UW-Michigan State thoughts

I'll remember that.

Great win for the program -- three over top-five teams in the same year, pretty cool. Michigan State is still comfortably in the driver's seat to win the Big Ten (pending the status of Kalin Lucas's ankle, obviously), but this puts us in great position in the battle for second place and really helps our NCAA Tournament seeding.

-So we can win with Jon Leuer ... and now it looks like we can win without Trevon Hughes. That was a real stinker of a game by Pop, but kudos to everyone who picked up the slack around him. he did have seven assists.

-Full disclosure: due to DVR scheduling conflicts (thanks, Lost!), I really only saw the second half. So I didn't see the better halves put in by Jason Bohannon and Jordan Taylor, and the half in which we established control. But even just watching the second half it was apparent that State's defense was not dictating anything Tuesday night, not to the extent that they did in Lasnsing. But we didn't let them dictate, either.

-Taylor is shooting more of a true jump shot lately than he did before. Up until recently, it seemed like he only took jumpers where he had a lot of room and was able to shoot more of a set shot. Now he is releasing at the apex of his leap. One in particular came in the second half near the end of the shot clock and Jordan drained a 3-pointer. Running back downcourt he had a smirk on his face, a cross between cockiness and apology. It was cool.

-During the part of the game I watched, State's biggest defensive deficiency was guarding our high screen and roll. Their guards just seemed to not be mentally sharp, a step slow, or a bad combination of the two. At least twice when Hughes handled the ball in these situations and the guy checking him ran into his teammate after Keaton Nankivil's screen.

-Brief aside: I'm watching Illinois play at Iowa right now, and Illinois fans have populated an entire section of Carver-Hawkeye Arena, behind the basket Iowa is now shooting at. It's almost like a home game for the Illini. That is just embarrasing if you're an Iowa fan. Is there a deeper story behind this, like a wealthy alumnus bought out the section? How could Iowa let that happen?

-With all due respect to Lucas and hopes for a speedy return, god forbid a Big Ten team lose a really important player to injury: Leuer, Evan Turner, Kevin Coble, et al. I hope those guys all got flowers from Brent Musberger and Steve Lavin, as I'm guessing Lucas did this morning. Erin Andrews' report on Leuer's status was not exactly reassuring, quoting Jon as saying, "I just hope I can come back this year." At least he's lifting and shooting.

-Nankivil really picked his spots well in the game, as did Rob Wilson. Wilson has really done a nice job of not forcing things, probably because he knows he's getting more playing time and doesn't feel like he needs to make something happen in his limited minutes.

-In the postgame Bo Ryan got fairly choked up telling Erin what a great job Greg Gard coaching the scout team in practice, preparing our kids for what State was going to run. This came about 30 seconds after Musberger and Lavin took a break from talking about Lucas's ankle to rave about Gard, Gary Close and Howard Moore. Assistant basketball coaches rarely get the credit they deserve, at least in relation to their football counterparts, so that gushing was nice.

Bo owns Izzo. Still.

Tony Bennett

Did you see that Tony Bennett was hired as Virginia's head coach? My first thought on that was that it's surprising he did not pursue or take, depending on reports, offers to coach Indiana and Marquette last year when those jobs were open and he was a hotter commodity.

Virginia is clearly a better job than Marquette, and while less prestigious than Indiana there's less baggage accompanying the job. They have a new arena on the way and play in the ACC.

Sounds like the people at Washington State were stunned that he left. Not sure why. He had two outstanding years followed by a so-so year. As good a coach as Tony is, it's not a given that he would have gotten the Cougars back to the level they reached in his first two years. His stock is as high as it's going to be for awhile, so taking the opportunity to coach in the ACC makes a lot of sense.

My friends were discussing what this meant to Bennett's chances of succeeding Bo Ryan in Madison. I don't think it means much, unless he a. Succeeds spectacularly or b. Fails miserably. Both are possibilities, but the greater likelihood is that he'll have a fair amount of success that qualifies him, as a home state boy, to be the next guy in charge at Wisconsin.

Bo could do like Dick Bennett did with Brad Soderberg and position Greg Gard or Gary Close to be the next coach, but just as Pat Richter dismissed Sodes to take Bo, I can't see Barry Alvarez just rubber stamping Bo's preferred choice.

