At halftime, it' 28-25 Wisconsin I've been about ready to freak out for the last five minutes because I've seen 12 Wisconsin turnovers compounded by SIX OFFENSIVE FOULS (has anyone ever seen 6 offensive fouls against one team in one half? wtf). We should be winning by at least a dozen, because Marquette's guards haven't been able to throw it in the ocean. You know they're going to get hot in the 2nd half. We played really well on defense, cutting off their backdoor passes and not giving them open looks on the perimeter. Offensively, I thought I was watching Memphis. We were sloppy with our passes, took bad shots, played one-on-one instead of passing the ball and running our sets. This was about as bad an offensive first half as the Badgers could've had, but Marquette actually shot the ball so bad we're still winning. Marquette is going to make a big run in the 2nd half, and damn it, we have to play smarter if we're going win this game. Come on Bucky, play your game and steal this one!
Badgers win, 70-66 (Dominic James hit a 3 as time expired, for what it's worth). I cannot stress enough what a HUGE victory this is for Bucky. a) this is a road win against a top 20 team, something that the Badgers don't get often this is a rivalry win; Marquette hates us, and we hate them. That alone makes this win sweet. c) this is a win against a good team, but we didn't play our best game. Our first half was just awful offensively, so to know we can go on the road and beat good teams without all our pistons firing, well, that's a very comforting feeling. Our perimeter defense was as good as I've ever seen. Part of it was Marquette having a bad shooting afternoon, but we challenged a lot of shots and didn't let them get to the basket very often. In the first half, we had WAY too many fouls and turnovers. We won't win many games if we play like that for a whole half. Now we've got Pitt coming up, after a trap game against a beat-up UW-M team that is still capable of the upset. I didn't expect us to win at Marquette, so this really sets us up well as far as our resume. We'll be able to go out and play Pitt without the pressure of multiple losses (assuming we don't fall on our face against UW-M) and play our game. Obviously this isn't a win that guarantees us a Final Four appearance, but it's definitely a big step in the right direction. Any time we can beat a good team on the road, it's key, but when it's #18 Marquette, a rival and a very good team, well, that's just sweet
I know it's a total shock to 98% of the country, but the Badgers aren't simply a bunch of plodding farm boys anymore. Tucker is a freak. He's a hair under 6'6" and well over 200 pounds, plus he's got crazy athleticism. It's too bad he isn't 2 inches taller. At 6'8", he'd be a top 10 pick in the NBA draft, no question. Then we've got Marcus Landry, who is just over 6'7" and is a swing forward with more big-time athleticism. He can get out on the break, defends the post reasonably well, and is a very underrated shot-blocker. He's an even better dunk artist than Tucker, which should tell you something. Trevon Hughes is a NY City schoolyard athlete, but he happened to move to Wisconsin as a youngster and went to a military academy in Delafield. He's another big-time athlete. Joe Krabbenhoft is very underrated; at 6'7" and about 215 he can play literally any position other than center. He is a playmaker and very creative, and he's got a LOT more athleticism than he's shown. Right now he's playing very well within Bo's structure on offense, but next season without Tucker and Taylor he's going to show everyone what he can do. And finally we've got Butch, who is almost completely worthless in my mind, but the fact remains that he's a supremely talented 6'11" former McDonalds All American. And next year we've got Keaton Nankivil, who I'm advance nicknaming Mike Wilkerson II. Nankivil is already 6'8" and almost 250, but this kid can play all over the floor, canning 3s, passing, and he's got a tenacity around the rim that will make him a big fan favorite. He goes to Madison Memorial (I, being an alum of Madison West, hate having to sing a Spartan's praises, but at least he's going to be a Badger, something that can't be said of Memorial product Wes Matthews Jr... ass hat), so I've seen him about 20 times live already, and this kid would be playing heavy minutes for any program in the country right now. He's going to be freakin good for Bucky. End of homeristic "we rule" filibuster LOL
