Merry Christmas!

In continuing with the Badgercentric tradition of posting feel-good videos on Christmas, we present the UW-Purdue game from 2004:

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?

The Draft

One of the best things about our vacation was that I got to read three books. Three books! That used to be an average week for me; now it's an average year.

The first was The Draft by Pete Williams, an excellent behind-the-scenes look at the NFL draft.

What made it good was his focus on the agent-selection and Combine training prospective draftees go through. Especially the agents. Guys like Leigh Steinberg and Drew Rosenhaus get all the pub, but there are hundreds of other guys who work their butts off recruiting prospective clients. Sometimes they spend money sending them to training, but the kids fall in the draft and the agents' cut of the signing bonuses is smaller than their initial outlay.

Anttaj Hawthorne is a focal point of the book, as he, his uncle, and a family lawyer go through the agent selection process. The book brought back the painful memory of Hawthorne (and Jonathan Clinkscale) testing positive for marijuana leading up to the draft, sending Taj's stock plummeting. He is not happy with the advice his agent gave him; if you'll recall, Northwestern's Luis Castillo had a positive drug test but an aggressive repentance campaign helped him land in the first round.

Plenty of other Badgers are mentioned in the book, including Erasmus James, who the Vikings picked in the first round that year. For instance, according to the two NFL scouting services, BLESTO and National Football Scouting, Inc., ranked the following Badgers among their senior classmates before the 2004 season:

Anthony Davis, ninth and sixth among running backs (went in the seventh round to Indianapolis)
Morgan Davis, seventh among offensive tackles (ahead of eventual first round pick Jammal Brown)
Dan Buenning, sixth and seventh among guards (went in the fourth round to Tampa Bay)
Clinkscale, ninth among guards
Hawthorne, second and fifth among defensive tackles (went in the sixth round to Oakland)
Jason Jefferson, ninth and seventh among defensive tackles (went in sixth round to New Orleans)

Interestingly, James and Scott Starks (a third rounder to Jacksonville) were not rated at their positions.

That 2004 team had some talent on it, too bad shaky quarterback play and injuries at running back hurt them so much in the last three games.

Anyway, good book, especially interesting because I read it in the days leading up to this year's draft.

Statistical leaders: Defense

Here are the teams that led these statistical categories on the defensive side of the ball:

Yards per game: 2006 (253.1), 2004 (291.3), 1998 (292.6). The '06 defense was 38 yards per game better than the second-best — wow! In an era when more and more teams were running the Spread. And without a lot of exceptional individual players, maybe Ike and that's it. That's a credit to Joe Stellmacher, Mark Zalewski, and the other leaders of that defense who made sure everyone was in the right spot at the right time.

Rushing yards per game: 1998 (92.2), 1999 (109.9), 2006 (114.8). Holding opponents under 100 yards rushing per game over 12 games is nearly impossible to do, but Donnel Thompson, Chris Ghidorzi, Jason Doering and friends did it.

Completion percentage: 2006 (47.8%), 2004 (48.8%), 2000 (50%). That '04 mark is a tribute to the pass rush provided by Erasmus James and the defensive line — Brett Bell started at corner opposite the underrated Scott Starks.

Passing yards per game: 2006 (138.3), 2004 (167.3), 1999 (188.2).

Third-down conversion percentage: 2006 (28.2%), 2004 (31.2%), 1999 (33%), 1997 (33.3%), 1998 (34.7%). Are we coming to realize that the 2006 defense was the greatest in modern UW history?

Turnovers per game: 1993 (2.8) and 2998 (2.8), 2002 (2.5), 1994 (2.3). And yet the '02 team lost six games.

Penalty yards per game: 2006 (38.3), 1996 (39.1), 1999 (39.3).

Points per game: 1998 (11.9), 2006 (12.1), 1999 (12.8), 2004 (15.4), 1993 (16.3).

So here's the question I'll throw out at the end of today's exercise: which defense was better, 1998 or 2006?

Vikings erase Erasmus James

In a mildly surprising move, the Vikings released former UW defense end Erasmus James a couple days ago.

It's too bad, injuries played a big role in his ineffectiveness. It's not altogether surprising, given how often he was hurt during his Badger days.

Ras was really sort of an out-of-left field type of guy for Wisconsin. He was so dominant during the first half of the 2004 season that some people were talking about him as a top 5 pick. Then he got hurt on that cut block at Purdue in the Scott Starks game, and he was never the same again.

Whenever a professional rival takes a Badger - like the Vikings with Michael Bennett or James, the Lions with Brian Calhoun - it's bittersweet. You're glad they're in the pros and you want them to do well and represent UW ... but not too well. But you never want to see it end like this.

Hopefully Ras gets another shot, stays healthy, and sticks in the NFL for awhile.

Luke Swan jersey

Here's a fun fact: In my post job, I had a blog that ran for about 11 months and 280 posts. I probably got 10-15 legitimate non-spam comments, and a handful of meaningful, pointed emails. Three days into Badgercentric I got an email, and not even from a friend or family member!

It came from a woman who was looking for information about my Luke Swan jersey. I go mine at Scheel's, a huge sporting goods store in Appleton, in January, and Polzin and Mertzy say there are plenty available at the University Bookstore. But here's a secret: I think my #1 jersey was leftover from Brandon Williams' standout senior season.

#1 should always be a decent number to have, much like Schwalbach's #2. My other Badger jersey is a Pat Richter throwback, #88, but every time I wear it we play like crap, so it's a non-gameday choice. Yes, I'm insane.

This little exercise got me thinking: what's the best number in recent UW history? I'd say it's #2 (Schwib's jersey): Casillas, Calhoun, Starks, Fletcher, DeRamus. Probably forgetting someone, but that's a damn tough group to beat.