Tag: rutgers scarlet knights basketball

Wisconsin is approaching NCAA lock status after win vs Rutgers

Wisconsin wins

Having covered college basketball for several years and having followed the sport since I was a kid, I have had to learn the hard way to not pronounce a team an NCAA Tournament “lock” too prematurely.

I have made “LOCK” declarations in the middle of February, only to watch in horror and embarrassment as that “LOCK” team proceeded to lose six games in a row and tumble into the NIT.

The point about “LOCK” versus “likely in” is that an NCAA Tournament lock is not a lock unless that team can lose ALL of its remaining games and still make the Big Dance. A team might be highly unlikely to lose five games in a row, but if it DOES and it can fall out of the tournament, it’s obviously not a lock, right?

I cover tennis. I have seen players take a 5-0 lead in a set and not lose the set. The player isn’t a lock to win the set at 5-0. Highly likely? Of course… but that sixth and final game needs to be won first. So it is with Wisconsin. The Badgers could still go on a huge losing streak, including Northwestern at home. If UW loses every remaining game, it could still fall out of the NCAA Tournament. I am not ready to use the L-word just yet.

However… with all of that having been said:

It is getting close to Locksville for Wisconsin.

The Badgers are stacking together wins, not losses. They are moving upward while the rest of the bubble goes down or stagnates, with few exceptions. Wisconsin needed to avoid a four-game losing streak… and not only is it doing that, it is building a four-game winning streak after handling Rutgers on Sunday in the Kohl Center.

If Wisconsin does lose its next four regular-season games, followed by its first game at the Big Ten Tournament, yeah, it might still have to sweat out Selection Sunday… but I think with one more win, a lock is a reasonable call to make. Two more wins, and a lock is absolutely certain.

Locksville, USA. Wisconsin hasn’t completed the journey, but it is almost there, and the car has plenty of fuel in the tank.

Nate Reuvers, D’Mitrik Trice must answer the call vs Rutgers

More on UW-Rutgers

It is true that Micah Potter — who was not yet eligible to play the last time Wisconsin faced Rutgers this season — might become an intriguing X-factor for the UW basketball team when it meets Rutgers this Sunday. However, Potter’s place in this game and this particular matchup is a mystery, because we don’t have a previous game to study and consider.

We do, however, have a basis for comparison when referring to two other Wisconsin players. Nate Reuvers and D’Mitrik Trice did not play their best basketball on Dec. 11 against Rutgers. Therefore, they are the two prime examples of players who must elevate their levels of performance if the Badgers are to handle the Scarlet Knights in the Kohl Center.

Two months ago, Reuvers scored six points against Rutgers and Trice managed only two. They had a hard time solving the Scarlet Knights’ defense. Kobe King poured in 18 points and Trevor Anderson scored 11, but the Badgers failed to get balanced production throughout their roster, something they have improved in recent weeks. It is doubtful that UW can beat Rutgers if Reuvers and Trice combine for a grand total of just eight points on Sunday in Madison.

What adds to the need for Reuvers and Trice — not other UW players — to become the central offensive engines for Wisconsin against Rutgers is that neither player had a good shooting touch against Purdue this past Tuesday. Reuvers, to his great credit, did make five free throws. Trice, to his credit, did hit a pair of threes. Yet, the two were a combined 6 of 21 from the field; Reuvers was 3 of 10, Trice 3 of 11. The two were a combined 3 of 12 on 3-pointers; Reuvers was 1 of 5, Trice 2 of 7.

Against Rutgers, that similarly won’t cut it. A 6-of-21 shooting line is just under 30 percent. A 3-of-12 shooting line from 3-point range is 25 percent. Reuvers and Trice will need to shoot at least 40 percent overall, at least 35 percent on threes, for Wisconsin to feel reasonably good about its chances.

Wisconsin scored 29 points against Rutgers this past December thanks to a player who is no longer on the team (King, 18 points) and a role player who is unlikely to make lightning strike twice in the same spot (Anderson, 11 points). Compensating for those 29 points is a job the whole roster must tend to, but of all the players who will take the court for UW on Sunday, Reuvers and Trice are the most natural and logical candidates for the “compensation crew.”

