Author: Isaac Bushnell

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Badgers stray away from Wisconsin identity in Notre Dame collapse

Isaac BushnellLeave a comment

Ever since Bo Ryan took over as head coach, Wisconsin basketball has forged an identity as a team that does not beat themselves. Tonight, however, this Wisconsin team did just that when it mattered most. The Badgers were eliminated in the Sweet 16 by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a 61-56 heartbreaker – and turnovers were the reason why.

Overall, Wisconsin turned the ball over 17 times, the second most in a single game during the Greg Gard era. Of those 17, the most crucial were two from upperclassmen leaders Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig in the final 30 seconds that caused a three-point lead to shockingly evaporate into a five-point loss and a journey home.

“We’re a program that prides itself on taking care of the ball,” Gard said in a dejected opening statement of his press conference moments ago. “Obviously, I’m disappointed from the standpoint of having 17 turnovers.”

“We had too many turnovers,” said Hayes, citing the main reason for losing the game. “We didn’t play well enough and should have won this game.”

Forward Vitto Brown, whose three-pointer with 30 seconds left would have been a game-winner on most other nights, acknowledged that the turnovers meant the team had strayed away from its Wisconsin identity.

“Sure, they earned the win, but we definitely gave it away as well,” Brown said in a quiet locker room post-game statement. “We just started moving in slow-motion down the stretch and you can’t do that.”

“We turned it over 17 times, man,” said backup guard Jordan Hill. “That’s just not Wisconsin-like. It was very out of character for us.”

“Yeah, we were up for most of the game despite coughing the ball up and taking suspect shots, but there were just miscommunications that you can’t have at this point in the season,” Hill elaborated. “Guys should know each other well enough to not keep throwing the ball out of bounds to the coaches — myself included.”

Undoubtedly, the most crucial mistake of the night was Hayes’ turnover. With 15 seconds remaining and the Badgers up one in a position to close out the game, the junior forward coughed up the ball trying to split a trap in the backcourt leading to an easy layup that gave Notre Dame the lead. Coach Gard was questioned extensively about the instance in his press conference afterward.

“We wanted to get the ball to Nigel, which is what we did,” Gard said. “I liked, with him being older, bigger, stronger, that he can go through traps. He can go over the top of traps. But I wanted the ball in his hands for sure.”

“I’ll have to look at the tape to see exactly what happened. I know he tried to split [the trap] and the ball got knocked away and obviously it ended up with the layup for them.”

“In that situation, my main concern was getting the ball in bounds, but you have to make sure you take care of the ball in those key situations and tonight we didn’t.”

“In terms of what I talked about in the timeout, they did exactly what I wanted them to do and got it where I wanted them to get it. I guess [in that situation] you’ve got to do a better job of trying to split that trap or getting rid of it before the trap comes.”

Despite the self-inflicted nature of the loss, Gard still managed to reflect and draw positives from the night full of giveaways.

“17 turnovers is bad, but we’ll deal with it,” Gard assured. “I thought we never quite got to where we needed to get taking care of the ball all year, but part of it is our youth. Part of it is things we’ve still got to mature through and grow. Part of it is decision-making that we need to become even smarter basketball players. That’s an area in the offseason we can really hone in on with this young group.”

“Hopefully with experience, albeit sometimes rough experiences like tonight in a season-ending situation like this, that we learn from that and use it to fuel what’s down the road.”

Leave it to the man who salvaged a lost season to come up with a positive outlook on a calamitous season-ending loss like the one he experienced tonight. Still, the fact remains that Gard is correct. This is a young team that matured so much in the course of the last two-and-a-half months, and will be able to mature so much more throughout an offseason spent together as a group. As heart-breaking as tonight’s loss was, the future remains bright for this group and the identity of Wisconsin basketball will be preserved and even flourish in the season that we can all now look forward to.

during the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament East Regional at Wells Fargo Center on March 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Wisconsin’s season ends with Sweet 16 as Notre Dame comes back in final minute

Isaac BushnellLeave a comment

After the most wild and heartbreaking final minute imaginable, the Wisconsin Badgers found themselves on the wrong end of a 61-56 decision against Notre Dame on Friday night.

With the game knotted at 51 with a minute to play, Ethan Happ converted a second chance layup to give the Badgers a two-point lead, before picking up his fifth foul diving on top of Zach Auguste chasing down a shot that he had blocked on the other end. Auguste sank the two free throws to tie the game, but Vitto Brown nailed a huge wing three-pointer with under 30 seconds to play. A disastrous 8-0 Notre Dame run in the final 19 seconds, aided by a defensive lapse after the Brown three-pointer and two turnovers from Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig, sent the Badgers crashing out of the tournament.

The contest opened up in unfamiliar fashion for the Badgers, with the action racing from one end of the floor to the other thanks to turnovers and quick shots from both sides. Shots were falling during this stretch for both teams and Wisconsin held a 13-9 lead at the 13 minute mark thanks to five points a piece from their starting backcourt. A Badger timeout helped Wisconsin slow down the game, but also slowed down the scoring. In almost 3 minutes after the timeout, neither team scored a basket until hard work by Ethan Happ on the glass and a great look from Showalter to find Khalil Iverson underneath broke the ice. Notre Dame’s switch to a 2-3 Zone after that first timeout initially flustered the Badgers offensively, forcing 6 turnovers, but on the offensive end the Irish could not buy a bucket against a stifling Wisconsin D. At the 4:55 mark in the first half, they were shooting just 22% from the field and had just five made field goals.

A Bronson Koenig three stretched the Badger lead to 22-13 and forced Notre Dame coach Mike Brey to call a timeout to sort out his struggling offense. Out of that timeout however, unheralded Irish 2-guard Matt Farrell nailed a three-pointer to cut the lead to six, and the Badgers offense promptly went ice cold. A lone free throw from the quiet Nigel Hayes was the only scoring they would do before the half. They fortunately managed to continue their absolute suffocation of Notre Dame defensively, and a Bonzie Colson layup and Zach Auguste free throw were the only points the Irish managed before the half. The Badgers headed to the locker room clinging to an ugly 23-19 lead.

