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Notebook: Taylor one assist shy of triple-double
MADISON — One rebound, one assist.
That’s how close Jon Leuer and Jordan Taylor were on Saturday to posting a double-double, and a triple-double against South Dakota. Instead, they settled for a combined triple-double with 49 points, 20 rebounds and 11 assists.
“Their two pretty good players certainly stepped up in this game,” Coyotes head coach Dave Boots said. “We could not contain Taylor’s penetration, he got to the basket whenever he wanted to, and Leuer is, he’s a lights out offensive player.”
Leuer led the way offensively, putting up a career-high 29 points on the undersized and overmatched Coyotes. He came up one rebound shy of the double-double, however, finishing with nine.
Of those 29 points, 20 came in the first half as Leuer carried the team to a 42-37 lead at the break. Leuer hit 6-of-11 attempts from beyond the arc, while shooting 11-for-21 overall.
“I definitely worked on that in the off-season, just trying to improve my shot and make it more consistent,” Leuer said. “But basically, just taking the looks that the defense gives me and trying to make the right reads.
“It’s mainly just spotting up, getting my feet set and getting down and ready to shoot it. I think that’s the biggest difference.”
For Taylor’s part, he had a game-high 11 rebounds, while finishing second behind Leuer with 20 points. With nine assists, though, he came up one shy of what would have been the first triple-double in school history.
As for the blame on not getting to 10 assists? There are two easy explanations: the one most people see, and the one offered by head coach Bo Ryan.
“The reason he came up short was because he had one turnover in the first half,” Ryan said. “If he’d have taken care of the ball and made the correct pass, he’d have had a triple-double.
“But as a result of that one turnover, because somebody mentioned Mike Bruesewitz missed that last jumper, and I didn’t want poor Mike to feel that it was him that cost him the triple-double. There were other opportunities guys could’ve hit shots.”
What did Taylor think of that explanation?
“Yeah, I’ll buy that, it probably was,” Taylor said. “I think I missed Mike under the basket one or two times, too. So I probably could’ve got it there, but… I think I actually yelled at Mike for taking that shot too, so early in the shot clock when we were up.”
As Ryan alluded to, the reason most observers would offer for Taylor coming up one short is a missed jumper by Mike Bruesewitz, off a dish from the junior point guard with just 1:17 remaining in the game.
Taylor had picked up assist No. 9, a new career-high, on the Badgers’ previous possession, and looked to be headed for the triple-double clinching dish on the play. Instead, he settled for his first career double-double, while hitting a three-pointer with 28 seconds to go to reach 20 points.
With the performance, Taylor is now averaging 15.1 points per game, with a solid 3.6 assist-to-turnover ratio that has made for a seamless transition into the Badgers’ starting point guard role.
“He showed tonight just how he runs the show,” Leuer said. “He’s just able to get into the lane and just cause so many different problems for the defense that they have to help on him and he just makes great decisions with the ball too. He finds the open guy, and he’s just a fun point guard to play with.”
Wilson sees limited action
Despite his apparent full recovery from a hamstring injury that kept him out of Wisconsin’s first two regular season games, junior Rob Wilson continues to see limited playing time.
Against the Coyotes on Saturday, Wilson saw the floor for just seven minutes, all of which came in the first half. While he played more minutes off the bench than anyone other than Tim Jarmusz, his effectiveness on the offensive end made the lack of playing time seem like an odd decision.
In those seven minutes, Wilson went 3-for-3 from the floor, with one rebound and two assists. According to his head coach, though, it was his defense that earned him an extended stay on the bench.
“It’s certain things that we do that we say and when you don’t do it, then you need to watch,” Ryan said. “It’s pretty simple. But that’s for us to deal with. I have rules on defense and if guys aren’t playing as much against certain teams, it might be because defensively they don’t handle certain things real well.”
Defense stifles young Wolfpack
MADISON — With a name like the ACC/Big Ten Challenge you might expect a competitive, hard-fought battle between two major conference teams.
If so, you may have been disappointed by Wednesday night’s battle between Wisconsin and North Carolina State at the Kohl Center. Thanks in large part to an impressive defensive effort, the Badgers won by 39 points in a game that was never in doubt over the final 25 minutes.
