Badgers top Xavier in Gavitt Tipoff Games

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A trio of big nights from Ethan Happ, D’Mitrick Trice and Brad Davison helped the Wisconsin Badgers avenge last season’s defeat in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, defeating Xavier 77-68 on Tuesday night. The trio combined for 71of Wisconsin’s 77 points in the victory, as the Badgers improved to 2-0 on the young season. Senior All-American Ethan Happ continued his history-making start to...

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Too many lapses during the game. The last 3:30 was not the way you play going down to the end, with a lead. Why did Gard keep Happ in the game during that stretch? He still can't hit a free throw, and Xavier knew it, and fouled him.

Tonight we had 3 guys who could score, and that was about it. Pritzl was cold. 0-6 at 3 pt range. He has to start hitting those. It's a good option off the bench. King needs to use his speed to drive the lane. I liked Trice. He's ready to play, if this game was an example of what he's got. Davison is "The Ice Man." Need a bucket? Clock running out? Give him the ball, somehow he'll stick it. Happ taking the ball end to end. That big and can actually dribble and move with the ball.

Not enough balance, and I don't think Xavier is that good a team. The Badgers need to get more guys into the scoring column. Jury still out. Might be about the middle of the pack in the Big 10. Can't say better than that at this point. Not enough bodies who are contributing.
 
TW said:
Too many lapses during the game. The last 3:30 was not the way you play going down to the end, with a lead. Why did Gard keep Happ in the game during that stretch? He still can't hit a free throw, and Xavier knew it, and fouled him.

Tonight we had 3 guys who could score, and that was about it. Pritzl was cold. 0-6 at 3 pt range. He has to start hitting those. It's a good option off the bench. King needs to use his speed to drive the lane. I liked Trice. He's ready to play, if this game was an example of what he's got. Davison is "The Ice Man." Need a bucket? Clock running out? Give him the ball, somehow he'll stick it. Happ taking the ball end to end. That big and can actually dribble and move with the ball.

Not enough balance, and I don't think Xavier is that good a team. The Badgers need to get more guys into the scoring column. Jury still out. Might be about the middle of the pack in the Big 10. Can't say better than that at this point. Not enough bodies who are contributing.
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King is still not 100%. This team is 4th or 5th in B1G
 
Could be 4th or 5th, maybe a notch or two lower. It depends on how healthy they stay. They don't have the depth to cover a loss of any of their big three during any stretch this year. With injuries, they end up easily in lower half.
 
I guess I like the depth a little more. Ford gets back for conference play, King gets to 100%. They have the ability to stretch the floor with Trice and Ford. King is really good. A quicker Keoneg
 
Packinatl said:
I guess I like the depth a little more. Ford gets back for conference play, King gets to 100%. They have the ability to stretch the floor with Trice and Ford. King is really good. A quicker Keoneg
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Ford didn't play, had surgery, may be lost for entire year. They don't know yet. Reuvers can spot up some for Happ, but is just barely adequate. Illikainen quit basketball, and will continue his studies. Thomas just never reached his potential. Strickland and Hedstrom will probably red shirt. In my opinion, their depth is horrible.

Until I see differently, there's nothing that will convince me they have the horses needed to compete at a decent level in the Big 10. As far as King is concerned, he may be quicker than Bronson Koenig, but at this point, he's shown nothing that would compare him to what Bronson did on the floor. He's getting chances to show his skills, but he hasn't as of yet. Pritzi's shot is dead cold, and he's so streaky that you never know if he can or can't be counted on for his 3s.
 
I think they have depth in terms of bodies, but until that depth shows some production, it's just warm bodies and nothing more. Here is what they've got.

PG - Trice & Anderson. Trice certainly looks legit after these first 2 games. Anderson got solid minutes at UWGB before he transferred, so it seems like he should be able to contribute a little something. So far he's not looked good and I don't think you can count on him for any offense.

SG - Davison & Pritzl. Davison is a stud. Pritzl needs to slow down and calm down. Some of his shots last night looked just a little hurried and not squared up. I think Pritzl can be adequate depth and get you 5-6 pts per game.

PF - Reuvers and Ford. Reuvers should have gotten more done last night, but a smaller line-up did not allow him much run. Ford wasn't available, but the early word on him is that we should see him by X-mas at the latest - we'll see. He showed some ability last year to where you figure he should be able to get you 6-8 pts per game if he gets some minutes.

SF - Iverson and King. Iverson is a plus defender and just a body on offense. King actually has the potential to contribute more on the offensive end but I agree with Pack, I think he's just not quite 100% yet. Not sure he will be this year, but hoping he gets close and can give them a few pts per game especially in the 2nd half of the season.

C - Happ and Thomas. Happ is a stud. Thomas is just a warm body. When I saw him as a freshman I thought he'd be a guy who could give them solid minutes and a couple of put-backs per game. Just never developed. You can't count on him for anything on offense.

Sooooo . . . you have depth, but at a couple of positions it's not really "contibuting" depth, on offense anyway. They will likely use all 10 of these guys some until about mid-Jan. After that I think Anderson won't be getting any run and Thomas minutes will be limited to only those games where the other team has more than 1 true big man or Happ and Reuvers both get into foul trouble.

Curry and Hedstrom are both red-shirting. Strickland has said he wants to play this season, but I'm not sure where he gets minutes other than in garbage time as there are 2-3 guard options off the bench before him.
 
57packer said:
I think they have depth in terms of bodies, but until that depth shows some production, it's just warm bodies and nothing more. Here is what they've got.

