Best of the decade: How I voted

Here's how I voted:

Best play of the decade
Football (Oct. 15, 2005) Jonathan Casillas blocks a punt that Ben Strickland recovers for a touchdown with 30 seconds left to complete a 10-point comeback in the final three minutes and give UW a 38-34 win at Minnesota.

Maybe the most excited I've ever been at a Badger sporting event. Those of us who were in that dump of a dome will never forget it.

Close #2: Men’s Hockey (March 26, 2006) Jack Skille scores the game-winning goal in the third overtime against Cornell to advance to the Frozen Four. My brother and I were there, what a tremendous game. The aftermath of this one was a little different than the Casillas-Strickland game, since they'd been playing for about six hours, we were dead tired, and had a long drive home ahead of us. Andy and I waited in line at a concession stand behind Darrell Bevell during one overtiem intermission, he had just been named the Vikings' offensive coordinator, good guy.

But it's hard to argue with Michael Flowers' shot to beat Texas (watched it in my bedroom) or the Scott Starks Purdue play (watched it somewhere in Central Washington at in-laws' house).

Best Student-Athlete of the Decade
I chose Devin Harris. Chris Solinsky, Joe Thomas, Dany Heatley and Alando Tucker are my runners-up. Jimmy Leonhard, too.

Best Team of the Decade
2005-06 men's hockey. Why them and not any of the women's national champions, who were more dominant? Because there are a lot more teams playing Division 1 men's hockey, tougher to reach the top of the mountain.

Who did you vote for?

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.

Illinois vs. Michigan State

Sorry for not posting for a couple days, been sick. No, not over the Badgers' late collapse Sunday, but that was still pretty awful. I still can't get over how much Michigan State fans hate us. Regular readers of this blog know that my emotions reach this range in football for teams like Michigan and Ohio State, who I see as the Yankees of the Big Ten, but in basketball no other Big Ten team makes my blood boil to that level.

If one did, wouldn't it be Illinois? After all, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan State have been the undisputed top teams in the Big Ten since Bo Ryan came back to Madison, and without crunching the numbers I think the Illini has beaten us more than anyone else in that time. Cripes, Illinois is even in a bordering state (unlike MSU -- we're not going to count the UP, sorry Izzo and Jana), and Wisconsinites even have a catchy little acronym for its residents.

My initial thought was that our series was more even than ours with MSU has been, and with far fewer dramatic or emotional games. Let's look:

UW vs. Illinois
UW 72, UI 66
UI 80, UW 48
UI 69, UW 63
UW 60, UI 59 (Devin Harris hits free throw to give us Big Ten title)
UW 76, UI 56
UI 65, UW 57
UW 70, UI 53 (Big Ten Tournament championship game)
UI 75, UW 65 (breaks our long Kohl Center winning streak)
UI 70, UW 59
UI 54, UW 43 (Big Ten Tournament championship game)
UI 66, UW 51
UW 71, UI 64
UW 53, UI 41
UW 70, UI 60
UW 71, UI 57
UW 61, UI 48 (Big Ten Tournament championship game)
UI 64, UW 57
UW 63, UI 50

UW leads series 10-8 under Bo, we lead Big Game series 3-2. Thing is, of those five games, only one of them -- the one with Devin's free throw -- was dramatic. So 27% of our games have been big, and 5% of them dramatic.

UW vs. Michigan State
UW 64, MSU 63 (snapped State's long home court winning streak)
UW 64, MSU 53 (an otherwise ordinary win, but Alando Tucker's late dunk scars Izzo's brain to the point where he's still talking about it six freaking years later! The nerve! Izzo's reaction to this makes it a Big Game.)
UW 77, MSU 64
UW 68, MSU 64 (keep that banner rolled up fellas; per Deuces' request, I believe this is also the game in which Paul Davis was crying on the bench with cramps)
UW 68, MSU 66 (Big Ten Tournament semifinal)
UW 62, MSU 59 (we rally late to pull off an improbable win)
MSU 77, UW 64
UW 82, MSU 63
MSU 74, UW 65
MSU 64, UW 55 (we get to #1 for the first time and Drew Neitzel immediately knocks us off)
UW 52, MSU 50 (Kammron Taylor hits a late 3-pointer to sort of, but not quite, atone for that #1 loss)
UW 70, MSU 57
UW 57, MSU 42
UW 65, MSU 63 (Michael Flowers' late steal and layup steals victory from jaws of defeat, after about 14 State players foul out)
MSU 61, UW 50

UW leads series 11-4 under Bo, we somehow lead Big Game series 7-1. Of those, I'd say six were dramatic. So 57% of our games end up qualifying as Big, 40% dramatic.

