The Big 3: Time to Take Wisconsin Seriously, the Razorbacks are dead, and the Mountain West is worth the watch

Posted on by thefloorslap

Three big thoughts from the CBB weekend on Wisconsin as a Big Ten Title threat and maybe more, Arkansas struggling with a potentially flawed team building philosophy, and the joy that is Mountain West basketball.

by Jordan Beckley

1. It’s Time to Take Wisconsin Seriously

As it seems like every top team in the country is losing conference games, Wisconsin stands with UConn, North Caolina, Baylor and Duke as teams that keep winning. Wisconsin is now 5-0 in the Big Ten and winners of 12 of their last 13 games.

While Purdue lost to Nebraska and Northwestern and Illinois lost at home to Maryland, the Badgers have a game and a half lead on everyone with wins over Nebraska, Northwestern, Iowa, at Ohio State and at Michigan State. That is no cake walk schedule.

The Badgers have a statistical resume that backs up their top-of-the-leaderboard status too. Wisconsin is now no.9 on KenPom with the 31st best defense and perhaps most surprisingly the no.6 overall offense. The Badgers have had the 4th hardest schedule according to sportsreference.com and are 8-3 in Quad 1 and 2 games and 8-1 in their last 9.

The offense for Greg Gard’s team has been unpredictable with each night seemingly being a different player stepping up. Against Northwestern it was Max Klesmit with 24 points. In Columbus, it was Klesmit and leading scorer AJ Storr with big days. In a win against Nebraska the super senior Tyler Wahl lead the way. Along the way the Badgers have the steadying forces of Chucky Hepburn and Steven Crowl guiding the important point/center positions with room for both to still improve.

Purdue continues to be the betting favorites with minus odds to win the Big Ten, but Wisconsin is now at +240 on FanDuel to win the Big Ten. Illinois is third at +2200. The Badgers only play Illinois once (in the Kohl Center), play Purdue next month in the Kohl Center, and end the season at Mackey. Yet, with how conference play is falling that final game might be academic with Wisconsin already being the champs before playing Purdue in West Lafayette.

It might even be time for Badger fans to consider bigger goals than just the Big Ten trophy.

2. The Mercenary Transfer Team isn’t working for Musselman and Arkansas

If you haven’t been paying attention to Arkansas basketball this year, here is a quick recap of where they have landed. The Razorbacks are sitting at 9-7 overall and have lost their first three SEC games by a combined 64 points to Florida, Georgia and Auburn. The Razorbacks are ranked 92nd on KenPom with a bad offense (83rd) and defense (102nd). The 14th ranked team in the preseason is 2-5 against Power 5 opponents and are 1-6 against Quad 1 and 2 opponents.

Yikes.

Last year was a similar story for Eric Musselman and Arkansas too. By January 18th, Arkansas was 12-6 having started 1-5 in the SEC with four straight losses in conference. The super-talented Razorbacks would be inconsistent all season ending 8-10 (9th overall) in the SEC before pulling it together in March, surviving Illinois, and upsetting no.1 seed Kansas.

This season’s team is the second straight year that Eric Musselman has been a mercenary in the transfer portal. Coach Muss significantly overhauled his roster the past two offseasons with transfers and high ranked freshmen while keeping only one or two returning players. For reference, Arkansas reached out to over 86 players in the transfer portal this offseason for less than 10 open roster spots. But does this anti-traditionalist team building approach work?

The Hogs have had two straight teams that on paper are supremely talented while still being mediocre in the regular season. Can you build chemistry and an identity as a team given the shortness of the College Basketball season? Right now, this year’s Razorback team suffers from a lack of time played together. The stats show this chemistry issue as Arkansas is a horrible passing team (303rd in assists in the country) and fouls like crazy (21 fouls per game) to cover up defensively from weak team defense. The low assist numbers hint at the larger problem of a terrible shot profile with rough shooting percentages.

High isolation numbers, little to no motion, bad team defense and no time to develop players is not a winning formula in College Basketball!

We aren’t far removed from Musselman developing transfers and high ranked recruits like JD Notae and Jaylin Williams over multiple seasons and making back to back Elite Eights. “Yeah but we beat Kansas and made the Sweet…” No. Don’t tell me last year was a success. Arkansas underachieved for 75% of the season and won two games in the tournament before losing by 23 in the Sweet Sixteen. The goal was Final Four not that.

The Razorbacks are well on their way to missing the tournament and wins in the NIT won’t redeem their season. Coach Musselman will need to rethink his team building strategy this offseason.

3. The Mountain West is fun and you should watch it

A few years ago I discovered a love for the Big East. It was a conference full of colorful coaches, up-and-down play styles, and schools that not only did I not previously hate but ones that are pretty easy to root for. However, the love of the new Big East basketball and it’s coaches, rivalries, and home courts has gone pretty mainstream.

Now, I find myself flirting with the Mountain West conference. Similar to the Big East, I don’t have any ill will towards any of the teams and I find it guilt-free to hop on bandwagons of some of the schools. The conference is full of “smaller” programs but the energy is huge. Unique home environments like New Mexico and Utah State bring personality and intensity to the games.

There is plenty of talent too. Teams like Colorado State, San Diego State and Utah State should make the tournament comfortably. Plus teams like Boise State, New Mexico, UNLV and Nevada are fighting for a ticket to the dance. There are some bottom dwellers but we have already seen how competitive this conference will be this year.

Utah State needed a miracle ending with a late made three and a foul on the rebound for the extremely rare 5-point play to beat UNLV. A top 15 ranked and 13-1 Colorado State Rams team just lost back to back Mountain West games to Utah State and Boise State. Boise State also just beat a 15-1 Nevada team coached by Steve Alford. National Runner-Up and reigning MWC Champion San Diego State started 3-0 in conference before being ran over by a pack of Lobos in The Pit on Sunday.

All I’m saying is that with a less than stellar Big Ten and another down year in the ACC…consider throwing on some of these Mountain West matchups instead.

Parting Shots

  • Welcome to the Big 12 Houston! The Cougars have dropped their first two road games in the Big 12 after another weak non-conference schedule.
  • TCU, who just beat Houston, is now 2-1 and would be 3-0 if the refs didn’t hand the game to Kansas last week. The Horned Frogs have played the three highest ranked Big 12 teams in Kansas, Houston and Oklahoma and should be undefeated. Keep an eye on them in the Big 12 race.
  • Zach Edey reestablished himself as NPOY again with 30 points, 20 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists in Purdue’s bounceback win over Penn State.
  • Shoutout to Wade Taylor and Boots Radford scoring 59 combined points in an upset win over Kentucky to get Texas A&M’s season back on track.
  • My “They Should be ranked” list after this weekend’s play is TCU, Seton Hall, and Dayton.

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