Lucas: Nothing comes easily
December 14, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
Tuesday's foe Texas A&M-Corpus Christi brings veteran, confident team to Madison
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Since the NCAA basketball tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, only seven No. 15 seeds have upset No. 2 seeds whose overall record is 117-7 in opening games.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi nearly added its name to that list at the expense of Wisconsin.
Eight years ago, the 15th-seeded Islanders were a huge underdog to the second-seeded Badgers, who had the equivalent of a home-court advantage at Chicago's United Center.
Showing no fear of its surroundings or foe, TAMU-CC raced off to leads of 10-0, 17-4 and 25-7; the latter coming with 5:29 remaining in the first half. The Badgers made only 3 of their first 24 shots.
Wisconsin closed the half with a 12-2 run to make it a more manageable deficit, 27-19. Yet, still trailed by 12 points with 14:41 left in the game. Worse yet, Alando Tucker was in foul trouble.
Enter Kammron Taylor who filled the void when Tucker went to the bench with his third foul. Over the next 4 minutes and 38 seconds, he scored 14 straight points to lift the Badgers into the lead.
After missing his first eight shots, including six in the first half, Taylor made his final seven. The Badgers scored 48 points over the last 14-plus minutes and Taylor had 24 of them.
The Islanders didn't help themselves by making just 6 of their final 14 free throws after starting 11-for-11. The Badgers thus avoided the monumental upset with a 57-point second half for a 76-63 win.
The circumstances will be much different Tuesday night at the Kohl Center when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Wisconsin tangle for the first time since their 2007 meeting in Chicago.
The irony is that the Islanders will have most of the momentum on the strength of their six-game winning streak, whereas the Badgers are struggling after back-to-back home losses.
Since losing road games at Texas A&M and Texas, the Islanders have beaten St. Edwards, Furman, Elon, Austin Peay, Texas State and UT-San Antonio. Hardly a murderer's row.
But they have done some very good things during this stretch.
"Defensively, they're good," said UW assistant Lamont Paris who compiled the scouting report on TAMU-CC. "They play a switching man – almost like a matchup – they switch a lot of stuff."
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi held five straight opponents under 40 percent from the field before last Saturday when UTSA broke the streak – but just barely – by shooting a robust .404 (23-of-57).
The Islanders rank No. 1 in the Southland Conference and No. 16 nationally in field goal percentage defense (.368). By comparison, the Badgers rank No. 202 (.432) in the same category.
"They're very active in the half-court, they play up in the passing lanes," Paris said. "It's hard to drive them when you first bring it up. You have to move it around. They're pretty tenacious."
Paris compared some of their defensive concepts to Oklahoma's. The Badgers fell in the trap of trying to trade jumpers and wound up making only 16-of-68 shots (.235) against the Sooners.
"It really helps," Paris said of an offensive key for Wisconsin, "if you swing it from side-to-side."
Experience has definitely helped the Islanders get off to this fast start. Tulsa is the only team in the country with more seniors on the roster than TAMU-CC, which has eight.
The Islanders' starting lineup features four seniors and a junior – Rashawn Thomas, who just happens to be their best player. Last Saturday, coach Willis Wilson called him a "beast on the inside."
The 6-foot-8, 230-pound Thomas had 30 points and nine rebounds in the win at UTSA. In the season opener, he had 30 points against Our Lady of the Lake.
Over the last four games, he's averaging 18.8 points and 12 rebounds. Thomas, who's lost 30 pounds since last season, had a career-high 19 rebounds, 10 on the offensive glass, against Texas State.
"He's a power forward-slash-center for them," Paris said of Thomas who's from Oklahoma City. "He'll shoot face-up jumpers and attack the rim. He plays hard."
The only other player in double-digit scoring is 6-foot, 175-pound guard Brandon Pye who's averaging 12 points. A 3-point threat, he has at least three triples in six out of nine games.
Against Furman, he was 5-of-7 from beyond the arc. Jelani Currie is also dangerous from distance. The 6-4, 190-pound Currie knocked down 7-of-7 3-pointers last year at Cal State Northridge.
Hameed Ali, a 6-2, 180-pound fifth-year senior, is the third guard. He has had at least four assists in each of the last eight games. Ali ranks No. 7 in the nation in steals per game (2.89).
Rounding out the starters is another fifth-year senior, Bryce Douvier who spent his first two collegiate seasons at Northern Colorado. He's averaging 9.9 points and 5.9 rebounds.
Unlike the Badgers, the Islanders have developed a bench. They can go four deep. As a result, none of their starters are averaging more than 28 minutes per game.
"Their confidence level is high as a team and that's not surprising with older guys," Paris said. "I don't think that they'll come in here and be intimidated."
Few people are nowadays.
"Our margin of error is so small," Paris said. "We've played well enough in stretches (in losses to Milwaukee and Marquette last week) but we can't have lapses defensively or droughts offensively.
"We have to have a consistent effort."
Against Marquette, the Badgers fell behind by 14 points (46-32) when freshman Henry Ellenson drained a 3-pointer with 11:33 remaining in the first half last Saturday.
"But we fought to get back into the game," Paris said.
Over the next 5-plus minutes, the Badgers forced four turnovers and went on a 12-2 run.
All five starters contributed to the scoring spree: Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig had three points each while Vitto Brown, Ethan Happ and Zak Showalter had two points apiece.
"We have to get the ball moving," Paris stressed. "We have get people moving."
Offensive execution is dependent on it.
"We have to get our guys attacking when the defense is moving and spread," Paris said. "As opposed to attacking when it's not moving and it's compact.
"Those are tough circumstances for anyone to attack under."
Last Saturday, Brown, Happ and Showalter provided a scoring and rebounding lift. But it wasn't enough to overcome poor shooting games from Hayes and Koenig.
In each of their three homes losses to Western Illinois, Milwaukee and Marquette, the Badgers have been one possession away from reversing the outcome.
Statistically, they had no right to be in that position against the Golden Eagles considering they were outscored in the paint (36-16), on the fast break (17-2) and from the bench (15-0).
But they got some timely defensive stops, converted 11 turnovers into 13 points, and outscored the Golden Eagles by nine from beyond the arc. It helped, too, they missed 8-of-14 free throws.
"We competed hard as a team," Paris said. "I thought we fought for the most part."
Now, they have to take the fight to the underdog Islanders. Where have we heard that before?
"We have to do a good job defensively and rebounding," Paris said. "And we've been doing a good job on the boards all year (outrebounding each of their 11 opponents)."
It's the offensive riddle that still needs to be solved.