The purpose of this exercise was not just to rehash our success against Michigan State -- which, I'm told, is ending -- but to point out just how rare it is to play so many dramatic, important games against a single opponent in a relatively small period of time. And how unlikely it is that one team would prevail in so many of these games. And how it is logical that these results would build enmity in the hearts of the defeated.

Here's hoping we keep showing up on the left-hand side of the ledger in these matchups.

Hey, Andy North's on ESPN and the Badgers aren't even on ...

Deutscheland

The Badgers' recent play has me so distraught, I left the country.

Actually, my travel plans were made months ago, but it doesn't disappoint me in the least that I'm going to miss probably losses against Illinois and Penn State. I should be home and my body clock almost adjusted by the Iowa game, but by that time our NCAA Tournament hopes might be shot.

I'll be in Germany at the World Money Fair for the second straight year. We have a full schedule set for Berlin, and will be meeting with representatives from mints around the world.

When I heard that Brian Butch and Michael Flowers were playing professionally in Germany, I did a search to see if it would be possible to catch them in action, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

So Badgercentric will be partially shut down for the next week. Hopefully when we start it up again in earnest things will be looking up. They can't get much worse than they are now ... right?

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!

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-Penn State thoughts

Good win. Penn State is much-improved this year, obviously, with three legit players who can carry them. Their improvement is a microcosm of the Big Ten's improvement on the whole, as only Indiana right now looks like a team that will definitely not be playing in the postseason.

Marcus Landry carries the day with a brutally efficient game. Now you can see what he is capable of when not saddled by foul trouble -- 38 minutes of significant play. He has really found the spots on the floor he needs to get to in order to be effective, and his lower-body strength allows him to catch the ball further out than ideal but still back his guy down.

Of Landry's 10 field goals, how many do you reckon were turnaround jumpers? Eight? He had one 3-pointer and that late dunk. Jamelle Cornley was too small to bother his shot without leaving his feet, and the other guys they put on him weren't strong enough to push him out.

I'm surprised Ed DeChellis didn't do more to double team Landry in the post. One time they brought a guy over late for a shot block attempt but to no avail. Marcus's post move is slow and deliberate, so the opportunity is there to double off, say Krabby. Expect to see some Big Ten team do that throughout the course of the season, and Marcus will have to be decisive about passing out of the double.

-Overall, we did a nice job of touching the post on offense. Only a few possessions where Hughes took early jumpers did not touch the post, and that's why Landry and Leuer consistently got good shots.

-If we had lost this game, I would have pointed to Krabby's three missed bunnies in the first 2:14 of the second half, and four overall in the second half, as the turning point. If he makes those the lead gets to double digits and Penn State gets out of what they're doing. Instead, Stanley Pringle gets unconscious and it's nip and tuck all the way until the end. Credit Joe for making some nice shots late and playing his typical lockdown defense. And oh by the way, he had 10 points, 10 boards, and five assists. Can't stay mad at Krabby.

-The defense on Pringle was fascinating, maybe the best illustration to date of how much we miss Mike Flowers. J-Bo wasn't doing a bad job on him, per se, but he was still getting clean looks with his feet in good position, and getting the ball in the first place. Remember what Flowers did against Drew Neitzel in Madison last year? It's all about the feet.

Couldn't really move Pop over on Pringle, because then Battle would have been freed up. Bo made a nice move to bring Jordan Taylor in to guard Pringle, and Jordan did more to bother Pringle, but by that point the basket must have looked like a hula hoop to Pringle, who made two tough 3-pointers over Jordan.

For those last few minutes Bo was doing an offense-defense switch with J-Bo and Taylor, can't remember the last time I saw us do that.

-Funny thing about Penn State is that of their three good players, only one of them seemed to be capable of doing damage for any given stretch of time. In the first half it was Cornley, Pringle in the second, but when one was hot the other, and Talor Battle, were non-existent. Cornley's first half was a lot like the entire game Landry had. I would have liked to see Nankivil take a turn trying to stop him, he's longer and his energy isn't as necessary on offense as Landry's.

-Did you see that fast break where Krabby made a nice bounce pass ahead to J-Bo? Couldn't we do that two or three times per game in selected instances?

