Badger football has taken us on a roller coaster ride this season. The arrival of Russell Wilson immediately brought with it the expectation not simply of a return trip to the Rose Bowl, but rather a first-time trip to the BCS Championship game. Even the most impartial of media types were talking as if the Big Ten title game was a foregone conclusion.
Well, two hail marys later these pundits are having to eat their words (myself included, although I did feel OSU would take down the Badgers after what happened in Madison last season). Wisconsin fans everywhere are having to be pulled off the ledge, dreading the thought of seeing their beloved Badgers close out the season on December 28th with Champs Sports Bowl patches on their jerseys.
Heck, remember the laughter that erupted when it was announced after the win over Indiana that the Badgers were now bowl eligible?
As if that mattered. Well, apparently it did.
Anyway, for those of you looking to get away from the disappointment that has occurred on the gridiron, Bo Ryan's squad can pretty confidently offer you a set of reasonable and excitement-worthy expectations that will almost surely be met come season's end.
National championship? Well, basketball is a whole different animal and a national title is a crapshoot even for the best teams in the nation. But Ryan has proven that the Badgers will have a shot each and every season, having qualified for the NCAA Tournament every year during his tenure in Madison.
Conference Championship? Again, they will definitely be in the hunt. With Ohio State returning sophomore forward Jared Sullinger and fellow sophomore Aaron Craft manning the point, the Buckeyes will enter the 2011-2012 season as the clear favorites to take home the Big Ten crown.
But you can be sure Ryan's crew will give the Buckeyes a run for their money. The Badgers knocked off a then-undefeated Buckeye team at the Kohl Center last season and will certainly have a shot to do the same come February 4th.
Ryan has never finished outside of the top 4 in the Big Ten. Ever. Not even Tom Izzo or Bob Knight, legends in the game, can claim that accomplishment. As long as Bo Ryan is manning the sidelines for the Badgers, you can be sure that UW will have a hand in the title race in the Big Ten.
This season, the Badgers also have a number of intriguing non-conference matchups. After last season's dismal home non-conference slate, this season includes trips to Madison by Marquette, UNLV, and always-dangerous Wofford, with the Badgers set to take a trip to Chapel Hill to face #1 UNC in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
So if you are beginning to tire of the angst brought on by the disappointment of the Badger football season, shift your focus over to the Kohl Center where a team ready to contend for a conference and maybe even a national title is just about ready to begin its season.
Monday, October 31, 2011
New Look Badgers Debut in Red-White Scrimmage
Having lost an entire front court to graduation, UW fans expected change heading into the 2011-2012 men’s basketball season, but had no clue what that change would be. Sunday Badger nation got their first look at the new product, as Wisconsin debuted a team with much more emphasis on depth and physicality than on star players and big time scorers.
Perhaps the biggest story to come out of the Red Team’s 72-56 victory was the leading scorer, a point guard not named Jordan Taylor but rather Ben Brust, the sophomore who spent last season as the point guard for UW’s scout team.
“His decision making as a point guard wasn’t as good as it is now…” UW head coach Bo Ryan said after the game. “He’s quick, we always knew that. He’s even quicker now.”
The Hawthorn Woods, Illinois native finished Sunday’s scrimmage with a game-high 22 points while also adding four assists and three rebounds in the Red team victory.
“Its nothing that we haven’t seen before,” Taylor said of Brust’s scoring. “Its just something new to the fans. Its no surprise to us.”
With the guard positions taken by Taylor and fellow sophomore Josh Gasser, Brust is looking to take hold of that third guard spot, a role the Badgers need to fill in order to have the kind of depth necessary to endure the brutal Big Ten season.
“I want that,” Brust said of taking on the third guard role. “I want to be out with the guys helping the team and winning games.”
Taylor showed flashes of last year’s brilliance, but was clearly suffering from some rust after having surgery in the off-season, finishing the game with 16 points to lead the White side.
With both returning starters filling the guard spots, much of the attention heading into Sunday’s scrimmage centered around the new-look front court, comprised largely of players with plenty of experience in a Badger uniform, but little experience in a starting role.
Juniors Mike Bruesewitz and Jared Berggren certainly showed their capability of scoring, each posting 18 points for the red side, many of those coming on the interior. Junior Ryan Evans also got into the scoring act, putting up a double-digit effort for the White squad and creating several open looks from mid range, something he has thrived on thus far in his Badger career.
If Badger fans are looking for one player to replace the scoring of Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil, they will never find one. But with the depth this year’s team seems to have, it doesn’t appear that the scoring will be lost.
