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.

Another Hill to Climb, another book to read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ouch.

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

Badger hoops globetrotters

Today the Journal Sentinel had a list of Euroleague basketball players with Wisconsin connections. Very interesting list. Thought I'd take a closer look at the Badgers who are playing internationally.

Jason Chappell, Gussing Knights (Austria)
I'm sort of surprised at this one. J-Cheezy never seemed like the type who cared much about basketball, just played it because he was tall and his dad was great. And there's that whole aspiring fashion designer angle. But he turned out to be a solid contributor to a great team and is now getting played to hoop. When we saw him back in Tucson in September 2004, if you would have told me Chappell would play basketball professionally, I would have told you there was a monsoon coming and the temperature would drop 30 degrees in an hour. Oh wait ...

Rashard Griffith, CSU Asesoft Ploiesti (Romania)
Shard apparently plays for the most successful Romanian club of the past decade. He could play forever over there, couldn't he?

Andreas Helmigk, Allianz Swans Gmunden (Austria)
Wasn't able to interpret much that was written about Andreas, but check out this hottie he married. Way to go, dude!

Danny Jones, Schwetzingen (Germany)
It is shameful that this is the first time Danny Jones has been mentioned on Badgercentric. This guy was the greatest player to wear red when I was a kid, or at least that's how I remember it. Sort of amazing that he's still playing professional ball, he's got to be pushing 40. He still stands 198 centimeters tall, just like in college.

Zach Morley, Leche Rio (Spain)
I took four years of Spanish in high school, and can tell you that Leche Rio means Milk River. Morley hit a big shot this season to give the Prince's Cup to Lugo.

Ray Nixon, Tuebingen (Germany)
Speaking of guys who would have been well-served by a redshirt season ... this guy defied stereotypes by becoming a Wisconsin player who won a slam dunk championship! Click here to see his winning dunk. It's safe to say there are few things funnier than a German-language call of a slam dunk contest. Below is another YouTube video of Nixon dunking, but of very poor quality.



Kirk Penney, Breakers (New Zealand)
Apparently the guy hasn't just given up basketball to hang out with Andy North. He was first team NBL last season after averaging 24 points per game, and guess who one of his teammates is? Rick Rickert! Here's an interview with him from three months ago.



Kammron Taylor, L'Hospitalet (Spain)
Do yourself a favor and visit this team's official website — it's funky fresh! Best I can tell, Kamm, playing primera temporada, led the team in total puntos and tres-puntos made, was second in assistos. And his middle name is Harry.

Mike Wilkinson, Khimki (Russia)
Wilk has been granted Macedonian citizenship and plays for the Republic of Macedonia national team. What?!? Who does the ol' US of A turn to at power forward next time Elton Brand blows out his knee? Just kidding, Wilk's doing fine - 8.6 ppg and 4.4 rpg at last check. Notable teammates include Daniel Ewing and Pat Burke. Tell you what: I wouldn't dare fail to hedge out on a screen or miss a box out with those coaches glowering from the bench.

That's all I was able to glean in 45 minutes, maybe I'll revisit this post again and bring my personal translator, Babel Fish, with me. If anyone has any more info about these dudes please post a comment.

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.

A little bit Stiemed

That's right, I am. Near the end of the basketball season, especially in the NCAA Tournament, it bothered me that Greg Stiemsma was about to exhaust his eligibility. He was playing so well ... and now it's over. It didn't have to be that way.

If memory serves, Greg committed to UW before Brian Butch did, and was just a notch or two below the caliber of recruit Butch was - still a big catch. A woman I work with named Stacy Krull has a nephew named Jon Krull, who was a star at UW-Stevens Point, and was an AAU teammate of both Stiemsma and Butch in high school. She thought Greg was the better prospect, and maintained that up until several weeks ago.

When both Butch and Stiemsma were in the fold, the posters on Badgermaniac were going crazy. Certain posters asked questions like "Would you rather have Stiemsma for one spectacular year and have him leave school early and become an NBA lottery pick, or keep him for four very good years?" There's lots of good stuff on message boards, far more insight than you'll find in one of my daily posts, but it's that kind of hysteria and rampant speculation that got me to quit cold turkey.

Stiemsma had injuries early in his career and he didn't play much as a freshman, but I can't get his performance against North Carolina in the 2005 Elite Eight out of my head. Sean May was dominating us in that game, and Mike Wilkinson was really no match. Young Greg stepped in and did a really nice job slowing May down, even if it was only for three minutes. Didn't see Stiemsma in the second half, and I remember Andy and me screaming for him to come back in. Probably didn't end up making the difference, but it showed just how effective Stiemsma could be as a post defender.

