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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!

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.    

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.

 

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? 

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. 

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