In addition to additional depth, especially in the frontcourt, the Badgers will likely be a more dynamic team on the offensive end, a welcome sight for fans who are beginning to tire of the slow paced Wisconsin offense of recent years.
The Badgers now set their sights on the beginning of the season, with an exhibition game against UW-Stevens Point coming up on Saturday night.
Badger nation’s BCS hopes may have been dashed, but there is plenty of reason to get excited about UW basketball.
Perhaps the biggest story to come out of the Red Team’s 72-56 victory was the leading scorer, a point guard not named Jordan Taylor but rather Ben Brust, the sophomore who spent last season as the point guard for UW’s scout team.
“His decision making as a point guard wasn’t as good as it is now…” UW head coach Bo Ryan said after the game. “He’s quick, we always knew that. He’s even quicker now.”
The Hawthorn Woods, Illinois native finished Sunday’s scrimmage with a game-high 22 points while also adding four assists and three rebounds in the Red team victory.
“Its nothing that we haven’t seen before,” Taylor said of Brust’s scoring. “Its just something new to the fans. Its no surprise to us.”
With the guard positions taken by Taylor and fellow sophomore Josh Gasser, Brust is looking to take hold of that third guard spot, a role the Badgers need to fill in order to have the kind of depth necessary to endure the brutal Big Ten season.
“I want that,” Brust said of taking on the third guard role. “I want to be out with the guys helping the team and winning games.”
Taylor showed flashes of last year’s brilliance, but was clearly suffering from some rust after having surgery in the off-season, finishing the game with 16 points to lead the White side.
With both returning starters filling the guard spots, much of the attention heading into Sunday’s scrimmage centered around the new-look front court, comprised largely of players with plenty of experience in a Badger uniform, but little experience in a starting role.
Juniors Mike Bruesewitz and Jared Berggren certainly showed their capability of scoring, each posting 18 points for the red side, many of those coming on the interior. Junior Ryan Evans also got into the scoring act, putting up a double-digit effort for the White squad and creating several open looks from mid range, something he has thrived on thus far in his Badger career.
If Badger fans are looking for one player to replace the scoring of Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil, they will never find one. But with the depth this year’s team seems to have, it doesn’t appear that the scoring will be lost.
In addition to additional depth, especially in the frontcourt, the Badgers will likely be a more dynamic team on the offensive end, a welcome sight for fans who are beginning to tire of the slow paced Wisconsin offense of recent years.
The Badgers now set their sights on the beginning of the season, with an exhibition game against UW-Stevens Point coming up on Saturday night.
Badger nation’s BCS hopes may have been dashed, but there is plenty of reason to get excited about UW basketball.
Badger Basketball More Experienced Than They Look
Wisconsin Basketball: Same Team, Different Year.
That statement seems to ring true nearly every year that UW head coach Bo Ryan’s team hits the floor. However, this season the Badgers must replace two all-Big Ten performers in the frontcourt in Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil, who together were responsible for over 41% of last year’s scoring.
But although Wisconsin only returns two starters from last year’s Sweet 16 team, the Badgers are not as young as many have made them out to be.
“We’re pretty experienced,” senior guard Rob Wilson said at the team’s media day on Monday. “A lot of guys played in the games somewhere down in their careers. Besides the freshman being the youngsters, we have a lot of guys who’ve gotten playing time.”
UW returns both starters in the backcourt, with Wilson and Ben Brust also coming into the year with game experience at the guard positions. Senior guard Jordan Taylor will enter the season as a candidate for national player of the year and sophomore Josh Gasser comes off of a freshman season that saw him average nearly six points and four rebounds per game over the course of 34 games, tying the UW record for games played by a freshman.
“{We have} really high expectations this year…” Taylor said. “We have a lot of experience in the backcourt and everybody’s been working hard.”
With the backcourt for the most part settled, the focus turns toward a frontcourt that will feature three new starters. Despite the turnover, the Badgers have a trio of juniors with plenty of big-time game experience in Mike Bruesewitz, Jared Berggren, and Ryan Evans. Together, the three started 14 games last season and combined for nearly 10 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, numbers that they feel will continue to trend upward as this season rolls on.
“I guess it’s the Wisconsin way, upperclassmen lead the way…” Bruesewitz said. “When its your turn to step up, you’ve got to embrace that role.”
In addition to the names Badger fans are familiar with, UW adds to its arsenal redshirt freshman Evan Anderson. The 6 foot-10 inch Stanley, Wisconsin native has already impressed his teammates in early practices and will bring a new dimension of strength to the Badger front line.
