Hot-Shooting Buckeyes Too Much for Wisconsin Badgers

[Da-news-now]

Wisconsin hasn’t loved first half basketball most of the 2016-17 season, and that was the case once again as the Badgers dug a 13-point halftime deficit at Ohio State. The hope was for a comeback like Sunday’s big win over Maryland.


That didn’t materialize in the second half, despite senior Bronson Koenig’s big night. He tied a career high with 27 points but got little help in an 83-73 loss on Thursday night.

Ethan Happ and Nigel Hayes no-showed on the night, combining for just 11 points, while shooting just 4 of 11 from the field.

Instead, Ohio State’s hot shooting never cooled off no matter what Wisconsin did or didn’t do defensively. OSU finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field and most importantly 63 percent from beyond the arc on 10-of-16 shooting.

It added up to Wisconsin’s third loss in the last four games and put the team a full game back of Purdue at the top of the Big Ten standings.

UW showed early signs that it would be able to build off a good second-half performance against Maryland. Vitto Brown and Koenig opened the game up with a pair of three-pointers and the Badgers were able to get a 6-4 lead early on.

That would be the last of Wisconsin’s effective team offense for most of the night.

Ohio State responded by going on a 9-0 run to run a lead to 13-6, only to see Koenig and Hayes combined for six points to make it a 13-12 game with just over 12 minutes to go in the 1st half.

That would be the last time the Badgers offense was able to really make a difference in the first half. Couple that with some horrific perimeter defense and Wisconsin was in major trouble most of the first half.

Ohio State took advantage of Wisconsin’s inability to score on one end or stop the three-point shot on the other — going in to to halftime up 44-31.

The Buckeyes shot 52 percent from the field (16-31), while holding Wisconsin to just 38 percent (9 of 24).

Wisconsin’s only answer in the first half was the hot shooting hand of Koenig, who had 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc (and the field) in the half. His four three-pointers were nearly half of Wisconsin’s made field goals in the half.

In total, the Badgers hit on seven triples and made just two baskets inside the three-point line. A lot of that was down to Ethan Happ’s absence for most of the first half. He played just six minutes, picking up two quick fouls and had just one shot (which was blocked) in the first half.

UW came out of the half hitting from deep, but once again forgot to cover the perimeter on the defensive end of the court.

The Buckeyes were able to maintain against any run the Badgers made thanks to shooting 5-of-6 from beyond the arc in the second half alone.

OSU’s lead shrunk to nine points three times in the second half. The first came after Brown hit a three-pointer with 16:56 to play, but OSU responded right back with a triple of its own.

Koenig twice put the Badgers back within single digits following that. OSU twice pushed it right back to double digits before the UW run could really get going.

After another Koenig made bucket with 14:07 to play it was UW back within striking distance at 54-45. JaQuan Lyle hit a nice fade away jumper to push it back to a double-digit lead.

Wisconsin would never get back in the game after that. Instead, it would just let it slip away slowly and painfully.

Ohio State would push its lead to 20 points twice in the final five minutes of the game, easing their way to victory after going up 77-57 with 4:39 to play.

Things don’t get much easier for the Badgers as they travel to Michigan State for a game on Sunday. Tip is scheduled for 3p.m. CT on CBS.

The post Hot-Shooting Buckeyes Too Much for Wisconsin Badgers appeared first on A Wisconsin Badgers Site.

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[TW]

This game was a disaster for Greg Gard. His team was flat-footed from the opening whistle, and they did nothing to change the pace of the game from that chosen by OSU.

I'd like to say this was a one of a kind thing but in all honesty, I think this Wisconsin team is fragile. They leave their game in the locker room way too often.

If Gard can't get this team back on track, they're going to be listed as one of the biggest disappointments in Wisconsin's basketball history, and people will start talking about Gard being the wrong choice, with Bennett having been a better one.

Where they go from here is interesting. Outside of Happ, I don't see anyone coming up down the road to help this team stay near the top.

 

[57packer]

I have some hope TW.

They have their highest ranked recruiting class since the Cofield days coming in next year - two 4-star recruits and a 3-star (depending on which site you are looking at). Class quality is on par with Villanova & North Carolina. Not necessarily a "can't miss" group, but certainly some talent that may help. Likely not a ton of help next year as true freshman, but I'm not so sure the future doesn't have some reasons to believe they can stay near the top of the Big-10. The only Big-10 schools bringing in better classes are Illinois and Maryland. It's likely Illinois will find a way to waste that talent as they seem to do every year. Maryland certainly will remain a threat to stay at the top of the Big-10 standings.

Now, Gard needs to find a way to use that talent. This year, unfortunately we've not seen much development from last year's freshman. They pretty much still look lost at times just like they did a year ago. We've not seen anything from Happ in terms of adding to his game. What he does, he does better, but his game has not expanded to include anything from mid-range nor have we seen improvement at the free throw line. Gard will earn his money next year trying to get some scoring from what will be his juniors next year, expanding Happ's game, and getting "something" from his talented frosh.

Happ is both the answer and the question right now. (You can kind of include Hayes in the same discussion.) I'm hardly a basket ball strategist, but even a b-ball goof like me can see what's happening. They tend to post feed him close to the baseline which allows him an easier path to score, but also allows the opponent to more easily double him. Once the double comes they take away the baseline and his ability to curl back to into the middle. All he's got in terms of an easy pass is to the guy in the corner on his side. Teams are covering that option leaving him with only the tougher passes over the top of (and through) the double team where deflections and steals are more likely. He's not that tall which kind of compounds the problem with passing over the top. They need to get him to receive the post feed and almost immediately make the pass back out. (They also need to send some cutters into the lane behind the double team.) Teams are doubling down on him so fast and so hard, he really can wait and see what's coming. If they'd pass it back out to the periphery more quickly they might catch the defender(s) in no man's land, but right now it's taking too long and the double team is allowed to get there and the other defenders have time to get to their spots. It's leading to turnovers and a real herky-jerky looking offense right now. Gard needs to find a way to fix it, but after more than a half dozen games like this right now, I'm not sure if he can't, or if the players just aren't listening.