Weston

Oklahoma St @ Wisconsin Thoughts: - No Clary, Bogavac, Fallah, Ragland. No Garlock for Wisconsin - You could see the coaches working on stuff in this game. Both teams giving zone looks in the last few minutes of the 1H. Both teams full court pressing etc. - Nolan Winter looks All Big Ten 1st team worthy, best athlete on the team. - Eian Elmer reminds me of Bonzi Wells. It’s the shooting plus his ability to go play bully ball when you need a bucket. Maybe it’s also the head band and the frame. He’s a great pick up bc he replaces some of the scoring but without sacrificing anything defensively. - Tough to gauge OK St without 3 starters, Walker played well and certainly looks like he can be instant offense off the bench to spell Clary. Quick and nice pull up game, hit several middys, doing his best Kemba impersonation. - Foxwell is the best PG at creating for others that the Badgers have had since Hepburn. Super quick, loved seeing the hesy cross step back, cross again, just an example of the nice bag he has. Boyd and Blackwell were great but much better at creating for themselves and scoring. They have surrounded him with shooters and said “This is your playground, go to work.” But you can’t leave him open either bc he’s deadly accurate. Did not expect him to be this good if I’m being honest. - Natt struggled offensively but started getting to the line better in 2H and got into the paint to start creating for others. Former NAIA POTY’s translate really well and I expect him to figure things out and be a really good piece for this team. Turnovers and Shooting %s will improve. Rebounds really well for a guard, and some of Wisconsin’s spacing with how many shooters they have is just really difficult to guard. - Onuetu is a solid rim protecting anchor that this defense hasn’t had in recent years. Think the defense will be improved this year w/ him and Elmer. He’s not the best finisher on offense but he can crash the offensive glass and rim run. Will make life hard in the paint for opponents on D. Doesn’t have much of a low post game, so you are relying on his verticality to help on offense. - Halaifonua continues his rise as a strong big man. Could push Fallah to start. Him and Walker carried the team today when they couldn’t find any easy buckets. He’s big strong physical, with some nice low post moves and can finish. Nice stroke for a big. - Rapp and Onuetu will form a good duo. Rapp on the floor when you need to space the floor and need more offense, doesn't move feet quickly enough if he is pulled out on the perimeter defensively. - Allmond looked like he struggled with Wisconsin’s size, they really frustrated him. I still believe he can be one of the top freshman but at least from this small one game sample size, he was struggling to get himself open, they were daring him to put the ball on the floor. Rought night but Freshman can look terrible and then superb from one game to the next. - Carrington always such a solid producer. Can he pick up some of the scoring gone from B&B leaving. More minutes is better for him and the team. - Burks like Carrington, we know what he can do. First game action I think after being eligible, so will take him a few to get back into game shape. But we know he’s a guy that can go off in a game and get hot. Looked like he didn’t have his legs under him tonight. - Kinziger looks improved. Think he is ready to help, and this team is going to hit 3s and he can help there too, but it’s more about giving Wisconsin a backup PG who can organize and things don’t go off the rails, which was an issue last year when Boyd came out. - Felesi is going to push for a starting role pretty quickly. Feel pretty good about this back court when at full strength. He brings a good slashing ability and finished strong against contact. And he was doing it while that side of the floor felt condensed. They really need Bogavac’s shooting to space the floor out and give these slashers more room to operate. - Autry another 3 point specialist. They must have like 45 of these guys. - I’m not sure why the coaches love Janicki so much, every time I watch him he’s just out there. Must be a culture guy. - Ball looks like he has ability, the game looks too fast for him right now though. Once it slows down he’s going to be a pretty good piece. Will it be this year? Or will it be next year? One to watch and see how he improves with more game reps. He can do more with the ball than a lot of the other players, so an early rise could lift this team’s ceiling. - Robinson just looks like he’s trying to do way too much out there. Didn’t have any fear and was getting lots of shots up. Maybe those will fall? But the shot diet was poor, timing of when he shot the ball in the offense was poor decision making. Things that are coachable. On the plus side he was able to get his own shot. - Crotty looked like he did not belong out there on either end of the floor. - Montonati only played 3 minutes but had a strong take. Let’s give him some more minutes and see what he can do. Some guys are better when the lights are on. Thought he deserved more of Crotty/Robinson’s minutes in this game. Hate to admit when I’m wrong, especially before the season even starts, but I think Wisconsin will be better than I originally thought. I’m very interested to see this style against other teams. When they are shooting well they could blitz teams. On the flip side, I think there will be games where they could get suffocated by a more athletic squad. Last year Boyd and Blackwell could take over in those spots. That bucket getter type, when everything breaks down, is the one thing I think they are missing this year. Oklahoma st had a tough preseason. Loss to New Mexico, Loss to Wisconsin. Important to note they haven’t been at full strength for any of these games which makes it tough to tell if their issues defensively are real or not. Also it’s already really hard to get in a rhythm in preseason anyway, makes it even more impossible when you have different guys in and out of the lineup every night. I’m not making excuses for them, just saying I would take their preseason with a grain of salt. One thing that does concern me though is the amount of shooters on the team. Really need Bogavac, the other shooters seem like they are too much of a defensive liability to play often (Robinson, Crotty, Grbovic)