Zach Showalter was the shining light of the first half for Wisconsin, playing lockdown perimeter defense on Notre Dame’s star guard Demetrius Jackson, drawing a patented charge, and contributing his five points to the cause on 2-4 shooting.

The second half started at a quicker pace and the offenses began to pick up somewhat. Happ bullied his way down low against Auguste for six early points, two coming off offensive rebounds of his own misses. The under-sixteen media timeout saw the Badgers up 31-26. Happ continued to have his way against Auguste and impose his will on the game, exemplified by a powerful drive from the top of the key and a lay-in for his 11th and 12th points of the night that extended the Badgers’ lead to eight points. Just as the lead reached that point, turnovers reared their ugly head again for the Badgers, and their 10th and 11th turnovers of the game on consecutive possessions around the 12 minute mark allowed Notre Dame to cut the lead to four with two transition baskets, prompting the to that point subdued Irish faithful to come alive. That run continued and with 10 minutes to play Demetrius Jackson finally wriggled free of the clutches of Jordan Hill to knot the game at 34.

Nigel Hayes’ first made 3 in 20 attempts silenced the roaring Irish crowd, but a travel negated his dunk the next possession, and a tip in from Auguste and 2 free throws from Jackson gave Notre Dame their first lead since they led 5-4. The tide was stemmed by Showalter, who continued to have the game of his life, exploding for a tip dunk and sweeping in for a finger roll on back-to-back possessions to restore a 3 point lead for the Badgers with 6:38 remaining. The lead then changed hands twice in the space of a minute, and two free-throws from Auguste knotted the game at 44 with four minutes remaining. Hayes’ second three in two attempts after missing his previous 20 then sent the Wisconsin contingent of the stands into a frenzy, and a Jordan Hill steal and layup then blew the roof off the Wells Fargo Center and gave Wisconsin a 5 point lead with 3:330 to play. But the Fighting Irish lived up to their name and just would not go away. An Auguste alley-lop dunk capped a late 7-2 run to tie the game at 51 with a minute remaining. Then followed the collapse that ended the Badgers season.

“We just started moving in slow-motion down the stretch,” said a downtrodden Brown in the locker room post game. “Yes, they earned the win but we gave it away.”

Despite containing the best of Notre Dame’s scorers for the majority of the game, they were able to catch up at the end. Demetrius Jackson had 16 points on 6-of-18 shooting, and V.J. Beachem added a game-high 19 on 7-of-11 shooting for Notre Dame. Wisconsin was led by Ethan Happ, who despite fouling out in the last minute of the game, went for 14 and 12. Nigel Hayes and Zak Showalter both added 11 in the losing effort.

“We were feeling like we had them where we wanted them, we just couldn’t clean up the turnovers,” said an equally somber Hill. “We overcame a lot of adversity throughout the game and we were up for most of it, so to lose it at the end is gut-wrenching.”

“Obviously we wanted more and it’s tough to lose a game like that,” said the Badgers’ star of the night Showalter. “We didn’t take it one possession at a time in the key moments and this is what happens when you don’t take care of the ball.”

“Losing in the Sweet 16 is never what you want, and this hurts a lot right now,” Showalter continued. “We lost in a game that we should have won.”

“We should have won this game,” Koenig stated more bluntly. “We should really be in the Elite Eight.”

“It’s the roller-coaster of emotions” said Hayes, who remained coy on whether he would be returning to the program in the post-game press conference. “We go from Vitto hitting that three, to thinking we still have a chance in the game, to Jackson hitting those two free throws and were down five and going home.”

“I really believe we should have won this game,” Hayes added. “We have the better team but we didn’t play well enough and had too many turnovers.”

 

 

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Ethan Happ’s rise to March stardom

Isaac BushnellLeave a comment

The day was Wednesday, February 10th.

The Wisconsin Badgers were five games into a season-defining win streak and were welcoming Big Ten bottom-feeder Nebraska into the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Their redshirt-freshman center Ethan Happ was undoubtedly already a household name in basketball circles. He had poured in 18 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and willed his struggling teammates to an overtime win in Syracuse’s vaunted Carrier Dome. He had posted another mammoth double-double against a far more heralded rookie counterpart in Maryland’s Diamond Stone. He had forced in a layup in the last 12 seconds to knock off a Michigan State team lauded as one of the nation’s best. He had dominated future-lottery pick Thomas Bryant and Indiana with a career-high 25 points to hand the eventual Big Ten champions their first conference loss.

With a resumé like this, filled with big-time performances against big-time players and teams, most would assume it would have been hard for then-interim coach Greg Gard to ask for anymore from his 6’9” workhorse down low. However, during that seemingly innocuous mid-winter night, that assumption was proved entirely wrong.

Happ struggled mightily, going without a field goal on three attempts and pulling down an insignificant three rebounds. The Badgers won the game comfortably, but Coach Gard was anything but comfortable with the showing from his big guy.

“At home against Nebraska he really struggled,” recalled Gard after Thursday’s practice in Philadelphia. “I think he only scored two points. He was in foul trouble, it just wasn’t his night. Typically with freshmen you see a lot of peaks and valleys. You see a good night where they look like they’ve been there three or four years, and then you see [a night where] they just walked off of a high school gym and into the college game. Nebraska was one of those nights [for Ethan].”

Gard knew that the talent in Happ’s game was there, but knew that it would mean nothing going forward if he could not develop the consistency that he was lacking. Gard did not pull any punches in challenging his young star with the necessity of bringing it night  in and night out, against whatever opposition stood in the way. Both parties acknowledge that that performance, that challenge, and that night played a vital role in both Happ’s improvement, and the Badgers’ success as a whole.