“That was just a good ole-fashioned one,” said Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe. “They played well, they shot the ball well, they executed. And we didn’t.”
In saying his team didn’t execute, Lowe was putting things lightly.
N.C. State turned the ball over 13 times compared with just nine assists. Beyond the arc, the Wolfpack hit just 4-of-13 shots, while connecting only 18 times on 57 attempts from the floor.
Guard Javier Gonzalez best embodied the struggles for N.C. State as he committed five turnovers while dishing just two assists and shooting 1-for-6 on the night.
“We’ve seen them attack some teams and make some pretty good decisions,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “We tried to squeeze the court as we usually do when playing teams that are pretty good off the bounce, and I thought we did a good job of that.
“That’s what I liked the most, how we cut down the driving lines and kept [Scott] Wood pretty much in check.”
After battling through the first 15 minutes in a close game, Wisconsin separated itself with a 23-0 run over the end of the first half and beginning of the second. The Badgers held the Wolfpack scoreless for a span of 10:12, taking the score from 29-21 to 52-21.
While the offense looked its best during the span, it was the UW defense that really changed the game over those 10 minutes.
“We had a couple of shots that were right there, we had two that were on the rim and rolled out,” Lowe said. “It just seemed like one of those things where the ball wouldn’t go in the hole.
“Our offense hurt us probably more than anything in this ball game, our inability to score.”
One of the keys to the game, which showed the difference between the young Wolfpack squad and the experienced Badgers, was the number of trips to the foul line. In particular, Wisconsin’s aggressiveness getting into the lane and the post forced N.C. State to foul them.
Whereas the Wolfpack committed 21 fouls that sent the Badgers to the stripe for 26 attempts, UW committed just 11 fouls, giving N.C. State 13 attempts at the line. The disparity in foul shots was a welcomed sight for Wisconsin, which struggled to get to the line throughout the Old Spice Classic in Orlando.
“We were making hard cuts and they have to defend them,” said Jon Leuer, who posted a double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds while going 7-for-8 at the line. “A lot of times when you make hard cuts, they’re going to grab and hold.
“The officials were seeing that, and that’s how we were able to build up fouls against them. That and getting the ball inside. Anytime we can outshoot our opposition in free throws, we have a really good chance of winning.”
Equipment issues affected offense in Orlando
MADISON — For a brief moment, Keaton Nankivil had an impressive two-handed dunk in transition, on a nice feed from teammate Mike Bruesewitz.
As he was landing, the ball was rejected by the net, popping out of the basket and into the hands of Boston College freshman Danny Rubin. While the ball certainly cleared the rim, it must pass through the net to count as a made basket.
That missed dunk was the perfect example of the ball, rim and net issues that Wisconsin, along with every other team in the Old Spice Classic, had to deal with over the weekend in Orlando.
“Have you seen anything like that? I’ve never seen anything like that,” said assistant coach Lamont Paris of the dunk. “He had so much rotation on the ball, that it grabbed the net and jumped out of there.”
Nankivil was far from the only player to experience issues with the basketball at the HP Field House, a part of Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex.
In the first half against Notre Dame, the Badgers shot 29 percent from the field and just 10 percent (1-of-10) from beyond the arc. A day earlier against Boston College, Wisconsin made only three of 16 attempts from 3-point range, an 18.8 percent clip.
But nothing quite compared with the performance against Manhattan on Thursday in round one of the tournament.
In the first half, the two teams went to the half with the Badgers leading 17-10, shooting a combined 21.8 percent from the field. Wisconsin made 7-of-30 from the floor, including 1-for-7 beyond the arc, while Manhattan went 5-for-25 and 0-for-4 from three.
The combined low of 27 points was outdone in the second round, when Notre Dame led California 21-5 at the half. In that game, neither team made more than 28 percent of its shots, while the Fighting Irish went 1-for-20 from 3-point range.
In the first half, the Golden Bears went 2-for-25 (8 percent) from the floor, and 0-for-8 from beyond the arc. Notre Dame was 9-for-32 at halftime, with an 0-for-13 mark from three.
