Friday, April 4, 2008

Twin Cities love, part II - from Millie

Badgercentric correspondent Mike Milinovich posted this comment to yesterday's post about Jordan Taylor and Jared Berggren, and it was so good I thought it deserved its own post. Not Louisville dance team 1997 good, but UW hoops in 2002 good. Thanks Millie!

I saw Taylor play twice this year, Berggren once and the Bruiser (rght) twice. Here is what I saw: Taylor - very solid point guard coming in. He is physically mature enough to play right away unlike Kam Taylor and is much more of a pure point guard. He's not as flashy off the bounce as Hughes, but he's effective. I would like to see his shot improve, but it's not like it's a total weakness. Defensively he's active, though he'll probably take a while to play Bo's style of defense. Overall, he's just a very solid player. He doesn't jump out at you with absurd quickness like Hughes or a sweet touch like Bohannon. But he takes care of the ball, is a very good passer and just does everything pretty well.

Berggren - I think that he's going to be a very good player for the Badgers. He has very soft hands and doesn't seem afraid to take it strong. He definitely has a lot of post moves and seemed comfortable using both hands in the post. He's not the most athletic guy, but he isn't a plodder either. He should be a very good rebounder and will provide very solid defense in the post. I'm very excited about Berggren.

Bruiser - Big 10 fans are going to absolutely hate this guy. Let's go through the checklist of things that will drive people bonkers. White? Check. Pasty White? Double Check. Red Hair? Check. Hustle guy? Check. He should be a very good player in the swing offense. He has a pretty good handle for a guy his size and is an outstanding rebounder. He was able to take guys off the dribble and had an incredible baseline drive for a dunk in the state final. The only thing that I would really like to see improve is his jumper. Let's just say that I think we have a guy that can fill Krabby's shoes when he graduates.

Great report Millie. I'm most encouraged by the Bruesewitz review, mostly the dunk. Many reports have pegged him as a Krabbenhoft type, but Krabby doesn't take guys off the baseline for dunks ... although maybe he did in high school. Maybe Bruiser is more athletic than originally speculated.

All the better if he becomes one of the more hated players in the Big Ten - nobody hates guys who suck and don't win. The guys who come to mind who sort of fit Millie's description - Brian Cardinal, Drew Neitzel, Tom Coverdale, Chris Kingsbury - all played for good teams. So where does Miles Tarver fit into this equation?

4 comments:

Mr.Man said...

When he first committed, I wasted some time and watched a Henry Sibley dunks highlight reel on youtube. I predict Bruesewitz dunks more in his first 10 games at UW than Krabby does in his entire career. In fact, I think the whole comparison is overblown. It started when his HS coach compared them, but I think he made the comparison just to highlight how hard a worker Mike is.

Krabby is basically a big guard, with the added quirks of being a great rebounder with an iffy jumper. There's no doubt Bruesewitz is a forward. He's taller, looks to have longer arms, and is definitely springier and more authoritative going to the basket. He's more like Landry than Krabby. Except his a ginger. Thank goodness for that, huh? If we're going to be the whitest top-tier team in the country besides Duke, it's past time that we get a ginger in here.

Coach Scott Tappa said...

Thanks for the perspective Man. I didn't watch those Sibley highlights but maybe will waste a few minutes this weekend doing so.

Good distinction: Bruiser's a forward, Krabby's a guard.

Wasn't Krabby supposed to be a really good shooter coming out of high school, like Mike Miller? Or was the comparison just that they were both from South Dakota?

Mr.Man said...

Right. I remember the reports that Krabby was a good shooter and the comparisons to Mike Miller as well. Krabby is one of those guys who seems to jump his highest when he's going up for a rebound, not when he's shooting or going to the basket. The couple of short pull-up jumpers he tried in the tourney when he had clear paths to the basket absolutely killed me. He needs to discover his offensive mojo, as it were.

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