-Who watches Entourage? I got a brief look at Penn State guard Danny Morrissey's face, and thought he looked like a cross between Seth Green and Kevin Connolly. As you know, Connolly's character Eric "E" Murphy has an ongoing feud with Green (playing himself) on the show, which made the resemblance even more funny. Yo Danny, tell Sloan we said What up.

-Spencer Tollackson did a pretty good job as the Big Ten Network's color analyst, first time I'd heard him. He astutely pointed out that many times Penn State was getting caught in defensive switches where Battle was guarding either Landry or Leuer in the post.

Perhaps the most interesting thing he said was that his coaches used to pipe in crowd noise during practice to prepare the Gophers for the Kohl Center crowd. Never been to a game at Williams Arena, but I'd guess it's louder than the Kohl, at least when the home team is playing well.

Big Ten hoops preview

In all the teeth-gnashing surrounding the football team over these last few days, I almost forgot that basketball season was starting. Wednesday we play Michigan in our Big Ten opener, a game I had penciled in as a win when the schedule came out but now see going the other way.

Because in general, Big Ten teams have outperformed expectations in non-conference play, with Michigan being the best example, beating UCLA and Duke. But Minnesota, Illinois, and Ohio State have also played better than I figured. Purdue and Michigan State, the odds-on favorites, have struggled at times against better competition, but are looking fine heading into the conference season.

The Badgers, on the other hand, have a good win at Virginia Tech, three acceptable losses to ranked teams, two tight wins over marginal teams, and a bunch of yawners to show for their pre-conference work. All this suggests a finish of somewhere between fourth and sixth in the conference. Something is missing from this team, although it's not always clear what. Flowers' on-ball defense? Butch's steady rebounding? Stiemsma's shot blocking? Tanner's play with the scout team?

I'm not that worried, though, as Bo's teams, with the exception of the 2006 squad, have typically improved over the course of the conference season, and this team should be no exception. Leuer is getting better all the time, Taylor and Wilson are gaining maturity, and Nankivil will prove he deserves more playing time. If Landry asserts himself and plays like the all-conference player he's projected to be, and Bohannon makes somewhere around 35% of his 3-pointers, we'll be just fine.

Anyway, here's how I see the Big Ten shaking out.

1. Michigan State

2. Purdue

3. Michigan. This prediction could be way off, but it just seems like Beilein has these guys playing the right way.

4. Wisconsin.

5. Ohio State. Don't think they have the point guard play to beat the top teams in the conference consistently.

6. Minnesota. But a solid sixth, a tournament-worthy sixth.

7. Illinois. But much-improved over last year's debacle of a team.

8. Northwestern. I'm not convinced we'll win in Evanston.

9. Penn State.

10. Iowa.

11. Indiana. Lipscomb? Yeesh. The natural inclination is to say they'll upset one of the top Big Ten teams this season, but they're so bad I don't see it happening.

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!

Trick or Keaton

What a terrible Halloween-related play on words, that headline. Best I could come up with, sorry.

Here's hoping that the glowing reports from Keaton Nankivil's play during last night's intrasquad scrimmage are not of the flash-in-the-pan variety.

(For the best recap of the scrimmage, check out Hoops Marinara -- thanks for the comprehensive update, Phil.)

All offseason I've contended that Nankivil is the guy I want to be #5 in the Badger lineup, but thought it might not happen as much because of a lack of traditional bigs for him to bang with. But if he proves to be an asset on offense, he might force Bo to play him, regardless of who the opponent runs out there. Sounds like last night he showed mid-range touch and explosive moves punctuated by dunks. Can't wait to see him against live opposition.

Apparently Jordan Taylor looked good too, which is a good thing, because a. Trevon Hughes hurts his ankle a lot, and b. There is no other logical ball handler like Michael Flowers was last year. You could argue J-Bo could be that guy, but it would diminish his scoring. At the very least, he can guard quicker point guards like Pop did sporadically his freshman year.

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.

Jason Bohannon

Every year in college hoops, you look at your favorite team, look at who's not on the team anymore, and wonder who is going to make up for all the points that just graduated. If you've got a strong program, it takes care of itself. Bo's done it after losing Kirk Penney, Devin Harris, Alando Tucker -- he'll figure out how to replace Brian Butch and Michael Flowers.

Who sees his scoring average jump the most in 2009? My bet is it's Jason Bohannon. Which isn't a total upset pick by any means, but you have to wonder: If he's such a sure thing, why didn't he average more than 8.2 points per game?