“I really saw him turn a corner after [that game],” Gard revealed. “I think his consistency level has grown over the last month and a half [since Nebraska], he practices at a higher rate for longer periods of time, and he has really matured in those terms.”

“Yeah, I think it was [a turning point],” Happ agreed when he took the podium shortly after his coach on Thursday. “My mindset was the biggest thing that it changed. It wasn’t anything physical or skill-wise. I kind of just stopped getting down on myself for not performing well and I think that helped myself and the team get to where we are now.”

“When [Ethan] first got on campus, he took criticism pretty hard,” recalled teammate Bronson Koenig, speaking beside Happ. “He’s done a better job recently not getting so down on himself and has really mentally matured in that sense since [last year].”

Of course, last year for Happ was a unique but frustrating learning experience. Being redshirted and ineligible to play in official games, the only competition he got was day to day match ups with the best player in the country, teammate Frank Kaminsky. These matchups were not always as easy-going and friendly as you might think.

“Frank could get under a lot of people’s skin,” Gard admitted. “He could get under my skin, and he got under Ethan’s skin, but Ethan would give it right back. On the court, that usually [resulted] in physical play.”

Although the nature of their battles in practice may have often been contentious, Happ is quick to acknowledge the value of his experiences against Frank the Tank.

“I owe a lot of my game to Frank,” Happ said. “Whether it was him verbally telling me what to do or me just learning from the experience of playing against him. I’ve learned a lot of moves from him.”

“Having Frank to go against all of last year was something special,” he continued. “I think redshirting was the best decision for me [because] I think I wouldn’t have been able to play against him every day in practice if I hadn’t done that and would not have learned what I learned from him.”

With the skills that he honed under the tutelage of an all-time Wisconsin great and the maturity and consistency levels he has developed since that game in February, Happ has been the Badgers most valuable player on their latest, most unexpected run into the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. He got the team out of jail against Pittsburgh in round one with 15 of their 47 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and was the lynchpin for their offense in a second round upset of Xavier, depositing 18 points on just 10 shots.

In the Regional Semifinal against Notre Dame, he will face his toughest challenge yet in the form of the Irish’s senior center Zach Auguste. Happ seems well-versed about the threat that Auguste poses, and is aware of the different breed of big man that he belongs to.

“He’s a bulldog,” Happ said of his counterpart on Friday night. “Coach has talked about how you have to match his intensity and keep him in check.”

“He has really quick feet,” Happ noted about the difference between Auguste and the elite centers he has had success against. “I’ve been able to use [my quickness] to my advantage playing in the Big Ten, but now he’s got the same skill set so I will have to go to work against that.”

If Happ appears knowledgeable about the unique skill set that Auguste possesses, the same cannot be said the other way around, as Happ seems to be flying under the radar of the Notre Dame star.

“Yeah, I haven’t got to see too much from him,” Auguste admitted yesterday when questioned about his matchup with Happ. “I watched a little bit of their game [against Xavier], I’m just focused on playing within myself and on us as a team.”

Happ will certainly be hoping that Auguste knows a thing or two more about him by the final buzzer in Philadelphia friday night, and will be intent upon showcasing the qualities that he has acquired over his two years in Madison that have molded him into a star.

Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame tips off at 6:27 PM CT in Philadelphia, and Happ will be intent upon leading the Badgers to victory and a spot in the Elite Eight for the third season running.

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Wisconsin-Notre Dame preview: Badgers face challenge in balanced, high octane offense

Isaac BushnellLeave a comment

At first glance, this year’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Wisconsin Badgers squads are practically mirror images of each other. Their most frequently used lineups are nearly identical player-for-player, they boast equally balanced scoring attacks with every starter scoring in or around double figures, they each play at a methodical tempo that ranks amongst the bottom-30 in the nation, and they both braved top power conferences en route to nearly identical records and seeding in the NCAA tournament. Furthermore, this striking superficial resemblance is not just limited to this year’s teams, but extends to the established identity of both basketball programs in the past decade.

“I think there are a lot of  similarities between our two programs,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “It seems like every year nobody talks about Notre Dame through the first week of the tournament but you get to that second weekend and there they are. The names change, the numbers change, but their production on the floor and how they develop their players does not change, which is much like us [as a program].”

“I have the utmost respect for the Wisconsin program and what they’ve been able to build —they are a little bit like us,” echoed Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey. “They always run what they always run [offensively] and they’re a team that’s supposed to win every close game.”

However, regardless of the parallels between the two programs’ past and between their similarly constructed present, the narrative going into this game is most certainly one of contrast rather than congruence.

The Badgers come into this game hanging their hat on a suddenly elite defense that has gotten them to this point in March.

“Last week we grew as much defensively as we had all year in the two games against Pittsburgh and Xavier,” Gard said. “Our toughness level and our commitment to the defensive end has grown exponentially in the last two, three weeks, but really showed its face last weekend [in wins against Pittsburgh and Xavier].”

The Irish, on the other hand, struggle defensively but have developed into a dominant machine on the offensive end of the floor that can win games on its own.

“We have one of the most efficient offenses in the country,” boasts center Zach Auguste, one of the vital cogs in that machine.

“We pretty much play positionless in a four-around-one around Zach,” says teammate V.J. Beachem. “It allows for the freedom to cut, move the ball, drive, and knock down open shots which we can all do.”

When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object something has to give, and that outcome hinges on the approach from both sides of the ball. The importance of derailing the potent Irish attack is not lost on Gard and his team.

“It will be what we do as a team defensively that will win us this game,” Gard asserted. “We’re going to have to be very good in transition, and we have to get out on shooters, but it all starts with being very good in the gaps in terms of taking away dribble penetration.”

The player who will go for that dribble penetration every second when he’s on the floor is Notre Dame point guard and leading scorer Demetrius Jackson.

“Whenever you have a really good point guard, you always have a chance to win,” Gard said. “They have a terrific one in Jackson, and we know we’ll have to be very good [on him] to win.”

