Big Ten Wonk Badger Update

The Big Ten Wonk posted an update to Wisconsin's offensive performance after the first 9 games. Here it is:

"In my preseason walk-around of the Badgers I said the essential question with this team will be its ability to make shots. So far they've been doing just fine, thank you (54.0 eFG pct.). Then again in early December it's hard to know just how much of that is improved marksmanship and how much is the defenses they've played.

Like Marquette, Wisconsin doesn't shoot many threes (Jason Bohannon notwithstanding). So the upswing in their shooting numbers is largely attributable to better results inside the arc thus far from Alando Tucker, who takes almost twice as many shots as any of his teammates. After having done a little of everything in his career in Madison, Tucker has settled into the role of designated scorer (no boards, no assists, but also, to Tucker's credit, no turnovers). It's a role in which he has performed quite capably, though he is still iffy at the line (66.7 percent this season).

Still, Tucker's had help. Kammron Taylor hasn't shot many threes but when he has they've gone in (48.3 3FG pct.). And the 2005-06 version of Joe Krabbenhoft (37.7 2FG pct.) was apparently hustled away over the summer and replaced with a similar-looking but much better-shooting cyborg (57.1 2FG pct.). Add to this the fact that, aside from Marcus Landry, the Badgers simply do not turn the ball over and you have a very good offense.

On D, Wisconsin enjoys the luxury of two monsters on the defensive glass: Brian Butch (best defensive rebounder in the Big Ten, albeit in somewhat scarce minutes) and Krabbenhoft (right behind Butch on the leader board). Indeed, Bo Ryan's team has been its usual stout self on defense this season--with the glaring exception of defending the three. Opponents have hit 38.4 percent of their shots from beyond the arc."

As has been said many times before, if Taylor, Flowers, Hughes and Bohannon can step up the three point shooting, the Badgers will be a force to reckon with. According to www.kenpom.com, the Badgers get 23.2%, 56.3% and 20.5% of their points from FTs, 2 pt FGs and 3 pt FGs, respectively. Not surprisingly, the Badgers rank 313 in D-1 in 3 pt offense.

However, because the Badgers take and make so many 2 pt FGs, they rank 19th in D-1 in offensive efficiency, which looks at the raw points per game scored by a team and adjusts it by the number of possession a team has. Bo Ryan has normally set the goal of 1 point per offensive possession and currently the team is averaging 1.15 points per offensive possession. Air Force, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona are the top 4 teams in offensive efficiency and they all exceed 1.22 points per offensive possession.