UW-Florida State thoughts

All day I had people asking me "Badgers got a shot tonight?" In the break room. In the hallway. In the door of my office. In conference calls. To each questioner I said, with a goofy grin, "I think we're going to win tonight."

There were plenty of times tonight when that seemed far-fetched, but wow, what a great day to be right!

Yes, it's just one win, far away in Idaho, but right now a warm feeling is washing over me. Temporarily wiping away the disappointment of the football season, the six-game hoops losing streak in January, Lawrence Westbrook, etc., etc., etc.

Life is good.

We won this game because, as it turned out, we were the better team. Florida State played really good defense, and Douglas is as good as advertised, but they didn't have much offensively besides him. We had a couple guys get hot when it was just about to be too late, and Pop did his Virginia Tech circus shot thing at the end to beat another ACC team. Very gratifying that we could play a far from perfect game and still come out on top.

-The first half was absolutely horrible, again. 26.9% shooting. Leuer was 0-for-7 at one point. Our guys were double clutching and scared to shoot. If you live in Wisconsin, you should have been watching the Madison Memorial-Bay Port state semifinal game (Vander Blue hit a big 3-pointer and blocked one, too, to lead the Spartans to the finals).

-But looks who comes out hot in the second half, Keaton Nankivil. His shot is aesthetically pleasing, and I'm counting on a huge step forward from him next year. I still can't fathom why he wasn't playing more in this last stretch; at the very least he should have been getting Gullikson's minutes.

-Then J-Bo snaps out of his slump at just the right time. After he hit that long 3 with under a minute to play he started pumping his arms and yelling -- never seen him so fired up. It was refreshing! Hopefully he uses his clutch performance tonight as a springboard to a big senior season.

-Landry's play tonight might go overlooked, but it was solid. He went up against some good, long post defenders and still found a way to make five shots.

-Jordan Taylor's play was steady if not spectacular. I can't remember any turnovers from him, and he made that late layup to bring us within a point. Also played pretty good defense.

-And what can you say about Pop's game-winner? Watching the replay a couple times, there was a high degree of difficulty on that one. His arm was almost fully extended trailing the rest of his body.

-Douglas was really aided by some superstar calls late. The foul on Pop that led to Douglas's game-tying free throws at the end of regulation was a bad call, Douglas just fell down. On the 3-pointer he made to put them up three late in OT he appeared to push his man down (although I didn't see a replay and might be wrong). He may have had 26, but I thought our guys did a pretty good job on him.

-Our guys missed some big free throws down the stretch, and the way this season has gone I fully expected it to cost us the game.

-Twenty wins again, not a bad total for a down year.

-Between our game and Siena beating Ohio State (aww, too bad ... there goes my Big Ten allegiance), what an exciting end to the first round.

Who's next, Xavier? No problem ...

I'll think more about them after getting some sleep. Which might be easier said than done after that finish.

UW-Indiana thoughts

Nice to close out the regular season with a laugher. Get the seniors their own individual standing ovations. Get Morris Cain a bucket. Get Brett Valentyn a bucket for Pete's sake! Very nice.

To reiterate, our NCAA Tournament chances are solid -- good RPI, top-five strength of schedule, a winning record in our last 12 games -- so it shouldn't matter what happens against Ohio State on Friday.

-Here's the one disturbing thing about this game for me: the inability to stop Verdell Jones and Nick Williams. They are clearly the only two scoring threats Indiana has, and yet we were unable to stop them from getting good looks. They hit 13 of 19 field goals between them; they shot 54% from the field overall. That wouldn't have happened against any of our teams in recent years.

-Indiana's limited talent clearly shows up in its offensive performance, but they are apparently even worse defensively. Let's face it, any team that gives up 85 points to us is a sieve. And we did it with only two double-digit scorers.

-Nice moments for all the seniors. Nineteen points and nine boards for Krabby. Landry had six assists. Gully played 19 minutes and hit some nice baseline jumpers. Cain with his shot was a treat, nice moment for a good kid.

-Nineteen assists for the team, has to be a season high.

-Come on, Bo, please play Nankivil and Wilson earlier in games like this. They are going to need to step up big next year for us to keep this streak of success going, and any seasoning they get helps. There's pretty much no time left for them to get that PT this year, unfortunately.