For Mike Brey and his high-octane offense, Jackson’s penetration is an element that they must establish to create the open jump shots and in-close opportunities that their many shooters and scoring bigs thrive on. The way to do that for him is to increase his team’s usual tempo.

“You have to try to get up and down the floor on [Wisconsin],” Brey said. “For our ball handlers like Jackson, it’s gonna be a long night if he has to always play against their set defense.”

To help out Jackson against the Badgers’ stifling defense, Brey will turn to a creative approach that has paid dividends for him over the past few games.

“We might trend towards putting two ball handlers on the floor to take some of the load off of Demetrius and you might see [backup point guard] Matt Ferrell on the floor with him a lot,” Brey explained. “With Matt Ferrell in the lineup we will have another guy who can push it in transition and get us some easy buckets before they get set.”

As is often the case with Wisconsin basketball, it looks as if tempo will be a defining factor to differentiate these two equal yet opposite teams. If number of possessions are low, shot clocks are long, and point totals stay in the 50s or 60s, Gard and the Badgers will likely walk out as the victors. Should the game take on a more up and down feel and creep up into the 70s and 80s, they will likely be back in Madison two days sooner than they would have liked.

The game tips Friday night at 6:27 p.m. CT on TBS, with Notre Dame standing as the one-point favorite.

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Press Conference Notes: Badgers set to take on Notre Dame in Philly

Isaac BushnellLeave a comment

Players and coaches from both sides of the highly anticipated regional semi-final clash between the Badgers and Notre Dame took the podium Thursday morning to discuss their respective teams and their upcoming matchup. Quotes below come from Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard, Wisconsin players Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig, Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey, and Notre Dame players Demetrius Jackson and Zach Auguste.

Greg Gard

On his experiences over the past year:

“Going back to the Final Four last year and that whole run, into the spring with my dad and that whole journey with him with cancer. And then obviously everything that played out in December with Coach Ryan retiring, it’s been a whirlwind. Someday maybe it will be in my book. But it’s been surreal. Everything has happened so fast and there have been so many events. It’s been the worst year of my life and it’s been the best year of my life rolled into one. So hopefully we’ve got a couple of more weeks left in us here, and weekends. Then at that point in time, maybe in May, I’ll be able to sit back and really reflect on it. But fortunately these guys have kept me busy so I don’t have to worry about looking in the rearview mirror right yet.”

On his contract:

“The loss of the interim tag was our best loss of the season.”

On comparing his program to Notre Dame’s:

“Much like us, the names change, the numbers change, but the production in terms of what they do on the floor together and how they grow together, their ability to develop players, I think, doesn’t change. And I think there’s a lot of similarities between [us and them].”

“You can go through the lineup and, much like us, they’ve had different guys contribute and help them in different roles throughout the season, help them grow. For us, we know we’ll have to be very good to beat them.”

On steadying the ship after Bo Ryan’s departure:

“They always say do what you know and know what you do. And so I really trusted on the last 23 years of experience with Bo and went back to what I really believed in and kept it simple. I talked a lot both to our team about the process and not worrying about the results, not worrying about the scoreboard. I get that from Nick Saban in several of his books that I’ve read.”

On the origins of the season’s turnaround:

“Even when we started 1-4 and 9-9, I saw a lot of good things happening. I saw a lot of things happening very positively in practice. Everybody focused on the last 18 seconds against Maryland when Melo Trimble hit the 25-footer against us, or the two 3s that Purdue hit in the last minute to beat us or our last possession at Indiana where we turned it over and they hit free throws to get a larger lead. But I saw a lot of good things happening. It was a matter of getting better in those first 50 to 65 possessions of the game. So the last possession of the game maybe wasn’t magnified or we were even in better position.”

On getting introduced to adversity:

“We didn’t have anybody in our locker room that had gone through ups and downs. You were 66-12 in the last two years, so there’s Hayes’ and Koenig’s freshmen and sophomore years — two Final Fours, 66-12. That’s not the normal college basketball athlete’s experience. They’ll usually have to go through some form of adversity, and this was the real first time that the boat had been rocked in two years. So we had to grow through that a little bit.”

On the swing offense:

“Well, I think the one thing, it helped our younger guys. Two things it helped establish for us — it put Hayes and Happ in their comfort zone on the block. And it also gave us better spacing away from the ball and gave them more room to operate. The second thing was it gave all our younger guys a comfort level — a continuity offense helped them, put them on track, so to speak, and allowed them to develop within it. We break off the pattern. We’re still not — we still are a little robotic in it. And that will take time as we run it through the summer and into next year. As they become more accustomed to it in the offseason.”

“There’s a lot of motion concepts within it. It’s basically ball-side triangle, and we have options that we play out of the ball side and we have options that we play out of the weak side. So from that standpoint, trying to get to the free-throw line was key for us, and we did. We were able to get there a lot through that stretch in January and early February. I think that helped — this team is different than last year’s team in terms of how they score and how they can score. So we had to manufacture other ways and part of that was trying to really touch the post and play inside out. And that resulted in us getting to the free-throw line more and it also resulted in getting better looks from the perimeter and better outside shots, we were able to play inside out and take better 3s than what we were taking in the year.”

On his team’s defensive growth during the NCAA tournament:

“Last week we grew as much defensively as we had all year in the two games against Pittsburgh and Xavier. And hopefully that experience and developing that mindset and that maturity — and understand this is the first time in 15 years we have not had a senior starter or senior player in the rotation. So our maturity level, we’ve had to expedite that through this season. I think last week we took a huge jump, especially on the defensive end. We had 60 days ago we couldn’t defend like we did last weekend. So our toughness level and our commitment to the defensive end has grown exponentially in the last two, three weeks, but really showed its face last weekend.”

On the threats posed by Notre Dame:

“We’ll have to be very good in transition. We’re going to have to be very good in the gaps in terms of taking away dribble penetration. We obviously have got to get out on shooters. We’ll have our hands full with Auguste inside and Colson inside.”

