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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.”
Leuer dishes 7 assists in victory
MADISON – Knowing that Jon Leuer could put big numbers against its smaller lineup Tuesday night, North Dakota frequently double teamed the Wisconsin big man.
Leuer countered by showing off his equally impressive passing skills.
“Our goal with that was trying to make him work,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “He’s obviously extremely talented. Him and [Jordan] Taylor, we wanted to limit. We knew we weren’t going to shut them out, but limit their looks at the basket.”
The Fighting Sioux were more effective in limiting Jordan Taylor, as the junior guard added just 10 points on the night for the Badgers, on 4-of-7 shooting. Leuer still managed to put up his points, leading all scorers with 22 on 6-of-10 from the floor.
Most impressive, though, were Leuer’s career-high seven assists.
“He could’ve had 10 assists,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “I thought he did a great job of seeing the floor and not forcing things. He’ll need that against some other opponents that we play. He’ll see some of the same things, but we know he can pass.”
While he led the way with seven assists, Leuer was certainly not the only unselfish player on the night for the Badgers.
Wisconsin finished with 20 assists on 31 made baskets, while shooting 62 percent (31-for-50) from the floor on the night.
After Leuer, guards Josh Gasser and Taylor each contributed four assists, while Jared Berggren had two. Nankivil, Tim Jarmusz and Ryan Evans each added one assist apiece.
“They’re such a good passing team, whether you play them zone or man, their bigs do a tremendous job of seeing over the top of people,” Jones said. “We don’t have traditional Big Ten size, so those passes were probably a little bit easier for them tonight.”
It’s been well documented early in the season how much Leuer has improved from last year, thanks in large part to his participation with the USA Select Team.
Most of the time, however, the focus with Leuer is on his scoring ability — both inside and out — and his ability to crash the boards. Little attention is given to the 6-foot-10 forward’s ability to find open teammates.
“It’s kind of hard to work on your passing, I feel like that’s just like the more you play in open gym games, the more repetitions you get, you see things a little better,” Leuer said. “That’s what I was able to do tonight was just read the defense and make the play. Make the right play, hopefully.
“That’s just basically it. Reading the defense and making plays.”
When Leuer read the North Dakota defense, he found fellow senior forward Keaton Nankivil open more often than any other player.
As a result, Nankivil converted three times on Leuer assists, twice for dunks and once from beyond the arc. On the night, Nankivil finished with 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
“A lot of it had to do with how well Jon was reading that double team right out of the gates,” Leuer said. “I think they decided that they were going to double the post, and Jon did a great job of finding everybody.”
Notebook: Gasser has historic debut
MADISON – When asked about the kind of impact Josh Gasser could have, assistant coach Greg Gard said Wisconsin did not recruit him to sit on the bench.
Gasser didn’t wait too long to show why.
In his collegiate debut, the point guard from Port Washington scored 21 points on 5-of-8 shooting, while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out three assists. Gasser also grabbed one steal against one turnover.
“He took care of the ball, he made great decisions,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “People will remember the points, but he did some other things pretty well.”
In just one game at Wisconsin, the 6-foot-3 guard has put his name in the record books, just behind Rashard Griffith.
With his 21-point debut, Gasser ranks second behind Griffith, who scored 27 on Nov. 27, 1993, in his first career collegiate game.
“Obviously that’s going to help his confidence level and that’s going to be great for us down the road,” Jordan Taylor said. “We knew what Josh could do, and we’ve been talking about that since the season started about guys having to prove themselves. He took a step toward doing that tonight.
“He almost had a double-double and the second-most points for a debut in Badger history. Maybe he’s the next like Devin Harris or something like that.”
What could make Gasser an essential piece to the Badgers offense, though, is his ability to grab nine rebounds in 26 minutes at the guard position.
As long as he continues to take care of the ball and play confident, aggressive basketball, Gasser will continue to see minutes, even when Rob Wilson returns. Gasser’s aggressive style showed in the 10 free throw attempts and the fact that six of his nine rebounds came on the offensive end.
“I always want to try and get my rebounds,” Gasser said. “I’ve always been pretty good at that in my career. I knew I could bring that to our team.
“I was just trying to do whatever I could out there to help us.”
Of course, Gasser’s impressive debut did not come without its teaching points.
As impressive as the freshman point guard was on the offensive end, his defense left something to be desired at times, as noted by his head coach.
“He got a lesson about a guy hitting a three and then hitting another one and then hitting another one, and not making a guy move off a spot or make a guy put the ball on the floor,” Ryan said. “So we guarded the three much better. They got into a little rhythm there, but he got some help from his teammates. Plus, he recognized an earlier pick up.”
Smith impressive in first career start
He had just one point in 17 minutes of play, but Wquinton Smith showed what he could contribute to the Badgers if given regular playing time this season.
Smith grabbed five rebounds, all on the offensive end, while dishing out three assists and turning the ball over just once. He picked up just one personal foul in the game as well, while going 1-for-2 at the free throw line.
“His shot didn’t go down, but he did the other things,” Ryan said. “I thought defensively he chased on the screens pretty well, manned up on his guy, got on the glass, was opportunistic. He’s just hungry to contribute. You can’t go wrong with those kind of guys.”
Bruesewitz continues to impress offensively
When putting together a defensive gameplan for stopping the Badgers, the first goal has to be limiting Jon Leuer‘s effectiveness. After that, Taylor is the secondary focus.
As for Rob Wilson and Keaton Nankivil, opponents are familiar with their names as well. After his impressive debut, Gasser is sure to get plenty of attention as well.
But not many people are going to expect Mike Bruesewitz to knock down outside shots the way he did Sunday.
“Mike looked like J-Bo out there for a stretch from last year,” Taylor said, referring to graduated guard Jason Bohannon. “I don’t think he hit the rim.”
Bruesewitz went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc as he scored 11 points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting from the floor. His one basket that did not come via the three ball was perhaps the most impressive.
After hitting a couple open shots from the outside, Bruesewitz shot faked and drove around a defender to the rim for the easy bucket. It’s just one of a few things the sophomore appears ready to bring to the UW offense this season.
“He read the defensive player, that’s in our shooting drills,” Ryan said before adding some humor about Bruesewitz’s much talked about new look. “But I think the biggest key in the offseason was he felt a few times last year that he was open and he wasn’t getting the ball. So he wanted to make sure he was seen better this year.
“You can’t miss the Brueser out there. You’re going to find him.”
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