Last night was a good night of early season basketball for Bucks/Badger fans with both teams on. Not only were both teams on tv, the games were staggered so we could watch the ending of the Bucks game, then switch over to ESPN to watch the Badgers take on Duke. I stated a while ago that one advantage basketball has over football is that games are on during the week, and last night was a great night to get over hump day.
Bucks
This was a frustrating loss for the Bucks. The Wizards are actually one of the teams the Bucks are competing with to get a top six playoff seed. If you just concede that the Cavs, Magic, Hawks, Celtics, and Heat will make the playoffs you can also concede that those teams will be seeded 1-5. The next team could actually be the Bucks. Teams competing for the that next spot include the Bulls, Pacers, Pistons, Bobcats, and Wizards. It would have been nice to get win against a team the Bucks are competing with.
I do not know if anything beyond free throws can really be blamed for the loss. The Wizards shot 20 more free throws and that just seems ridiculous. Earl Boykins did give the Bucks some defensive problems with his quickness, Nick Young was on fire and Arenas played very well. Yet, the Bucks still withstood all of that to almost pull out a game when they shot 20 fewer free throws.
I am fed up with the free throw discrepency. Jennings and Warrick do attack the basket. Ersan and Bogut also draw contact. The problem is nobody outside of Warrick or Bogut get any calls, let alone the obvious ones. Jennings gets hammered time after time, and not only on drives, when big guys are hedging the pick and roll, Jennings gets a lot of contact on those as well. Skiles got thrown out early due to a horrible non-call on something that could have been closer to a flagrant one than a no-call.
I have no problem with refs not making calls, but you cannot just give calls away at the other end. My big issue boils down to this, the Wizards are not an inside based offense that will naturally draw fouls. No, they are a perimeter shooting based team, in that scenario the foul shooting numbers should be much closer.
At least the Bucks hung tough, which continues to make them enjoyable to watch.
Badgers
I am not kidding when I say this, this could have been the biggest win Bo Ryan has had at Wisconsin. Yes, the Big 10 titles and Big 10 tournaments have been nice, but this was needed. The Badgers were starting to have a same-old same-old feel. They could beat on bad big 10 teams, but could rarely beat the better teams. The Badgers were always well coached and disciplined, but could never score enough to hang with elite teams. The program was getting a little stale, and losing Vander Blue in a recruiting battle with Marquette did not help.
This win does. Duke is a little overrated, again. They have no inside game whatsoever, the Badgers dominated inside. Hopefully that says more about the Badgers than Duke. At this point the Badgers already have wins over Arizona, Maryland, and Duke. That could arguably already be the best non-conference resume the Badgers have ever had. If the Badgers can finish in the top four of the Big10, combined with the Big10 winning the ACC/Big10 challenge, combined with the non-conference resume, the Badgers should be looking at nothing worse than a 4/5 seed.
FanSided