“We weren’t the only team in that tournament that didn’t shoot the ball well,” Paris said. “Whether you want to attribute that to the balls or whatever it was, no one shot the ball well in that tournament.”
Was the basketball, a composite ball named “The Rock,” a factor?
“Me personally, I think it was,” Paris said. “Whether it was or whether it wasn’t, in our guys’ minds it was. The ball was fresh out of the box, it hadn’t been dribbled but three times maybe before the tournament. It was the type of ball that I could palm it with two fingers.
“It was just really grippy. It wasn’t coming off the backboard how guys were used to, it clung to your fingers when you tried to release it, so it didn’t come off the same way. It wasn’t just our team, everybody was struggling shooting the ball. It was one of the strangest things I’ve seen to have a crisp, brand-new ball like that out there.”
With the sticky, grippy nature of the basketball being used, it likely altered the shots of the players, which took some getting used to. By the second half of every game, both teams adjusted to the way the ball came off their hands and began to score more points and make a higher percentage of their shots.
Still, when asked about it Monday, the Badgers’ offensive leaders, Jon Leuer and Jordan Taylor were not ready to make any excuses for poor shooting performances as the team shot 38.9 percent overall and 25 percent from 3-point range.
“They were a little bit stickier, I thought,” said Leuer, who shot 45.4 percent on the weekend and 35.7 percent beyond the arc. “It came off your hand a little bit different. The rims were pretty tight, too. But that’s something you have to deal with and play with.
“Obviously you don’t get a lot of shots on those baskets, and you’re not really familiar with the balls, but you can’t make excuses for that. You have to be able to, under any circumstances just step up and knock down shots.”
Taylor, who shot 32.4 percent from the floor and 28.5 percent from three on the weekend, gave even less credit to the basketballs, rims and nets for the Badgers’ offensive struggles.
“Every basketball is the same diameter,” Taylor said. “Nothing really changes. Obviously the feel’s a little different, but we were down there playing with that ball for the past week, and we’ve played with it before.
“You never use the ball and the rims as an excuse. You’ve just got to play through that stuff. It’s not anything we were thinking about.”
Watt’s stellar performance has Badgers smelling Roses
MADISON — On a day when the Wisconsin offense put up 70 points, it was defensive end J.J. Watt that stole the show. Quite easily, too.
Watt showed off his relentless motor Saturday, wreaking havoc on the Northwestern offense as the Badgers won 70-23 to clinch a share of the Big Ten title. Anyone who watched would have had a tough time not being impressed by the Pewaukee, Wis., native.
“He’s good football player, he’s a great football player,” said NU head coach Pat Fitzgerald. “I know how you want me to expand on some superlatives, but he’s a tremendous football player.”
For the game, Watt recorded seven tackles. All seven were solo tackles, as he did not record and assist and any tackles in the game.
Watt was credited with one sack, for a loss of 12 yards, while recording three tackles for loss, for a total of 19 yards. He also added three quarterback hurries. With his performance, Watt easily put his name in the conversation for Big Ten defensive player of the year.
“J.J., at his position, with what he’s done for our defense, I can’t say there’s anybody in our league that’s been comparable,” head coach Bret Bielema said.
“He’s got great instincts. He has the ability to anticipate plays, knocking down balls, running down plays from behind. He plays 100 miles an hour with a huge heart. One of four finalists for the Lott award, and if anybody’s playing better than him, I’d like to know.”
Watt showed those instincts and his ability to anticipate throughout his dominating performance on Saturday.
In the first quarter, NU quarterback Evan Watkins was intercepted by Jay Valai on the Wildcats’ second play from scrimmage. Watt had one of his three quarterback hurries on the play, forcing a bad throw from Watkins.
On the Wildcats’ next drive, following a three-and-out by the Wisconsin offense, Watt sacked Watkins, while also stripping him of the ball. Tyler Dippel recovered the fumble for Wisconsin, and the Badgers punched it in for a touchdown on two plays.
When Northwestern got the ball for the first time in the second quarter, trailing 21-3, quarterback Kain Colter was intercepted by Mike Taylor at the Wisconsin 32-yard line. Taylor picked up 47 yards on the return.