Two words: Opportunity and consistency. I think Jason has the arsenal of offensive moves and shots to get the job done. He's a good 3-point shooter, but he also makes good cuts to get himself open for layups and has a nice runner/floater. He's also our best bet for closing out games at the free throw line. And while at the beginning of last season many of us were fretting about his ability to create his own shots, that no longer worries me.

The opportunity for more shots will be there. Butch and Flowers took almost 18 field goal attempts between them, and I see Landry and J-Bo assuming the lion's share of those. Of course, this also means he'll be facing the other team's best perimeter defender. The nice thing is, the Swing makes it harder for teams to focus on a certain guy, like we did with, say, Drew Neitzel.

Consistency is the big thing. J-Bo scored in double figures 13 times in 36 games last season. He also scored five or fewer points 11 times. The nice thing is, he finished strong: eight of his double-digit games came in the Badgers' last 14, and most of his clunkers came in the early non-conference schedule, when it was speculated he was battling an injury.

The key number to me is 69. Sixty-nine percent of J-Bo's field goal attempts last season were 3-pointers. If he can bring that number closer to 50% by working more off the ball and maybe developing a post-up move or two, he'll be much more effective.

Lots of things worry me: gas prices, the Brewers' bullpen, whether Jim will ever propose to Pam on The Office. Jason Bohannon? Not worried about him.

We shall name him Brian Butch

I can remember the exact moment I found out Brian Butch had committed to Wisconsin.

In the fall of 2002, Jana and I were driving to work, and were passing St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Waupaca when Jack Barry was giving a rundown of the headlines we'd hear in that morning's newscast. "... and a nationally-ranked basketball recruit from Appleton commits to the Badgers ..."

The news elicited a gutteral yelp from me that took my wife by surprise. But not as much as my follow-up announcement: "Jana, I want to name our first son Brian Butch Tappa."

Of course, that didn't happen, although Bo Ryan Tappa is still on the table for #2 (right Babe?) ... although those initials would be one letter shy of BRAT.

This begs the question: when you're 18 years old and your college choice inspires yahoos in the sticks to pledge their first born's name in your honor, what do you have to do to not be considered an underachiever, as many have suggested over the past five years?

Win. And win. And win and win and win. Butch was a big contributor to Wisconsin teams that won 105 games, making him part of the winningest class in school history. To me that trumps anything else that can be said about Brian - and thankfully, his extended, triumphant senior season allowed more than enough nice things to be said about him - and makes him the most successful high-profile recruit in UW basketball history.

Kurt Portmann? He was a marginal contributor on some teams that made the NIT, but that's about it. Rashard Griffith? Had a couple nice years and went to the NCAA Tournament, but was only here for two years. Sam Okey? Same thing. Anyone else have other names to throw into the equation?

But, say the detractors, didn't Alando Tucker and Mike Wilkinson and Michael Flowers also have something to do with those 105 wins? Sure, but as I think Will mentioned in a comment on the Stiemsma post, if Butch doesn't break his arm at Ohio State, we might win the Big Ten last year and beat UNLV to reach the Sweet 16, and nobody is throwing around the word "empty" in conjunction with the 2006-07 Badgers. That team hit a wall at the end, and maybe a healthy Butch helps them get over that wall.

What's next for Brian? He's been racking up plenty of frequent flyer miles lately (interesting story here on uwbadgers.com about how much he's traveled since February). Hopefully he can find employment playing hoops after college. The NBA doesn't seem likely, he just doesn't have the athleticism to keep up. But his inside-out game could certainly play in Europe, where I imagine he'd be a big hit.

How will history remember Brian Butch as a Badger? All-conference pick? Underachiever? Polar Bear?

How about this: Winner.

We'll miss Mike

Yesterday I wrote about how hysteria about Stiemsma and Butch helped lead to my exodus from regular message board reading. Here's another instance that hastened my departure.

If memory serves, Michael Flowers had committed to UW during his sophomore season at Madison LaFollette, and helped lead his team to a state championship in 2002. I remember a particularly spectacular dunk during the state tournament in Madison. But he got hurt while still in high school, and sort of dropped off the recruiting radar.

Which led to a Badgermaniac post titled "Is Michael Flowers a bust?" As ridiculous as the notion was, the sad thing was that a similar thought had crossed my mind. If we were getting four- and five-star guys like Butch and Stiemsma, why weren't all of our recruits of that ranking? Because of the ankle injury he didn't even make all-state as a senior. Would this guy ever contribute anything?

He was a high school junior, for Pete's sake!