“Whenever you have a really good point guard you always have a chance. They have a terrific one in Demetrius Jackson. And then the other [factors] — how Auguste has developed through the year, how Beachem is shooting the ball for them, what Vasturia does for them — you can go through the whole lineup.”

On the Koenig game-winner:

“Well, I don’t know if I drew it up and said run to the corner and shoot a step-back 24-footer. Our players make plays. And Bronson hit an unbelievable shot, probably one of the best shots in Wisconsin basketball history.”

“It was Nigel’s idea to advance instead of taking the timeout.”

“I’ve seen [Bronson] take a lot of big shots. He hasn’t made every big one that I’ve seen him take, but you have to have a confidence inside of you.”

On his respect for Notre Dame coach Mike Brey:

“Mike’s got a great team. Seems like every year nobody talks about Notre Dame in the Selection Sunday or that first week, but you get to the second weekend, there they are. I think he’s done a tremendous job of really identifying the type of student-athlete he needs at Notre Dame to fit to his system.”

“Mike’s been terrific every time I’ve run into him. Haven’t seen him yet this weekend but he’s actually going to be our keynote speaker at our Coaches Versus Cancer gala in May, that we raise a lot of money for the American Cancer Society for. But I think just that, how he’s done it year in, year out.”

Mike Brey

On his respect for Greg Gard and Wisconsin Basketball:

“I have the utmost respect for the Wisconsin program and Bo Ryan…Greg Gard should be mentioned for national coach of the year stuff. I mean, this team was 9-9, 1-4. They lost to Milwaukee and Western-Illinois at home. And he’s got them really playing. I think they’re extremely confident.”

On strategy against the Badgers:

“[Steve] Vasturia will have to do a job guarding [Nigel] Hayes tomorrow night.”

“You have to try and get down on the floor on them a little bit and not play against their set defense. One of the things that’s helped us with Matt Farrell in the lineup, we have another guy that can push it in transition other than Jackson, and we can maybe get some easy buckets. Because if you have to play against their set defense, it becomes kind of a long night.”

Nigel Hayes

On former AAU teammate and current Notre Dame forward V.J. Beachem:

“I was just texting him actually a second ago. I’ll probably go into Notre Dame’s locker room and say what’s up to him. If that causes any trouble, I’ve got my guys with me. We’ll settle that quickly.”

On the episode after the Northwestern game and coming together as a team:

“Again, with that question, I don’t know if essentially we came together. I mean, we’ve always been close with one another, hung out with one another. I think what happened was it was more a sense of urgency combined with guys starting to believe in themselves.”

On getting to the line:

“I’ve watched James Harden, how he accumulates a lot of fouls. I watched his technique and the way he’s able to draw fouls. I would not share that technique with you guys because I don’t want [officials and opponents] using it against us. But what he’s done with those fouls I’ve tried to replicate.”

On Coach Gard’s attention to detail:

“One of the things he always harps on me is when I drive through, I need to focus on jump stopping instead of going off one foot. And that jump stopping allows you to, if you don’t have a shot right away you have a chance to pump fake, you can pivot, you can find an open teammate.”

Bronson Koenig

On how Coach Gard smoothed the transition from Coach Ryan:

“It wasn’t really much of a change because they had the same, generated the same philosophies on everything. He told us right from the start that it wasn’t about him, that it was about the players, and he was going to do his best to make sure that we are in the best position possible for success and that’s what he did. And he told us it wasn’t an audition.”

On how his one-on-one pre-game match ups with Nigel prepared him for his big shot:

“The rule is that neither of us could go to the basket, so we have to shoot all jump shots basically. It’s pretty tough getting it over his outstretched arms. So that’s just one of the shots that I have to perfect, basically, if I want to beat him in the one-on-one games which I do most of the time.”

On how his life has changed since the shot:

“I just get asked more questions like this. That’s pretty much it.”

Notre Dame leading-scorer Demetrius Jackson

On Bronson Koenig:

“He’s a really great player. I saw him play a little bit of high school as well. He can really shoot the ball. And he has great fundamentals. And so he’s just a really great player. So it’s going to be fun being matched up as a competitive person. I just love being matched up against other great guards.”

On their offensive approach against the Badgers:

“We’re going to throw the ball into Zach [Auguste] a bunch, give him a bunch of post feeds and let him go to work.”

Notre Dame Forward Zach Auguste

On his teammate’s suggested strategy:

“Yeah, I agree.”

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Sweet Sixteen: Three obstacles to overcome against Notre Dame

Isaac BushnellLeave a comment

What was once an unassailable deluge of roadblocks that lay in the Badgers’ path to the Final Four in Houston has been narrowed down to so few that the end destination is now in sight. Should Wisconsin manage to control these three factors, an Elite Eight appearance is more than possible. Allow me to identify them for you.

1. Notre Dame’s Pick & Roll

The pick and roll is seldom utilized in the college game compared to the NBA game. This is due to the fact that its effectiveness relies on a tandem of a lightning quick guard with infallible decision making abilities and an athletic big man with deft scoring touch, a tandem that rarely exists in the college game. Notre Dame’s Demetrius Jackson and Zach Auguste are the exception to that rule. Jackson has pro-level speed and takes care of the basketball, while the 6’10” Auguste exhibits unrivaled leaping ability around the rim and scores with stunning efficiency from in close. Their pick and roll is the basis of an offense that ranks seventh in the country in adjusted efficiency and top-20 in lowest turnover percentage. Wisconsin has seen this twice before this year in the form of Indiana’s Yogi Ferrel and Thomas Bryant, and struggled to defend it both times. Jackson and Auguste are on another level entirely and their partnership could spell trouble for the Badgers, seeing that they have no obvious matchup for the dynamic Irish guard.

