Griz vs Badgers

So what do you guys think? I know very little about Wisconsin, but a quick look at their roster tells me they are young and not terribly big. The Big 10 has been one of the best conferences this year, it feels like a tough game for the Griz. I think they'll be ready to play though.

Wisconsin is very spotty on their performance this year from what I have watched. They slow the game down and pound it in down low. Taylor is their best player by far.

Badgers are facing the hottest team in the nation. With Kentucky losing the Griz and Belmont are tied with 14 wins in a row.

somebody is going to have to hit the boards....hard.

I too know little about Wisconsin, but I like Albuquerque for two reasons (1) not terribly difficult to get to,
and (2) I think the crowd will be overwhelmingly for the Griz.

Coach Freddie Owens oughta know a thing or two about the Badgers. He was a two year starter for Bo Ryan.

Guy on ESPN said he had MT going to the final 4 in one of his brackets. Go figure.

Well one of the Sports Center Broadcasters has the Griz penciled into the final 4.

Bring in some football players to practice with the basketball team this week.
This match up will physically test the GRIZ, especially Derek Selvig. Good part is the officials will not be taking him out of the game. Hutchison and Weisner, better be ready to go too. Any chance Reader's grades are a go now?

Griz guards are better than Badgers,,but got to stop Jordan Taylor...and Wilson is a beast as well..going to be very tough; best d in big 10..take the under!

DuCharme said:

Coach Freddie Owens oughta know a thing or two about the Badgers. He was a two year starter for Bo Ryan.

Click to expand...

I was just going to bring that up. We have an insider! That could help out with the game planning. I only watched the Badgers once this year but my intial thought was that this is a win-able game. Lets go boys!!!

sorta ironic. generally at montana we've had good post play and reasonable depth but were outclassed at the dance by quickness. this year we've got the quicks, but not the bulk or depth. grizrule is right: we need weisner and hutchison to step up. and we need at least one guy to play way over his head, a la jamar v. weber, or hays v. ucla back in '75.

I like this match-up, at least as far as the starting 5 is concerned. Wisconsin's scoring strength seems to be their two guards and Breggren, a 6' 10" F/C who plays inside but can also step outside and knock down the threes. Sound familiar? The question is whether the Griz have the depth to hang with them for a whole game. As long as the Griz go out and play fast and and hard as they can for the entire game I think they can make this a good ballgame. Thursday can't come fast enough.

Congratulations Tinks and team, and Gro Griz!!!!!

My sister in law is a Badger fan and lives south of Madison. She say's they are susceptible to the three baby and have struggled against good shooting teams!

citay said:

sorta ironic. generally at montana we've had good post play and reasonable depth but were outclassed at the dance by quickness. this year we've got the quicks, but not the bulk or depth. grizrule is right: we need weisner and hutchison to step up. and we need at least one guy to play way over his head, a la jamar v. weber, or hays v. ucla back in '75.

Click to expand...

Isn't it funny, I stated the same thing about a month ago, and got flamed by the same pin heads who like to join in the lemming fray. However, it was valid then, and is valid now. The irony of our reversal of talents should be obvious to all knowledgeable BB fans. But then, there is a paucity of those here in Grizland. Too much Kool-aid drinking.

No complaints! I like the seed, the venue, and the matchup. It's difficult to come up with a better scenario. Now, we just have to go to New Mexico and play GRIZ basketball!

Silvertip said:

I too know little about Wisconsin, but I like Albuquerque for two reasons (1) not terribly difficult to get to,
and (2) I think the crowd will be overwhelmingly for the Griz.

Click to expand...

There is a third factor that could prove significant: ELEVATION

I only see two teams in the field of 68 that play more games at altitude than the GRIZ - Colorado State and New Mexico. Playing in Albuquerque at 5312' makes a difference. You feel it very early in the game playing basketball. In football you have more time to catch your breath between plays.

Approximately half of the GRIZ games are played in Missoula at 3209'. We also played at:

Cheney- 2440'
Ogden- 4300'
Pocatello - 4462'
Greeley- 4697'
Bozeman- 4820'
Flagstaff- 6903'

Perhaps not the deciding factor, but a factor none-the-less.

Go GRIZ, let's get it done! :thumb: :clap:

Hey guys, Wisconsin fan. We love Freddie Owens!

Here's us:

We are the slowest tempo team in the country -- not one of, the. Part of this is because we are very, very good at not turning the ball over, and we also won't turn you over much (though our calling card is tough man-to-man defense -- we NEVER EVER EVER EVER zone -- the coach has been there for 10 years and we haven't played a minute of zone), but the main part of it is our very deliberate offense that a large percentage of the time puts up a shot with less than 8 seconds on the clock.

We are not all that young and we started the same 5 guys all year. Jordan Taylor is our star senior PG who was pre-season all America, but had a bit of a down year. He may set the record for assist to turnover ratio in college basketball history.

His backcourt mate is soph Josh Gasser. Steady, good ballhandler and shooter, can drive, but doesn't do it much. Can disappear or go off for 15.

Our bigs are Mike Bruesewitz (Jr.), Ryan Evans (redshirt Jr.), and Jared Berggren (Jr.). Bruiser has been a huge disappointment after being pretty good last year. He'll rebound, but he's lost all confidence in his shot. Evans is a pretty athletic Kid-n-play lookalike that takes unadvised shots too frequently for my taste, but he is one of UW's primary scorers. Berggren is a very interesting player -- he's huge and he has an improving (but still average) inside game -- his uniqueness is that he is one of our bigger threats from 3 point land -- this is a Wisconsin trademark -- bigs who shoot the 3.

Off the bench are basically 3 players -- Ben Brust -- a sophomore 3-point specialist guard who has regressed as the season has gone on; Rob Wilson -- a senior G/F who had a very disappointing career, but has come on lately -- put up 30 (!) against Indiana in the conf tourney; and Frank Kaminsky -- a tall freshman C/F who hits the 3-pointer (remember the 3-point shooting C is the UW trademark).

We are a perimeter oriented team shooting way too many 3s. When we make them, we win, when we don't, we lose -- it's really that simple. We traditionally are a great defensive rebounding team and an awful offensive rebounding team. That latter stat is intentional -- our coach rather give up the board to prevent the other team's transition game. Therefore, we don't give up a lot of transition points.

The offenses that do well against us have usually been able to penetrate. We have a very good defense, though -- it's what keeps us in games because we go on long scoring droughts.

That's it for now, ask away.

what are the altitudes for Wisconsin and Vanderbilt?

We need every advantage we can get. :thumb:

Madison- 928'
Nashville- 597'

By the way, ABQ holds very fond memories for Badger fans -- it was the site of UW's greatest victory -- beating Purdue to make it to the 2000 Final Four.