1- OK, good job BYU in making the VCU game look like we were men amongst boys; But this Wisc team is full of big 10 men and BYU has got to lock in. The 1st thing that jumps out to me is how physical this team is.
2 Wisc has put up 1016 threes, not a typo! vs. BYU’s 977 threes. So we finally met a team that shoots more outside then we do. Going to be plenty of 3s in this game.
Wisc. avg .347 to BYU’s 37%. adv. BYU
While both VCU and Wisc are built very different (Wisc. has tremendous height, VCU had zero height) They both relay heavy on the 3. BYU did a masterful job on VCU’s 3 point shooters until late in the game, when it no longer counted.
3 Wisc. has two 7’ers. Sr. Crawl and So. Winters. They both will hit the open 3. Crawl shoots a blistering 42% from 3. Both of these guys are smart. Not shot blockers, average inside, something BYU can exploit.
4 BYU has got to guard Sr. 6’5 Tonge. as he goes, so goes Wisc. (kind of like Shulga vs. VCU)
Tonge averages 19 ppg, 5 rebs. He is their MVP, in the games that they have lost, Tonje has had poor scoring games. Mag will be tasked with slowing him down. BTW, Did Mag do a incredible job vs. Shulga?
5 Wisc does not block shots or turnover teams. Their game is to drive, try to get to the basket and kick out for an open 3. They are very physical, throwing their bodies into the defender to open space. It is imperative that our bigs help out at distance.
6 Tonje and Blackwell (both are Sr. Guards) will take the bulk of the shots. Blackwell takes the 2nd most 3s on the team but is their worst shooter outside, 31%. Tonge shoots 39%.
7 Wisc runs 3 guards and 2 7’ers. Their offensive game is to run Tonge at you, hope he draws 2 defenders, kick out for an open 3…if he gets 1 defender, he will go hard and score or draw a foul (he gets to the FT line 56% of the time)
If BYU can solve the Tonje problem, they will win.
8 Wisc is a 82% FT shooting team, Tonje is 91%, he will play in the NBA. In Case you missed it. He is BYU’s challenge. BYU has an anwser, Mag!!!
9 BYU is the better rebounding team.
Summation: BYU’s two points guards of Demin and Hall are going to be a handful for Wisc. We run our centers up to pic guards, Wisc’s Big men will be challenged to cover our pics. Baker and Saunders can be X factors, we just have more shooters. Boskovic could be an big factor for BYU but he did not play in the VCU game, IDK???
on D, BYU has got to slow down Tonje, close out their high pics for open 3s. Jim will hate this game because Wisc will throw their bodies into our guys so often that refs will quit calling the charge. Think Houston without the speed, this will be a war out there.
On O, Can Wisc slow down BYU’s complete game. I don’t think so.
too close to call but I will go, 78-77 BYU.