-My mind kept drifting to next year during this game. Conventional wisdom says we will have many question marks and should struggle. But I can see Pop, J-Bo, and Leuer taking big steps forward, Nankivil and Wilson earning 20-plus minutes per game, and someone like Berggren becoming a limited contributor.

But first things first. As much as an early exit from the Big Ten Tournament might not be the worst thing in the world -- get some extra rest heading into the big one -- winning a game or two would do a world of good for these guys' confidence. They haven't been the most consistent bunch, but stringing together two complete games, regardless of outcome, would really help.

Ohio State is definitely beatable, although they figure to have many more fans at Conseco Fieldhouse than we will. Michigan State would likely be the semifinal opponent, and while beating them is a long shot, a strong showing against them would suffice.

Looking forward to the trip as usual, stay tuned for reports from the road later this week.

UW-Iowa thoughts

Wow, three in a row. All three were bad, but this one might be the worst because let's face it, Iowa is not at all a good team. Which makes us not at all a good team.

When and if we're an NCAA bubble team come March, this will be one of those bad losses that hurts teams, really the first one we've had this year. (Ironically, Virginia Tech knocks off Wake Forest tonight, making that good win even better.)

Most of this game was just a dull bore with both teams shooting poorly and the refs blowing their whistles like they were getting paid by the foul. As such, Iowa won by out-Wisconsining Wisconsin. They took 25 more free throws than us.

Twenty freaking five! How the hell does that happen?

Of course, the spread should have been about 19 because of the officiating decisions that really decided the game.

Talking, of course, about the sequence in which Jordan Taylor made a nice steal, got clonked on the head on the breakaway layup, no foul is called. Compounding the poor officiating, the refs hit Bo with a technical foul. Iowa makes the two free throws, then picks up two more on the ensuing possession. Six-point swing, from us up four to them up two. They pull ahead, and while Taylor's heroic effort late forces overtime, we were beaten by that point.

Shades of Bret Bielema picking up that penalty after the kickoff against Michigan State, no?

This is starting to feel like football season, too.

-So Gullikson starts instead of Nankivil? Since the Northwestern-Michigan State game ran long it's hard to tell how that worked out, but Keaton played well while in. Gully didn't do a whole lot. What a rise for KG, though, from nailed to the bench after his drunk driving thing last year to starter this year.

-The Iowa fans are still booing J-Bo, but you can tell their hearts aren't in it anymore. Come on, would you really want to play for Iowa?

-Late in the second half, I thought Boy, Bo is really being stubborn not bringing Pop back in. Even if he was in the doghouse, he's still our best guy for getting quick buckets in a late-game scramble. But Jordan played really well. If he picks up confidence from this, it makes our guard position much stronger from here on out. Conversely, Hughes needs to get it together, if he doesn't we're hosting an NIT game at the Kohl Center.

-Landry has to be better from the free throw line. He had a chance to give us the first lead of overtime and biffed the free throw, and we never were in control after that.

-Did it seem to you that we switched way too easily and quickly on their ball screens, or near-ball screens? So many times we ended up with Hughes or Taylor guarding one of their bigs, and they did a valiant job holding down the fort, but that can't be what we really want on more than half our defensive possessions.

-First time I've heard Wayne Larrivee yell "Dagger!" when my team was on the short end of the stick. Hopefully the last.

UW-Texas thoughts ... sigh

That was disappointing. We played a great team even for 39 minutes and let it slip away. But that one wasn't lost because Gary Johnson banked in a 20-footer (and then pounded his chest for 10 seconds afterward rather than laughing at his good fortune). The game was lost:

-In the opening minutes of the game, when our offense looked like a JV team scrimmaging the varsity. So many bad turnovers, they were embarrassing. At least we righted the ship for the most part after that, but we gave up some easy points early, and those count just as much as the ones scored in the last minute.

-When we missed critical opportunities to extend our lead by missing free throws. Hughes, Gullikson, and Jarmusz all had trips to the line where they missed both, and Texas responded with scores immediately each time.

