Weasel/Rodent Analysis??

[Stretchdeltsig]

I have a feeling Bucky wins this one relatively easily. This MU team is the exact type of team they feast on... Not great shooting, and one that shoots quickly. That feeds the beast. Seen it so many times over the years. Toss in the rebounding advantage, and it could be a rough one.

We'll see what happens, hope like hell I'm wrong.

You're wrong. The taller more athletic Warriors will flatten the flea bitten slow farm boys.

[Shooter McGavin]

The day of the Rowsey game I called a big rout W for MU. I am predicting MU wins by 10+ on Saturday. I think Shaka finds a way to control the tempo and we will convert on quick transaction baskets early. I am going with the Shaka factor being the difference in this game. He has won over a lot of fans this far and spanking Bucky would be a great signature W in his first season. Again, Warriors by double figures on Saturday.

Damn Goose!  I hope you are right.   

[BallBoy]

The day of the Rowsey game I called a big rout W for MU. I am predicting MU wins by 10+ on Saturday. I think Shaka finds a way to control the tempo and we will convert on quick transaction baskets early. I am going with the Shaka factor being the difference in this game. He has won over a lot of fans this far and spanking Bucky would be a great signature W in his first season. Again, Warriors by double figures on Saturday.

I pencilled this in as a win at the beginning of the year but also picked Illinois as a loss so there's that.  This is probably the first time that I would have said I feel Warriors by double digits as well but I think it will be closer because UW will keep it in the 60s.

[Viper]

MU will be visine on Saturday. Get the RED out.

-BETTER DEAD, than RED.

[mubb3434]

Matchup-wise on defense, how do we line it up?

Kolek- Chucky
Kam - Brad
Morsell - Davis
Lewis/O-Max - Wahl
Kuath/Oso - Crowl

Davis is the obvious threat so I think we throw a couple of different bodies at him. Our bigs need to box out and our guards need to be aggressive on the boards. It's okay if we lose the rebounding battle, but the margin needs to be small (this match up screams 2nd chance points from UW)...Maybe this is the day we get Kolek cooking from 3? Pumped for Saturday!

[panda]

Wisconsin struggled against ball screen action and also when tech was able to push the ball in transition.

Uw was able to control tempo for the majority of the second half.

Davis is just an awesome player and Davison is annoyingly solid. No one else on the team is scary, but they all fit in the system well. It’ll be a tough game.

[MuggsyB]

Wisconsin struggled against ball screen action and also when tech was able to push the ball in transition.

Uw was able to control tempo for the majority of the second half.

Davis is just an awesome player and Davison is annoyingly solid. No one else on the team is scary, but they all fit in the system well. It’ll be a tough game.

Well said panda.  How do we eliminate Davis?

[panda]

Well said panda.  How do we eliminate Davis?

If we score and can set up the press, his impact will be nullified. They do a really good job of getting him in good spots in the half court.

[MuggsyB]

If we score and can set up the press, his impact will be nullified. They do a really good job of getting him in good spots in the half court.

Would you put Morsell on him or O-Max?
Should we hard double?   Wahl is capable but I agree,  it's primarily two guys.  If our four guards outplay Davis/Flopison I like our chances.   Kolek is due to have a good shooting game and JLew should be able to get buckets.

[BallBoy]

Well said panda.  How do we eliminate Davis?

Wisconsin has nearly lost two big leads in the second half with Houston and GT.  I think that has to do with they really only have 2.5 legit scorers. I think you press them heavy in the first half to wear them down and make them work hard.

If you can get Davis or Davison in foul trouble I think Wisconsin might struggle to score.

I think keeping Kur and Oso in the middle to blocks shots will allow some relief on Davis.

If you can keep one of Davis or Davison to a low scoring total, I like our chances.

I would push Davison to shoot contested from the outside.

I would rotate a few players on Davis to keep our legs fresh but I would start with Morsell and change up with OMax and Kam.

[BrewCity83]

I think MU's depth will wear the rodents down in the 2nd half.  UW relies so much on just a few guys, Shaka can roll out 10 guys that can play at least 15-20 minutes as needed.  We don't know who it's going to be from night to night that leads us in scoring and this looks like a game where the high-energy 40 minutes of in-your-ugly-face (I'm talking to you Davison) defense pays off in a high degree of fatigue for UW by the 4th quarter.  They just can't match our depth and we need to make them pay for that tomorrow.

[CountryRoads]

It’ll be a harder game now that the Badgers aren’t in the championship for football. The band will be there and they are worth 5 points.

But really, I think Shaka has been challenging Morsell this week and getting his mindset right to focus on shutting down Davis. I think we’ll see a big game from Morsell.

I think the local guy Joplin will hit some big threes. His stroke has looked nice lately. I hope he gets up some early shots.

Lastly, I think the badgers will get a maddening amount of offensive rebounds which may be the difference late in the game. I hope our guys are ready to fight for the boards. We’ll need them.

[blue and gold]

I think it’ll be interesting to see how Shaka decides to defend Davison and Davis.  Davis is certainly a major threat but I wouldn’t sleep on Davison.  Davison scored 27 points out of the 70 points the badgers scored in their last game which was against Georgia Tech.

I think there are multiple viable options to guard Davison and Davis.  One scenario that would be interesting is for Morsell to lock up Davison and to have a combination of Lewis, O-Max, and Joplin to guard Davis. 

It would be interesting to see Morsell face guard Davison and to run him off the 3 point line and make Davision a non-factor and then have size and athleticism gaurd Davis with Lewis, O-Max, or Joplin.