“That’s what I hope to do this year, just to be a strong guy in the middle,” Anderson said. “And not let guys like {Ohio State sophomore forward} Jared Sullinger and some of those other guys get so many easy baskets.”
Anderson and the rest of the big men are hoping to improve on an interior defense that at times was a glaring weakness on an otherwise impressive defensive effort by the Badgers over the course of last season.
Although Wisconsin was 4th among all Division 1 teams in scoring defense, giving up just 58.6 points per game, they struggled to contain big men including Butler senior Matt Howard, whose twenty point effort in the NCAA Sweet 16 doused the Badgers’ hopes of a run at the Final Four.
In addition, this new front court brings a far greater interior presence on the offensive end than the Nankivil-Leuer tandem did last season.
“Jon and Keaton are such good shooters from the perimeter that we needed to get the ball on the outside. Its a tough matchup for a lot of bigs to cover them on the perimeter” Gasser said Monday. “This year, with Jared Berggren, he’s a good post scorer. And then Evan Anderson, he’s such a brute down low. Its pretty hard to stop him one-on-one.”
While UW is now more than a week into their preseason practice schedule, game action still lies nearly two weeks away with the regular season one more week down the road. In the meantime, the Badgers continue to slowly make progress, progress they hope will put them in a position to once again contend for a Big Ten title.
That statement seems to ring true nearly every year that UW head coach Bo Ryan’s team hits the floor. However, this season the Badgers must replace two all-Big Ten performers in the frontcourt in Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil, who together were responsible for over 41% of last year’s scoring.
But although Wisconsin only returns two starters from last year’s Sweet 16 team, the Badgers are not as young as many have made them out to be.
“We’re pretty experienced,” senior guard Rob Wilson said at the team’s media day on Monday. “A lot of guys played in the games somewhere down in their careers. Besides the freshman being the youngsters, we have a lot of guys who’ve gotten playing time.”
UW returns both starters in the backcourt, with Wilson and Ben Brust also coming into the year with game experience at the guard positions. Senior guard Jordan Taylor will enter the season as a candidate for national player of the year and sophomore Josh Gasser comes off of a freshman season that saw him average nearly six points and four rebounds per game over the course of 34 games, tying the UW record for games played by a freshman.
“{We have} really high expectations this year…” Taylor said. “We have a lot of experience in the backcourt and everybody’s been working hard.”
With the backcourt for the most part settled, the focus turns toward a frontcourt that will feature three new starters. Despite the turnover, the Badgers have a trio of juniors with plenty of big-time game experience in Mike Bruesewitz, Jared Berggren, and Ryan Evans. Together, the three started 14 games last season and combined for nearly 10 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, numbers that they feel will continue to trend upward as this season rolls on.
“I guess it’s the Wisconsin way, upperclassmen lead the way…” Bruesewitz said. “When its your turn to step up, you’ve got to embrace that role.”
In addition to the names Badger fans are familiar with, UW adds to its arsenal redshirt freshman Evan Anderson. The 6 foot-10 inch Stanley, Wisconsin native has already impressed his teammates in early practices and will bring a new dimension of strength to the Badger front line.
“That’s what I hope to do this year, just to be a strong guy in the middle,” Anderson said. “And not let guys like {Ohio State sophomore forward} Jared Sullinger and some of those other guys get so many easy baskets.”
Anderson and the rest of the big men are hoping to improve on an interior defense that at times was a glaring weakness on an otherwise impressive defensive effort by the Badgers over the course of last season.
Although Wisconsin was 4th among all Division 1 teams in scoring defense, giving up just 58.6 points per game, they struggled to contain big men including Butler senior Matt Howard, whose twenty point effort in the NCAA Sweet 16 doused the Badgers’ hopes of a run at the Final Four.
In addition, this new front court brings a far greater interior presence on the offensive end than the Nankivil-Leuer tandem did last season.
“Jon and Keaton are such good shooters from the perimeter that we needed to get the ball on the outside. Its a tough matchup for a lot of bigs to cover them on the perimeter” Gasser said Monday. “This year, with Jared Berggren, he’s a good post scorer. And then Evan Anderson, he’s such a brute down low. Its pretty hard to stop him one-on-one.”
While UW is now more than a week into their preseason practice schedule, game action still lies nearly two weeks away with the regular season one more week down the road. In the meantime, the Badgers continue to slowly make progress, progress they hope will put them in a position to once again contend for a Big Ten title.
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