Thankfully Michael turned out to be anything but a bust.

We're all well aware of the standard Flowers stories: he's a great defensive player; he is the hero of a little boy who has leukemia, Max Bass (I can't get enough of that story - they had a piece on it on the Big Ten Network the other night and I watched the whole thing with a lump in my throat); he's a terrific athlete who could probably have played football in college. That's all good stuff.

The thing I'd like to discuss is whether Flowers' defensive prowess held back development of his offense. Think about it: his career scoring averages went from 1.2 as a freshman, to 6.1 as a sophomore, to 7.2 as a junior, to 9.6 as a senior. Could it have been more? He was the team's leading scorer four times, including a 23-point game at Penn State. He led the regulars by making 41.2% of his 3-pointers.

His shot was really pretty most of the season, I loved the way he squared up, got his feet set, elevated, and shot a true jump shot, it was beautiful. He was always good moving without the ball, and a more than capable ball handler when the starting point guard was on the bench.

So my questions are: would Flowers have scored at a higher clip if he wasn't busy chasing around the Drew Neitzels of the world, and would he have scored more if he wasn't surrounded by guys like Butch, Hughes, Landry, and Bohannon?

Now that I've typed it, the answers seem to be obviously yes. But if a college athlete of Flowers' caliber couldn't pull it off the top defender/prolific scorer combination, who could?

This is why, when the talk surfaced about Flowers playing football once his basketball eligibility was exhausted, my first reaction was "Why can't he play basketball professionally?" Sure, NBA teams might look at him and pigeonhole him as a defensive specialist, but I'm guessing that given the opportunity to work on his game full-time, he could become a real scoring threat. This isn't to imply that I think Michael Flowers will be an NBA draft pick, but the league is full of guys who weren't drafted and got their chance by creating a niche for themselves. Or, at the very least, if he wants he should get the chance to play internationally.

Whatever Michael does from here on out, it's going to be hard to replace him. I don't see a perimeter defensive stopper on the horizon (maybe it's incoming freshman Robert Wilson?), and I see one less big shot guy who can create his own look as the shot clock winds down. Probably why, in the poll at uwbadgers.com, Flowers is the overwhelming choice (44%) as the Badgers' 2008 MVP.

Could thing those message board posters weren't right on this one.

UW-Davidson thoughts

Boy, am I glad I didn't drag my family to Detroit for that craptastic display of basketball. Before getting into the pity party full swing, let's get the two disclaimers out of the way.

Davidson played very well, deserved to win. They are a legit team. Still think Kansas will beat them, but it's not as sure a thing as I would have thought three hours ago.

This Badger team far exceeded my wildest expectations. Terrific season, guys. In the coming days I will reflect in greater detail.

To lighten the mood, here's a picture of Erin Andrews holding a bag of fish. Courtesy of UWBadgers.com.

OK, then. Let's get to the gruesome details.

-That was embarrassing.

Two days ago Millie commented:

"I've watched this team play far too many games to think that they're going to have their first 'bad' game since the Duke debacle now."

Frank commented:

"Given the fact that they haven't had a truly bad loss all season ..."

And I whole-heartedly agreed. Well, there it is, a truly bad loss. Again, Davidson played well, but we've beaten better squads than that this year. I saw a lot of bad firsts out of the Badgers:

-First time I remember two turnovers in the backcourt that were not press-related. They came on lazy lapses in concentration after rebounds.

-First time I remember the Badgers allowing a transition basket after made baskets - twice! Davidson is quick, but I'd wager Texas and Michigan State are quicker.

-First time I've seen a Badger opponent in the bonus with 15:24 left in a half. That's lazy, play-with-your-hands defense.

-First time I've seen a Badger team take two timeouts in one offensive possession, in the first half.

-First time I've seen the Badgers attempt more 3-pointers than 2-pointers. Could be wrong, but it seems like an anomaly.

Sure was a bad time for all that to hit at once. Let's review my game keys.

-Stephen Curry's going to get his points, but we have to make him work for them and beat him up in the process. The job falls on everyone, not just Flowers. Flowers was on an island out there and did the best he could. Curry got his, but he still needed 22 shots to do it. The failure with Curry was not exploiting him more on defense.

-Turn Richards into a shooter and cut off his feeds to their bigs - Sander, Meno, and Lovedale. Richards made a couple ridiculous shots, but he was 4-of-13 overall, so pretty good there. But he had close to 10 assists, and Lovedale had 12, including a couple spirit-crushing dunks.

