Pregame Glance: Wisconsin

It’s New Year’s Eve, and time to start the Big Ten Season with a solid matchup.  The Buckeyes travel to Madison, Wisconsin to take on the Badgers this afternoon in the middle of bowl game glory.  By the end of this you can decide for yourself which is the better way to spend your afternoon.

Wisconsin was a perennial suck-fest in Basketball until their current coach and savior Bo Ryan came to town*.  Ryan has done a fantastic job building the basketball program at that school using a very conservative style of basketball play.  If you’re not familiar with this style, let me give you a football analogy so that you can understand.  Bo Ryan makes Jim Tressel look like the most aggressive coach on the planet.  Wrap your brain around that little contradiction, I dare you.

Bo Ryan’s style is very simple to understand – he wants to use as much of the shot clock on both ends of the floor as he possibly can.  His defense is designed to smother your offense and take away any kind of look at the basket.  The offense works the ball around by passing until your defense either makes a mistake, or the clock dictates that you have to take a shot.  This strategy leads to very low scoring games, but is remarkably effective, especially against teams that like to run the court and score quickly.  Wisconsin’s game against Duke is a great example of this.

This strategy has led to some impressive records for the Badgers.  Ryan has a 202-75 record at Wisconsin since he was hired before the 2001-2002 season.  He has 3 Big 10 Regular Season Championships (2002, 2003, 2008) and 2 Big 10 Tournament Championships (2004, 2008).  He has made it into the NCAA tournament every single season at Wisconsin, with his deepest run to the Elite Eight in 2005 where he lost to eventual champion North Carolina.

Despite having beaten “The Dukies” this year, Wisconsin has lost two games – one to Gonzaga on a Neutral court and one at Wisconsin-Green Bay.  Yea, exactly, Green Bay.  Wisconsin is definitely beatable, but I don’t believe we’re going to be the ones to do it.  Recall how the Buckeyes played against Delaware State.  While beating them by 16, Delaware State’s slow-it-down style really stymied the Buckeyes shooting and ball movement.  Wisconsin plays the exact same style, only with much better talent.  This will probably be the first game where we desperately wish we had Evan Turner on the court.

It will be up to David Lighty, PJ Hill and Jeremie Simmons to make things happen for us.  Jon Diebler and William Buford need to get in on the scoring as well but will likely be well defended and will continue to struggle like they have the last few games.

There are only two starters I really want to focus on, and you’re probably familiar with both of them.  First up is Senior Guard Jason Bohannon who is easily the most dangerous shooter on this Badger’s Team.  He’s averaging 42.9% from everywhere on the floor and prefers to shoot the three ball.  He’s also a hot hand from the free-throw line, so expect him to drain his shots from the stripe.

The other player I want to mention is the only other senior on the team – Trevon Hughes.  Hughes prefers to strike inside the three point arc, though he isn’t afraid to jack a three now and then.  He’s the guy that Lighty is going to have to stick to like glue, because if he’s left alone at all he’ll make you pay for it.

Wisconsin as a team was not expected to perform particularly well this year in the Big Ten, it was even expected that they wouldn’t make the NCAA tournament because of the youth on the team.  The win over Duke changed those perceptions, and now Wisky is expected to challenge for a Big Ten title with Purdue and Michigan State.  Ohio State might make that list depending upon how fast Evan Turner returns to the lineup, but without him we don’t have a prayer.

The game is being played at the Kohl Center in Wisconsin today (December 31^st) at 2:00 PM.  You’ll be able to see the game on ESPN2.

For more coverage of this game you can visit Buckeyes vs Badgers coverage.

*That’s not entirely true.  The previous coach, Dick Bennett, had 3 NCAA tournament appearances, including making the 2000 Final Four.  His overall record, however was 94-68 in 5 seasons.