PG - Trice & Anderson. Trice certainly looks legit after these first 2 games. Anderson got solid minutes at UWGB before he transferred, so it seems like he should be able to contribute a little something. So far he's not looked good and I don't think you can count on him for any offense.

SG - Davison & Pritzl. Davison is a stud. Pritzl needs to slow down and calm down. Some of his shots last night looked just a little hurried and not squared up. I think Pritzl can be adequate depth and get you 5-6 pts per game.

PF - Reuvers and Ford. Reuvers should have gotten more done last night, but a smaller line-up did not allow him much run. Ford wasn't available, but the early word on him is that we should see him by X-mas at the latest - we'll see. He showed some ability last year to where you figure he should be able to get you 6-8 pts per game if he gets some minutes.

SF - Iverson and King. Iverson is a plus defender and just a body on offense. King actually has the potential to contribute more on the offensive end but I agree with Pack, I think he's just not quite 100% yet. Not sure he will be this year, but hoping he gets close and can give them a few pts per game especially in the 2nd half of the season.

C - Happ and Thomas. Happ is a stud. Thomas is just a warm body. When I saw him as a freshman I thought he'd be a guy who could give them solid minutes and a couple of put-backs per game. Just never developed. You can't count on him for anything on offense.

Sooooo . . . you have depth, but at a couple of positions it's not really "contibuting" depth, on offense anyway. They will likely use all 10 of these guys some until about mid-Jan. After that I think Anderson won't be getting any run and Thomas minutes will be limited to only those games where the other team has more than 1 true big man or Happ and Reuvers both get into foul trouble.

Curry and Hedstrom are both red-shirting. Strickland has said he wants to play this season, but I'm not sure where he gets minutes other than in garbage time as there are 2-3 guard options off the bench before him.
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I think this is a very good overview at this point. We are 2 games in so its such a small sample size but I think you can look to the last couple of weeks from last year when this group came together a bit and last night. Reuvers is so much like Kaminsky. Body needs to develop and in reality should have RS last year but injuries forced him to play. He does not have the perimeter game Frank did but it took 3 years for him to show it.

I like the makeup of this team, a bit of a chip on its shoulder.
 
57packer said:
I think they have depth in terms of bodies, but until that depth shows some production, it's just warm bodies and nothing more. Here is what they've got.

PG - Trice & Anderson. Trice certainly looks legit after these first 2 games. Anderson got solid minutes at UWGB before he transferred, so it seems like he should be able to contribute a little something. So far he's not looked good and I don't think you can count on him for any offense.

SG - Davison & Pritzl. Davison is a stud. Pritzl needs to slow down and calm down. Some of his shots last night looked just a little hurried and not squared up. I think Pritzl can be adequate depth and get you 5-6 pts per game.

PF - Reuvers and Ford. Reuvers should have gotten more done last night, but a smaller line-up did not allow him much run. Ford wasn't available, but the early word on him is that we should see him by X-mas at the latest - we'll see. He showed some ability last year to where you figure he should be able to get you 6-8 pts per game if he gets some minutes.

SF - Iverson and King. Iverson is a plus defender and just a body on offense. King actually has the potential to contribute more on the offensive end but I agree with Pack, I think he's just not quite 100% yet. Not sure he will be this year, but hoping he gets close and can give them a few pts per game especially in the 2nd half of the season.

C - Happ and Thomas. Happ is a stud. Thomas is just a warm body. When I saw him as a freshman I thought he'd be a guy who could give them solid minutes and a couple of put-backs per game. Just never developed. You can't count on him for anything on offense.

Sooooo . . . you have depth, but at a couple of positions it's not really "contibuting" depth, on offense anyway. They will likely use all 10 of these guys some until about mid-Jan. After that I think Anderson won't be getting any run and Thomas minutes will be limited to only those games where the other team has more than 1 true big man or Happ and Reuvers both get into foul trouble.

Curry and Hedstrom are both red-shirting. Strickland has said he wants to play this season, but I'm not sure where he gets minutes other than in garbage time as there are 2-3 guard options off the bench before him.
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I think this is a fair analysis. There's potential out there, but until it shows up, and produces, it's just potential. We have several games left before we open Big 10 play so there's time to work the kinks out.

But, I'm skeptical at this point. What I am impressed with most about this team is the unselfish nature of the players in giving the ball to someone else to make a bucket. That alone can help create more offense. On defense, I think the Badgers are fairly solid. What I don't believe is that this team is highly competitive if any one of the big 3 goes down with injury.
 
Yup, I agree TW. Right now, the starters are the story and if they have injuries we'll have to see how it goes. It is almost all potential right now. They have "some" depth like Pritzl and Ford who have shown some offensive ability in the past so all you can do is hope they do this season what they did last season.

After those 2 it's just warm bodies who might be able to contribute but so far really haven't done it over any stretch of games. I'm hopeful that King will get better as the year moves along as he was improving just before the injury last season. Anderson and Thomas are probably just warm bodies, though it's still early on Anderson so maybe he's just still adjusting to his new situation.

If they stay healthy I think they should finish somewhere in the 5-7 spot in the B1G. It's a really hard to slot the B1G this year. MSU seems like a clear favorite and Purdue and Indiana should be really good. Nebraska might be a big-time player. After that, who the hell knows. A bunch of teams that could be good if it falls right, or could finish in the bottom half if things don't go their way. The only team that is clearly a bottom-feeder to me is Rutgers.
 
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