Tag: Nate Reuvers

Wisconsin basketball’s toughest non-conference opponent is not who you think it is

The Badgers have a tough mid-major on the schedule

With the recent release of Wisconsin basketball’s non-conference schedule, Badger fans have a look at the entire picture for UW in 2020-2021. While 2020 may bring unexpected cancellations and scheduling, Wisconsin currently has a number of intriguing opponents on the 2020-2021 non-conference slate.

The Badgers are slated to take on Eastern Illinois on Wednesday, with games at Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Green Bay, Marquette, Louisville, and Northern Iowa rounding out the non-conference group. So, your first thought might be that Marquette or ACC opponent Louisville is the toughest game on this schedule. Let me make a case for a mid-major program that has been a constant postseason force for the past decade in college basketball.

Seeing Northern Iowa on the schedule likely looks like an easy buy game win to most casual college basketball fans. It will be anything but that when the Wisconsin welcomes the Panthers to Madison on December 16.

Northern Iowa is coming off of a tremendous 25-6 season in the Missouri Valley Conference, and would have been a force come March of last year. Better yet for head coach Ben Jacobson and the Panthers is that they return their three leading scorers in sharpshooter AJ Green, Trae Berhow, and Austin Phyfe. The trio combined for over 43 points per game a year ago and led the Panthers to a 14-4 conference record.

The matchup of a highly-efficient Panther offense and a Badger defense that is expected to be at the top of the country highlights this one. The Panthers shot 38.6% from distance a year ago, led by Pepperdine transfer Trae Berhow and a Green, who blossomed into one of the best scorers in the nation.

Phyfe can give Wisconsin’s bigs issues with his combination of size and skill, as he is a true playmaker at 6-foot-9, 235. Expect a three-point barrage at the Kohl Center that could turn Madison into upset city.

Wisconsin tips off the season this Wednesday against Eastern Illinois at 9 PM central in Madison.

Projecting Wisconsin basketball’s 2020-2021 rotation

Somehow, college basketball season is rapidly approaching. Although there will be many changes to a strange non-conference schedule for teams all around the country, Wisconsin does have a series of games locked in before they begin conference play. …

Somehow, college basketball season is rapidly approaching. Although there will be many changes to a strange non-conference schedule for teams all around the country, Wisconsin does have a series of games locked in before they begin conference play. That all starts this Wednesday at home against a familiar opponent in Eastern Illinois, a team the Badgers beat last season in their home opener.

If there is one key difference for a Wisconsin team that opens at No. 7 (AP Poll) in the nation, it comes in their depth. Greg Gard’s squad only went eight deep in last year’s remarkable Big Ten championship run. This season, the Badgers boast a roster that could legitimately go ten or eleven men deep and find themselves making a deep postseason run. The senior leadership mixed in with a talented freshman class creates a dynamic that the Badgers feel can take them to the highest of heights in 2020.

Here is a look at Wisconsin’s likely rotation come Wednesday, and a little about what each of those pieces bring to the team:

The KenPom preseason rankings have the Badgers in the nation’s top 10

Of all the college basketball rankings, polls and analysis, there is one that accurately predicts future production with advanced…

Of all the college basketball rankings, polls and analysis, there is one that accurately predicts future production with advanced statistics and metrice. It is Ken Pomeroy’s KenPom rankings.

Last night those rankings were released for the 2020-2021 college basketball season and coming in at No. 7 in the nation are the Wisconsin Badgers.

From KenPom.com, the ratings are “designed to be purely predictive” and use advanced metrics to predict each team’s offensive production, defensive production, strength of schedule and more.

Related: Here is how Wisconsin football can still make the Big Ten Championship game

The recently-released rankings have Greg Gard’s team as the best team in the Big Ten, with Ohio State, Iowa, Michigan State, Michigan, Illinois and Purdue also making the Top 25.

The Badgers, coming off a shared regular-season Big Ten title, return their entire core from last season and, if national rankings and polls are any indication, are in for another successful season.

 

Next…Where every Big Ten team is ranked

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LOOK: Wisconsin men’s basketball receives their Big Ten championship rings

It was 220 days ago that the Wisconsin men’s basketball team played their final game of the 2019-20 regular season, a 60-56 victory over…

It was 220 days ago that the Wisconsin men’s basketball team played their final game of the 2019-20 regular season, a 60-56 victory over Indiana that cemented themselves as co-Big Ten Champions.