-Texas out-hustled us. Some of that is better athleticism, but some of it is desire, and that stings. We got out-rebounded 38-22. Thirty-eight to twenty-two! Inexcusable.

Also ...

-Would have been nice if Marcus Landry would have showed up tonight. He struggled to get shots early, but also struggled on defense and with boxing out, putting himself in position to pick up cheap fouls. We need more from him in big games.

-Hughes played well overall. Offensively, he was assertive and kept us in it early. Defensively, even though Abrams got 21 points and made some unbelievable shots, he needed 21 shots to do it.

-Sign of the times from Dick Vitale: "We've gotta get the economy going, get 'em jobs baby!"

-J-Bo played an appropriate game, staying within himself, not making too many bad passes, hitting four 3-pointers.

-Krabby, Leuer, and Nankivil had OK games. Overall, our guys showed some nice moves in the post, especially the dribble down, fake to the lane, then shoot a short bank shot. I thought Nankivil should have played more -- again. His logical matchups were with Atchley and Pittman, who had foul trouble, but play him anyway, make them adapt to him. He was the only one I had confidence in to pull down a tough rebound.

-Good to see Mike Flowers and Brian Butch in the house. Sounds like they'll be playing this winter in Germany. Maybe I'll catch them in a game if they're playing in Berlin while I'm there in February.

-Speaking of Flowers, I suppose tonight's game puts an end to the seemingly endless replays of our win in Austin last year. I'm a Badger fan, and even I'm sick of seeing it, can only imagine how Texas fans feel.

-Another banner game for Ed Hightower, eh? He flat-out blew two baseline calls on Leuer and Damion James, both made nice saves right in front of Eddie and he ruled them out of bounds. Why again is this guy not reffing West Bend City League games and instead of the Big Ten?

-What was Pop thinking on that last real possession? Down three with 20 seconds left, he drives into no man's land and takes a terrible two-pointer that gets swatted. That was wrong in so many ways.

-Dogus Balbay had five rebounds for Texas, more than anyone on the Badgers. That's right, Dogus Balbay, a 6-foot guard from Turkey whose previous season high for rebounds was two. He also apparently had a big steal to give Texas the lead for good, but ESPN was busy showing highlights of Abrams missing jumpers.

-Even in a loss, these types of games are always interesting because they provide a peak at what certain Badgers might play like if they weren't in Bo's system, and had the chance to play at a faster pace all the time.

Take Hughes, for example. He looked right at home taking a 3-pointer early in the shot clock, playing a step quicker than usual. Nankivil looked comfortable playing faster. I thought Rob Wilson would have fared well in tonight's matchup, but he didn't get many minutes. Leuer looked comfortable taking the ball to the rack when overplayed.

Conversely, the game seemed to moving a step fast for Landry, Krabby at times, Jordan Taylor.

When the schedule came out, I looked at the non-conference part of the schedule and figured 9-3 at worst, 10-2 at best. So overall this isn't too disappointing.

But the Big Ten is looking better and better all the time -- we're one of the only teams left without a signature win, unless you count Virginia Tech -- so my lofty predictions of 25 or 26 wins is looking less and less likely.

Happy holidays!

UW-Coppin State thoughts

Ho hum, another home win over an overmatched non-conference opponent. A game that was never in doubt from the opening tip, but one in that inspired little excitement of confidence. There's two ways to look at the team thus far:

They will be the type of team that plays up or down to the level of their competition. Or ...

They will finish anywhere from fourth to sixth in the Big Ten.

History suggests the former, not the latter, but the jury's still out.

-I'm glad Coppin zoned us. We haven't looked good against zones thus far, and need the practice. We got post touches, good interior passes, and got good 3-point looks. Of course, we hit only 23.8% of those 3-point attempts, but you have to have faith those will start falling with regularity at some point.

-Jon Leuer continues to impress. It's like the coaches watched tape of him last year, saw him camped out at the 3-point line, and told him to get his butt inside or else.

-My favorite possession of the game was that one that lasted about 50 seconds, featured two offensive rebounds, and ended with Landry making a sweet baseline dish for a Kevin Gullikson layup.

-Gully has really shaped up his body, hasn't he? I'm still trying to figure out Bo's post rotation -- why isn't Nankivil playing more? what did he do wrong? -- but Gully might be a guy who can give productive minutes.