They need to be there if Wisconsin is to have its best possible chance of defeating Rutgers.

Wisconsin knows it needs a different formula vs Rutgers

Wisconsin – Rutgers

When the Wisconsin Badgers host the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Sunday, they already know they will need a different formula and a different set of team leaders to help them win. Why can we be so confident and immediate in saying this, you might wonder?

Recall that when Wisconsin lost to Rutgers on Dec. 11, the leading scorer for the Badgers and UW’s best player on the floor was Kobe King. Yep, a player Wisconsin no longer has on its active roster was the best Badger two months ago in New Jersey. That detail alone means Wisconsin must necessarily find other prime players to get the job done against Rutgers and extend the Badgers’ February winning streak.

Wisconsin, given a series of home games, is currently moving through a favorable portion of its schedule and therefore has a great chance to solidify its NCAA Tournament status. Cashing in on that softer patch of its schedule can’t be taken for granted, though; Rutgers has already dealt one loss to the Badgers, so Wisconsin has to make sure the Scarlet Knights don’t go two for two.

It will have to be done without Kobe King, who scored 18 points and handed out three assists on Dec. 11. A win over Rutgers this Sunday will probably not involve 11 points from Trevor Anderson. Yes, Anderson scored 11 points against Rutgers two months ago. Maybe he will surprise us all, but it doesn’t come across as probable that he can replicate that performance on Sunday. Possible? Surely. Probable? No.

The player on the Wisconsin roster who might have the highest level of motivation heading into Sunday’s game: Micah Potter. Remember that the Rutgers game was the last game of the season which Potter was prevented from playing by the NCAA. His first game was the Milwaukee game on Dec. 21, Wisconsin’s first game after the Rutgers loss. Having Potter available — with King not available — underscores why a win over Rutgers has to be forged by a formula which is different from the one UW used on Dec. 11 in Piscataway.

Wisconsin and Rutgers have lived many lives since first meeting

More on Wisconsin – Rutgers

When the Wisconsin Badgers play the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Sunday in the Kohl Center, it will be 74 days since December 11, 2019.

What is so special about Dec. 11, 2019? It is the last time Wisconsin and Rutgers played, the first of the two games in this season’s Big Ten series between the two teams. Saying that UW and RU last played 74 days ago doesn’t seem to capture just how long it was — or at least, how long it FEELS — since these two teams last played each other.

It feels like 74 weeks more than days.

Micah Potter wasn’t yet eligible on Dec. 11, 2019. Wisconsin had not yet won a game played away from home on Dec. 11 of last year. Wisconsin was the team trying to find some way, any possible way, to play well in a non-Madison location. Rutgers had not yet beaten Seton Hall — that came a few days later, on Dec. 14 — and was therefore a team without a high-quality win. No one was talking about Rutgers as a possible NCAA Tournament team back then, 74 days ago. No one in Madison or elsewhere in the state of Wisconsin entered that night in Piscataway, New Jersey, thinking that the Badgers were about to lose to an NCAA Tournament-quality team. No Wisconsinite entered that night thinking that a loss to Rutgers would be easy to absorb on Selection Sunday. A loss to Rutgers — on Dec. 11, 2019 — figured to be a blow to the Badgers’ overall NCAA profile. Given that the team was only 5-4 at the time, it seemed UW badly needed that win.

Huh.

How things change.

We can look back on that moment as the last game in which Micah Potter was ineligible to play. We can also look back at that game in New Jersey and realize that Wisconsin lost to a good team, not a bad one. That result looks less appalling and more reasonable with each passing day.

Now, as the teams prepare for the rematch on Sunday, can we note the irony involved? Wisconsin was looking for its first road win entering Rutgers on Dec. 11, 2019. Now, on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020, the script has been completely flipped. Rutgers has only ONE true road win this season. The Scarlet Knights — in Game 2 against Wisconsin this season — are now the team desperately searching for a road win and for a good performance away from their home building.

Funny how life works, eh?

This is how weird things get when two teams don’t play for 74 weeks…

I mean 74 days.