-Pound the ball inside to Butch, Landry, and Stiemsma. Landry had just four field goal attempts, Stiemsma three, and Butch nine - six of them 3-pointers. UW took 23 3-pointers and 22 2-pointers, and missed eight free throws.

In retrospect, Davidson outplayed Wisconsin in the first half, but all our made 3-pointers obscured that fact.

-I don't think Hughes' injury was a deciding factor in this game, nor was fatigue. In the NCAA Tournament TV timeouts are about 10 minutes long, so the kids get plenty of rest.

-Text message from Burch at 7:02 p.m.: "pound the f'in ball inside!"

-Text message from Burch at 7:24 p.m.: "i feel like this is cabrini-holy angels." I think in his mind Davidson was playing like my mighty St. Frances Cabrini Warriors, Wisconsin like the downtrodden little guys from Holy Angels. A brief good memory to offset the pain.

-The United Colors of Davidson, with their geographically diverse roster, whipped our fannies. I've been trying to work up some of my patented post-loss bitterness, and all I can come up with is this: Davidson is being treated like the ultimate feel-good story, but basically it's an elitist school for children of privilege. A lot was made of the college (smaller than West Bend East and West combined) paying for any student who wanted to get to the game. Great, but what pays for that? Their $41,000-per-year tuition! How about funding some scholarships for some underprivileged kids?

Yeah, it's weak and a reach, that's all I have ...

-And now the "Even Lebron James wanted Davidson to win" storyline will probably get some legs, it made the first-draft Associated Press gamer.

-Len Elmore is one of my favorite basketball analysts, he does a great job in a low-key manner. Gus Johnson is good, just wish tonight he wasn't calling Cinderella beating my team.

-Silver lining: one more game of balanced scoring, with four guys between 10 and 12 points. Davidson really did play good defense.

I understand that Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" was Davidson's theme song for the tournament, and heard it playing coming out of the last TV timeout. Interesting, that ties back to another painful loss in my fan history. After Super Bowl XXXII, in which the Packers lost to the inferior Broncos, we went at it hard, prompting a later-arriving Will to say, "Did I see the wrong score?"

That night I fell asleep/passed out on the floor with my hand on the CD player belonging to the boys on Bowen Court, repeating "Sweet Caroline" to Toohey's dismay. Currently, I'm on my fourth Leinie's Sunset Wheat, but promise you it will not be anything like downing Todd White's homemade apple cider schnapps made out of Everclear and, I think, an apple Jolly Rancher.

It took me a long time to get over that loss, both physically and emotionally. In fact, it was probably the loss that convinced me not to put anything and everything on the line for a sporting event. So this loss won't be that bad. I'm too proud of these kids for all they accomplished this season, and for all the joy they brought basketball fans in Wisconsin.

Tomorrow Jana and I will go car shopping in preparation for #2's arrival (anyone have any insights on SUV vs. minivan, specifically Honda Pilot vs. Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey?), and we'll spend a Will-free night of dining, movies, and relaxation at the Paper Valley Inn in Appleton.

But we'd planned on making it home for the Badger game Sunday. Now we don't have to. Bummer.

Coaches need a timeout - metaphorically - and Davidson thoughts

Just got done watching the Xavier-West Virginia game, a fairly exciting game. I really like that Joe Alexander kid for WVU, he's a stud, but Xavier's balance is impressive. The kid who hit the big 3-pointers for Xavier, B.J. Raymond, played his high school ball for Toledo St. John's, one of the top programs in Ohio, which played Fremont Ross my two two years there, one a blowout and one an overtime thriller.

My only complaint about the game is the endgame, which took about an hour because of timeouts. Timeouts absolutely kill the excitement of basketball games - it calms the crowd down and gives everything such a scripted feel. I'd like to see college coaches get one or two less timeout per game, take some control away from them and give it back to their kids. (In case you were wondering, Schwalbach, when I saw this photo I thought of you and busted out laughing.)

In the other game that we in Wisconsin were mercifully spared from watching Carolina beat Washington State in what might be Tony Bennett's last game at Wazzou. Carolina's inevitable march to the Final Four is utterly joyless and has all the excitement of a trip to the grocery store, no suspense whatsoever. I'm planning a longer rant in the event that they win it all, but the Tar Heels' success sickens me.