-That had to be the fastest game I've ever seen. I suppose that would be because there were four free throws in the game, total. Give credit to Coppin for not fouling on our layup attempts -- that was a well-officiated game -- and put some blame on us for not doing more to draw fouls. We went more than 36 minutes before shooting a free throw; won't win many Big Ten games straying from the formula that has worked so well under Bo.

-Is it possible for a team to hold its opponent to 46 points and still feel like it did not play a good defensive game? Coppin seemed to get many good looks, as Idaho State did, they just weren't making a lot of them.

-Still, hard to argue that the effort wasn't there, when we held a 33-18 rebounding edge, including 11 offensive boards. Fifteen assists is more than usual.

-Did you notice that at the end of the game, when Coppin was pressing, Bo had Jordan Taylor in there but not Pop? He handled it fairly well. Wonder if that was Bo exposing Jordan to situations he might have to handle by himself later this year, or if he was made at Pop, or if Pop is hurt ... or maybe I ask too many questions.

Watched some of the Texas-Michigan State game today. It's going to take a lot more than we've seen from the Badgers so far this season to beat either of those teams. Still, very excited about the Longhorns coming in on Tuesday, let's do this!

UW-Green Bay thoughts

Is it just me, or have the guys who played for Green Bay tonight been around forever? Tillema. Schachtner. Berry. Evans. They have usually put up a good fight at the Kohl Center, and they did so tonight for awhile before the better team won out.

Good rebound from the uninspiring Idaho State game. GB shot 34.6% from the field, and while some of that was GB just not shooting well, they weren't getting the layups that ISU was getting the other night. We shot 52.1% from the field against an aggressive Phoenix defense, much better. Lots of encouraging individual performances.

Fifteen points in just 22 minutes for Krabby, who put himself in good positions to score on a number of occasions. And he's hitting free throws consistently this season, can finally trust him at the line.

J-Bo had 12 points on only four field goal attempts, that's efficient.

Nankivil had 11 rebounds in 28 minutes, which has to be a career high. He event took a 3-pointer in rhythm today. In my mind, Keaton needs to be on the court at least 20 minutes a game, it lets Landry focus more on offense. Marcus was more aggressive posting up tonight, maybe because he had a lighter defensive load.

Eleven points for Timmy Jarmusz. He was a scorer in high school, but until now he had been just a solid floor guy at UW. If he can throw in a few double-digit scoring games where he hits a couple 3-pointers, that would help immensely.

Kevin Gullikson got in earlier than normal today. He didn't distinguish himself with his play, but he looks quicker and more fit than he did earlier in his career. Does he make the regular rotation 10 deep? Probably not, but he can be called on in case of foul trouble.

The Big Ten Network play-by-play guy really butchered his account of Tod Kowalczyk, calling him "Ted" and recapping his career at "DePree" High School in suburban Green Bay.

Finals, then a bad Coppin State team before Texas. Have a nice week off, guys.

UW-Edwardsville thoughts

Can't tell too much about this game given the competition, but you have to like how we didn't mess around and stuck a fork in them early in the second half. The rationale for scheduling games like this, aside from racking up some base wins, is building confidence.

Look at Jon Leuer, who was far from a given entering this season. Games like this give him a chance to know he can score from all over the court. Look at Jason Bohannon, who is learning exactly where he has to get on the floor with this new 3-point line. Look at Marcus Landry, finally The Man after three years as a complementary player.

Leuer was obviously the player of the game. Maybe he doesn't get 25 points in a game this year, but I would be thrilled if he had four or five more 15-point games and averaged around 10. Three dunks, all with authority, are what people are going to remember, but the variety of moves he used to score his first three buckets were even more important. He hit both of his 3-pointers, but eight of his 10 field goal attempts were 2-pointers, which is where he needs to be more and more often. That was encouraging.

-Jordan Taylor throws a nice alley-oop, doesn't he? It's clear that he gets it. Interestingly, he didn't score, but 12 other Badgers did.

-Nineteen assists -- nice.