Best of luck to Tony in Charlottesville.

Another Hill to Climb, another book to read

Over the holiday break I got around to reading Bo Ryan's book, Another Hill to Climb. If you'll recall, my mom got me the book and had it signed by Bo, who declined to personalize it in any way.

How was it? Well, it wasn't The Iliad, but it was interesting. Sort of read like a 211-page Mike Lucas column, not surprising since he was the co-author of the book. Some would argue that's about 210 pages too many. Lots of one-sentence paragraphs and loose transitions. A random finish.

Other than that, my only real criticism of the book is the overuse of the first person. At one point it was really jarring, so I counted the number of uses of the word "I" on a random page -- 28. Flipped back about 25 pages or so and did the same thing -- 28 again. Shame on Lucas for not cleaning that up more.

Much of the book is stuff we already know about Bo, but there were a lot of anecdotes that were new and interesting to me:

-When Bo was an assistant at Wisconsin in the '70s, he would go running, and his frequent running mate was Steve Randall, the old Oshkosh West coach and widely-liked good guy who passed away several years ago. Randall earlier coached at Iowa-Grant, where current UW assistant Greg Gard played for him.

-Pickup games at the Field House at that time included Andy north, Van Stoutt, and Jim Doyle. Wouldn't you have loved to see Stoutt get fouled hard?

-Reading about some of the recruits UW got in the '70s and early '80s -- Wes Matthews, Larry Petty, Joe Chrnelich, Claude Gregory, Scott Roth, Brad Sellers, Cory Blackwell, Ricky Olson -- it's amazing the program was so bad for so long. Probably a combination of mediocre head coaching and a tougher Big Ten than we have today.

-Bo writes about recruiting Roth and Sellers out of Cleveland, two very big gets for the Badgers (even if Sellers ended up transferring). During the Michigan game when Rob Wilson got in, the announcer made a reference to Cleveland being a pipeline for Bo, and mentioned Roth. Has Bo gotten anyone besides Wilson during this go-round in Madison? None come to mind. That would be a great place to tap a pipeline to, though, just as it is for football. So much talent, only one Ohio State.

-Apparently during the time between when Bill Cofield was fired and Steve Yoder was hired at Wisconsin, Bo was pursued by Jud Heathcote to move to Michigan State. He and Tom Izzo could have been best buds!

-Paul Chryst, whose dad George was the athletic director at Platteville and recruited Bo there, helped move Bo's family to Platteville.

-Tom Davis, who coached so well at Iowa, wanted the UW job when it went to Cofield.

-As a young lad, I played against two guys who went on to contribute to Bo's championship teams at Platteville -- Ben Hoffmann, who played at Hartford against our West Bend East teams, and Colin Gassner, who beat my eighth grade St. Frances Cabrini team to win the 1990 St. John's tournament. The things you don't forget ...

-My memory of the 2003 Badger team is that a weak Big Ten helped contribute to a conference championship, but think of the talent on that team: first round NBA picks Devin Harris and Alando Tucker, and future pros Kirk Penney and Mike Wilkinson. That's a helluva foursome, I'd put them up against anyone in any conference in any year. Bo poses the question "Have I ever thought about what it would have been like if Alando Tucker and Devin Harris had been able to play together for more than one season?" I have, it's bittersweet to think about.

-Lastly, before going to the book signing, my mom asked me if I wanted her to tell Bo about my blog. No, I said, please don't. Good call -- Bo seems to have a problem with blogs and bloggers. To quote:

"... during our 2008 Big Ten coaches meetings ... we had a panel discussion with two respected sportswriters ... and a blogger. Yes, a blogger. That's how times have changed. In many instances, I just think there's a lack of accountability with blogs. It almost becomes an obsession with some. And what follows is usually hearsay or an over-reaction, whether it's to one play or one game or one team. Where's the credibility?"

Ah, um, er ... I see where he's coming from, and he's to an extent he's right. The Internet, particularly the anonymity it provides, has heightened the second-guessing and scrutiny of people with public jobs. But what I think bothers Bo about the Internet is he can't control the conversation like he does with traditional media, as he boasts about in the succeeding pages. In fact, it seems the only "sports journalists" Bo holds in high regard are those who deliver only fawning praise.