His sophomore season was cut short by his well-documented bout with depression. It took a lot of guts for him to come forward with his disease, and for him to talk about it in such detail. Mental illness is nothing to hide, and hopefully his example inspired others to deal with their troubles.

Last season it puzzled me that Greg was stuck behind Jason Chappell. But you know what? J-Cheezy was the more consistent, well-rounded post defender, good at using his feet and fronting. Stiemsma delivered spectacular blocks, but picked up silly fouls and found himself back on the bench. His game at Illinois was particularly memorable.

Really liked how he fit in this year. After beginning the year in the starting lineup, he moved back to the bench when Flowers was ready to start again. The move was obviously the right move for the team - Landry is more of a 4 than a 3, Krabby's more a 3 than a 2, and Flowers was my choice as team MVP. Never seemed to bother Stiemsma, he came in and gave more solid performances than his first three years combined.

Looking back over my posts from the season, found a lot of instances of "glad we have Stiemsma as a backup 5" and cases where he came in and was effective in limited minutes. My enduring memory of him will be his joy and exuberance during the win over Penn State that clinched the Big Ten title, and his terrific all-around effort against Kansas State that sent us to the Sweet 16.

He peaked at the right time. Too bad any further improvement will be in a different uniform.

There was much talk from commentators this year about how wise it was that Butch redshirted as a freshman - look at how good his fifth year was for him and the program. What about Stiemsma? Imagine if he had redshirted; he played just 27 minutes as a true freshman. Next year, he would have gotten the chance to play 25 minutes a game, controlling the boards with Krabby and Landry. His range wasn't out to the 3-point line like Butch, but he was effective to 16-17 feet, which helps keep post defenders honest.

Now, Keaton Nankivil and Jared Berggren will likely log most of the minutes in the 5 spot next year, and while I'm confident they'll eventually be fine players, they'll be rookies next year and will endure some tough games against older more physically developed players in a rough conference.

Maybe Greg knew this team was special, knew that his senior team would win 31 games and two Big Ten titles. Like George Costanza telling jokes on Seinfeld, he knew when to make an exit.

Alumni basketball game

On his short radio segment tonight following our local news, Bo was talking to LePay about the alumni basketball game, which was played Saturday before the UW-Purdue game. They talked for a while in generalities about how special it is, the great guys, yadda yadda yadda.

In Brian Lucas's courtside blog for the actual game I found this mention of the alumni game:

Tonight's honorary captain is Charlie Wills. He was part of the alumni game that took place earlier today. Sean Mason led all scorers with 19 points to lead the Red team to victory. Dave Mader paced the White team with 16 points.

Not surprising that Mason could still fill it up. That wasn't a bad two-person class - Mason and Sean Dougherty - was it?

Earlier in the week Lucas's daily email mentioned other notables:

... rumored to be in attendance include Clayton Hanson, Dave Mader, David Burkemper, Sean Mason and Charlies Wills ...

What was Burkemper, the ref? Lord knows he's got the whistle.

The game got me thinking about what my dream UW alumni game would be - with guys playing in the shape I'm guessing they're in nowadays, so Joe Franklin and Wes Matthews probably wouldn't qualify. Here's my matchup:

Cardinal: Devin Harris, Sean Mason, Michael Finley, Sean Dougherty, Mike Wilkinson

White: Kammron Taylor, Roy Boone, Kirk Penney, Alando Tucker, Rashard Griffith

Who do you think wins that matchup?

Wisconsin-Purdue thoughts

One day this week after basketball two of my buddies were talking about college hoops. One of them is a big North Carolina fan (way to cheer for the underdog, dude), and they were talking about how superior ACC ball is to Big Ten ball, mocking games with 23-20 halftime scores.

You know what? That's called defense, not putting together 10 McDonald's All-Americans on the court and letting them run around. You can argue about the aesthetic merits of each conference, point to the ACC's dominance in the annual challenge, etc., but if you want to see a well-rounded game, you're more likely to see it in the Midwest than out East.

There's beauty in watching a big guy hedge properly on a pick and roll, or watch weakside help in the post. Three years ago our "offensively challenged" team played Carolina's collection of future professionals recruited by Matt Doherty and scored 80 points - Clayton Hanson had a big game, for crying out loud. So don't tell me Big Ten kids don't have skills.