2. The Luck (Shooting) of the Irish

The Nebraska fluke aside, Wisconsin’s only recent loss has come at the hands of a Purdue team that knocked down eight first-half threes at a 67% clip to pull away early and put the game out of reach. This Notre Dame team has the potential to do that and more. The Irish play a 4-around-1 offense with shooters lining the perimeter around Auguste, and with Jackson’s ability to find them they are capable of getting the long-range bombs dropping early and often. Stretch-4s V.J. Beachum and Matt Ryan are two of the top 3-point shooters in the country at upwards of 38%, while starting 2-man Steve Vasturia can fill it up from deep as well. Jackson himself has been known to get in an unconscious zone of three-point shooting, and if Wisconsin allows open looks to stem from the Irish’s penetration or offensive rebounding, this game could sadly resemble that early March beatdown in West Lafayette. Fortunately for the Badgers, they have covered the three-pointer exceptionally well since Greg Gard took over. That will need to continue on Friday night.

3. Poor Wisconsin Shooting

Not a single team left in the East regional will let the Badgers get away with what happened against Pitt. You can laud the defense that they were able to play in that game all you want, but no type of defense against any of the three teams remaining will prevent a loss during a high-40s or low-50s offensive performance. You can argue the Pitt game was a fluke, but the fact that the same shooting woes surfaced against Nebraska the week prior to that suggests that possibility that this Badgers team could be plagued by them on any given night, and could send themselves crashing out of the tournament.

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The *Real* Storylines of March Madness

Isaac BushnellLeave a comment

In recent years, NCAA March Madness has undoubtedly emerged as America’s most widespread and unanimously loved sporting spectacle. It has become more than just an event, but rather a month-long phenomenon stuffed to capacity with emotions and narratives that somehow strike an equally powerful chord with those of all ages, genders, and levels interest in sports. There are so many elements of March Madness that you can come to love. There are the upsets, the buzzer-beaters, the jubilation of victory and the agony of defeat. There are the breakout stars, the charismatic coaches and the frenzied fans. And of course, there is the pageantry of entire tournament, the around the clock TV coverage, the many bracket pools, and the total impassioned investment of so many people in the outcome of so many games. That is why the common, everyday American loves March Madness and tunes in year after year.

Then there is me… I am not a common everyday American, but rather a manic sports nerd who would rather spend his time watching Hampton vs. Savannah State in the semifinal of the MEAC conference tournament than interacting with other humans. If you are like me, which I pray for your sake and the world’s sake that you are not, you have filled your life with the routine drama and spectacle of college basketball for the past four months and are perhaps becoming a bit jaded with all of these common pleasures that make March Madness great. You may find yourself craving extra excitement and tension that lies outside the realms of the traditional view of March. If so, you have come to the right place.

Below I will give you the real story lines of March Madness. Every year I come up with a set of narratives just like these to go above and beyond the universally beloved layers of the March bonanza, and I am honored to share them with you this time around. They have yielded spectacular results for me in past years in terms of personal entertainment value, and this year’s crop looks to be one of the most compelling ones yet.

The McGary Award Watchlist

Forget the Wooden Award; forget the Final Four Most Outstanding Player. The race for the coveted McGary Award is easily the most captivating out there. Named after former-Michigan forward Mitch McGary, the criteria for winning the award is as follows:

  • You must be a distinctly average white dude who plays major minutes for a contending school
  • You must play two or more consecutive good games as your school makes a run deep into March
  • You must, as a result, be immediately christened as a basketball Jesus by the media solely based on these two or more games

Pre-tournament Favorites

Alex Caruso, G, Texas A&M

The perfect juxtaposition of his male-pattern baldness and his “sneaky athleticism” make the Aggies senior point guard my leading candidate for the award. If he is able to take on an assertive role in the offense during a likely Final Four run, the award is his for the taking.

Matt Costello, C, Michigan State

His defining qualities are his infectious passion and senior know-how, and he is just talented enough too put together some impactful performances. I would say that it would be hard for him to upstage anything that Denzel Valentine might do during a potential Sparty title run, but then again, McGary had Trey Burke on his team, so anything is possible.

Jake Layman, F, Maryland

Certainly of a different breed than the other two. The Terps stretch-4 is blessed with skill and athleticism but has disappointed in terms of production this year. But, if he could become a catalyst for a floundering Maryland team in the nick of time and lead them on a tournament run, the hype train surrounding him would have too much momentum to be stopped and might carry him to the award.

The Charles Barkley Phrase Counter

For those of you who are NBA fans and watch TNT’s regular Thursday night coverage, you will know about Chuck’s studio presence. Yes, he is hilarious, but he clearly does not have the time or the will power to watch more than six of the NBA’s 30 teams . This results in him repeating the same little nuggets of “analysis” every time one of the teams that he does not watch comes up. (“The Utah Jazz got the best young talent in the league Ernie” and “Rick Carlisle’s doing a fantastic job in Dallas” should spring to mind). So with this taken in to account, the CBS/Turner Sports partnership somehow comes together every year and says, “You know what would be a great idea? If we gave Sir Charles even more airtime during march madness to repeat generic assertions about 68 more teams that he has never watched play before!”

This results in him assigning one sentence evaluations to a few of the top teams, players and coaches that he blurts out on every studio segment whether it pertains to them or not, and more generally lumping entire categories of match ups and performances under the use of one blanket phrase.

This year, look for “Bill Self is a fantastic coach,” “Cal’s got the most talent in the tournament beside North Carolina,” and “If you’re the lower seeded team your best player gotta play well” to be the repeated mantras that lead the way for Charles, and look for the overall counter of unique phrases of his to end up in the 8-10 region by the time CBS’ coverage of the tourney concludes.

The Post-Upset Turn Up

The moment when the final buzzer sounds and makes it official that an unknown Cinderella school has done the impossible and knocked off a perennial power is a transcendent moment of sports euphoria. However, most view that moment as the culmination of hours of excitement and intrigue, but it is only the start. The scenes after an NCAA tournament upset are so incredibly lit (for lack of a better word), that they make Halloween on State Street look like your grandpa’s backyard cookout. Every year, coaches, stars, and scrubs alike absolutely lose their minds following upset wins, and it is nothing short of glorious to watch.

