Wisconsin Basketball returns to kick off the 2024-2025 season! The Badgers will open the regular season today against the Holy Cross Crusaders. In 2023, they will finish the season with a record of 10-23. It’s a long season in college basketball, and teams are sure to make changes to the non-conference portion of the schedule. What Wisconsin basketball does tomorrow will likely change in some way when conference play begins. The tip will air tomorrow at 7 p.m. on Big Ten Network Plus. Here’s a preview of tomorrow’s match.
Will Wisconsin basketball remain in the substantial lineup?
During Wednesday’s exhibition game, Wisconsin head basketball coach Greg Gard chose to play with Nolan Winter and Steven Crowl. It’s not common to play two seven-footers together as it creates less space on the offensive end of the pitch, but they, along with John Blackwell, Max Klesmit and John Tonje, played really well together.
Another option would be to sit Winter and field a true ball handler like Kamari McGee. The Crusaders team will have a smaller squad and there will only be one player over 180 cm lofty. It will be compelling to see how the Badgers start this game and if it stays that way throughout the season.
Will the Badgers paint or settle for threes?
Gard made it clear Wednesday night that the Wisconsin basketball team will be shooting a lot of threes this year. He mentioned what a college basketball game is like today. Unfortunately, the Badgers didn’t shoot the ball well from the third Wednesday and it almost cost them an exhibition game. If they had held on to the ball in the paint, they would have scored at least 80 points. I don’t mind moving because it’s an exhibition and you want to see if it works.
I’m afraid there’s no real scorer in this lineup. Connor Essegian worked at UW for the last two years, but has since moved to Nebraska. Max Klesmit and John Blackwell can hold the three, but they are not true scorers. I think there will be games in which there will be three and those in which there will be none. We’ll see how they do it tonight
How deep will the rotation be?
There weren’t many answers about the rotation at the show. Kamari McGee and Carter Gilmore played a ton of minutes, which isn’t that surprising. What was surprising was that players like Daniel Freitag, Cameron Hunter and Xavier Amos barely showed up on the court.
I understand wanting to win an exhibition match, but I felt like Gard was stuck with the same five that caused the separation and everyone else on the bench was doomed. The rotation will definitely change, but I’m not sure what it will look like, at least in the first few games.
Forecast
I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but there are a lot of questions surrounding the Wisconsin basketball team. You have to replace a four-year starter, the best player from last year and a three-year quarterback. Let’s hope these first games will do that.
It’s challenging to predict your opponent, but last year Holy Cross only averaged 66 points per game and didn’t shoot the ball very well. Senior Caleb Kenney is the team’s leading returning scorer, posting 11.9 points per game last year. They need to replace two of their top three scorers.
I think there needs to be a better balance between three-point shooting and painting. Determining the paint results in an open look of three. I think Wisconsin basketball needs to get used to the situation early because of the huge height advantage.
There are a lot of questions about this team right now. While I don’t find it disturbing, I do think it can be unsettling at times. I don’t see Wisconsin basketball losing to start the year here.
Wisconsin 73 Święta Krzyż 63
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