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For about a month now, it's hard not to look at the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team and compare it with a group from the not-too-distant past:
Is 2012-13 again?
The Badgers took part in this NCAA tournament as greasy but challenging seed in fifth place and were eliminated with a 57-46 loss to Mississippi at an opening match in Kansas City , Missouri.
Six years later, UW (23-10) starts the 2019 tournament … as a fat and offensive seed in fifth place. This time he will open his doors against Oregon (23-12) Friday at the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
"It's a mirror image," said Ben Brust, co-host of the Scalzo and Brust radio show on ESPN Madison. "He feels very similar."
Brust would know it. He was a junior goalie on the 2012-2013 team who early checked out after shooting 25.4% of the season against the Rebels. The Badgers missed 14 of their last 15 shots, including their last nine tries.
This team from UW and the latter both finished fourth in the Big Ten Conference, behind a trio of top teams. The 2012-13 team finished the national No. 2 season in the Kenpom adjusted defensive efficiency category, but had offensive # 73. These badgers, meanwhile, are No. 3 in national defense and No. 52 in violation.
There are considerable offensive differences, starting with the fact that the 2018-19 team has a legitimate reference player in senior center Ethan Happ, three-time All-Big Ten first team player.
And even if these Badgers are in a period of severe crisis, they are still 36.6% of the range of 3 points. This ranking is the second among the Big Ten teams and is considerably higher than the 33% recorded by UW beyond the arc six years ago.
"Are we really good defensively like this? Yes, it's one of the best defensive teams, "said Joe Krabbenhoft, assistant coach of UW, the program's video coordinator in 2012-13. "But on the offensive, I think we're a team that can be very exciting. We have the capacity to fill it. I do not know if this team necessarily had the same ability to shoot as well as this team. Offensively, I do not think it's a good comparison. "
It's also what Brust has seen for most of the season, he said. But watching the Badgers fight to put the ball in the basket during the latter part of the season gave him memories of his second season at UW.
"I had confidence that they could continue to shoot the ball well," said Brust. "But last month, they can not shoot."
Brust said he had a sense of déjà vu when the 2019 slice was revealed on Sunday. Oregon, like Mississippi, enters the NCAA Tournament as No. 12 seed fresh out of a power conference tournament title. The Rebels had won five straight games and the SEC tournament title six years ago. The Ducks' winning streak is eight games after winning the Pac-12 tournament championship.
In 2013, seed No. 4 in the UW-Mississippi group was the state of Kansas. Ironically, the Wildcats are once again the No. 4 seed of this pod.
Brust sees a major difference between the team on which he played and this one. His team allowed Bo Ryan to become Big Ten Coach of the Year by winning four games against top-ranked teams in the AP poll: Michigan, ranked # 2 and # 6, and Indiana, No. ° 2 and 3
Meanwhile, these badgers do not have this type of earnings. They went 2-7 against ranked teams 1-6 in the NCAA tournament, with a win over-No. 2 Michigan, January 19th. This is the only Badgers win against a top-10 team.
UW played 5-1 against teams ranked in the lower half of the group of 68 teams.
"A lot of people are crunching and saying that they are only one," but the Badgers have been taking care of teams like Oregon since the start of the season, Brust said. "They took care of the teams they were supposed to be looking after."
In the last 10 NCAA tournaments, the top 12 places are respectable between 16 and 24 against the top 5. The Cinderella team group includes Oregon, which qualified as No. 12 seed in 2013 thanks to a group playing in San Jose.
And while he was on the wrong side of this surprise in 2013, UW eliminated Florida State in 12th position in 2009.
Due to UW's offensive trend and the general trend of Oregon, the Ducks over the Badgers are a popular choice thwarted in the first round. This confrontation had barely been announced when Seth Davis, a CBS analyst, opposed UW when selecting the network.
"I do not read in," Brevin Pritzl, UW junior goaltender. "Just go out, ready to play, listen to it, listen to the coaches and play our best basketball."
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