UW-IPFW thoughts

Toggled back and forth between the Badger and Packer games Saturday afternoon and evening, and frankly the Packer game was far more interesting. As much as the Badgers' win was convincing and expected, the thing that stuck out to me was the six straight UW possessions that ended in turnovers. I'm not overly concerned, but what an ugly stretch that was.

A potential implication was that Jordan Taylor was playing the point at the start of that stretch, and Bo appeared to be making a point when he put Wquinton Smith in with about 10 minutes to play, which is unprecedented. Jordan will pull it together.

Jon Leuer looked good. He made 8 of 10 shots, and none of his field goal attempts were 3-pointers. His postgame is decisive and confident, and he made a couple mid-range jumpers.

Glad to see Ryan Evans earning minutes and playing well, he seems to be able to defend swingmen and do some things on the boards. Rob Wilson didn't hesitate on offense.

And what about Timmy Jarmusz hitting three 3-pointers and leading the team in rebounding? He's a lot like Joe Krabbenhoft, only a little better shooter and not as good a rebounder and defender.

Jason Bohannon played 31 minutes and took only three shots -- but blocked three shots. Can't imagine that'll happen again.

The Big Ten Network announcers said our game against Oakland on Wednesday will be a challenge, so that should be interesting to watch. Iowa lost to something called UTSA on Sunday, so I guess anything's possible.

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.

How did you find Badgercentric?

Badgercentric has been around for about five months now, and it’s a lot of fun to write. If you’re a stats/analysis geek like me, it’s also fun to take a look at who’s coming to your site and why.

Every few days I check out Google Analytics and see what sites are referring people to this blog, and what search engine keywords are doing the trick. Through February 23, 2,293 keywords have brought people here, and it’s fascinating to see them. Many are related to The Office and non-UW items, but I’m going to share my favorite Badger-related search terms for Badgercentric:

#5 punch groin wisconsin minnesota (you wouldn't believe how many there are like this - apparently Minnesota receiver Eric Decker's handiwork on Ike was noticed)
#7 brett valentyn
#13 bo ryan soulja boy (tons of searches similar to this)
#38 erin andrews ice fishing (pretty sure this was all Toohey)
#108 wquinton smith
#151 matt lepay’s call of final play vs. texas
#246 jack ikegwuonu nuts
#311 tim brewster feud with bret bielema
#315 university of wisconsin band nice clipboard rex (from the Packers-Bears game at Lambeau, rex is Rex Grossman)
#318 who owns the metrodome (we do)
#330 “aaron henry” trash bielema
#411 “jenna fischer” rentmeester
#426 “mark tauscher” vegas (what in the world could they have been looking for?)
#480 “scott burch” penn state (did Froehlich finally discover the Internet?)
#500 “tom crean” tan (a Journal Sentinel story last week called him “Tom Cream”)
#554 6’3 diamond taylor
#563 al toon wisconsin badgers jersey number
#579 andy crooks facebook
#583 anti uw shirts
#589 arrogant michigan
#604 badger baggo, #630 badger cornhole game
#720 bielema bad goatee (when did he have a goatee?)
#723 bielema mad youtube
#794 bret bielema passed out in bathroom (where did Google get that from this blog?)
#840 can curt phillips be a starter freshman year?
#859 chris chambers oshkosh north high school (huh?)
#925 culmer st. jean highlights
#996 doug gottlieb hates wisconsin, #1124 gottlieb why do you hate wisconsin?
#1035 erick olson badger football
#1072 football jansen wisconsin

#1100 gangster toohey (his secret life!)

#1167 how many times has joe krabbenhoft had stitches?
#1172 i love appalachian state t shirt wisconsin
#1215 jason bohannon drinking game
#1499 mock draft, tyler donovan
#1637 picture of bill callahan farewell tour
#1854 swan family website fennimore hamstring
#1921 tight end schwalbach (fill in your own punchline)
#2063 what is mike kelley former uw basketball player doing now?
#2279 matt schwalbach casino (search was from Pompano Beach, Fla. – did Megan hire a private investigator to look into our Vegas trip?)

Wisconsin-Northwestern thoughts

Sshould have watched Happy Feet on Showtime instead of that pile of crap. And I've seen Happy Feet - it sucks.

Not much good to report here, other than Landry's game, which was basically taking what Northwestern gave him. My biggest disappointment was not getting to see Wquinton Smith tonight, thought there was an even-money shot.

-Marcus really did play well, finishing inside against guys he should be able to finish against. This whole five different guys scoring 20 in five straight games is really pretty incredible. They're saying this is the first time that's happened in Wisconsin history; I would guess it's the first time this has happened in all of college basketball history.

As much fun as it was to watch Alando and, to an extent, Kam, take over games on a regular basis, it might be more fun to watch a different guy do it every night.

-Krabby also pretty well, especially on defense, but still had some pretty horrible passes. His reverse layups are sweet.

-Trevon had a really bad game. Wasn't able to penetrate until Northwestern was scrambling late, missed his shots, fell asleep on defense at times. Did he really hurt his ankle again? It looked like he'd have to come out, then five seconds later he's back at full speed.

-J-Bo didn't play very well, either. Before the game Northwestern's radio guy was talking about how their 1-3-1 leaves openings for 3-pointers. We were only 4-for-14 there, and J-Bo's looks were open. Also, he seemed like a magnet for double teams and did not deal with them proactively.

-On that note, our first half offensive approach was embarrassing. It looked like we hadn't prepared for the 1-3-1 at all, we made them look like friggin' Duke for 20 minutes.

-Flowers played a good game, did a nice job on Moore and pitched in his share of scoring. Maybe my favorite play of the game was when he leveled Thompson with that pick near the end, although it looked like Thompson was acting (shocking!).

-Thirty-seven free throws: good. Sixty-five percent free throw shooting: ugh. It's going to catch up to us at some point.

-Stiemsma didn't play tonight, and I figured it was just because of matchup reasons, but Bo just said on the radio that Greg had been nicked up physically and didn't practice yesterday. Hope he's better for Michigan on Tuesday, there are good matchups there.

-Poorly officiated game, the refs let both coaches influence calls

-How in the world does Coble average 18 a game? Krabby did a good job on him, but he didn't look like he had any moves to free himself for open looks, and Lord knows their offense isn't designed for anyone to score.

-Bill Carmody and Conan O'Brien: separated at birth?

-My take on Northwestern: I don't see how Carmody ever wins here. Granted, no one ever has won with that program, but his "system" is ridiculous. On offense, they do most of their work 45 feet from the basket, and their guards execute spin dribbles for no apparent reason.

The only consistent threat they had tonight was Michael Thompson driving - not fast enough to get around his defender - drawing contact, and going to the free throw line because Carmody whined enough to get a technical.

They shot 13 free throws, but probably earned about three of them. They miss a ton of shots, but don't send anyone to the offensive boards. Their first possession of each half end with a shot clock violation, and it couldn't have been because we threw an exotic defensive look at them.

The announcers said Carmody was making recruiting inroads into the Chicago Public League, but if the best he can get is Thompson, who didn't even attempt a jump shot tonight, and Sterling Williams, who looks like he'd be a better fit at Whitewater, well, that ain't gonna get it done.

Northwestern should follow the long-ago example of the University of Chicago and withdraw from Division I Big Ten athletic competition, put the money it saves on sports on its academic/research pursuits that would further mankind. God knows it would be better for someone in Evanston to cure cancer than watch Jeremy Nash hit the side of the backboard on a 3-pointer attempt.

At least the only time we saw Tim Doyle tonight was in the Big Ten Network studio at halftime.