Rutgers in 2020 is where Wisconsin was in 1994

Rutgers vs Wisconsin

Perspective is always a good thing. Human beings constantly need to be reminded of how bad a situation or reality once was, in order to appreciate how good life is today. We also need to be reminded how good a situation might have been in the past, in order to grasp and understand how awful the present moment is.

I could be referring to anything under the sun in the vast realm of human experience, but in this case, I am referring to the condition of basketball programs.

The place Rutgers University occupies today is the place Wisconsin basketball occupied in late February of 1994.

This is not a complicated parallel, but it is definitely worth bringing up in a Wisconsin season which has been difficult, bumpy, controversial, and yet still somehow moderately successful — not a grand and sweeping success, but quietly productive in spite of so many instances of misfortune.

Think about this: Even in Wisconsin’s worst moments this season, even when everything seemed to be headed off the rails, the Badgers held firm and stayed together. They will carry double-digit losses into the NCAA Tournament… but they will BE in the NCAA Tournament, which is a minor miracle.

Micah Potter missed 10 games. Kobe King left the team before February. Brad Davison was suspended for a home game against Michigan State. The team lost to Richmond and New Mexico. It lost at home to Illinois.

If you had told a Wisconsin fan before the season that those five things would happen, what kind of reaction would you have received? Either laughter — NO WAY THAT WOULD HAPPEN! — or fear — HOLY SH**! WE’RE GONNA MISS THE NCAA TOURNAMENT.

And yet… those five things DID happen, but Wisconsin will make the NCAA Tournament anyway. In a rough season; in a frustrating season; in an annoying and uneven season, Wisconsin will still play in March Madness.

You know your program is good when a difficult season still leads to an NCAA berth.

In February of 1994, Wisconsin produced a season not terribly different from this one in terms of wins and losses. The Badgers, then coached by Stu Jackson before he moved to the NBA, lost 10 games before the NCAA Tournament. They finished 8-10 in an 18-game Big Ten schedule. Yet, they made the Big Dance as a 9 seed.

That season, however, was not treated as a failure or a cause for grumbling. Why? Wisconsin made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 47 years, since 1947. That 1994 season was rocky and inelegant and anything but easy. Yet, it was — in comparative terms — a soaring masterpiece, given the barrenness of the previous 47 years of Wisconsin basketball.

It has taken two and a half decades of consistent quality for Wisconsin basketball to arrive at a point where that same kind of season — with double-digit losses and something close to a break-even record in Big Ten play (this year’s team is a few games above .500 right now) — is met with dissatisfaction. Back in 1994, though, this was manna from hoops heaven.

So it is with Rutgers in 2020.

Everything the Scarlet Knights are going through today reminds me of Wisconsin in 1994. Rutgers has won only one true road game. The Scarlet Knights are very inconsistent and are actually losing steam late in the season. Yet, Rutgers is about to make its first NCAA Tournament since 1991. Who cares how bumpy the ride is? This is a seminal moment for the program and a complete triumph. It doesn’t represent the summit of the program’s goals, or where it wants to go in the next two decades, but it is a soaring achievement just the same…

… a lot like Wisconsin in 1994.

Perspective is always needed. Be thankful for what the past 26 years have done to change standards and expectations in Madison.

If this season is rough (and it has in fact been rough), Badger fans can know that even better days lie ahead. That isn’t a bad place to be.

Will Rutgers and Illinois be top-4 seeds at the Big Ten Tournament?

Rutgers and Illinois are fresh faces

Remember October of 2019? The 2019-2020 college basketball season had not yet begun. Did we know how good the Wisconsin Badgers were going to be? No, especially with Micah Potter being prevented from playing by the stupid NCAA. Did we know how well the Badgers were going to play in their first 10 games? No. This team was a mystery. There were lots of mysteries going into the season.

Yet, if you could reliably count on a few things to happen in Big Ten basketball, where would you start? What prediction, more than anything else in Big Ten basketball, would most likely be true?

If you said, “Rutgers won’t make the NCAA Tournament,” you would have given a perfectly logical answer backed by 29 years of history. It has been 29 years, after all, since the Scarlet Knights last made the NCAA Tournament, in 1991.