We all remember what followed that game with COVID-19 striking the country, as five days later on March 12 the Big Ten Tournament was canceled and five days after that on March 17 the NCAA Tournament followed suit.

Related: Opinion: Tyler Herro went to Kentucky and it was the right decision

Well, yesterday the Badgers’ memorable 2019-20 season was finally commemorated as the team and the coaching staff received their Big Ten championship rings.

The rings include “Do Moore, Be Moore, 4 Moore” for assistant coach Howard Moore after he faced tragedy earlier in the year, each player’s name and number, a Badger logo and a simple sentence: “2020 Big Ten Champs.”

Head Coach Greg Gard spoke recently about receiving the rings, saying “There is more out there for you to get. So this goes on the shelf and now we chase what’s next.”

D’Mitrik Trice echoed that statement in a Tweet showing off the new ring.

The Badgers will be back in action in late November as they look to hold their No. 1 spot in the conference and capitalize on a chance to have Micah Potter’s services for a full year and on their opportunity to play postseason basketball.

Three Badgers named to the 247Sports 2020-2021 All-Big Ten basketball team

Wisconsin earns more players on the preseason team than any other school

The writers at 247Sports came together yesterday to rank their All-Big Ten First, Second, and Third, teams with the season hopefully a few months away.

Wisconsin had more players on all three teams combined than any other school, with a number of teams having two players on the list. The outstanding second half of the season for the Badgers floor general D’Mitrik Trice earned him the highest spot among any Wisconsin player on the list. Trice was part of the second team backcourt, alongside Minnesota star Marcus Carr and Michigan State starting guard Rocket Watts.

Nate Reuvers, Wisconsin’s leading scorer from a year ago at 13.1 points per contest, came in on the third team alongside his frontcourt mate Micah Potter. Potter, Reuvers, and Trice are all projected senior starters on a team with championship aspirations in Madison.

Here is a complete list of the All-Big Ten First team, Second team, and Third team according to 247Sports:

Third Team

Nate Reuvers — Wisconsin

Geo Baker — Rutgers 

Micah Potter — Wisconsin

Franz Wagner — Michigan

Isaiah Livers — Michigan 

Second Team

Aaron Henry — Michigan State

Trevion Williams — Purdue

D’Mitrik Trice — Wisconsin

Rocket Watts — Michigan State

Marcus Carr — Minnesota 

First Team

Joe Wieskamp — Iowa 

Trayce Jackson Davis — Indiana

Kofi Cockburn — Illinois

Ayo Dosunmu — Illinois 

Luka Garza — Iowa 

 

What should realistic expectations be for Wisconsin basketball in 2020-2021?

Analyzing what the Badgers expectations are for next year

If you told me this past December that you thought the Wisconsin Badgers could go undefeated from February 9 until the end of the year I would have called you crazy. Nobody, absolutely nobody after watching the first three months of a topsy-turvy start to the 2019-20 season expected Wisconsin to be heading into their final regular season game at Indiana with a Big Ten title hanging in the balance. The 2019-20 team did not care about our expectations for them or any noise that could potentially sway their focus. Even when odds were stacked against them, they responded time and time again. The best news? Nearly the entire team is coming back to Madison to finish what they started.

So with D’Mitrik Trice, Nate Reuvers, Aleem Ford, Micah Potter, and Brad Davison all coming back to Madison for their senior season, what should realistic expectations be? The first answer is that Wisconsin should absolutely be considered the Big Ten favorite heading into the year, and that would even include if reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Luka Garza returns to Iowa instead of heading to the NBA. The preseason big three is clear, the order is less obvious: Iowa (assuming Garza returns), Wisconsin, and Michigan State.

At this point, the team with the least questions of the three is Wisconsin. Once Iowa answers the Garza question, I could see a case for them being Big Ten favorites, although the continuity of a Badgers core that has played together and already won a championship together should give them the edge. Even if Michigan State big man Xavier Tillman returns instead of staying in the NBA draft, which at this point does not look extremely likely, the Spartans still have an inexperienced backcourt following the departure of their leader Cassius Winston.

