Happ, Koenig Lead Badgers to Finals of Maui Invitational

[Da-news-now]

Wisconsin came out firing on all cylinders in its second game of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, using the hot hands of Bronson Koenig and Ethan Happ to dominate the Georgetown Hoyas 73-57 and advance to the final on Wednesday night.

Sophomore forward Ethan Happ had himself a day/night to remember, as he poured in 19 points to go with 15 rebounds. Koenig led all scorers with 20 points on 7 of 16 shooting and grabbed six rebounds of his own.

Just like in the quarterfinal against Tennessee, that hot start cooled off thanks to turnovers and some hot shooting by the Hoyas. Wisconsin committed eight of its 13 turnovers in the first half alone, resulting in eight points for the Hoyas.

Wisconsin countered that with a massive 6-1 advantage in second chance points, as the Badgers owned the offensive glass 7-1 in the first half. That advantage continued in the second half as UW owned the glass overall and on the offensive side of things. So much so that UW’s 20 offensive rebounds were 1 fewer than Georgetown’s entire output for the night.

The rebounding advantage came in handy in the second half, as the Badgers pulled away quickly out of the intermission and never looked back. It took just over five minutes for a three-point Wisconsin lead to balloon to a 10-point margin.

Eventually, the Badgers would go up by 11 with 6:07 to play in the game and never go back under a double-digit lead.

Observations:

• Simply put, I’ve never seen anything like what the Wisconsin Badgers did on the boards on Tuesday night. Wisconsin just dominated on the glass in all ways, holding an overall advantage of 50-21 and a 20-1 advantage on the offensive glass. That translated in 19 second chance points for the Badgers, who also ate up the Hoyas in the paint to the tune of a 38-16 points in the paint advantage. By the time Nigel Hayes grabbed an uncontested offensive rebound on a missed Khalil Iverson free throw, you could tell the Hoyas had just flat-out given up.
• It shouldn’t be surprising to see that the Badgers resurgence has coincided with the emergence of Ethan Happ. He was amazing in all facets of the game on Tuesday night, and because he was killing it down low, things opened up more for the Badgers on the perimeter. It was so much fun watching Happ just put on a clinic in low-post moves and passing at times.
• That said, all of the open space the Badgers had because of Happ’s performance down low didn’t translate in to added points all that often. Wisconsin shot just 22.7 percent from beyond the arc (5-22), and most of the missed shots were wide open ones too. If the Badgers want to win a championship on Maui, they’re going to have to make teams respect their play inside and outside because they simply can’t and won’t dominate the boards like they did tonight likely for the rest of the season.

Game Grades:

Up Next:


Wisconsin will take on North Carolina for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational championship on Wednesday night at 8:30p.m. CT.

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[TW]

I watched part of the game. I wasn't a bit impressed with the Badgers outside the 3 point line. I haven't been yet, this year. If I was to grade them, I'd say; "Stop it!" A "D-" is not a good score! Either work on it, and get better, or start driving to the hoop, and creating chances at the foul line. Incidentally, they need to improve that too. Their overall team free throw shooting isn't all that great. It has to get better.

Nigel Hayes needs to play basketball. Apparently his mission on behalf of black athletes being treated unfairly, and his push to get players paid for being there, is interfering with his game. Anyway, that's my guess. You can't be focused on basketball when you have all these other issues clouding your mind, and taking your time.

I'm not saying that Nigel is wrong in what he's doing. I'm saying he's not focused on the prize, and quite honestly, he either gets it together or his floor time is going to dwindle, and he's going to find it costs him a lot of money when it comes time for the draft. The NBA doesn't draft guys who don't show up on the floor, and if they do, it's very low, and most of them end up playing in Turkey, or somewhere else where there's a bus league, where there's a crate of chickens next to the players on the seat, when they travel.

It's up to Greg Gard to get these guys focused. At this point, it appears that they don't have the same respect for authority with him as they did last year. He's going to have to impress in their minds that he's the guy in charge, do what he says, or you're going to be sitting in Madison, in civvies, watching games like they're playing in Maui, because you didn't do your job. Kind of a simple concept, make it happen #1!

The Maui Championship game should come down to another team out of the Carolinas where education will "never" interfere with basketball. Just don't go to classes, attend one year, and go to the NBA. We like these one and done players. If you need a little more work, we'll give it to you if you stick around for a second year. Classes? Yeah! Star gazing, media 101, and round bottom girl watching are three of them. Pick which ones you like.

Enough of the rant. I need to get some work done!

 

[eyecatcher]

I said it in shout yesterday. They Badgers are settling for far too many three point shots. What they are doing well is rebounding. Holy crap they had 18 offensive rebounds to Georgetown's 0 last night. They out rebounded the Hoyas 46 to 19. That is all effort.

This team can be good but they have to do a better job of protecting the ball. Too many turnovers right now. They also need to work on dribble penetration. When they get to the rim, good things happen. When they are off on the 3's like they were against Creighton, bad things happen.

 

[TW]

The Badgers looked like a middle of the road team in the Maui finals. They just plain didn't look like they had enough to compete against anyone who has a decent team. Koenig, 1-13 from the field, and Nigel Hayes had another horrible night. I can say one thing for Nigel. If he had his wish, and basketball players were paid to play in college, he'd be fired from his job. He's having a horrible start to this season.

But, it isn't just the start this year. It's how Nigel played late last year, and in the NCAA tourney. He had horrible games. Maybe he isn't intimidated by Gard, but was by Bo. If that's the case, bench him, and let him sit down at the end, or even have him "not suit up" for a couple of games, to see if he can get his mind back on track. They seriously need to do something before this gets out of hand.

 

[Pugger]

North Carolina is not just a decent team. They are the #4 ranked team in the country. The Badgers problem is they are not a good shooting team. You can't miss 10 shots in a row to start a game against a team like that.

Perhaps Hayes shouldn't be shooting jumpers and should instead go straight for the basket instead?