Buckeye Blogger Network
Didn’t turn out well for Badgers, but I couldn’t resist.
School: University of Wisconsin – Madison
Location: Madison, WI
Founded: 1848
Student Population: 42,595 total, 28,897 undergrad
School Type: Public
Stadium: Kohl Center
Seating: 17,230
Opened: 1998
Head Coach: Bobbie Kelsey
Experience: 2nd year
This is the return match between these teams. The 1st game was played on January 20th at ‘my’ arena where the Badgers prevailed 68 – 49, giving Wisconsin their first conference win of the season. Hopefully, things go a bit better at home for Jim Foster’s team. The table, below has a few key metrics.
| eFG% | A/T | Off Reb | Pts/Gm (O) | Pts/Gm (D) | |
| Wisconsin | 44.2% | 1.00 | 39.8% | 59.10 | 59.70 |
| Ohio State | 50.2% | 1.00 | 36.5% | 68.60 | 60.00 |
Despite getting killed at the Kohl last month, the offensive numbers appear to favor the Buckeyes. Ball handling is a wash, are the defensive statistics. Wisconsin rebounds their misses better than Ohio State, but with a much lower eFG%, they have more opportunities.
Wisconsin’s starters and their stats, below
| MPG | FG% | PPG | RPG | APG | TPG | ||
| 5 | Morgan Paige | 36 | 37.3 | 17.4 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 3.1 |
| 35 | Jacki Gulczynski | 33 | 42.0 | 11.4 | 6.1 | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| 43 | Cassie Rochel | 31 | 49.1 | 6.8 | 8.0 | 1.3 | 1.9 |
| 24 | Tiera Stephen | 35 | 39.3 | 6.5 | 6.1 | 5.5 | 5.2 |
| 4 | Nicole Bauman | 26 | 37.7 | 6.4 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 2.3 |
Not a whole lot that stands out with the Badgers (10-12, 2-7). Their scoring in pretty well balanced with two players averaging double digits. The starters of Paige (5’9”), Gulczynski (6’1”), Rochel (6’4”), Stephen (5’7”) and Baughman (5’10”) don’t present an overly big lineup, but will provide an interesting matchup between Rochel and Adams. Wisconsin’s two conference wins so far have come against OSU and conference leading (at the time) PSU. I can’t figure it out either.
Ohio State starters and stats, below.
| MPG | FG% | PPG | RPG | APG | TPG | ||
| #04 | Tayler Hill | 35 | 43.7 | 21.2 | 4.6 | 2.9 | 2.8 |
| #33 | Ashley Adams | 28 | 51.8 | 9.0 | 7.0 | 2.4 | 1.9 |
| #24 | Ameryst Alston | 28 | 50.0 | 6.5 | 3.6 | 3.0 | 2.5 |
| #31 | Aleks Dobranic | 14 | 59.4 | 4.0 | 2.4 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| #22 | Maleeka Kynard | 10 | 38.9 | 2.5 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
The starters of Hill (5’10”), Adams (6’5”), Alston (5’9”), Dobranic (6‘4“) and Kynard(5‘7“) (based on the previous game) appear to give OSU a bit of a height advantage in the front court. As I previewed for the Nebraska game, a quick glimpse at the starters’ stats struck me as being eerily similar to the OSU men’s team this year. If you were to plug in the men’s names, with DeShaun Thomas; the role of Tayler Hill, there are some similarities. Jim Foster’s team clearly depends on the good play of Ms Hill.
So, what happens? I think Coach Foster may have found a formula, based on Sunday’s 70-56 thrashing of Indiana. OSU (12-10, 2-7) needed a solid performance, and got it. I know the Indiana team isn’t very good, Wisconsin is barely better, and Ohio State is pretty much similar to Wisconsin. Thus, I think that OSU puts together a solid effort and wins this by low double-digits.
One more thing. This latest lineup seemed to play well, especially on offense. But with a new lineup, progress may be in ’baby steps‘. It’s an early game on Thursday; head down to the Arena and cheer this team on. Just a little extra crowd energy may be just the thing on Thursday.
Go Bucks.
Tip-off is Thursday February 7th at 7:00 PM . You can catch this game on BTN.com.
February 5th, 2013 at 6:29 pm
Very nice preview Ken. A big factor in this game will be the bench, Darryce Moore and Emilee Harmon provided some nice scoring off the bench against Indiana and they need to step up again in this one. Rochel against Adams is a tough matchup, Adams is a good shot blocker but can be caught out of position easily. Whoever is at the four spot will need to help out on defense. Dobranic gets the start there but Moore and Harmon will also get time in that spot and will need to play good games.
[Reply]
Ken
February 5th, 2013 at 7:53 pm
Charles, thank you for your insights. I am not as well versed with the nuances of this team, nor the match up challenges as I’d like to be. I appreciate your commentary to flesh out and broaden/deepen the preview. Thanks again.
[Reply]