-At least three times tonight Trevon Hughes was stationed in the left corner and got clean looks at 3-pointers. I don't remember that configuration last year, but he seemed very comfortable there and made a couple of those treys.

-Still don't see who's going to fill Michael Flowers' lockdown perimeter defender role. My sense is Bo is trying to get Rob Wilson to the point where he can do some of that, and these games are opportunities to see what the freshman can do. He's a little bit too out of control right now, although I like the energy he's bringing.

-Did I infer or flat-out write that we don't have any shot blockers this year like we did last year? Sorry Marcus.

-Tim Jarmusz = the next Joe Krabbenhoft in training, but a more confident shooter.

-Kevin Gullikson has obviously dropped some weight, wouldn't be surprised to see him get minutes this year, although right now he seems to be at the fringe of the rotation at best. He's also got what appears to be a really nasty tattoo on the inner bicep of his left arm. Why, Kevin?

-Guess Ian Markolf isn't redshirting. At least he made it worth hsi while, scoring a second after getting into a game for the first time in his career. He is well-built. Jared Berggren's fate this season is still undecided.

-I liked that in the second half we didn't just play YMCA ball and sprint the ball up the court. We pushed tempo when appropriate but otherewise just executed really well in the halfcourt. Could we have scored 100 points against that team? Probably, but that doesn't help you at all later on when we play teams that match or exceed our athleticism.

Streamin'

Did anyone watch the Big Ten Network's stream of our exhibition game against Augustana the other night? I tried, but my home computer isn't cutting it for that type of work. Maybe I'll be able to sneak back to work tonight for some, ahem, budget work and a quick look at how the boys looked Saturday.

Going off the box score, a few things stuck out:

-Jon Leuer had a nice game with 15 points in 14 minutes. What I like is that he took 11 shots overall, and only three of them were 3-pointers. Shows he's not settling for long jumpers, which is good for his overall game.

-Jordan Taylor got 21 minutes of action and had five assists against one turnover. Shows Bo is getting him ready for some legit duty in relief of Pop.

-Surprised to see JP Gavinski got only two minutes of action. Additionally, Jared Berggren, Kevin Gullikson, and Ian Markolf all saw five minutes or less of playing time. Granted, it's only an exhibition, but this could mean that our primary 4-5 players will be limited to Nankivil, Landry, and Leuer, with Krabby sliding down to the 4 in certain matchups.

Or it could just mean that Augustana was playing a really small lineup.

-Apparently Krabby went into the stands after a loose ball, gotta love the quote from Bo afterward:

"That was his uncle on the other side. He hadn’t seen him in a while. He wanted to go over there and shake hands with him. The scary thing was, our fans parted. They didn’t try to protect him, I thought they would do a better job of catching him. Of course, with all the stitches and everything Joe has on him, he’s not another pretty face. Maybe he scared some people. ..."

Whitewater's next on Tuesday. I love these matchups with WIAC schools, it's so much better than playing Athletes in Action or the Turkgystan under-21 national team.

Big Ten Tournament title game thoughts

The Big Ten Network has been showing the Big Ten Tournament finale against Illinois this week, so I took the time to watch it on television for the first time. It was good to see things from a different angle than we watched it in Indianapolis, and to make some observations after the grind of the long season is over.

-Too bad we couldn't have gotten Stiemsma more of those 16-foot jumpers over his career, he was really good at those.

-Too bad Flowers didn't shoot 3-pointers more before his senior season, he had a really nice storke. He made one at a key point in the first half where he caught a pass, elevated over a solid close-out and was dead-on. In a different program, he could have been a 15 ppg guy.

-Jarmusz's play at the end of the year was really encouraging. Had this year's team not been so experienced, he might have seen as much playing time as J-Bo did as a freshman. He might be a real positive for the team next year.

-On certain days, the Badgers were a very good 3-point shooting team, maybe the best all-aroudn in recent memory. Five different guys hit threes in that game, and the Badgers were 9-of-18 overall.

-I'm worried about Pop's tendency to suffer seemingly minor injuries that disrupt the flow of his game. Then again, the injuries forced him to slow down and play under control more. He's really capable of some special things offensively.

-Illinois was just gassed by the time they played us. Just saw a play where Trent Meacham came off a pick in position to shoot, with a little room, and couldn't squeeze it off.