Rutgers being mediocre (not necessarily bad, but certainly not good enough to reach the Big Dance in March) has been one of the most constant truths in college basketball for decades, right there with Michigan State and Tom Izzo being very good, at the other end of the spectrum of relevance in the sport.

Rutgers not being good enough, and Michigan State being a top team, were the two most reliable predictions one could make about Big Ten hoops this season. If you said that Northwestern would struggle, that’s fair and will be accepted. If you said Nebraska would struggle in a rebuild under Fred Hoiberg, that’s fair as well.

Rutgers being good has been one of the biggest surprises of the season — not necessarily because the Scarlet Knights weren’t developing their players (there WAS progress last season), but because Rutgers has evolved so rapidly and substantially under new coach Steve Pikiell. Rutgers isn’t a bubble team; Rutgers is, at the moment, a solid NCAA Tournament seed, good enough to wear home whites in round one as a higher-seeded team (No. 8 or better). The Scarlet Knights will have to lose four games in a row to become an uncertain NCAA team, riding the bubble near the cut line. Right now, they have margin for error. They are well inside the ropes.

Pick another Big Ten team entering this season. If you were asked to address Illinois — which lost 21 games last season — it would have been reasonable to say the Illini could not get any worse. They were likely to be better if only because the first two seasons for Brad Underwood were so bad. Yet, that kind of reality does not generally point to an NCAA Tournament.

Surprise! Illinois is also an NCAA Tournament team and would need to slide for the bubble to become an unnerving prospect.

Here is the shocking fact of all facts on Tuesday, January 21, before Big Ten games are played in the conference: If the season ended on Tuesday afternoon, Rutgers and Illinois would be top-four seeds at the 2020 Big Ten Tournament. That’s right: Rutgers and Illinois would get double-byes. You would not see them on the court on Big Ten Tournament Wednesday or Big Ten Tournament Thursday. They would debut on Friday and have great chances to make the tournament semifinals on Saturday and CBS national television.

“Where will Rutgers and Illinois be seeded in the Big Ten Tournament?” That question has probably been asked before, but if so, it has been asked because people want to make sure they don’t have to watch TV (or a game in person) when the Big Ten Tournament begins its five-day run on Wednesday. Right now, that same question is a question with NCAA Tournament implications. If Rutgers and Illinois both get a top-four seed, they won’t have to play nearly as many games before the NCAA Tournament begins. They will get tested by other top Big Ten teams if they can win one game and reach the semifinals. Getting that top-four seed means a lot, as Wisconsin fans know. The Badgers come to the NCAA Tournament relatively rested because they have rarely had to play more than two or three games in the Big Ten Tournament this century. Now, Illinois and Rutgers can derive the same benefit.

Will Rutgers and Illinois get a top-four seed in the Big Ten Tournament? It is surprising enough that we are even asking this question. It is more surprising how meaningful the question actually is.

We will see how meaningful the question is in a month. The rest of the Big Ten will try to restore order, but in a wacky year, who knows how it will all shake out?

10 for 20: Rutgers basketball

Rutgers basketball in the 2020s

This has been a rough 2019-2020 college basketball season for Wisconsin fans. Part of this rough season has been marked by the absence of Micah Potter — for rubbish reasons not grounded in fairness; thanks, NCAA! — but part of this uneven journey for the Badgers was the product of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. They’re not bad this season! That’s progress.

Before a team can become good, it needs to take the first step of ceasing to be lousy. Rutgers seems to be there. The Scarlet Knights aren’t a finished product. They will have to prove themselves in the cauldron of Big Ten basketball’s cutthroat competition. However, they aren’t a bad team anymore. They socked Seton Hall in non-conference play, and they once again flummoxed Wisconsin in New Jersey. It has been tough for the Badgers to win away from home in Piscataway. Rutgers has been able to protect its home court against UW.

It is one of those annoying realities for Wisconsin fans: Rutgers rarely amounts to anything over the course of the season, but the Scarlet Knights perk up and foil the Badgers when playing UW at home. It would feel better for Wisconsin fans if Rutgers could actually become a good program. Losses wouldn’t sting as much in that case.