This is my way of leading into today's Wisconsin-Purdue game, which was not an exercise in offensive futility, but in well-executed defense.

No shame in this loss. Purdue's legit, and if they don't factor in the conference title race this year, they will next year. Those are freshmen who are going to be around for four years, and they've got good sophomores, too - probably not a dominant group, but a very good one.

Don't know about you, but I'm just tickled that we are now a team that students storm the court for. Last year Indiana, this year Purdue - beating Wisconsin is a huge deal for these storied Big Ten powerhouses. I could get used to that.

-Free throws, free throws, free throws. If we hit the same percentage at Purdue, we're ahead in the last minute - maybe with a cushion if we hit the front end of one-and-ones. You knew it was going to cost us at some point, and it did today.

-A good indicator of the job Purdue did defensively: we dribbled the ball way more than usual. This led to people like Pop getting caught in tough positions, like along the baseline, and turning the ball over. Still, we found good looks. Really liked the job Leuer did passing, although the rest of his game left something to be desired.

-On a similar note: is it just me, or does it seem like television broadcasters are always talking about how seldom we turn the ball over, then point out how we're trending ahead of that average in the game? Tonight that happened, although we came in at the 13 per game average.

-Stiemsma was very weak in the post on offense tonight, as happens too often. This is odd, because on defense his personality is strong and aggressive.

-Speaking of Stiemsma, he hung on the rim once to avoid landing on a Purdue player and the PU student section went nuts. This happens way too often, and indicates a low basketball IQ in the crowd. It reminds me of freshman year, when our varsity was playing Milwaukee North at the West Bend Fieldhouse, and one of their players dunked on us. One of our guy's dads, who had probably never seen a dunk in person before, started hollering for a technical foul to be called, and looked like a real rube in the process.

-Butch played really well tonight. If he can start hitting 3-pointers on even a 25 percent basis (he was shooting 9 percent heading into this game), our offense is much more dangerous, and Landry will have more room to operate down low. The Sporting News college hoops column this week made note of his nice senior season, and noted that he had redshirted during our run at a national championship in 2003-04. Really, national championship? I mean, we had Devin playing at the top of his game, and Wilkinson, but Alando had gotten hurt early and robbed us of that third dynamic player you need to make a serious push.

-In about a two-minute span in the broadcast, the announcers referred to Bo Ryan as one of the most underrated coaches in the country, and Krabby as the most underrated player in the Big Ten. I appreciate the sentiment, but again, this seems to be noted in every UW broadcast, so who's underrating them anymore? It reminds me of when I was in Ohio covering Fremont Ross, and I wrote in the paper that Ross point guard Robb Ritzmann was the most underrated player in the Great Lakes League. Mike Pidanick, ever the smartass, said "You're the only one who covers this league and you're always raving about him, so who else other than you would be underrating him?" Good point. At some point that "underrated" tag is a cliche and you need to come up with a better way to describe someone.

-Thought the officiating in this game was subpar, lots of iffy foul calls, out of bounds calls, and resulting makeup calls.

-Did you hear Doris Burke call Hughes a "next level" player? What do you think? The potential is there.

-I like Matt Painter and he's doing a great job rebuilding that program. But he's too demonstrative for my taste, constantly running up and down the sidelines, arms wildly gesticulating. Not to say that Bo doesn't get emotional and let refs have it, but he's steadier. When Landry hit that big shot against Michigan the other night, Bo clapped twice, pointed at him, and said "nice shot." Not that anyone heard him. Leave it to the kids and the fans to get emotional - I want our leader to be in control of his emotions at most times.

-Landry had a tough game, 2-for-10 from the field. He had trouble finishing in close, and threw up some bad-looking shots.

-On ESPN today Doug Gottlieb, explaining why he didn't hate Wisconsin as an emailer from Florida opined, called the loss to Marquette at the Kohl Center a bad loss, and denigrated the Big Ten. Gottlieb's smarminess is his shtick and he's looking for outrage, but I respectfully disagree. Also: in the midst of praising Kansas for running roughshod over its competition, a "very good Big 12." Really? Outside of Kansas, only Baylor has less than four losses, and they aren't for real. Back to the lead of this post - people have their beliefs and biases and it's going to be awhile until the Big Ten is admired nationwide.

-Indiana in Madison and Minnesota at the Barn - we could be looking at a three-game losing streak heading to Iowa. But I'm optimistic we won't be.