-Krabby set a hellacious pick on Chester Frazier, really knocked him down. He's so good at those little things. Frazier, to his credit, bounced up and got back to play defense, I really like that kid.

-Billy Packer said Jeff Jordan had scholarship offers to play at Davidson and Valparaiso. He should have taken one of them.

-J.P. Gavinski runs pretty well for a big guy.

-Why call timeout to get Gullikson in there for five seconds at the end of the game?

-Ed Hightower ... sigh. There's a play where Brian Randle trips over his own feet and bowls over Butch, and Eddie calls a foul on Brian. Hightower is just the worst.

-I was damn happy to be there.

Crazylegs=Crazy fun!

It wasn't the best day for the 27th annual Crazylegs Classic, with overcast skies and blustery wind. I finished 4,963rd, which was good for second place in our group. Unfortunately, it was 4,962 places short of finishing our quest for the perfect baby name; Jana and I made a deal that if I won the whole ball of wax, we'd name our son Elroy Hirsch Tappa. No dice.

For those of you who know us, the our quintet's finish was: 1. Tim Toohey (great race dude!), 2. me, 3. Matt Schwalbach, 4. Jim Polzin, 5. Andy Tappa. Andy and Jim crossed the finish line at the same time (sadly, not holding hands), but Jim crossed the start line a second before Andy.

A good time. Someone suggested I did some hits and misses for the day, so here goes:

Hits
-Here's who greeted us at the starting line: Morris Cain, Lance Kendricks, O'Brien Schofield, Kevin Gullikson, Brett Valentyn, Greg Stiemsma, Joe Krabbenhoft. Saw Brian Butch, wearing a big black hoodie, on Breese Terrace near the stadium entrance.

-The wave start was done better than ever, meaning less running in place and a less congested first half-mile of running.

-Ron Dayne, talkative as ever, told the crowd he planned to play two more years in the NFL before retiring to work with the program. Apparently he's also spending a lot of time in Madison working with schoolkids. Nice to see a strong alumni connection to the current team.

-Free beer at the end is a really good thing about Crazylegs.

-Didn't miss any of the NFL Draft, which started later this year. Really enjoying the new 10 minutes between picks first round, kudos Roger Goodell.

-Always a great feeling to run onto the field at Camp Randall.

Misses
-The guy with the lip piercing who enforced the double-letter waves way at the end, who made kids move from BB to CC. Come on dude, lighten up.

-The folks with really bad leg tattoos who dressed up in full Joe Thomas UW uniforms for at least the second time. I appreciate the school spirit, but the tattoos are just creepy.

-Did not hear the theme song from Rocky once. Very disappointing.

-People who are walking on the running course should move to the right side and let us run through!

-Some dude was wearing an Adam Haluska Iowa jersey. I subtly pushed him into Lake Mendota.

-The course got kind of narrow on the lakeshore after the dorms.

-George Johnson, sports director of Channel 3 in Madison and the MC at the finish line, is a bit much for my tastes.

Already looking forward to next year. Will is asking to run with me next year. I'm not sure that's such a good idea, although there were some 6-year-olds who seemed to be finishing ahead of me this year.

T is for Tanner

That's what Will says when matching letters with the names of his day care friends: "T is for Tanner, L is for Laine, M is for Mason, V is for Vanessa," etc. Every time he says that I think not of the 4-year-old who tells my son what the dentist will be like, but instead Tanner Bronson.

Earlier this season, I wrote of some frustration I felt at times when Tanner got in games that were not yet decided (not often). It stems from the time in the 2005-06 season where we were playing at the Barn in Minneapolis. The Gophers were playing terribly, we were playing pretty well and had taken a big lead, but Minnesota started pressing and it looked like we were playing five on seven.

So Bo brings in Tanner. All right, I thought, apparently he's proven himself enough in practice to earn Bo's trust and enter the game to stop the bleeding. Wrong - Tanner was overmatched, we kept calling timeouts and turning the ball over, and even though we held on and won, it didn't feel that way. After that I never felt comfortable with him in during tough moments.

I would rather remember Tanner's more customary on-court appearances: at the end of lopsided Badger wins. These moments were always fun because a. the Badgers were going to win by a lot, b. it's nice to watch the contributors of the future like Nankivil and Jarmusz and try to determine if guys like Morris Cain can ever contribute, and c. because the scrub team's point guard, Tanner, respected the game.

You watch enough basketball, especially at the younger levels, and you see some ragged play at the end of blowouts. End of the bench players like to get in and make things happen, shoot early and often, and it usually ain't pretty. (This didn't apply to me; I was a scrub, but when I got in with the other benchwarmers in high school our coach shouted to pass the ball to the German foreign exchange student, Christoph Schmidt, who would chuck up an air ball).

Lord knows the Kohl Center crowd wanted Tanner to shoot it. He had arguably the longest run of being that guy - four years of tentative cheers and encouragement every time he caught the ball. He had his opportunities, too, but more often than not passed them up and kept the Swing running until a Gullikson or a Gavinski shot. Every once in awhile he'd shoot and miss, and Matt LePay would say something like "He's lights-out in practice, you should see him." He probably was - but so was David Burkemper.

So when Tanner did score - three field goals, 10 points this season - it was almost as joyous an occasion as a Landry dunk or Bohannon 3-pointer.

The best thing about Tanner is that we can be relatively sure that he's going to make the university proud to have him as an alumnus. It's been well-documented that he wants to be a coach, and had a good run learning from one of the best. Five years from now, when you see the updated Badgercentric coaching tree, it's a good bet Tanner Bronson will be on it, moving his way up the coaching ranks.

Just like the last four years, we'll all be pulling for him.

Wisconsin-Michigan thoughts

It doesn't carry the same emotional wave as Saturday's win over Texas, but tonight's win at Michigan is very satisfying in its own way. Winning the conference opener on the road. Different heroes. Trevon's injury is not as bad as I feared. We absolutely own Michigan, and those pseudo-intellectuals in the Maize Rage can stop hopping up and down and slink back to their dorms beaten convincingly by a clearly better program.

This was a nice game to ease the hangover from the Outback Bowl ...

-Not sure what can be said about Jon Leuer's career-high 25 points that isn't obvious, but I'll try. Love that he catches the ball ready to shoot from behind the arc. Love that he's not afraid to stick his nose inside. Don't love his free throw shooting - at one point he was 5-for-5 on 3-pointers and 0-for-3 on free throws. But that's picking nits tonight.

-Also really liked Marcus Landry's effort tonight. Love how comfortable he looks in the post. Love how he and Leuer played off one another. Love how he skied for rebounds and threw down that dunk off a post. Don't love how many layups he missed, way too many.

-Another nice game for J-Bo. He played with composure and was a playmaker at times in the first half. Really liked his pass to Stiemsma for a dunk after Greg sealed off his defender. Bohannon was a nice closer late, hitting a runner, a 3, and five free throws to close things out.

-He had a relatively quiet game after his huge performance Saturday, but Butch was solid tonight too. After a 21-point game, his tendency could have been to force things and take bad shots, but he stayed within himself and took only six shots, and had an efficient nine points. One of his moves tonight reminded me of Kevin McHale.

-Awhile ago I wrote about how much I enjoyed seeing Michael Flowers making cuts in halfcourt sets. Here's another thing he does that I enjoy: he is strong with the ball. Some guys, it looks like you could poke it out of their grasp with your pinkie. Our whole team does a nice job of being strong with the ball while in triple-threat position, but for some reason Flowers really stands out to me in this area. He's got to do better at staying out of foul trouble; he has replaced Stiemsma as our most foul-prone player.

-One negative on the night: Krabby's play. A detailed box score hasn't been made available yet, but he probably played close to 35 minutes, and he struggled big-time. He was not strong with the ball - had a bunch of turnovers. Several times he made a nice cut or move to get in position for a layup, but didn't take it or missed it. He was 1-for-6 from the floor. He'll be okay.

-Anyone else notice how long it took Gully to get in the game tonight? He played a lot against Texas, but not much against Michigan. It seems like he and Leuer are an either-or combination.

-It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's great we're back in the top 25. To me the biggest benefit is that our scores get shown more often on ESPN's Bottom Line - more exposure.

-Don't want to get out of control here, but our upcoming schedule shapes up nicely: home against Iowa and Illinois, at Penn State, home against Northwestern and Michigan. We could very easily be 6-0 in Big Ten play heading into a game at Purdue.

Wisconsin-Georgia thoughts

OK, something went wrong with the DVR, which didn't record the Badger game last night, so we're watching the Sponge Bob Squarepants movie this morning. No big deal, since I saw the last 12 minutes live, and it seems I just missed the lowlights anyway.

When I turned the game on the Badgers were down four; by the end of the game we were up 19. From reading game stories, looking at the box score, and watching the last 12 minutes, my surface-level observations:

-Trevon Hughes needs to penetrate to set up the rest of his game. He had a putrid first half shooting last night, jacking up 3s left and right, but took it to the hole in the second half. Who saw his behind-the-back pass to Joe Krabbenhoft in the lane for a layup? That's the early favorite for pass of the year in college hoops.

-Krabbenhoft is getting himself in position to score this year, which is a huge difference than his game the last couple years, when he seemed content to be a passer and intangible guy. We need his scoring. Thirteen points, five assists, six rebounds, great all around game, the kind we can expect from him this season.

-Conversely, Marcus Landry seems to be getting shy, he only took five shots last night. We haven't needed his scoring yet, but we will soon against better teams.

-A missed dunk aside, Michael Flowers ended up playing a nice game. He's always played with a lot of energy, but it seems more apparent this year. He and Hughes are going to end up playing 35 minutes a game, because they're the only two guards that match up athletically with the type of player most of our opponents will throw out there.

-Brian Butch continues to struggle shooting - he's willing, but not converting.

-The eight-man rotation for now seems to be Flowers, Hughes, Krabby, Butch, Landry Greg Stiemsma, Jason Bohannon, and Kevin Gullikson. Would really like Jon Leuer to be one of those guys.

Duke's up next, going to be a tough one, but at least this Georgia team will have us a little bit better prepared than the other teams we've faced so far.

Badgers win basketball opener

The Wisconsin basketball team won its season opener tonight, beating something called Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne 83-55. The Mastadons were scrappy (they are coached by former Indiana annoyance Dane Fife), considerably more athletic than Edgewood or Eau Claire, and had a nice shooter. They had us down 11 in the first half before order was restored, a decent opener for Bo Ryan's crew.

-Brian Butch and Trevon Hughes were unquestionably the stars of the night. Both guys wanted the ball (17 field goal attempts apiece) when the team was behind, both were assertive without being reckless.

Butch had 24 points and 13 rebounds in just 26 minutes, but he was playing against a much smaller front line. He moved well off the ball and with the dribble, and made all four of his free throws.

Hughes' performance was more noteworthy: 25 points, six steals, five assists, five reounds, one block in 34 minutes. His on-ball defense was really good - the block was an explosive play.

I am concerned about how many minutes Hughes played. Who is his backup? It has to be Michael Flowers, but he didn't seem to be running things much tonight.

-Same starters as in the preseason - Hughes, Butch, Joe Krabbenhoft, Greg Stiemsma, Marcus Landry. Flowers came in for Stiemsma pretty early. It's looking like a eight-man rotation, with Jon Leuer being the eighth - although he didn't get in until 8 minutes remained in the game. He played well.

-Had a small lineup of Hughes, Flowers, Jason Bohannon, Landry, and Krabby for a short bit, I like that in certain situations.

-A Kevin Gullikson sighting! I saw him play, but thought it was a mirage until scanning the box score - all zeros for our KG.

-That's 23 straight wins at home now, fifth in the nation. Kind of snuck up on you, didn't it?

-Bohannon is our best 3-point shooter, but he can't shoot a true jump shot. He made one nice move to get to about the free throw line extended, but couldn't elevate over his defender and had to pass out. That would really round out his game.

-Krabby's mom says he's had stitches 35 times in his life. Don't know if I buy it, but the guy should get a bulk discount.

-Marquette struggled to put away Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis yesterday. They go by IUPUI, why don't the Mastadons go by IUPUFW?

Next up: Savannah State, Thursday 8 p.m.