Onto our game. Granted, haven't watched a ton of Davidson games, but here's what I'm thinking are the keys to this game:

-Stephen Curry's going to get his points, but we have to make him work for them and beat him up in the process. The job falls on everyone, not just Flowers. Especially important are the bigs. Usually their role in perimeter defense is limited to hedging on ball screens, which I think our bigs are so-so at. In this game it will be important for them to hedge on Curry peeling around off-the-ball screens so he either doesn't get the pass or is forced to catch several feet beyond his desired spot. Several highlights have shown our job against Neitzel in Madison, that was textbook. A similar effort is needed tomorrow.

Russell Westbrook and UCLA did a nice job on Curry in their game earlier this season, holding him to 15 points on 6-of-19 shooting. I think Flowers can be that guy.

-You look at Jason Richards' numbers and the first thing that comes to mind is "college Steve Nash." Those assist numbers are really good for a college team that plays pretty conventional offense. But I remember a strategy a year or two ago, when the Suns were really humming, when teams chose not to help on Nash's penetration, sticking on his passing options, in effect forcing him to shoot. And he's a great shooter and scored a bunch of points. The thing is, he's not the shooter Nash is - 42% from the field, 32% on 3-pointers. Turn Richards into a shooter and cut off his feeds to their bigs - Sander, Meno, and Lovedale.

-Pound the ball inside to Butch, Landry, and Stiemsma. Duh, right? But it's important not to think we can replicate the outside shooting seen against Kansas State - that would be great, but I'd rather go to our horses down low. Plus, I think they've got some pretty good perimeter defenders, especially that kid from Canada with the '80s haircut (Gosselin).

-Davidson was down double-digits against both Gonzaga and Georgetown and came back. The Badgers are pretty good at holding leads of that size, as seen during the first two games, but I'm still begging for that early knockout blow that takes away the opponent's will.

-I don't think anyone's taking Davidson lightly. They fit the Cinderella bill, but given their resume this year - close losses to Carolina, Duke, UCLA, N.C. State, the wins over Gonzaga and Georgetown - they might as well be the third-place ACC finisher. This isn't an underdog, this is a damn good team that would have contended in the Big Ten this year.

As Frank commented, I really just want this one, and it's going to be a bitch to get it.

Your feel-good Badgers

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wisconsin-Kansas State thoughts ... Sweet

Terrific win for the Badgers, as close to a perfect second half as we could play. As the minutes wound down, I started thinking big picture about what this win over an upstart like Kansas State, with the kind of players it has, means.

It's validation in Bo's way of doing things: defense, control, steadiness. It's validation in the strength of building your program on veteran players who stick around for four or five years rather than one-and-doners who arrive on campus with one foot in the NBA draft. It's validation of an offensive philosophy that stresses balance rather than dominance. Last year, losing the Big Ten to Ohio State in spite of our tremendous team shook my confidence in this method. Now I'm back feeling good about it again.

It adds up to 31 wins and counting, and a chance to play into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time this decade. Just try to wipe this smile off my face.

Game and second half thoughts:

-Good time for Pop and Stiemsma to have career games. Pop for the most part played under control, his charge notwithstanding, and showed K-State's youngsters how to make a shot. Stiemsma was around the ball and active all the time. Man, I wish he would have redshirted as a freshman, I'd be feeling a lot better about our chances next year.

-Landry gets two points - with zero field goal attemps! - and we win by 17? Wow. His third foul was careless.

-I was dead wrong that Krabby on Beasley and Flowers on Walker would get us beat. Beasley didn't do much in the second half, primarily against Krabby while the game was still in the balance. The announcers speculated it might have been his ankle. It was probably some of that, and probably some of us adjusting the defense to take away his drives.

Flowers battled Walker hard, that was a tough assignment. Walker was pushing a lot before the refs stepped in, but he's an athletic freak whose game is more fitted to the NBA game than the college game right now.

-Speaking of Walker, I thought the refs did a nice job of gaining control of the game when it was teetering on getting out of hand. The double technical on Walker and Butch was the right call, and they called some other ensuing chippy acts, and things settled down. K-State was upset about some of the fouls being called, but you know what? They were using their hands on defense - a lot. We don't, much. That's why we see the foul disparities most of the time, not some far-reaching officiating conspiracy funded by Andy North's golf winnings and orchestrated by the devious Bo Ryan.

-I love legal bone crushing picks, like Landry's on Pullen. There were a couple vicious ones in the West Virginia-Duke game. Shame on the on-ball defender's teammates for not calling it out.

-Think I heard that we play Friday, which is nice - an extra day to rest Pop's and Bohannon's ankles. Five full days off is golden this time of year, especially with a physical battle with Georgetown looming.

