I reviewed parts of the Marquette-Wisky game on my DVR this morning. The one thing that stuck out to me that I hadn't mentioned before is how frequently Wisconsin's players were being beaten off the dribble. Certainly you give credit for the likes of Todd Mayo and Vander Blue for being aggressive and making plays, but there are big problems with Wisconsin's defense. There were plays where Berggren wasn't hedging properly and allowed the guards to turn the corner with momentum, and that's in addition to the problems the Badger guards have in keeping guys in front of them. Wisconsin was not very strong on defense last year, and it appears they are going to struggle even more on that end this year.
So the combination of having problems stopping dribble penetration, less than stellar defensive rebounding (for a team that typically is a strong rebounding club), lack of balance offensively (i.e., overreliance on shooting 3s), lack of another star to take the defensive pressure off Taylor, and worse FT shooting (shooting much worse than last year) is going to spell many more losses this year for the Badgers than last year.
So the combination of having problems stopping dribble penetration, less than stellar defensive rebounding (for a team that typically is a strong rebounding club), lack of balance offensively (i.e., overreliance on shooting 3s), lack of another star to take the defensive pressure off Taylor, and worse FT shooting (shooting much worse than last year) is going to spell many more losses this year for the Badgers than last year.