This leads us to the obvious challenge facing Rutgers in the 2020s: Make an NCAA Tournament. It has been 29 years since the Scarlet Knights last did so, in 1991 under current TV commentator Bob Wenzel. Rutgers lived a very different existence then, as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The move to the Big Ten has been bad for Rutgers in football, but basketball hasn’t been any better, at least not until now. However, RU coach Steve Pikiell shows signs of lifting the program’s floor. Now, the question becomes, “Can Pikiell raise the Scarlet Knights’ ceiling?”

Pikiell, from this outsider’s perspective, seems to be going about his building plan the right way. Rutgers relies on defense and rebounding to win. That’s how Rutgers beat Wisconsin. Pikiell understands that since recruiting high-end talent will be hard as long as Rutgers doesn’t have an NCAA Tournament bid to proudly tout on the trail, his current teams need to win with effort and hustle. Effort will travel. Effort can hide a lot of limitations. Effort enables a team to win with defense when the offense is struggling. If Rutgers can lean on its defense enough to make an NCAA Tournament in the next few years, the Scarlet Knights can make that national and regional splash. They would then be in position to improve their recruiting and land high-end scorers which could catapult the program to the next level.

Jon Rothstein (you know him; everyone does) is fond of saying, “Steve Pikiell. Pounding Nails.” Rutgers will try to hammer home an NCAA berth in the 2020s and see if that opens the floodgates to a new era of prosperity in New Jersey.

See that basketball? Rutgers wanted it more than Wisconsin

More on Wisconsin’s loss to Rutgers

Last week, I wrote about the reality that the Wisconsin Badgers, like the Virginia Cavaliers, were prone to a lot of bad shooting games… and that Wisconsin needed to be MORE like Virginia, not less. My point was not focused on offense, but defense. This gets to the central reality — and need — facing Wisconsin after its latest road loss to Rutgers on Wednesday night.

Wisconsin wasn’t brilliant on offense, but it wasn’t terrible, either. Wisconsin didn’t score in the low 50s. Wisconsin didn’t shoot under 40 percent. The Badgers allowed 72 points, and strangely, they did so even though Rutgers hit just 5 of 19 threes and made only nine free throws. That’s hard to fathom.

The one statistic which decided this game was offensive rebounds. Rutgers gathered 14 of them, Wisconsin only three. THAT is embarrassing. THAT is unacceptable.

Wisconsin wasn’t always precise against Rutgers. The Badgers didn’t get good offensive performances from Nate Reuvers or D’Mitrik Trice, which certainly hurt their cause. They committed 14 turnovers. None of those realities are good. Yet, a Wisconsin team at its best will make 65 points stand up on the road. A Wisconsin team playing to expected standards will turn 48-percent shooting into a Badger victory. Yet, being imprecise, inconsistent, inaccurate, or a combination of the three can all be tolerated if the effort level is there.

The 14-3 offensive rebounding differential showed that the effort WASN’T there for the Badgers. It’s one thing to be outshot or outmaneuvered by a clever game plan. This loss was not the result of shooting or tactics. This game was decided because Rutgers wanted the basketball more than Wisconsin did. Rutgers got more 50-50 balls and scrapped more urgently for every possession. Rutgers earned 63 shot attempts, Wisconsin only 48. That’s why Rutgers could shoot so poorly from 3-point range (26 percent) and make only nine free throws yet still win by seven points.

Talent sometimes wins, and after this game, some commentators remarked that Rutgers has more talent than Wisconsin:

The point about Reuvers needing to be good for Wisconsin to win is well-made and well-taken. Rutgers might actually have more talent, too — I am not necessarily disagreeing with that (I am fundamentally neutral on that question right now). However, let’s get one thing straight: Talent and toughness are not the same thing. They aren’t strongly related.

Teams can lack talent and yet be very tough. Teams can have elite talent and yet be soft as marshmallows. When I wrote that Wisconsin needs to be MORE like bad-shooting Virginia, not less, I meant that the Badgers can always develop more toughness and cultivate better defensive habits. Talent isn’t needed to be tougher and more ferocious. Urgency, intensity, good habits, and competitive pride improve a team’s identity and performance on defense. Skill is needed on offense, but defense can improve through work ethic.