-One thing I like about winning this game so early on Saturday is our win will be scrolling across he bottom of the screen for the final 14 games, reminding people that we're still playing.

-Think I read in Brian Lucas's newsletter that we are one of only three Big Ten programs to win at least 30 games in back to back seasons, along with Indiana and Michigan State. Nice.

-A final thought before coloring Easter eggs: this team can still play better. Imagine an effort in which the guards are hitting their shots and locking down their guys; Butch and Landry are scoring inside; we are locking down the defensive boards; Stiemsma and J-Bo are doing their thing off the bench; and we're making 75% of our free throws. I would argue that of all the things the Badgers are capable of doing very well, in most wins we see only about 75% of them. We're going to need 100% efforts to beat Georgetown and Kansas.

Wisconsin-Fullerton thoughts

Wow, 30 wins for the second straight season. Just think about that for a minute. Thirty wins, two years in a row. Given where this program was 20 years ago, it's simply amazing the levels it has reached in the last 10.

Other than that, the silver lining is that we didn't play very well but won by double digits. We were way too loose with the ball, but hit the glass hard and exploited their lack of size. We let Akognon go off, but no one else did, particularly the fat wannabe thug with the neck tattoo.

-Player of the game had to be Krabby, who did a little bit of everything and hit his career high with 13 points. He made some jumpers early when Fullerton was playing with a lot of confidence and threatening to build a lead. For all the talk about Beasley, Bill Walker was terrific for Kansas State tonight and Krabby will need to bring his game on Saturday.

-J-Bo was star #2 tonight, like Krabby hitting some jumpers early and closing the deal with free throws late. It was nice to see him go 8-for-8 from the line and wipe out the memory of his missed freebies late against Michigan State.

-Stiemsma played really well, too, with a couple blocks rebounds, and jumpers. Butch didn't play very well, his 14 points notwithstanding, and Stiemsma gave solid relief. What a luxury to have two solid bigs.

-Pop is constantly wincing in pain, but gets back up and looks like he's moving around just fine. His little behind-the-back pass setting up Butch's dunk was beautiful. He's arguably the most stylish player we've seen in red in recent years.

-Far be it for me to question the greatest coach in UW basketball history, but ... We had a five-second call in the first half, which reminded me of a gripe we had during the Big Ten Tournament: what are we doing on inbounds plays from underneath the basket? It seems like two guys fan out to the corners, one guy makes a cut to the hoop, and another guy fades back. No picks. Too many times in Indy, nothing was open, and it happened again tonight. In Indy, Jarmusz took a timeout in such a situation, and coming out of the timeout he got an open look for a layup. Why not do something more like that more often?

-Flowers has got to be like a good cornerback or closer and shake off Akognon's 31 points. I still don't like the fact that he bailed on the Bennetts, like a modern day Jeremy Hall, but the kid can fill it up. I thought our defense on him early left something to be desired, but later on he was just making some tough shots. It's amazing to me that Cutley, not Akognon, was that conference's player of the year. Cutley really wasn't any good, maybe he beats up on shorter guys.

Survive and advance, with a terrific second round matchup against a talented young team. Looking forward to it.

Thirty wins ...

Big Ten champs, one more time!

Man, winning never gets old. Today's win was not an aesthetic masterpiece, but a methodical, workmanlike effort resulting in a W that we've seen from this team before.

Great start to the second half, exactly what we needed. Put them away early and never gave them a glimmer of hope. Game thoughts now, more after the selection show, if we can find it on the radio heading north on 65.

-J-Bo didn't play much in the first half, and his fresh legs in the second half let him shoot a couple nice dagger jumpers. Flowers was relatively fresh as well. Jarmusz's minutes in the first half let that happen.

-Gutsy effort by Pop, who wasn't moving all that well but made some tough shots. He, Jason and Mike are all dinged up, hoping we get a Friday game for that extra day of rest.

-Butch wasn't pretty, but got the numbers we need from him.

-Landry and Flowers were all-tournament, along with McCamey, Pruitt and Neitzel. I would have chosen Krabby as one of our guys, probably instead of Flowers.

-Illinois gave it a game effort but had nothing left. Pruitt, whose game is predicated on strength and not legs, was their only threat.

Very gratifying to see one of these titles in person, and I can't wait to see the year 2008 twice in the rafters next season.

Since Bo got here we've been the class of the Big Ten, and this is just more evidence ... pinch me.