I rewatched the DVRed games (while either quite drunk or while riding an exercise bike so the numbers were being kept in my head and may be a bit off) and my unofficial count had Western making 11-19 jump shots including 8-12 from 3. A lot of that damage was done in the first half, but they continued making enough shots in the 2nd to keep Bucky off balance.
Sienna came out hot scoring 16 points in the first 8 minutes by mostly attacking the rim. They hit just one 3 point jumper in that stretch. They then scored 17 points in the next 16 minutes which included just one more jumper hit at the 16:29 mark of the 2nd half. By that time UW was up by over 20 and the game was over.
Bucky has had 3 good offensive halves. In the first half against Western and the 2 halves against Sienna they scored 49, 43, and 44. They scored 23 in the second half against Western, and shot just 25%. Those types of halves will lose you a game even against a bad team.
I have told my coblogger that UW is going to lose some games they shouldn't this year, and they are going to win some games they shouldn't this year. I wasn't expecting it to come so soon, but I guess that just makes my point. When you have this many freshman, defense and shooting will come and go in streaks.
Some of you may call this an oversimplification. I would ask you to look at last years box score of the Rutgers game. Sometimes shooting can make all the difference in the world.
I like how you don't deign to check a boxscore for these numbers. Go with your gut, I saw.
ReplyDeleteFTR, Western hit 7-9 from three.
I actually did look at the box score for the number of 3s, but I looked at it wrong. They were 8-12 on FT, 7-9 on 3s. I didn't look at it until after I kept track because I wasn't counting 2s vs. 3s, just the number of jump shots which the box score doesn't help me with. I think the 11-19 number is pretty close to correct, The 8-12 is obviously not. Good catch.
ReplyDeleteAha. well, that's less interesting than the image I had of you running on the treadmill keeping a mental tally of three pointers and just deciding to go with it.
DeleteOf course the loss to Western is disturbing, and will perhaps be a harbinger of pain ahead. But I think there's a good chance it was just "one of those games." Other than shooting and a bit too many defensive breakdowns, the Badgers really did kind of dominate the play. One thing that struck me was that they rebounded over half their misses. This is their usual recipe for destroying inferior competition: run their offense, don't turn the ball over, but pick up a bunch of offensive rebounds without trying, just because of sheer size / athleticism.
That said, tough year to have such a murderous noncon slate.
@BPredict called this right after the game: https://twitter.com/BPredict/status/665379490969833472
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