Frankly, I'd wager that Bo has never read a blog, and is using the term as a catch-all for everything on the Internet. Certainly none of the blogs devoted to the Badgers are ever very critical of him or his program, and with good reason, we appreciate the job he's done. Blog comments, or other Big Ten blogs, maybe, but that just reflects what fans are thinking.

Not all bloggers are purveyors of hearsay and over-reaction, and the Internet as a dominant medium isn't going away any time soon, so deal with it.

Later, Bo is talking about Cicero. "... I'm told he was a Roman statesman, who was known to be a flip-flopper. He would change his position depending on which way the wind was blowing -- and then over-react. He might have been the world's first sports writer or blogger."

Ouch.

As with any of these books, if you're looking for a deeper understanding of Badger sports and one of the more successful programs we've ever had, give it a read.

UW-Long Beach State thoughts

Good test to open the season, nice to see the kids put through a tight game right off the bat. Long Beach was more competitive than just about any Minnesota team Dan Monson ever brought to the Kohl Center.

Thought the defense could have been much tighter -- they shot 48% -- but Long Beach had some pretty athletic players and we stiffened up down the stretch. We'll see more, of course. Perhaps the lack of a seven-foot shot blocker will be a liability for us against teams like that, even if they don't have bona fide post players.

-Like Marcus Landry's shaved head look (this picture is from last year). His old haircut was kind of dorky. His game looked as good as ever, though, as he scored in a variety of ways and at clutch times. Three blocks, too. He played with a lot of emotion and looked like a senior eager to make this team his.


-Because Long Beach wasn't that tall we went with a lineup of four perimeter players quite a bit, with Landry as the only true post. It didn't go all that well. There wasn't sufficient movement, just a lot of truncated drives, and the spacing made the guys easy to guard. Too many possessions ending with rushed shots at the end of the shot clock.


-Krabby's shot looks different, at least that first 3-pointer he hit looked different.


-Jon Leuer does look like he's filled out in a good way. Early on he showed a nice shot fake and penetration, with a good pass to Nankivil, who had it stripped. He also showed a good crossover early in the second half, leading to a layup.


-Jordan Taylor's first 3-point attempt came from way beyond the arc. Not an inappropriate shot, though. He's got a solid build, sort of reminds me of Pop. His second shot, a runner off the backboard, was sort of lucky but he made a really nice move to split the defense and get open. His alley-oop to Landry was just beautiful. Judging from his play Sunday, we shouldn't be nervous when he comes in to spell Pop.



-The Big Ten Network's sideline reporter noted early on that Bo was getting on the team for not fouling enough. The Badgers ended with nine fouls. It's an interesting point; my dad used to tell me that when I'd end a game with one foul that I wasn't playing aggressively enough, and that's what Bo was getting at here.



-Rob Wilson sure wasn't shy about shooting when he got in the game, I like that out of a freshman. Very athletic. Can't see him getting a ton of playing time once Big Ten play starts, though.

-Tim Jarmusz played 19 quiet minutes but seemed to be around the ball on the offensive glass a lot.

-The five on the floor for the finish: Krabby, Landry, Jarmusz, J-Bo, and Pop.

-Andy and I sat a few rows in front of Howard Moore and Greg Gard at the football game Saturday. Didn't seem like there were any recruits with them.



-This new business of the college game having two 3-point lines, one for the dudes and one for the chicks, could potentially be confusing. And imagine what an NBA arena might look like. J-Bo hit a long shot that would have been a 3-pointer last year but was worth one point less Sunday, and took a dribble back to get to the spot. I wonder if that was where he wanted that shot, or if he mistakenly thought it was a 3-pointer. Long Beach's last points came on a shot that would have counted for three points last year

Your feel-good Badgers

One of the nice things about making the Sweet 16 is the extra week of media attention, both local and national. The Badgers have been getting a lot of pub this week, and several people have emailed interesting stories from around the Web.