That work ethic was missing against Rutgers, and that is the biggest indictment of both this team and this coaching staff as Wisconsin takes the next week and a half off. See that basketball? Rutgers wanted it more. Wisconsin needs to want it more in every remaining game this season.

Wisconsin can’t blame the offense this time

Wisconsin-Rutgers reaction

The Wisconsin Badgers did not deliver an offensive masterpiece on Wednesday night against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. They still didn’t shoot the three especially well — 8 of 23 — and they missed five of 16 foul shots in a game they lost by seven points. Wisconsin still can’t get to the foul line regularly, either, a continuing sign of the inability of this team to drive the ball hard to the tin and draw shooting fouls. Yes, some of the offensive flaws and limitations seen in previous road/neutral losses are still there. The 14 turnovers — most committed in the game’s first 16 minutes before a much cleaner second half — are unacceptable. Some problems have certainly lingered for UW.

Yet, Wednesday night was a clarifying moment for the Badgers. They didn’t play poorly on offense. Flawed, yes, but hardly the barren box score of previous weeks. They didn’t merit an A-minus, but they also didn’t merit an F, either. A grade of C-plus or B-minus is probably fair for Wisconsin. Scoring 65 points on the road, shooting 48 percent from the field, should normally get it done… but it did not.

If I told you before this game that Kobe King would hit 7 of 12 shots and score 18 points; that Rutgers would hit only 5 of 19 threes; that Wisconsin would outscore Rutgers at the foul line (11-9), earn more free throws (16-13), and commit fewer fouls (17 compared to 19 for RU), you probably would have concluded that Wisconsin would win.

This game removed the idea that the offense is the main thing holding this team back. The idea that Wisconsin can’t shoot well in a building other than the Kohl Center has been demolished. The TEAM didn’t have a bad offensive game; Nate Reuvers and D’Mitrik Trice had bad offensive games.

The issue is bigger than the offense itself, even though the offense still carries notable flaws and hasn’t yet found a formula which will fix them. Wisconsin’s problems run much deeper than the offense; we will explore this in future articles this week at Badgers Wire.

Three takeaways from Wisconsin’s 72-65 loss to Rutgers

Wisconsin fell to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Piscataway on Wednesday night. Here are the top three takeaways from the 72-65 loss.

Wisconsin was handed its fifth loss of the season on Wednesday evening, falling to Rutgers 72-65 in Piscataway. Here are our top three takeaways from the game for the Badgers.

Wisconsin proved they can make shots away from the Kohl Center after all…but they still can’t take care of the ball. 

After some abysmal performances outside of Madison this season, the Badgers were finally able to knock down some shots away from home against Rutgers last night, particularly in the first half when they went 40 percent from beyond the arc and 52.4 percent from the floor overall.

Granted, they finished at 34.8 percent from long range and 47.9 overall, and while those aren’t exactly stellar shooting clips, they are notable improvements from where Wisconsin was at in its three-game losing streak at the Legends Classic and against NC State.

Nov 25, 2019; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Wisconsin Badgers forward Nate Reuvers (35) reacts against the Richmond Spiders in the second half of the Roman Legends Classic at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Nicole Sweet-USA TODAY Sports

Ultimately, their ability to score effectively on the road was not the reason for the Badgers’ demise in this one. To try to make sense of this loss, a good start would be to look at their persisting issues with taking care of the ball away from the Kohl Center.

After giving up just four turnovers in the win over Indiana last weekend, Wisconsin ultimately ended up coughing up the ball 14 times last night, just off of its season-high 15 against Richmond, including a whopping 12 in the first half that put the Badgers in a hole early. The Scarlet Knights took full advantage of Wisconsin’s carelessness, converting them into 18 points in the first half and 22 for the game.

The Badgers were lucky Rutgers wasn’t as efficient shooting the ball as head coach Steve Pikiell would have liked (26.3 percent from three and 46 percent overall), otherwise, the game had blowout written all over it.

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