Realistic expectations should see the Badgers as a two or three seed when the dust settles in March. Back-to-back Big Ten crowns would be ideal, but as is the unfair life that is college basketball, you are truly judged based on a few weeks in March. Wisconsin has all the pieces to be a successful team in The Big Dance. Senior leadership, depth, rebounding, and a regular season schedule that will be more challenging than most given the nature of the Big Ten should set the Badgers up for postseason success in 2020-2021. Anything less than a second weekend appearance would feel like a disappointment in March. Should we expect a Final Four? Unfortunately, the nature of college basketball makes that a fools errand. You are always one bad shooting night away from going home before your fan base feels like you should.

A Big Ten championship and a second weekend appearance feels like a fair bar to set, although I understand if Badger fans are clamoring for more this season. This team has all the makings for a Final Four run, and although they are built entirely differently than the 2014-15 squad, it would be fair to say they have the highest expectations since that team made a run to the National Championship game. This team could be special.

Five players on the Wisconsin roster next season are all from the same AAU team in Minnesota: 2020 Wisconsin signee Ben Carlson gives us some reasons why

As I began research for my Locked On Badgers interview with 2020 Wisconsin signee Ben Carlson, one of the first stops I made was D1 Minnesota’s website. D1 Minnesota was Carlson’s AAU program, and is widely known as one of the top programs in the …

[lawrence-newsletter]As I began research for my Locked On Badgers interview with 2020 Wisconsin signee Ben Carlson, one of the first stops I made was D1 Minnesota’s website. D1 Minnesota was Carlson’s AAU program, and is widely known as one of the top programs in the state of Minnesota. Their alumni list on the website quickly alerted me that Carlson was far from the only chapter in the D1 to Madison story. In fact, five Wisconsin Badgers on the roster next season will have played their AAU basketball at D1 Minnesota. Those five are Nate Reuvers, Tyler Wahl, Walt Mcgrory, Ben Carlson and Steven Crowl, the final two both being members of the 2020 Wisconsin class. So how did Wisconsin end up with over a third of their roster being from the same AAU pipeline including two of their 2020 commits?

“A lot of players who play at D1 fit the Wisconsin style of play really well,” Carlson told BadgersWire. The four-star future Badger went on to add, “I think the biggest thing is that a lot of the players at D1 Minnesota play similar to how Wisconsin has in the past, and how they still do to this day.”

There is obviously also a deep-seated connection between the Wisconsin coaching staff and the D1 Minnesota coaches and directors. “I know there are some connections between the coaches and the directors at D1 and the Wisconsin coaches,” said Carlson on the Locked On Badgers podcast. “They know each other really well and I think there is a lot of communication between them.”

According to Carlson, if there is one trait that connects players who come out of the D1 Minnesota program and who play at/are recruited by Wisconsin it is something that has to do with them as a person rather than just as a basketball player.

“I definitely think that D1 has a lot of high character guys and I know Wisconsin has that too so thats definitely a similarity.”

The D1 Minnesota to Wisconsin pipeline has become the most popular route for players to take en route to the Kohl Center. Having dominated the Minnesota recruiting landscape over the past few years may be the thing that leads Wisconsin to new heights in 2020-2021.

 

The Badgers keep rising in another way-too-early Top 25

ESPN’s Jeff Borzello released a new way-too-early Top 25 recently for the upcoming college basketball season and ranked the Badgers at…

ESPN’s Jeff Borzello released a new way-too-early Top 25 recently for the upcoming college basketball season and ranked the Badgers at No. 7, two spots up from their slot at No. 9 in his previous ranking.

“The Badgers keep sliding up a few notches in my rankings with every new edition. Not because they’re adding players or getting positive personnel news but because a team that shared the Big Ten regular-season title and brings back all five players who started the final game of the season is hard to ignore,” the article reads. “What changed over the final month, when Wisconsin won its final eight games? The Badgers became an elite offensive unit, despite losing double-figure scorer Kobe King in late January, and it was mostly thanks to two things: perimeter shooting and Micah Potter.”

Borzello continued by citing the team’s projected starting lineup, one which will be veteran-heavy and contain all guys who surpassed or neared a scoring average of double figures last season.

D’Mitrik Trice (9.8 PPG, 4.2 APG)
Brad Davison (9.9 PPG, 4.3 RPG)
Aleem Ford (8.6 PPG, 4.4 RPG)
Nate Reuvers (13.1 PPG, 4.5 RPG)
Micah Potter (10.1 PPG, 6.2 RPG)

Not much will change between now and when sports–college basketball in this case–can come back but all the early rumblings are pointing towards great things for Greg Gard‘s team in 2020-21.