[Nukem2]

I think it’ll be interesting to see how Shaka decides to defend Davison and Davis.  Davis is certainly a major threat but I wouldn’t sleep on Davison.  Davison scored 27 points out of the 70 points the badgers scored in their last game which was against Georgia Tech.

I think there are multiple viable options to guard Davison and Davis.  One scenario that would be interesting is for Morsell to lock up Davison and to have a combination of Lewis, O-Max, and Joplin to guard Davis. 

It would be interesting to see Morsell face guard Davison and to run him off the 3 point line and make Davision a non-factor and then have size and athleticism gaurd Davis with Lewis, O-Max, or Joplin.

Morsell will be guarding Davis.

[blue and gold]

Morsell will be guarding Davis.

Why are you so certain?

Sources?

[Dr. Blackheart]

Lastly, I think the badgers will get a maddening amount of offensive rebounds which may be the difference late in the game. I hope our guys are ready to fight for the boards. We’ll need them.

I agree with your post but this part has me pondering as Bucky typically doesn't attack the offensive boards as they are taught to get back on D in the Pack Line. They are typically mid to lower end on the OR% spectrum.

[BrewCity83]

Morsell will be guarding Davis.

On Shaka's weekly radio show last night, the Homer asked him if Morsell would be the guy guarding Davis.  Shaka said yes, but that there would also be several other guys guarding Davis at times.  He wants to mix it up a bit.

[Spotcheck Billy]

I agree with your post but this part has me pondering as Bucky typically doesn't attack the offensive boards as they are taught to get back on D in the Pack Line. They are typically mid to lower end on the OR% spectrum.

From the game preview on jsonline:
They are averaging 11.0 offensive rebounds per game, up from 8.3 per game last season.

[Newsdreams]

Well said panda.  How do we eliminate Davis?

Punch him below the belt

[blue and gold]

On Shaka's weekly radio show last night, the Homer asked him if Morsell would be the guy guarding Davis.  Shaka said yes, but that there would also be several other guys guarding Davis at times.  He wants to mix it up a bit.

Mixing it up makes sense.  I would be interested to see Morsell guard Davison at times.  We'll see if that happens.

Davis is a talent, but Davison is the leader of the badgers and Davison can score a lot of points if he's in a rhythm.  For example, Davison scored 27 points in their last game which was against Georgia Tech.  If Davison goes off tomorrow, the bad guys win.

[GoldenEagles03]

I have a feeling Bucky wins this one relatively easily. This MU team is the exact type of team they feast on... Not great shooting, and one that shoots quickly. That feeds the beast. Seen it so many times over the years. Toss in the rebounding advantage, and it could be a rough one.

We'll see what happens, hope like hell I'm wrong.

Not sure how I feel. Marquette actually averages more rebounds per game, shoots a better % from 3 and the field in comparison to Madison, and has nearly double the assists per game.

MU turns the ball over far more frequently which could be a problem for this young team on the road that leads to a blowout.

Given all that I really have no idea what to expect because UW does not look very good at all, but they just win games. Should be interesting.

[The Equalizer]

From the game preview on jsonline:
They are averaging 11.0 offensive rebounds per game, up from 8.3 per game last season.

I don't think you can read any significance into that comparision.

In their first two games they averaged 14.5 offensive boards per game. (St. Francis & Green Bay)

Since then, they're only averaging 6.8 (Providence, Texas A&M, Houston, St. Marys, Georgia Tech).

[JWags85]

Davis is a talent, but Davison is the leader of the badgers and Davison can score a lot of points if he's in a rhythm.  For example, Davison scored 27 points in their last game which was against Georgia Tech.  If Davison goes off tomorrow, the bad guys win.

Davison has scored over 25 points and hit 5 3s.  He's done that 4 other times in his decade long Badger career.  I'm pretty confident in thinking he won't do it in back to back games.  I'm fine letting the guy shooting 31% from 3 on the year, and 9/38 in his last 5 games before GT, bomb away

[blue and gold]

Davison has scored over 25 points and hit 5 3s.  He's done that 4 other times in his decade long Badger career.  I'm pretty confident in thinking he won't do it in back to back games.  I'm fine letting the guy shooting 31% from 3 on the year, and 9/38 in his last 5 games before GT, bomb away

I'm pretty confident that Shaka's defensive strategy won't include letting Davison bomb away.

I would be shocked if MU doesn't attempt to run Davison off the three point line and make him as uncomfortable as possible.

Going into this year, Davison had the following career statistics at UW-Madison:

• 4th in school history - 124 career starts
• 5th in school history - .832 career FT%
• 5th in school history - 222 career 3FGs
• 12th in school history - 132 career steals
• T-19th in school history - 1,363 points
• Just the 12th player in school history with 100 career starts (100th start vs. #23 Louisville, 12/19/20)
• The 43rd Badger in school history to reach 1,000 career points (2/23/20 vs. Rutgers)

[panda]

I'm pretty confident that Shaka's defensive strategy won't include letting Davison bomb away.

I would be shocked if MU doesn't attempt to run Davison off the three point line and make him as uncomfortable as possible.

Going into this year, Davison had the following career statistics at UW-Madison:

• 4th in school history - 124 career starts
• 5th in school history - .832 career FT%
• 5th in school history - 222 career 3FGs
• 12th in school history - 132 career steals
• T-19th in school history - 1,363 points
• Just the 12th player in school history with 100 career starts (100th start vs. #23 Louisville, 12/19/20)
• The 43rd Badger in school history to reach 1,000 career points (2/23/20 vs. Rutgers)

He's a good player - he's not remotely close to the front of the line of guys I'm worrying about facing this season.