it out and playing Wisconsin basketball again, but it’s too late for me. This should have been a retooling year with a low tournament seed. We have seen those under Ryan. With all those injuries you could give them a pass. But 14-16? That **** should simply not happen.
And again- a 5 man recruiting class flatlines and that is all on Gard. Poor fundamentals, poor execution, poor development. But Iverson and Pritzl seem to have finally gotten comfortable- which helps. Big question is- why has it taken so long?
This was not the year to play the schedule they played.
Regular season finale today vs. Michigan State. Game is on CBS at Noon KCT. Crappy Preview: https://www.si.com/college-basketball/game/1949557
B1G Tourney starts for the Badgers on Thursday at 11:00 A.M. vs. Maryland in New York at MSG.
Amazing how fast MSU was able to clear Bridges to play after he was implicated in taking money from an agent on Friday. This is the same place that, despite several credible accusations, took years to 'investigate" a doctor who was molesting dozens of athletes.
I used to respect Izzo, but he's just slightly better than Pitino now in my mind.