I felt like we escaped with the win tonight. More of a senior dominated team doing what was necessary while the Badgers seemed to tighten up. Having been at both this game and last years at the Kohl I felt last years win was much more impressive against a better Badger team. I would have liked to see Buzz throw in some full court pressure particularly in the first half. The badgers seemed to be sloppy with the ball and it would have given us some easly baskets when we were having such a tough time scoring.
Had to feel like we got some home cookn from the refs in the first half but boy did it turn around in the second. The charge on Lazar was terrible as on the replay it clearly looked like Krabby stepped towards him just as the contact occured. Burke's shoot on the foul should have been called goal tending as it was touched by the badgers after it touched the backboard. A win is a win but I'm not nearly as confident about this team as I was last year at this time.
NotAnAlum-----You said it very well in the first paragraph.
The stars were aligned with us last night-----first of all we were at home-----secondly UW is not a very athletic or quick team to match our athletic/quickness-----the odds makers saw this having us +5 pregame.
Except for the quick Hughes they couldn't handle our pressure in the 2nd half -----have to have quickness/athleticism to handle pressure. Was a lot like the Northern Iowa game except that UW had much better personnel than NI.
Yeah, Lazar's charge was a bad call. But the charge that DJ took earlier wasn't a good call either. The refs were fine and fair last night.
Our perimeter d was very good last night. The reffing was pretty fair being as UW had some charges against them as well. I thought DJ played well in the first half but then kind of disappered later.
Has anyone else seen the significance of the free throw differential. Has anyone really mentioned how huge a deal this is. UW does not foul and does not give up free throws. It is one of the ways they have been so successful under Ryan. Last night Marquette took a huge step by not only getting to the line against the badgers, but being able to win a game when the pace is not to their liking. MU made more free throws then their opponent attempted. This is a stat the idiots at the WWL have been mentioning for years as a reason for the success of many of the great college teams (especially Duke) I think this win is much bigger then its being given credit for. The Dayton loss hurt, but they bounced back with a couple of decent wins. If they keep getting to the line isn't this way and getting easy points they will win a lot of games in the big east and be able to get the great big men of the league out of the games early just like Marcus Landry tonight. Now we will see what happens when they play a great running team on the road which is more their style. If they end up blowing the Vols away I think we can count on them having a very good year. Also thank god for the "boot camp" With all the minutes being logged Its a good thing everyone is in such good shape.
The Vols present a significantly more formidable problem for us than UW as they are very atletic/quick.
Also not on our own court.
Always great to beat UW, but I wouldn't get carried away with the win as UCONN beat UW by 20 points earlier this year.
I have just two concerns from last night:
1. BIG minutes (at least 39 from McNeal and Matthews, and 30+ from just about all 5 starters)--we need at least SOME bench contribution, not only from a fatigue standpoint, but in case of foul trouble. Hopefully OTule and Fulce are back very, very soon.
2. For some reason, we just kept hoisting 3s in the first half. Absolutely cannot do that against UT. When we got back to driving to the hoop in half court and finishing the fastbreak, we took the game back.
Agreed on our bench contributions - only 6 points, all from Acker.
Also agreed on the need to shoot fewer threes. Our strengths are quickness and strength of our big-4. Instead of threes, they need to drive more. Drive and dish, drive for the layup - if its there, but mainly drive and pull up for the 6-8 footer. With their quickness they can almost always get these shots, with their athleticism they can usually get enough elevation that a 6-8 footer will not be blocked.
Jeeze I love beating Wiscy.