Once again, Watt forced the bad throw as he picked up a quarterback hurry on the play.
Late in the first half, Watt tackled Watkins following a 21-yard pickup, separating the quarterback from the ball, which allowed Aaron Henry to recover the football with 2:55 to go in the second quarter.
“I was just trying to have some fun,” Watt said of his performance. “It’s the last game of the year in Camp Randall, I’ve got to give our fans a little bit of a show. Our offense obviously put on a big show, so on defense we had to put on a show as well.
“We did that in a big way.”
Watt capped things off in the second half with one of the plays of the game.
In the third quarter, Northwestern scored on a 20-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 40 points at 63-23. On the extra-point attempt, Watt came up with the block, his third of the season.
“We’re always taught to give 110 percent every single play,” Watt said. “If they’re going to kick an extra point, that’s a point on the board that we don’t want to have.
“I’m going to give 110 percent effort on that play, I’m going to give 110 percent effort on my last play of the game and whenever I have a chance to be on that football field, I’m going to give every single thing I’ve got.”
Tolzien guides Badgers to Big Ten title
MADISON — For the past two decades, Wisconsin has always been a run-first program. Over the last few weeks, the Badgers have been running wild, while opponents had little hope of stopping them.
On Saturday, when they needed a win to clinch a share of the Big Ten title, it was the passing game that really made the difference offensively. In his final home game, senior quarterback Scott Tolzien delivered one of the top performances of his career.
“Scott’s a guy that takes advantage of every opportunity, every play,” UW head coach Bret Bielema said. “He made a tremendous check there at the line of scrimmage on that last deep ball to David [Gilreath], that was all him.
“He had a huge strike there that just kind of finally put the dagger where it needed to be.”
Tolzien passed for 230 yards and four touchdowns on the day, while connecting 15 times on 19 pass attempts. He found five different receivers on the day, including four passes apiece to Nick Toon, Lance Kendricks and David Gilreath.
For his four touchdowns, Tolzien connected with Toon twice, while finding Kendricks and Gilreath for one score each. Kendricks led the way with 80 yards receiving, while Gilreath added 75 and Toon had 62.
“We have playmakers all over the board,” Kendricks said. “We deserve it.”
Kendricks’ four-catch performance came in less than 30 minutes of play, as the senior tight end left the game with an injury following his 29-yard touchdown reception with 3:14 to go in the second quarter.
Tolzien finally came out of the game himself following a timeout in the fourth quarter, earning a big ovation from a packed house at Camp Randall Stadium. When his name was announced during the pregame Senior Day festivities, he drew even bigger cheers.
With his performance, Tolzien had a passer rating of 250.1, which marked the fifth-best single-game pass efficiency in school history. On the season, Tolzien has a rating of 169.8 while completing 74.3 percent of his passes.
After running back Montee Ball got things rolling with three first-half touchdowns to put Wisconsin up 21-3, Tolzien delivered the next four touchdowns for the Badgers.
“I think it starts with the running game, and kind of always has,” Tolzien said. “Even a prelude to that, just the way the offensive line has been playing. They really got the ship rolling early and it really makes it easier on the passing game.”
Several Badgers among awards finalists
MADISON — As the postseason awards name their finalists, they should always be taken with some grain of salt. Even with that in mind, it was an impressive week for Wisconsin.
As a number of postseason individual awards named finalists this week, five Badgers — four on offense and one on the defensive side of the ball — and one UW head coach made the cut. They weren’t listed for just any awards either.
Senior left tackle Gabe Carimi made the final cut for the Outland Trophy, given annually to the nation’s best interior lineman. Three-time Pro Bowler, and Brookfield, Wis., native Joe Thomas currently holds the honor of being the only Outland Trophy winner in school history.
“I remember holding the bag for Joe Thomas,” Carimi said. “It’s a long way from that.”
Carimi’s honor undoubtedly comes in part as recognition for Wisconsin’s dominant rushing attack, which has been near impossible to stop over the past few games.
Of course, the three-headed monster out of the backfield wouldn’t likely have quite the same success without Carimi, a future first-rounder, leading the way.