This year, things that I want to see in post-upset ragers are:

  • More awkward 70+ year old coaches dabbing (I know it’s getting old but at this point it has become a parody of itself).
  • Bob Huggins running off on a plug and getting so winded that he taps out of the celebrations.
  • A mid-major bench mob taking a moment to pause their exultation and pay tribute to their fallen OGs at Monmouth.
  • Which song will emerge as the chosen locker-room banger? I’m feeling some Young Thug.
  • Will anyone reach Kyle O’Quinn and Norfolk State levels of excitement?
  • Will anyone reach Sherwood Brown and FGCU levels of swag?
  • Will anyone reach Kevin Canevari and Mercer levels of hilarious on-court dance circles?

You see, it’s already entertaining and they haven’t even happened yet.

The Poor Unfortunate Soul who gets stuck with the Inside the NBA crew for analysis

In the past, the regular CBS crew of college basketball analysts who dedicate their whole year to cultivating knowledge of the sport that they can bring to the American public in March have had trouble hiding their discontent with the presence of the aforementioned Barkley, Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith.

Every year one analyst draws the short straw and is stuck on set as the lone ranger among the NBA on TNT gang. In 2013, it was Doug Gottlieb, and he went the route of trying to fit in. The results were awkward as hell. In 2014, it was Greg Anthony, and he tried to be unmoved in his steady stream of professional analysis. You could practically see the steam coming out of his ears every time Kenny spoke. In 2015, it was Clark Kellogg, and he pretty much just gave up on trying to get his words of sense into the conversation.

This year, as suggested by Selection Sunday coverage, the burden has fallen on poor Seth Davis. He is the first analyst with no significant history playing the game that CBS has thrown into the TNT deep-end. Say a quick prayer for him if you can.

Awkward/Corny/Forced Locker Room Speeches from Coaches

It must be hard for underdog coaches to give their most important motivational speech of the year while a camera is being relentlessly shoved in their face, yet that is exactly what CBS insists upon doing year after year. Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining. The results of this coverage are absolutely wonderful. It is quite hilarious to see the different ways that previously unknown coaches react to this type of exposure and pressure in their speeches.

There is the Bruce Pearl route (circa 2005 with UW-Milwaukee), hamming it up with the gusto of leading 300 Spartans into battle against the entire Persian army. Then there’s the route of nonsensical awkwardness taken by Bucknell coach Pat Flannery, who led his men into an encounter with Kansas by stating “We respect our opponent… We will respect Kansas tonight… *scratches head* We will respect them… Period. *long awkward pause* LET’S GO GETTEM!!”

Coaches tend to aim for the Pearl approach, but often fail miserably in Flannery-esque fashion. Every year of underdog coach speeches brings about star-status for some and pariah-status for others, and the hope always exists for a coach to burst on to the scene and invent an entire new category of amazing motivational absurdity. Tune into every game about 15-20 minutes early to witness that hope being realized this time around.

And Finally, The Sam Dekker Award Watchlist

This award can occasionally have some overlap with the McGary award, but is certainly its own entity. Is is given out to a player who:

  • Is an underclassman who would greatly benefit from another year in college
  • Far outperforms his standard level of production from the regular season in the tournament and thus skies up draft boards
  • Ends up making the wrong decision to leave early based on those performances and projections

Pre-tournament Favorites

Caleb Swanigan, F, Purdue

Swanigan by no means has the consistency levels or basketball IQ to be ready for the NBA, but these are traits which would be developed by being ‘the man’ at Purdue as a sophomore next season. However, he has an NBA ready body and averaging 20+ points during a deep Boilermaker run could lead to him making the mistake of leaving.

Grayson Allen, G, Duke

With the injuries that they have suffered and the way that they have affected their recent performances, Duke’s only chance at a tournament run is if Grayson Allen carries them through round after round on his own two shoulders. If this happens, he will surely be considered an NBA prospect, but should still stay with Coach K to work on his professionalism and maturity and prove that he can be the number one option for a championship contender next year in Durham.

Nigel Hayes, F, Wisconsin

The Badgers’ worst possible tournament proposition is not actually a first round exit, it is a deep run to the Sweet 16 or the Elite 8 in which Hayes wills the team to a series of upsets with consecutive 30+ point, 5+ rebound, and 5+ assist performances, and jettisons to the NBA as a result.

There you have it. Hopefully I was able to put some fun into the madness.

Because in the end, March Madness is just plain old fun.

Photo courtesy of AwfulAnnouncing.com

Dec 5, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives for the basket against New York Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis (6) in the first quarter at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Despite hype, Antetokounmpo remains better centerpiece than Porzingis

Isaac BushnellLeave a comment

Follow Isaac Bushnell on Twitter @IsaacBushnell.

Hey you. Yeah, you with the freshly styled white boy cornrows and the Latvian flag draped around your shoulders, could you do me a favor and hop down from your 7’3” high horse for a second so you can hear me out?

Now I know you have probably already joined the national movement and anointed this unicorn kid as the future king of the basketball world, but before you go hanging a crown from the horn on his forehead, allow me to make this one statement: You have something better than Kristaps Porzingis right here in Milwaukee.

While you have been drooling over the exploits of New York City’s new favorite son and lamenting the ostensible purgatory that the Milwaukee Bucks season has descended into, you have entirely forgotten what you yourselves have been blessed with. He’s public enemy number one for all autocorrect software out there, he’s the OG of skinny Europeans with crazy athleticism and alien wingspans, and he just dropped his first two career triple-doubles within a week of one another.

He is Giannis Antetokounmpo (or ‘Giannis Ante rekindling’ according to my iPhone). He is the reason that Bucks fans should still be dreaming of a contender, and he is a far better piece to build around in today’s NBA than the headline-grabbing rookie in New York. That’s right, give me the Greek Freak over the Latvian Unicorn to start my NBA franchise any day of the week.