Three way-too-early questions for Wisconsin basketball next season

Early questions that we are still searching for answers to in anticipation of Wisconsin’s basketball season in 2021

With the amount of hype that justifiably surrounds Wisconsin basketball next season, it is never too early to take a look at what this team will look like in 2020-2021. The Badgers return every key contributor aside from graduating senior Brevin Pritzl, and will have one of their deepest teams in years as they bring in a solid 2020 recruiting class. So what are some early question marks surrounding a team that should be highly ranked in the preseason?

  1. How will the depth “problem” play itself out? — The luxury that Wisconsin has in terms of seven of the eight rotation players returning next year and the potential for an all-senior starting lineup will prove invaluable. The questions will start early and often, however, about what other guys step into the rotation. We know that returners Micah Potter, Nate Reuvers, Aleem Ford, D’Mitrik Trice, Trevor Anderson, Brad Davison, and Tyler Wahl will be major factors all year long. Those seven players were seven of the eight players who received consistent minutes for Greg Gard’s group in 2019. The question is who else will step in and how deep will the Badgers go down their bench? With a six-person recruiting class that includes three 247sports top-150 players in Johnny Davis, Ben Carlson, and Steven Crowl, there will be freshman that deserve minutes. Will returners such as Walt McGrory or Joe Hedstrom find their way into the rotation? UW will certainly be mixing and matching early in the year as they find a rotation amongst the luxury of the depth they have.
  2. Who takes a redshirt in the class of 2020? With the depth question and with a six-person recruiting class, you would have to imagine that at least a few Badgers will be redshirt candidates next season. Does class of 2020 PG Lorne Bowman crack the rotation or does he wait another year in order to save eligibility? The same question could be asked of fellow 2020 signees Steven Crowl or Jordan Davis. Without the room to play more than two or three freshman from the 2020 class, the incoming Badgers will have important decisions to make regarding their future.
  3. How does the 2020 NBA draft change the landscape of the Big Ten? This question is vastly more complex than we would have thought a few months ago. Given the state of the world, the NBA draft has been postponed without definite re-scheduling. There are significant impacts for multiple Big Ten contenders this year in terms of who stays and who goes to the league. Iowa big man and reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Luka Garza is among the names of Big Ten players that are draft eligible but left the door open to return to school. How does the lack of a pre-draft process or the delaying of the draft itself impact players like Garza in terms of their decision? It certainly has an impact, the question to be answered will be what impact. A player of Garza’s caliber returning or staying has massive ripple effects throughout the conference.

 

 

Nate Reuvers is on pace to set a Wisconsin basketball record that will be very hard to break

The Badger star is on pace to shatter a current record held by Ethan Happ

[lawrence-newsletter]Following the departure of Ethan Happ, Wisconsin forward Nate Reuvers was expected to take a major step forward this past season. The junior big man stepped up to the challenge on both ends of the floor. Reuvers improved his points per game average to 13.1, averaging nearly five more points than he did in 2018-19. Despite the increased role at the offensive end, the defensive end of the floor is where Reuvers has worked wonders in both his sophomore and junior campaigns. The Lakeville, Min. native has now had back-to-back seasons of averaging nearly two blocks per game, and with added muscle has become one of the Big Ten’s most prolific rim protectors.

Reuvers followed up his 60 blocks in 2018-19 with 58 this past season in a year that was cut short. Wisconsin’s leading scorer finished this season with 144 career blocks, just ten shy of Ethan Happ who holds the current Badger all-time record with 154.

The junior forward has also had some impressive single-game performances in terms of blocked shots, the most recent of which came when he matched a career-high with nine rejections against Eastern Illinois early in the year. Reuvers was one block away from a triple double in that early-season contest, and absolutely dominated a smaller EIU team with his size and athleticism on the defensive end.

Had this year finished out with what would have been at the very least two more games, but in all likelihood far more than that, Reuvers would have easily surpassed his 60 blocks from the 2019 season. With another full year under his belt, expect 2020-21 to be a senior finale where Reuvers not only captures Wisconsin’s all-time blocks record but sets the bar extremely high. All signs point towards the Badger big finishing his career with over 200 blocks and beating the all-time UW record by over 50 rejections. Stay tuned for Reuvers’ senior block party.