“It’s a great honor and all I have to do is focus on keeping on playing well,” Carimi said. “I know my teammates helped me out to get me in that position. We have a great offensive line and obviously they looked at that, and we’re scoring and we’re running well. Obviously all that came into play when I got nominated.”
Joining Carimi in playing a huge role in blocking for the Wisconsin running game is senior tight end Lance Kendricks. While the Milwaukee native has not enjoyed the kind of statistically impressive season many predicted for him in the passing game, it didn’t matter.
Kendricks found his name this week as one of three finalists for the Mackey Award, given annually to the nation’s best tight end. Though current New York Giants tight end Travis Beckum was a semifinalist in 2006 and a finalist in 2007, if he were to win Kendricks would be the first Mackey Award winner in school history.
“That was definitely one of my preseason goals, just a personal goal to have and just something to strive toward,” Kendricks said of the award. “I think it’s a good honor just to be nominated for something like that.
“Just going out there and working hard and knowing at the end of the day, as long as you work hard, you’re going to get better. I think that’s kind of just what I live by as far as playing football.”
With Kendricks up for one of the more prestigious awards in the nation, it has not gone unnoticed by Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema.
In fact, he’s gotten on the phone since hearing the news, campaigning for his tight end. It’s not the first time Bielema has done such a thing, either.
“Early in my coaching career, one of the first players that was up for a national award was, Joe Thomas was up for the Outland Trophy,” Bielema said. “At the time Justin [Doherty] was the guy, and I said ‘Give me the voting list of all the people that vote for the Outland Trophy,’ and I just started calling people.
“I was in my car, driving around recruiting, called like 25 people, and they were all taken aback that I would call and lobby for my guy. I’m like, ‘Well, hey, he’s done everything for me for this year and beyond, I’ll do anything for him.’ So I’ve gotten on the phone over the last week and tried to reach out to so many people.”
One of three running backs Carimi and Kendricks have been blocking for is John Clay, the reigning Big Ten offensive player of the year.
Despite missing the last two games due to injury, Clay was one of three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, given each year to the best running back in the country. While backups Montee Ball and James White have stolen the show lately, Clay got the nod as the Badgers leading rusher.
While the injuries have prevented Clay this season from putting up the numbers he’s shown he is capable of, the success and reputation of the Wisconsin rushing attack likely gave him a boost.
“I definitely think that has a lot to do with the success of the team,” Kendricks said of the multiple award finalists. “It’s hard to say enough about those guys.”
While Carimi, Kendricks and the rest of the offensive line lead the way up front for Clay, none of it would run as smoothly as it has without a competent signal caller behind center. Enter senior quarterback Scott Tolzien who has quietly led the nation in completion percentage through 11 games.
Tolzien, who also ranks in the top ten in pass efficiency, was named a finalist this week for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm award, given each year to the top senior quarterback in the country.
“Me and Gabe were talking about it, and there’s a lot of interchangeable parts on this team, along the line, the running backs, the receivers, and I don’t think Scott Tolzien is one of them,” said senior left guard John Moffitt. “Scott is a valuable piece of the offense.”
Being the humble leader that he is, Tolzien politely disagreed.
“I think this program’s in good hands no matter who’s at quarterback.”
Along with the four offensive nominees, junior defensive end J.J. Watt was named a finalist for the Lott IMPACT Award, and Bielema was named by the Football Writers Association of America as a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award.
In talking about the awards at his Monday press conference, Bielema looked beyond the simple recognition of his players’ accomplishments.
What he was most proud of was the character of the athletes nominated.
“In today’s day and age, with these national awards, it’s one thing, it’s his body of work usually their senior year, or the year that they win the award that they’re going to get this basically get the recognition,” Bielema said. “But what’s this person going to be like two years, a year from now, two years from now, three years from now? I think it came to light with the Reggie Bush thing, and now there’s all this other discussion.
“I can guarantee this, J.J. Watt’s up for awards, Lance Kendricks is up for awards, Scott Tolzien is up for awards, John Clay, [is up for the Doak Walker Award].
“But those kids, if they win those awards, there will never be a day of embarrassment for that trophy because they represent some pretty good qualities in people.”
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