Understanding this assertion starts with understanding one of the most misunderstood concepts in basketball—potential. My working definition of basketball potential is the distance between a player’s current level of production and the highest level of production he will reach in his career. This is an easy definition to accept, but is by no means an easy definition to apply on a case by case basis. It has become an unquestioned practice amongst NBA fans and media to attach the idea of potential to any player who ticks the boxes of being young and athletic. This practice may seem to make sense, but in reality is woefully misguided.

A perfect juxtaposition to illustrate its flaws are the NBA careers of guards Tyreke Evans and JJ Redick. Evans was a 19 year old rookie who was strong, quick, and could jump out of the gym, while Redick was a four-year college player who did not have the physical tools to be anything more than a spot-up shooter. Evans was dubbed a guy with immense potential, while Redick was given the label of “you know exactly what you’re going to get from him.” Evans averaged 20 points and 6 assists per game on his way to winning rookie of the year in his debut season with the Sacramento Kings, but currently in the meat of his career contributes slightly smaller point totals at a similar efficiency rate towards the floundering cause that is the New Orleans Pelicans. Redick’s 6 points a night on 41% shooting were an afterthought for the Orlando Magic in his rookie season, but he now pours in 17 per game with chart-topping efficiency in his peak years for the contending Los Angeles Clippers. Evans, the poster boy for false potential as a rookie, had none to speak of, while the mundane and limited Redick had enough about him to blossom from a poor man’s Steve Kerr into a top-3 option for a title challenger. Redick’s growth along with Evans’ stagnation illustrates that a player’s true potential is not found in the weapons they currently possess, but in the weapons that they can add over time to complement their current set and create a full arsenal. This is what differentiates Giannis and Pozingis.

Porzingis is taller than Shaq and has a 7’6” wingspan. He can put the ball on the floor, stroke it from distance, and go work in the post. He runs the floor like a gazelle and leaps like a salmon. He has a high basketball IQ along with incredible timing and instincts that allow him to block shots on the defensive end and throw down put-back dunks on the offensive end. He has it all and is unlike anything the NBA has ever seen before. These are facts that fanboys and haters like myself can universally agree upon, but the net interpretation of these facts is where I break away from the consensus. The average fan looks at them and interprets a potential the likes of which we have never seen before. I look at them and interpret a more-or-less fully polished player.

When I look at Antetokounmpo, I see something entirely different. I see a beautifully flawed basketball specimen. Yes, he possesses the same mind-boggling athletic package as Porzingis on a shorter and more dynamic scale, but he can’t shoot off the catch or the dribble, he has no consistent offensive repertoire in the half court, and his decision making with the basketball is inconsistent at best.

On the surface those look like a long list of the Greek Freak’s short-comings, but I view them as the untouched pieces of a halfway completed puzzle. From what I can make of the pieces already in place, I can distinguish a player who is among his team leaders in all five major statistical categories, and has a track-record of dominating NBA games in every facet of play imaginable. The incomplete image is impressive in its own right, but once the missing pieces are slipped into place, a clear, all-encompassing image of greatness will be the result.

KP’s puzzle, on the other hand, is already a relatively clear image. It shows a versatile scorer, a serviceable rebounder and a solid rim protector. It shows someone who causes matchup problems on the offensive end but has problems matching up on the defensive end, and effects games primarily with his ability to put the ball in the basket. In short, it shows a one-dimensional player.

Granted, the few pieces that could still be added to Porzingis’ puzzle could have significant effects. Once he is established as the focal point of the Knicks attack, his opportunities and minutes will increase significantly and he will get more of the shots that he wants in the offense. Once he bulks up he will be able to take more punishment down low and will improve his one-on-one post defense. He will be an All-Star, a 20-plus point per game scorer, and maybe even a league leader in blocks, but there are no pieces to add that could ever lead to an image of a ubiquitously dominant player who can single-handedly determine the outcome of a game, a series or a season. The fully completed image of Giannis’ puzzle, on the other hand, would show that, and much more.

If the pieces of a jump shot, more muscle, and a locked-in basketball mind are inserted in the next 5-7 years to complete the puzzle of the Bucks’ young star, it is by no means ridiculous to say that we could be looking at a player who fits into the unprecedented mold of LeBron James. The Greek Freak at his peak would be a player who can guard all five positions on the defensive end, collapse the defense off the dribble, score and distribute from the post, space the floor as a spot-up shooter, dictate his team’s entire flow on the offensive end. You could argue that it is unrealistic that Giannis could actually add all of the lacking elements to his game in that time, but all signs point to his ability to do just that. His natural ball handling ability, the deftness of his touch around the hoop and the accuracy of his passes, along with his aesthetically proper shooting mechanics show that the potential for a consistent long range jumper exists. The amount of muscle that he has added to his still quite slender frame in the years since he has been in the league shows that he is on his way to becoming a physical force as he matures. His decision making and mentality have already improved and surely will continue that trajectory. Adding these pieces will require a Kobe-like dedication to greatness from Giannis, but there is no arguing that pieces are indeed within his 7’4” reach. That is what real potential looks like. What we are seeing from Kristaps Porzingis now is a just a watered down version of exactly what we will be seeing in 10 years. What we are seeing from Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn’t even touch the new stratosphere that he could skyrocket into in that same time period.

The so-called potential of Porzingis is the same fallacy that was perpetuated around a young Tyreke Evans, while the incomplete talent that provided the foundation for J.J. Redick’s improvement will do the same for Giannis’. I am by no means comparing the two sets of drastically different players against each other for their skill sets, but rather using them as templates to foresee differing career paths of two young stars that most refuse to see.

You’re welcome Bucks fans, now go forth and enjoy what will be the most intriguing NBA maturation in the next decade, and for all you Porzingis worshipers, I am truly sorry, but someone had to let you down easy.

Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports.