Landry's a Knick!

Well, surprise, surprise, some good Badger-related news this week. Marcus Landry made the Knicks!

What a great story: Marcus pays his own way to try out for the team, sticks it out, and eventually sticks for the opening-day roster. Everyone knows his story, couldn't happen to a better guy.

In all honesty, I'm surprised. Landry was a nice college player, never quite reached stardom. His game doesn't seem suited for the NBA. At 6-7, you'd think he'd have to play small forward, and his quickness and ball handling skills do not appear to be NBA-caliber.

He does have a nice postup game. Much like another undersized four-man, for the Rockets: Carl Landry. My suspicion is that if Marcus's name was Smith, he may not have even gotten this shot in the first place.

But whatever, this is great news! In that vein, Hoops Marinara has a really nice rundown of other former Badgers playing professionally.

UW-Xavier thoughts

When it comes time to remember the Badgers' time in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, I'll remember the exciting win over Florida State, with Nankivil's effort, J-Bo's shooting, and Trevon's game-winner.

When it comes time to remember the Badgers' 2008-2009 season, I'll remember it being summed up in the second half against Xavier.

We're up 33-26, looking really good and ... we don't score again for about an hour. Xavier slowly scores 10 straight points to take the lead, and we never really challenge again.

What an excruciating shooting performance -- 29%? That's pathetic. Credit Xavier's defense for some of that, but there were a lot of makeable shots that we just whiffed on. J-Bo was 2-for-12. Pop, who seemed to be playing a good game, was 3-for-16. Nankivil was 1-for-8. Leuer and Krabby took two shots apiece.

Xavier wasn't all that much better offensively, and we played a pretty decent defensive game, but their kids made some 3s and finished some in the paint.

At least this collapse happened relatively early in the second half and gave us time to prepare for the defeat, unlike all those waning-minute collapses that have characterized this season.

Silver lining: Marcus Landry went out with style. Showing just about everything in his repertoire (aside from the deep ball), Marcus had 18 points and 10 boards, and was assertive. Unfortunately, his fellow senior starter, Krabby, was virtually invisible in his last game. I can't remember a single thing he did before fouling out.

Clearly, among the many things that need to improve next season if UW is to return to greatness, #1 is avoiding these prolonged dry spells. Not sure exactly how you do that, other than the obvious -- have your kids improve their shooting. Maybe design and call some high-percentage plays, rather than just letting the Swing run its course.

Anything after Friday's win would have felt like gravy. But when we were up seven points, I started dreaming about being in the Sweet 16, getting another week of practice and hype. When you get that far, anything can happen.

It's hard to imagine a 20-win season capping a 100-win career by the senior class being a mild disappointment, but the bar has been raised. Which is why losses like this have become so hard to stomach.

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-Ohio State thoughts

While we were eating at Palomino after the game, an elderly gentleman in a Wisconsin sweater approached us.

"What happened?" he said.

"I just think that this team lacks courage," I responded.

"Hmmm ... courage. Haven't heard that one."

But isn't that what losing games like this boils down to? We were up seven with Leuer shooting free throws with 3:59 left. Out of the timeout Leuer missed the free throw and we proceeded to fall apart. The defense wasn't that bad, but it wasn't good, either. We had many open looks but missed all of them.

It isn't a skill thing. Our guys were skilled enough to build that seven-point lead. But as we've seen time and again this year these guys can't step on an opponent's neck when in position to do so. As such, Ohio State's talented guys had breathing room to come back and make some plays.

Will just left a comment regarding our seeding. I'm thinking 10, but 11 or 12 could end up being the seed. At this point, I'm nervous that teams like Xavier lost and Maryland won. I still think we'll get in, but can't see us winning. If this is what constitutes a down year for this program, so be it, but it's disappointing because something much better was within reach.

-Leuer played okay overall, he found some spots where he could make jumpers. He had a smaller guy on him, and when he does he should be able to shoot over them. It will be interesting to see if that is still the case next year when Landry is gone.

-Landry wasn't going to be able to do anything in the post with Lauderdale or Mullens on him, but didn't hunt for jumpers as much as he should have.

-It seemed like Pop played a decent game, but I see he was 3-for-11 from the field, which is obviously pretty bad.

-Krabby had 10 boards but took only three shots. I'd say he played decent defense on Turner, but he still had 19 points on a respectable percentage. You have to assume our offense will be more dynamic with someone out there who looks for shots more.

-J-Bo was 3-for-9 on 3-pointers. Every time he went up for a shot, you could hear all the UW fans in attendance muttering "come on, Jason!" He did have some good drives to the basket. He did a good job again on Diebler, who only took six shots (and made a big one late). It struck me that Ohio State fans were probably muttering "come on, Jon!" every time Diebler went up for an open 3.

-Our out of bounds plays from under our own basket have bothered me for some time, but this year, when our margin for error is so small, they have become a major liability. The best we seem to get is a heave to Hughes or Taylor at least 40 feet from the basket. Forget actually scoring off this situation, we're lucky not to turn it over. It's amazing that a coach as good as Bo can't come up with something better, when many other teams seem to.

-Another opponent shoots 50% from the field on us. In our game against OSU in Madison they turned it over enough that the high percentage didn't hurt us too badly, but today they took care of the ball. For the season, we're allowing opponents 44% shooting from the field; last year, it was 38%. This year we're allowing 58.9 points per game; last year it was 54.4.

The kids are trying out there, playing generally the same way we've played in the past. It's just that something's missing. Dad says it's a guy like Stiemsma, which is valid. Turner's drives to the basket would have been tougher to finish if we had a legit shot-blocking big back there. Maybe it's a dynamic slasher type, someone other than Hughes who can consistently create; perhaps that's Rob Wilson next year?

It will be interesting to see what happens Sunday. If you look at our resume, we should probably get in the tournament. But if the committee decides to leave us out, I'd be really disappointed, but understanding. We've had plenty of chances to cement a place in the Dance and have failed plenty of times.

On the road to Indy

We're cruising south down I-65 in Dad's Impala (no hydraulics), Indianapolis in sight. Dad, Andy, Nick and I are heading to the Big Ten Tournament for the fifth straight year, and I'm very excited. Doesn't matter that the Badgers are a long shot to win more than one game this weekend. For a basketball junkie like me, it doesn't get any better than this.

(As evidence of my basketball geekdom, I present my plot to visit Hinkle Fieldhouse following the BTT games Saturday to hopefully see Indianapolis Lawrence North play Indianapolis Pike in IHSAA regional action. Three years ago we saw Greg Oden and Mike Conley -- mostly Oden -- lead Lawrence North past Pike -- which had current Wake Forest star Jeff Teague on its roster.)

Anyway, was thinking about the All-Big Ten teams that were announced Monday. Not surprisingly, we didn't have anyone on the first team, which breaks a pretty impressive run for Wisconsin. Given the youth of the guys on the first team -- all sophomores -- it's going to be tough to get a Badger back in there in the next few years.

Landry on the second teams seems about right, as do Pop and Krabby earning honorable mention. No Badger made the all-defensive team, which at first blush seems wrong (Krabby?) but on further reflection seems about right. The Badgers' defense just was not that good this year.

Can't argue with Kalin Lucas as player of the year, worthy choice. But Izzo as coach of the year? I realize it's standard to give the award to the conference champ, and Michigan State did run away with it impressively. But for my money -- and that of the media and probably a lot of other observers -- Ed DeChellis deserves more credit for riding what was basically a three-man team to 20-plus wins, and Bruce Weber deserves more credit for turning around what was an atrocious team last year with essentially the same roster.

Best under Bo

Two recent, similar stories/blog posts got me thinking about who would make an All-Bo Ryan Team.

The Daily Cardinal's top 5 was, in order, Alando Tucker, Devin Harris, Mike Wilkinson, Kirk Penney, Marcus Landry.

Papa Sal of Camp Lambeau named Harris, Penney, Tucker, Wilkinson, and Brian Butch.

My thought is that Harris, Tucker, Penney, and Wilkinson are no-brainers. It's that fifth guy who's a challenge to name.

Landry doesn't jump out to me as a top 5 guy. Yet his senior numbers are very similar to Butch, who was first team all-conference, just a rebound or two shy.

If position is no object -- saying you don't need another true post for this team/top 5 -- why not Kammron Taylor? He wasn't a pure point guard, but he was a go-to scorer who wasn't afraid to take big shots in the clutch. What about Krabby? His offensive game has left much to be desired, but he was tough as nails, a great rebounder, terrific leader, and the ultimate glue guy.

My choice: Michael Flowers. His offensive game was underappreciated and underutilized, but his calling card, as everyone knows, was his defense. Just how valuable his perimeter defense was has been painfully apparent this season, as guys from Lawrence Westbrook to someone named Nick Williams have penetrated our defense at will. Remember how Flowers shut down Drew Neitzel in Madison last year? Can't remember many defensive efforts like that this season (save for J-Bo's defense against Ohio State's Diebler, although Diebler is clearly not yet in Neitzel's class).

If you played this as an actual starting lineup, it would look like one from Bo's early years: small, but tough. Devin and Flowers at guard, Penney at the 3, Tucker as the undersized 4 (a role he excelled in early in his career) and Wilk in the middle. Fill out the rotation with Butch, Landry, Krabby, and Kam. Not a bad run over eight years.

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-Minnesota thoughts

Will and I had a breakthrough moment tonight. In the first half, we were watching the game and I noted that our team was in red. He made the comment that we could also cheer for the team in white because white was one of our colors.

"No, buddy, that's Minnesota, we never cheer for them."

"Why not?"

"Because, er, because ..."

"Because we hate them?"

"Will, we shouldn't ever say hate, that's a strong word and it's not good to hate anything. ... But yeah, Daddy really hates Minnesota and hope they lose everything they compete in."

Tonight, like our first meeting, is a good reason why. Here's another one we should have won yet stole defeat from the jaws of victory. Credit Tubby Smith's innovative Lawrence Westbrook Run Into Guys Offense, brilliant stuff.

I can't stand Westbrook. His whole game is predicated on wild, out-of-control sprints into the lane where he draws contact and hopes the refs call the foul on the other guy. If contact doesn't ensue, he just throws it near the rim and hopes it goes in. Worked like a charm tonight. The kicker was the play that led to his two free throws that gave them the lead -- nothing much happened on that play, but there was contact, so it must have been a foul on us. It was like watching Dwayne Wade in the 2006 NBA Finals, where any time Dallas looked at him funny it was a trip to the charity stripe.

-Larrivee said this is the first time Minnesota has swept our season series since 1992. Hard to believe it's been that long, we've had some bad teams in there, too.

-We lost this game in the first half. Five baskets? The shooting was just atrocious. It wouldn't have been so bad if, later, we hadn't shown the ability to score effectively against their defense.

-Landry played well, mainly because he didn't hesitate when he got the ball, he just shot.

-Pop was penetrating at will late -- where was that the rest of the game? Too bad his shot completely abandoned him tonight.

-Why wouldn't Minnesota press us for an entire game? They play 10 guys who are all about the same, so fatigue shouldn't be an issue. Given how helpless we were against their press in Madison, would have made sense.

-Great move by Tubby to not play his only scoring threat until late in the game. He's really grasping out straws trying to get that team out of its funk, good for him we came along with a stinker to help him out.

-How funny were those back-to-back missed dunks? Never seen anything like that before. At least their guys tried to dunk rather than going up with blockable layup attempts.

-So how many games is that where we've given away a lead late? Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Purdue, Northwestern, Michigan State, Minnesota. Lot of talk about closing out games, not much actually doing it.

Like the Michigan State game, I had this penciled in as a loss, which take 5% of the sting out of it. But golldarnnit, we should have won this one, too. It stings, but if we take care of business against Indiana on Sunday we should be fine. Really wish we'd taken the "should be" out of it by now, though.

UW-Michigan thoughts

I'm either going to hell or I'm onto something.

Didn't watch today's game live, but kept abreast of the proceedings, despite being in church. After listening to the first half on the radio, we entered Our Lady of Lourdes Church in De Pere for a service connected to Jana's participation in the Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults. The Badgers, who had been up seven just minutes before, were down two at the half.

Yet, in a ceremony marked by hundreds of confirmation candidates, I was able to sneak away and get score updates on my BlackBerry. First in the reconciliation room, then behind various pillars displaying stations of the cross. Several times I had to slip the device into my pocket when a dude with a collar approached. Without knowing exactly how, I saw the Badgers build a lead against a team that's really playing well, then hold on at the end. Divine intervention?

Maybe not today, but after that six-game losin streak it seemed like it would take divine intervention for Wisconsin to make the NCAA Tournament. But that's exactly where we seem to be headed after today's crucial win. It was a nice one; I saw Michigan beat Purdue on Thursday, and they looked damn good, like they probably looked in beateing Duke and UCLA.

What's nice is that we now own the season series against Michigan, Penn State, and Ohio State, the teams around us in the standings. Our odds of not playing Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament appear pretty good, but as stated before, that wouldn't be the end of the world provided we finish sixth and would draw Indiana.

As for today's game:

-What an incredible start, that was beautiful offensive basketball. In recent years Michigan would have packed it in at that point, credit them with coming back strong, taking control of the game late in the first half, then fighting us to the end. John Beilein is a really nice coach for them. He got a lot less buzz than the other coach they lured from West Virginia, but might end up being the far better hire.

-Everyone raves about Manny Harris, and he's good, but for the last two years I've thought DeShawn Sims was the better player on that team. He was pretty bad on two late 3-point attempts today.

-Great to hear Gus Johnson calling games on the Big Ten Network, he's one of my favorites. His enthusiasm on certain calls is genuine and not Musberger overblown. Heck, today he even started talking about Bob Sura, one of my all-time favorites. Trent Tucker, on the other hand, not a big fan.

-Pop was the guy we needed him to be today, creating his own shot off penetration and hitting from outside. Had he been able to put together just one game like this during our losing streak it would never have gotten so long.

-Leuer did a nice job getting himself in position to use his size advantage to get easy shots. I especially like the little jump hook he's using, even though I think he only made one of them today.

-Landry had a nice little game today, too. Good shooting, six boards, five assists. He's the one reason I wouldn't mind a 4-5 matchup with Penn State in the conference tournament. The sight of him shooting those short turnarounds reminded me of how well he played in those matchups this season.

-Krabby missed another wide-open left-handed layup, don't even think he hit the rim on him. Still love him and his all-around game -- 11 boards today -- but his lack of confidence shooting the ball in college remains a mystery to me. Had he had the mindset to score 12-13 points a game he would have been all-conference caliber. Joe also had some turnovers today that looked like me playing noon ball at the Iola Fitness Center, head-scratching passes.

-We ourebounded them by 10, grabbing eight on the offensive glass. That's how it should be againt a team that plays so small. It will be interesting to see if Michigan can bring in personnel that fits Beilein's system but allows them to be more competitive on the boards. One of Krabby's offensive boards gave me a big smile. J-Bo missed a 3-pointer from the corner, and Harris half-heartedly boxed him out. Krabby just muscled him aside and grabbed the errant shot, drawing a foul. Beautiful.

-Boy, if Jason Bohannon finds his shot by the time postseason play begins we'll be tough to beat.

-Pretty tight rotation today, Jarmusz was the only bench player to get double-digit minutes. I wouldn't mind if this trend continued down the stretch. Only exception -- stop me if you've heard this before -- is that I'd like to see Nankivil get more minutes. At some point, like last week in East Lansing, we're going to run into a team that can kill us on the boards, and his big frame would come in handy.

-We didn't close out very efficiently with spotty free throw shooting and that dumb foul by Hughes. Good thing we defended well.

Bottom line is another nice win, and pretty darn close to clinching a spot in the Dance. Even with a loss at The Barn, there's no way we should lose to Indiana, which leaves us 19-11 overall, with a strong RPI. Might be a double-digit seed, but that's OK -- just need to get in, then anything can happen.

UW-Indiana thoughts

The first half tonight left me appalled -- terrible defense. Allowing the worst Indiana team ever to shoot 54.5% in any half is inexcusable. We were very lucky to be ahead.

The second half was a thing of beauty. That team had no business being on the court with us tonight, and we showed why in the final 20 minutes.

Krabby had another stellar game, as did Pop. Krabby was always in the right spot, and how pleasantly surprising is his scoring? The back cuts, jumpers, bank shots. Big Ten Player of the Week repeat?

Pop penetrated at will, like a knife through butter. He also shot well.

It's funny, because nobody else stands out in my mind -- Landry was virtually invisible for most of the game, J-Bo struggled with his shot, Leuer only took a few shots -- yet we won by 17.

Why didn't Rob Wilson get any minutes in this one? I guess it'll have to be next year for him. (After I wrote this he got in and dunked.) Jarmusz did play well, knocked down some shots.

That was a long 1.2 seconds at the end of the first half, wasn’t it? That homer clock operator didn’t start the clock until after the initial shot hit off the rim. Embarrassing, Tan Cream, get rid of that guy.

Indiana had a lot of turnovers that will likely be attributed to their youth, but I think it’s because they just aren’t good players, period. At one point a Hoosier caught the ball standing out of bounds. You learn pretty early on that this is not legal.

One rant for the night:

Few things bother me as much as missing the beginning minutes of my team’s game because the previous game is slumbering through an excruciating finish. Case in point was this Duke-St. John’s game tonight, a good Duke team playing down to the level of one of the Big East’s many bad teams in front of an indifferent crowd. Because Duke couldn’t put them away, they kept fouling, and Duke kept fouling, and the friggin’ game just would not end. Yet at no point was the outcome in doubt. So we're subjected to another 15 minutes of Bobby Knight talking about what it was like to know Coach K as a teenager. Someone needs to have the balls to pull the plug and move on.

So we've got Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota, and Indiana left. We hold court at home, split and we're 10-8 in the Big Ten. In fifth place for the time being, which means no Thursday game at the Big Ten Tournament, which is good. All these things are considerably better than I would have imagined when I left for Germany 2-1/2 weeks ago.

UW-Ohio State brief thoughts

Full disclosure: I missed the first three-quarters of this because Jana and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire tonight. So I made it back for about the last eight minutes, and my dad filled me in. Hopefully I'll get a chance to watch the whole deal tomorrow, but here are some brief thoughts:

-Thought the defense looked pretty good at the end. Yes, we allowed 55% shooting. But forcing 19 turnovers offsets that. Six steals for Krabby? Mike Kelley reincarnate!

-You tell me J-Bo goes 1-for-8 and Pop goes 1-for-9, and we shoot 36%, and I tell you we lose by eight points.

-Fifteen offensive rebounds, that's partly great effort, partly the challenges you face when you play a 2-3 zone. I can't imagine the athletes Thad Matta has assembled aren't conducive to playin man-to-man, but whatever, not my team.

-Seventeen points and seven boards for Marcus, very nice for him to shoulder the scoring load today.

-Evan Turner sure would have looked nice in cardinal and white, no? Apparently he helped us recruit Diamond Taylor, which is nice, but it was down to us and Illinois and he went to Ohio State. It seems to be working out for him. He did have six turnovers.

This is another nice resume builder, but also a game we definitely should win. With our RPI and strength of schedule, a couple more wins should do it. Off until Thursday at Indiana, which is a game we absolutely can not overlook and come out flat for.

UW-Iowa thoughts

I'm back, and the Badgers are back! Good to see the boys take care of business against a team that has no business staying in the game. This is how it should go. This makes our loss to them in Iowa City that much more galling.

-Nice to see J-Bo heating up, I understand he shot really well against Illinois as well. It goes without saying that if he's making perimeter shots everything else goes better for this offense.

-Also nice to see Pop getting his groove back. His last multiple-spin move and layup was simply beautiful.

-Landry didn't do a whole lot, but I love the play where he missed a free throw, got his own rebound, then scored and was fouled on the ensuring layup. Congrats to him reaching 1,000 poins in his career. Illustrates what happens when you're consistent.

-Not having seen it occur, how bad was Keaton Nankivil's ankle injury? Did it happen in practice or a game? I noticed he didn't play against Illinois and just two minutes against Penn State. Too bad -- after the breakout game against Purdue then gets Hightowered at Northwestern before hurting himself.

-I've never seen us get anything like that seven-point run at the end of the first half. What a bonehead move by Gatens.

-That Devan Bawinkel really bugs me. That jumper he made late in the game was his first made two-pointer of the season. Of the season! The kid is obviously a tremendous shooter, but is such a one-trick pony that he could go 20-plus games without making a shot inside the 3-point line. Bo would never let his guys be that one-dimensional. Look at J-Bo -- think he couldn't fill that Bawinkel role of standing in the corner shooting 3s? But he has a nice little dribble penetration game, and can make tough runners in the lane. Bawinkel shouldn't settle for being such a simple player.

-It seemed like Krabby was playing well, but I didn't realize how well until I saw the box score -- 16 points, seven rebounds. He's really having a solid senior season.

-Didn't realize Ohio State was ranked. Should be a good game Saturday, but I'm feeling pretty good about our chances the way we're playing. Isn't ESPN going to be in Madison?

UW-Northwestern thoughts

Of all the individual moments that combined to make this yet another frustrating loss, let me submit this one as the one that sums up the season:

With about 20 seconds to play and the Badgers down three, Tim Jarmusz has a wide-open 3-pointer. Instead of taking it, he passes to Marcus Landry, who drives, misses, but puts the rebound in to cut the lead to one. UW then fouls Craig Moore, who makes two free throws. Something similar like this happens a few more times. The Badgers never actually attempt a game-tying shot.

This play is so representative of the season because the player in question -- who had a pretty decent game up until then -- did not have the confidence or courage to step up and take a big shot. The end result was close, but not enough.

Again.

This is getting redundant. Other notable head scratchers from Evanston.

-Northwestern makes its first four shots of the game, all 3-pointers.

-Northwestern shoots 57.1% from the field. If ever there was a game that showed just how bad the Badger defense has gotten this year, this was it.

-Someone named Jeremy Nash had nine points for Northwestern, including a 3-pointer and a prayer driving scoop shot. Looked like freaking Steve Nash.

-Moore, a nice complementary player on any Big Ten team, scored 26 points. The worst came when he grabbed a rebound off a missed NU free throw, over Landry, and was fouled and made two free throws. Inexcusable.

-The Badgers looked completely befuddled against Northwestern's 1-3-1 defense. It was almost as if they hadn't seen it ... three weeks ago, when they completely shredded it! I'm all for patience, but UW's patience last night was more passive than anything. You beat zones by swinging the ball quickly and exploiting gaps that form when defenders don't shift in synch. Our perimeter players would catch the ball, wait two seconds, then do something, inviting traps that necessitated a jump pass or an awkward wrap-around bounce pass, often stretching near midcourt.

What was absurd was that at times, Northwestern had three defenders on Hughes at least 25 feet from the basket, and we were unable to do anything to exploit the 4-on-2 that existed around it. A couple times we got the ball to the baseline, which led to nice passing and a layup, but those instances were rare.

-How many games have we lost where we shot 52% from the field, 16-of-19 from the line, and held a 27-13 rebounding advantage? Before this year, anyway?

-In another story-of-the-season subplot, J-Bo and Leuer got back on track last night, but Landry was non-existent until the final minute, and Hughes was 3-of-10 from the floor.

-I have a special post ready for the officiating, led by the incomparable Ed Hightower, but let me just point out the key Kevin Coble basket where he took two large steps after establishing his pivot foot in the lane. How they missed that one, after so many other ticky-tack calls, astounds me.

Overall, still glad we went, always a fun experience to see Wisconsin on the road. Badger fans made up about half the crowd and we made ourselves heard. Unfortunately the only sound we made leaving Northwestern's glorified high school gym was muttering about the NIT and playing on Thursday of the Big Ten Tournament.

UW-Purdue thoughts

Un ... effing ... believable.

This is just a miserable time to be a Badger fan, isn't it? It would be one thing if we were getting blown out by bad teams every night and absolutely nothing was working. But this is the third time in the last five games where we were in position to win late but could not finish. Such a tease.

Purdue is obviously the better team, a very formidable group that's only going to get better. Talented, well-coached, balanced, good defensively.

But when Keaton Nankivil makes 5-of-5 3-pointers and scores 21 points ... well, you should win. Especially at the Kohl Center.

-How did Jordan Taylor's last shot rim out? Because we aren't getting any bounces nowadays, that's how.

-Really thought that when Krabby leveled Jackson early that it would set a tone for us to be in control throughout. It did look like Joe extended his forearm and probably could have gotten whistled. It looked like Jackson sort of milked the hit for a long time afterward.

-J-Bo's struggles are killing our offensive balance. He's not making shots, and he's getting gun-shy. If we're going to play Jordan Taylor and Pop at the same time, it might make sense for J-Bo to sit at those times, at least until he gets his stroke going again. Northwestern is up next, and they were the opponent for Jason's career night a couple weeks ago, hopefully the matchup can get him going again.

-JaJuan Johnson just makes Landry a non-factor, doesn't he? Marcus had nine points tonight but I can't remember any of them. Johnson is just the perfect defender to put on him.

-Really missing Michael Flowers. Purdue got way too many wide-open looks on the perimeter tonight, in particular the 3-pointers by Hummel and Kramer that essentially won the game for the Boilers. I can't stand watching those two guys celebrate, it's super annoying.

-The silver lining was Nankivil. Regular readers will no doubt remember that I've been begging Keaton to shoot more all season long, and tonight he showed worthy of those pleas.

Just checked, and no one's got a site up at www.fireboryan.com. Better get on that, superfans!

Remember 1998?

A fact I heard many times before, during, and after the Badgers' loss to Illinois on Saturday was that Wisconsin hasn't lost four games in a row since the 1998 season. It's a season I remember well -- my senior year in college, the first year of the Kohl Center, and the last year we didn't make the NCAA Tournament.

There is absolutely no parallel between this year's team and the '98 team. The '98 team lost Ty Calderwood before the season started, which killed any momentum built by the surprising run to the tournament the year before. Dick Bennett played a bunch of young guys heavy minutes that year -- Mike Kelley, Andy Kowske, Mark Vershaw, Maurice Linton. They took their lumps, but those lumps paved the way for a three-year tournament run for that class, punctuated by the Final Four run in 2000.

This year's team, while often described as "young," starts two seniors and two juniors, veterans of five NCAA Tournament games and countless important Big Ten games. No injuries have taken down important players. Promising underclassmen are getting minutes, but there's little suggestion that they will shine brighter in the future than Marcus Landry, Joe Krabbenhoft, and the other old-timers are now.

What could turn this season around?

-A win against Purdue. Bo talked earlier this week about how Pop needed to get his mojo back, and he's right. But it's really the whole team that is missing its mojo, and one big win over a good team can start the pendulum swinging the right way.

-Jason Bohannon gets some steals that lead to fast-break layups. Which would, in turn, build his confidence on his jumper -- he's shooting just 38% from the field.

-The Pop-J-Bo-Taylor three-guard lineup leads to more better dribble penetration, which leads to easier looks for Landry and Krabby.

-Rob Wilson takes Tim Jarmusz's minutes and provides a much-needed energy boost. Why isn't Rob playing more? Early returns on him were so promising, and it doesn't seem like he's been horrible in his limited minutes lately.

-Keaton Nankivil shoots more, and starts hitting the 17-foot jumpers that Greg Stiemsma made so often last year, the shots that demoralized opposing defenses.

-Krabby continues to score in double figures. This development surprises me, in a good way. If you would have told me that Krabby would have 16 points, 12 rebounds against Illinois, there's no way I think we lose that game.

-Jon Leuer's post defense improves.

Really, the first one is the most important. The Badgers just have to put together a good, winning effort against a good team that washes away the memories of Minnesota and Iowa (Purdue and Illinois were excusable losses). College sports teams ride such emotional roller coasters that all these kids need is a nudge in the right direction. They get that chance tomorrow.

UW-Illinois thoughts

Sorry for the lateness of this post (Jim), yesterday my cousin and her fiance watched the boys while Jana and I enjoyed a relatively stress-free day in Appleton. We got home late, went to church first thing this morning, then naps for the boys. So I just got to watch the game.

Didn't have to. Listened to much of it while driving around Appleton and checked the box score when it was over, and that would have been all I would have needed to do to analyze this game.

Often, when we play noontime hoops at the fitness center in Iola, we'll be catching drinks from the bubbler between games when members of the losing team will say "What happened?" And much of the time the simple answer is "They made shots and we missed ours."

Which is what happened in Champaign. The Badgers' effort, on the whole, was encouraging. We held a slight rebounding edge, and had 10 offensive boards. Only five turnovers. Only one technical foul. Krabby had a really nice game --16 points, 12 boards. The three-guard offense featuring Jordan Taylor, which matched up against their three-guard lineup, seemed to generate more movement than we've seen on offense in recent games.

But oh, the shooting woes -- 35% from the field, 29% on 3-pointers, 69% from the free throw line. Illinois -- 50% from the field, 40% on 3-pointers, 82% from the line. Game over.

Really, we were missing makeable shots. The Illini defense was good, as expected, but we still got good looks that just didn't go down. Our defense is still just missing something that has made it elite over the years, and yielded good looks. They made their open looks.

Pop played better than at Iowa, but still shot 5-of-13, dragged down by the usual shot clock-beating heaves. Landry was more assertive but still missed some bunnies, as did Krabby. J-Bo and Leuer were totally off their games.

The final spread was seven points, and as I watched the game it dawned on me that Chester Frazier scored seven iffy points by himself -- a banked-in 3-pointer, two free throws on the Krabbenhoft blocking foul that drew Bo's technical (tough call, could have gone either way), and a desperation scoop he threw up to avoid a charge minutes later.

Purdue next ... could be another brick in a demoralizing stretch or could be the perfect foil for a momentum-changing win.

What's wrong with these guys?

Gotta be honest with you: my enthusiasm for blogging about the Badgers is as low as it's been for quite some time. Football season was a major drain, but at least we had basketball season to look forward to. There's plenty of time to turn things around, but basketball is looking a lot like football.

But why? Lots of theories abound, here are mine:

-Lack of swagger/enthusiasm. Alando Tucker and Kam Taylor played with supreme confidence. Brian Butch and Michael Flowers were energetic, emotional players, especially Butch. Those things are missing right now.

Trevon Hughes plays with a swagger, but it's been missing the past three games, to the point where his place on the bench in the waning moments of regulation and overtime didn't seem that strange in retrospect. Marcus Landry shows emotion after really big shots, but it doesn't seem to be an emotion that spreads.

The rest of the key players -- Krabby, J-Bo, Leuer -- are about as even-keeled as they come. Ordinarily, that's the type of player I prefer. But during tough times like we're going through now, you need a spark and reassurance, and one of those five guys has to get it started.

-This may sound dumb, and may indeed be dumb, but I think Landry, Leuer, and Bohannon need to force more shots. Think about all the bad shots Butch and Tucker took. They were forced, but they forced defenses to be on their toes at all times.

This year's team seems to only take really good shots, Hughes excepted. That's all well and good when you're playing Coppin State and you get good shots relatively early in the shot clock. Against the excellent defenses of the Big Ten, those clean looks don't come with regularity.

So what you get is 30 seconds of "probing" that doesn't really test the defense at all, and Hughes is left to jack something up. Landry, Leuer, and Bohannon are all skilled shotmakers who should exert their skills outside of the parameters of the Swing, as Butch, Taylor, and Tucker did before them.

-We're missing Butch's and Stiemsma's height. This surprises me, since I thought we'd be able to get through the Big Ten season without this being a liability, given the seeming paucity of quality bigs.

Case in point: Last night someone named David Palmer scores 21 points and grabs seven rebounds against very little resistance inside. Two games ago JaJuan Johnson had his way inside with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

What can remedy this? Faster maturity from Keaton Nankivil? Force feed Ian Markolf minutes? Probably not the answer.

For all of Landry's and Leuer's skills, they are not able to carry the low-post defensive load without a bigger body alongside them.

-And all those turnovers. Oh, god, those turnovers make you sick.

The way I see it, the talent level is comparable to the team that won 31 games last year, and the coaching is presumably exactly the same. But you've got a little less maturity and personality, a little less height, a little tougher conference, and a point guard going through a midseason crisis -- add it all up and you've got a three-game losing streak.

Unfortunately, the schedule doesn't hold what appear to be any gimmes anytime soon. This year will be a great test for the program and its viability going forward. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

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-Purdue thoughts

Late in this one Marcus Landry made a strong move to the basket and got fouled, and Bill Raftery noted that it was a move made with urgency. It was an accurate observation, and underscored the fact that for most of the afternoon the Badgers played with little urgency, a big reason they lost to Purdue.

With the way the Badgers play, urgency doesn't mean charging headfirst into a crowd or taking gambles on defense. It does mean boxing out a little stronger when you're getting killed on the boards, or making your go-to offensive move earlier in the shot clock.

Most of the second half today, with Purdue ahead comfortably by double digits, felt like the last two minutes of a snoozer, which worked out nicely for the Boilers.

-It's become apparent/obvious that against good teams, if Landry and Pop struggle, we're going to have a hard time winning. Both had gruesome lines today: Landry was 3-for-15 from the field with just two rebounds, and Hughes 3-for-11 with some ill-advised attempts.

Against UConn, Marquette, and Texas, Marcus had nine, five, and eight points. In 16 games thus far, the Badgers are 10-0 when he scores 10 or more points, and 2-4 when he scores nine or less. Hughes has fared better in our losses.

Your best players need to be at their best to beat the best. These two will have plenty more opportunities this year to be at their best against the best.

-JaJuan Johnson played with urgency from the opening tip today, his early offensive rebounds set the tone for the day. From my view, he's going to end up being the best player in that class, better than Hummel and Moore, who are pretty darn good themselves.

-We missed too many bunnies early, when we had a chance to establih a modest lead. Johnson's length probably had something to do with that.

-I really think Nankivil could have done a better job of containing Johnson than Leuer or Landry. I understand that Landry and Leuer might be the best 4-5 combination to put out there, but there should still be time to get Keaton 20-25 minutes per game, not the 10 or so he's been averaging in Big Ten play.

-Krabby had a really nice game, 6-for-7 from the floor and seven boards. Overlooked in all this is that he helped hold E'Twuan Moore to four points on 1-of-12 shooting from the floor.

-J-Bo had only four field goal attempts, only the second time this season he's been that low. Purdue closed out well with him.

-The officiating in the first half, called evenly both ways, allowed for more aggressive play. This clearly favors Purdue, and they were easily the better defensive team today.

-Our post fronts were a half-step for much of the day, which allowed the Boilers to catch the ball in favorable positions.

Today's loss isn't that surprising, but it clearly shows what needs to happen for us to compete for a Big Ten title. Most people, myself included, pegged Purdue to finish ahead of us this season, they're a talented and well-coached team. But this season has a long way to go, and the conference is deeper than in years past. Four or five losses might win this thing unless Michigan State really gets on a roll.

UW-Northwestern thoughts

Given it a lot of thought, and this is the lineup I like best on the floor for Wisconsin:

Wquinton Smith
Brett Valentyn
Morris Cain
J.P. Gavinski
Ian Markolf

Nice to have a blowout for a change, give the bench guys some well-deserved minutes. Northwestern looked pretty terrible tonight, particularly shooting and rebounding, but like Mike Lucas was saying in the waning minutes of the radio broadcast, you can bet it will be a dogfight when we see them again in Evanston on January 31. I'll be at that one, so I'm hoping for a repeat of tonight's game!

-J-Bo's 20 points were a career high. That's a little surprising, I would have thought he'd hit 20 against some patsy over the past year and a half. He played really well. As Tim McCormick pointed out, he hit a couple 2-pointers early, which seemed to give him confidence in his longer jumper.

-Landry, who was incredible against Penn State, had 12, but 10 of those must have come while the Big Ten Network was showing Tom Crean's team melt down against Michigan. He was quiet while I was watching, which isn't necessarily bad.

-Jon Leuer played with much confidence again, 15 points and eight boards. He's getting himself into good positions to score, where his height allows him good looks even if his defender is close. He really is a guard in a 6-10 body.

-Northwestern is really a bad rebounding team, we got 12 offensive on them. Problem is, we missed most of the second-change opportunities. We also missed eight free throws and had some turnovers off lazy passes, so that was about as flawed a 29-point win as possible.

-Mainly because Northwestern shot so horribly. In the first half I thought they were getting better looks than we were, they just weren't making them. NU's defense seems like it can be a nuisance, very pesky, but we handled it with patience until things just kind of unraveled for them.

-Tough to complain about a defensive effort when the other team shoots 31%, but I noticed that we did not switch well off their dribble handoffs, typically allowing the receiver to get a good perimeter look. Conversely, when our smalls got switched on their bigs, they did a good job of using their lower body and not letting the bigger guys establish position.

-When did Michael Thompson become "Juice" Thompson? You can't just let guys go around getting new nicknames when they're 19 or 20 years old. Just take it from T-Money. I'd like to see how Thompson did in a real offensive system that showcased his penetrating skills, and didn't call on him to do ridiculous, unnecessary spin dribbles in the middle of the court.

-Why is Keaton Nankivil getting the Dave Mader treatment? He starts, then goes to the bench and doesn't play much more the rest of the game. Tonight he got 11 minutes, even though he played good D and looked confident shooting a jumper. It probably just boils down to matchups, and the strength of our rotation, but I think if this kid gets more minutes he can be a beast, not just the fifth guy we run out there to bang with big guys.

Purdue on Sunday big game, and like everyone is saying, you can bet that Chris Kramer and Robbie Hummel will be ready for that one. Should be a great matchup.