Comments on: What’s Going Wrong In Wisconsin?

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:57:29 +0000

Mike I'm going to disagree with you about the defense, somewhat, they're in the top half of the league in PPG, defensive rebounds, so the defense is there it just seems they lose it at the end of the games.

Offense is really their biggest problem, if they could score a little bit they'd be 4-1 instead of 0-5 over these past five games. You're right about Bohannon he's been shooting badly (only 3 pts against Purdue) and he's supposed to be one of the team's best three point shooters.

These guys have potential its just too bad they couldn't bring it together this year

By: Chico

Chico — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:46:25 +0000

Wow, I didn't know all that, I knew Bohanen was their scoring leader but didn't know he was struggling. The defense is really that bad this year, that is one thing that Wisconsin could always rely on.

Those wins are far easier said than done, Illinois is better this year and Northwestern is always tough at home, Wisconsin may be on the bubble come March.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:57:45 +0000

The badgers are lacking in three areas this year; One, they don't have a major stud that can consistently score in the clutch, something Wisconsin has had during most of Coach Ryan's tenure, and when they haven't, they could rely on a strong senior led team to provide the points.

This year they're offensive success is relying on balanced scoring from at least four guys every night. The seniors are not enough – Laundry is not big enough to consisently score inside, so his 13 to 15 is solid, but not enough to single handedly win a game. Krabenhoft is a gutty gabarageman, that provides the rebounds, tough inside defense, and additional hustle possessions to help a team, but his game has never really materialized into a big scorer, he is generally good for 8 points per game, Gullickson is a low scoring reserve to provide minutes. The let down has been erractic production from Bohanen, who has simply been way to inconsistent at this stage of his career, he should be a solid scoring shooter (ie. Kirk Penney), the other missing link has been a consistent John Lauer. Maybe Taylor, Nankivil and Wilson will get some time on the floor to develop for next year.

Secondly, has been their porous defense, by far the worst it's been during Ryan's tenure. This year they lack size on the front line to patrol the rim and clean-up any missed assignments, they don't have a lock down defender on the perimeter with the athletic ability to keep with the likes of Purdue and MSU in check on the perimeter while concurrently locking down the paint.

Finally, they've been absolutely terrible shooting free throws in the clutch.

Sum up these issues and your going to get beat, particularly in a conference that is getting better. Even with all that said, things are not that bad, there is light in the tunnel, given nearly all of these losses are to top 25 teams and Wisconsin has basically been in everyone of these contests to the final minute.

They just need to find the two key scoring options to close out the contests.

I win against Illinois at home and Northwestern on the road gets them to .500 in the conference.

By: Chico

Chico — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:36:58 +0000

I think the Badgers have always had this problem it is just now catching up with them. They can still get it done defensively but their style of play is boring to watch, they need some electricity in the lineup.