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.

Great weekend

So Vander Blue has committed to Marquette. That's just the kick in the groin we needed after the football loss to Iowa.

Don't even know what to say ... other than to say this seems like a very immature choice to close an awkward process. Marquette gets the nod because they run a four-guard offense (Buzz Williams' glorified YMCA "scheme")? Because he's been friends with Jeronne Maymon since he was a kid (first time I've truly been disappointed in Maymon's college choice)? Whatever. If that's what floats your boat, so be it.

What UW has to offer isn't exactly a perfect package. But, bias acknowledged, I think Wisconsin is a better choice than Marquette. For anyone, let alone Vander Blue.

But hey, committing to UW that early was an immature move as well. Maybe if he hadn't chosen us first this wouldn't hurt so bad.

Making immature decisions is what teenage boys do. Lord knows I made plenty of immature decisions when I was Vander's age, they just weren't this public.

Fully expecting much gloating from Marquette fans, as is their right. I'll do my best to ignore it, or delete it if it happens to show up here.

Even if, as I'm hoping, Vander goes on to have an undistinguished college career that doesn't leave us longing, that would be disappointing because we'd wonder what he could have done playing for a real coach. Chances are he'll have a good college career, based on what he's shown in high school. He's the real deal.

The only way this works out well for us is if he transfers home in a year or two, which given the way things go at Marquette isn't impossible, and Vander took the high road and was classy in his comments about Bo and Howard Moore. But given the hard feelings that have come from this process, isn't likely.

I can't take the high road on this. For the second straight day, I'm livid. This sucks.

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.