-This is my favorite, referenced by Brian Lucas's daily newsletter (the season is just about done, but I would highly recommend subscribing to this, Brian does a great job aggregating Badger-related stories from around the web, not just from Wisconsin media outlets). It's an anecdote about Bo Ryan's last Platteville team, and shows that while fans of other teams like to lampoon him, he's the real deal, a cool guy who's in it for the love of the game. Glad he's on our side.

-You know what else I love about Bo? He lets his assistants do a lot of interviews, both on-air and in print. Howard Moore, Greg Gard, and Gary Close carry a high profile in this program, which isn't always the case.

-Justin Perras sent me a Washington Post story about Michael Flowers and Max Bass with some more details than we've seen in other profiles on the subject. Like Justin said, a nice profile from a media outlet with no connection to the team. Try reading any story about Max and Michael without getting a little bit misty-eyed.

-Here's one more to consider, a Sporting News column anointing UW the top football-basketball combo school. From a UW alum, no less. And Florida and Ohio State don't make his top eight, but Kansas and Oregon do. Hmmm ...

-And check out the comments from yesterday's post, some very good insight into the Badgers' chances going forward and what it means in the context of recent history.

Just rode the elevator with ...

... Howard Moore and Greg Gard. Staying at the team hotel is pretty cool.

Wisconsin-Michigan thoughts

Are you in a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full mood tonight? Whatever your answer will dictate how you feel about the Badgers' too-close-for-comfort win over Michigan.

Let's start with glass-half-full: nice to pull out a close win; lots of different guys hit big shots, none bigger than Landry's; TV viewers got to see Erin Andrews work a power auger.

Glass-half-empty: we almost lost at home to a 5-14 team we beat in our sleep three weeks ago at their place; we looked sluggish, giving up 21 - 21! - offensive rebounds; we let their precocious freshman - their only scoring threat - get in too much of a rhythm. This might be the #11 team in the country right now, but I don't see them staying undefeated in the Big Ten much longer, and the efforts against Northwestern and Michigan suggest the Badgers are not serious conference title contenders.

Which isn't the end of the world, really. Better get to the highlights before I start sounding like a spoiled fan.

-After the NU stinker, I said that we needed Stiemsma against Michigan - just didn't think we'd need him that much. His big block on Ekpe Udoh's dunk attempt made sure Michigan never got the lead, which was so important. His other block, on DeShawn Sims, continued Sims' frustration. He made a nice layup, took a charge. And he and Greg Gard took the ESPN gang ice fishing (more on that later).

-Flowers' shot looked good again tonight. No reason he shouldn't be averaging 12-14 points a game (currently at 9).

-Twenty-one friggin' offensive boards! Credit Michigan for going hard, but some of those were a lack of effort or execution breakdown on our part. Case in point were Zack Griffin's two boards, in which he didn't have a Badger within five feet of him.

-Another indicator of subpar effort: nine free throws attempted, after 37 against Northwestern. Then again, credit Michigan's defense and a well-refereed game. And just in time for a State Journal story about free throw shooting.

-I thought Hughes' and Flowers' back-to-back steals were the dagger, but Michigan showed heart in not folding at that point.

-Michigan is much-improved since the first time we met. Still, they have about three legit players right now in Sims, Udoh, and Manny Harris. Sims is a 45% shooter and went 4-for-19. Udoh looked comfortable shooting jumpers. Harris was obviously great, but we seemed a step slow coming over to help, except for the two charges drawn by Krabby and Stiemsma.

-Down the stretch it was nice to see a variety of guys hit clutch shots: J-Bo, Krabby, Landry. J-Bo's runner was pretty, I'd rather see him do that than take 3-pointers nowadays. Krabby's move in the lane was strong. And Landry looked so confident and quick after taking that pass from Pop on the late 3.

-Twenty-one offensive rebounds!



-The ice fishing segment featuring Stiemsma, Gard (and his uncle), Erin, Lavin, and Musberger was entertaining. It's fun when ESPN does goofy stuff like that, I wonder whose idea it was. Really wish Greg would have shown a little personality, though. At the end of the segment Erin says "... cook them in the, uh, microwave? Can this go with wine, Lav?"

Also, how about that kid in the polar bear suit? That thing has gotten out of hand, although it does ensure Lav and Brent are talking about our players and team in other games they do, which is good for building recognition for the program.