Laley23;1573334 wrote:Im just surprised you cant see the glaring flaw of this team...they cant defend, and its not something that can really be fixed. They are slow and unathletic. There is a reason why Bo is pushing the pace this year and trying to score a lot. He isnt going to win many games in a half-court set.
I keep going back to the Indiana game. Evan Gordon, Yogi and Stan Robinson got to the rim at will. I think combined they took like 36 shots inside of 5 feet. Thats just pathetic. Anyone with quick, athletic guards/wings will have their way with Wisconsin. Lucky for them, Indiana probably has the best combination of athletic wings in the B1G, so they wont have to deal with it too often. But that is what the NCAAs are made of. I could see them going down in the first weekend again if they face a mid-major or average major with quick guards and wings.
I acknowledged in my original post that Wisconsin has an average defense. However, teams can and often do improve their performance on that side of the ball as a season moves along. Duke, while certainly more endowed with talent, played very similar defense as the Badgers over the first half of the season, repeatedly losing games because it could not stop athletic guards from penetrating the arc and then scoring inside at will against a weak Blue Devil front court. Duke has improved dramatically as the season has progressed and essentially turned their season around.
While not super athletic, Wisconsin is not totally bankrupt in that area in the backcourt. I think Traevon Jackson is quite athletic actually. In the post, Sam Dekker also is pretty athletic, being able to play inside or out. Unlike a team like Duke, Wisconsin already has two All-Big Ten caliber big men manning the post. So the tools are there to improve defensively. Maybe Wisconsin will eventually figure it out, and maybe they won't. Regardless, they still have the offensive power, long-distance shooting, and mismatches in the front-court to get them past the first weekend of the Big Dance. No matter the reason Bo Ryan has upped the pace offensively, he has the caliber of players to do it.
I do agree, however, that Wisconsin's defense, as it is right now, is bad. If not improved over the next month, the Sweet 16 is probably as far as they could hope to go.