Two good things happened in the Huskies’ game against Wisconsin. First, Husky legend Detlef Schrempf’s number 22 took its rightful place in the rafters of Hec Ed, and second, Brandon Roy Jr. scored his first career points in a Husky uniform. The rest was a combination of poor shooting, hot shooting by Wisconsin, and injuries that hampered the Huskies from the jump, as they were left with only 7 scholarship players. Outside of stellar games from Zoom Diallo (21 points, 4 assists, 9-15 from the field)
and Hannes Steinbach (22 points, 11 rebounds), the Huskies showed that their depth is severely lacking, and outside of their stars, there is no 3rd option. Or at least there was no 3rd option today, as Wesley Yates really struggled from the field, shooting 1-17.
It also did not help that Wisconsin’s duo of Nick Boyd (22 points) and Braedon Carrington (who finished with 32 points after making 9 3 pointers), were red hot down the stretch, making things worse for the already shorthanded Huskies. Even Wisconsin’s big man, Aleksas Bieliauskas got in on the 3 point action, hitting two. This shows that for all the talent the Huskies have, there’s very little they can do once that talent goes down. The Huskies quickly went down 17-4 with 13:28 left in the first, and couldn’t do much against a Badgers team that seemingly couldn’t miss.
Now, would they have won with Franck Kepnang, Ognacevic, Claude and Mandaquit out there? I am not sure, but it would’ve probably been a closer game.
This game is indicative of something I’ve been thinking about all of this season. The Huskies spent all this money on this roster and so far it’s been another disappointing season. It’s been 14 years since we’ve made the tournament, and Sprinkle’s seat is getting fairly warm. ESPN said as much this week. But if things continue as they are, and as they did today, those whispers will grow louder. It’s been a disappointing season for the men, and today’s game showed why. The execution of the offense was sloppy, the team over-relied on their stars and couldn’t key in on the opposition when they got hot.
For an eternal optimist like me, to be out on Danny Sprinkle, that should be a damning assessment.
The Huskies have USC on Wednesday, and the Badgers have Maryland, also on Wednesday.
