Beckum's back!

Just saw some great news on the Sporting News site that is confirmed on uwbadgers.com: Travis Beckum will return for his senior year at Wisconsin! I won't bother going over how incredible and uncoverable he was this year, or his numbers and accolades. Let's consider:

-How loaded with skill position players the offense will be. The Badgers should have the best 1-2 tight end combination in the country in Beckum and Garrett Graham. If everyone's eligible and healthy (no sure thing) we should have the best group of tailbacks in the country in P.J. Hill, Lance Smith, Zach Brown, and John Clay. Kyle Jefferson is ready to put up big numbers in his second year, and it's a good bet someone will emerge as a 25-catch guy opposite him (Daven Jones? Wes Kemp?).

The line, losing only unsung Marcus Coleman, should be good again - especially if Josh Oglesby forces his way into the lineup. That leaves just one big question mark: quarterback. Will Allan Evridge be at least adequate, as Tyler Donovan was this year?

-It will be interesting to see if Beckum puts on 15-20 pounds on the 224 he played at this season in an attempt to get more NFL-ready. And, if he does, will his ability to get open and make plays in the open field be diminished? If he can put on weight, improve his blocking, and still be a receiving terror, that would be tremendous. But given his importance as a security blanket for a first-year starter at QB, selfishly I would like him to stay around 230 and focus on receiving.

Whatever, I'm just happy he's back!

Defense

The Wisconsin defense was not as good as we thought it would be this year. Last year's unit ranked near the top of the national rankings in many key categories, and seven starters returned. The key positions to examine: defensive end, middle linebacker, and the two safety spots, not coincidentally the spots vacated by graduating seniors.

Two items in the news today illustrate why:

-Roderick Rogers was signed by the Broncos off their practice squad. Even though, as this story says, he was a two-time all-conference pick, I never thought he was an irreplaceable member of the defense; certainly never thought he was NFL-caliber, but apparently he is, and I'm glad. The struggles in the defensive backfield show just how good he and Joe Stellmacher were. In retrospect, Stellmacher really overshadowed Rogers, who was a darn good player in his own right.

-In The Cap Times Mike Lucas writes about Elijah Hodge's injury troubles this season (he also writes about Abdul Hodge, veers off onto Erik Ainge for a few paragraphs, and I think may have made his picks for the Iowa caucuses). Here's a guy who I thought would step in seamlessly for Mark Zalewski, and he may have, had he not been hurt. There is no such award, but look for Hodge to be our comeback player in 2008. The experience Culmer St. Jean and Jae McFadden got because of injuries to Hodge and DeAndre Levy will pay off as well.

On another note, I was talking to a friend about Joe Thomas last week and he asked me if Joe was having a good rookie season. Since I'm not an offensive line expert or Ron Jaworski, I couldn't tell, but responded that since the Browns offense was doing so well this year, he must have been at least holding his own. Yesterday he was named a Pro Bowl alternate, so he must have done OK.

Slow Tuesday

Finals time in Madison, so no hoops and little football news to discuss. The two things the papers picked up on were:

-Surprise! Looks like PJ might be ready to play in the Outback Bowl after all! This has reached the point where I don't even care any more, and would ask coach B to refrain from addressing the situation if at all possible.

-The more interesting development comes from the offensive line, believe it or not. It appears that Eric Vanden Heuvel will remain on the bench for the bowl game, with John Moffitt (right) staying at left guard, Andy Kemp at right guard, and Kraig Urbik at right tackle. Bielema says this lineup gives them more athleticism, and without having broken down game tape, I would tend to agree - Moffitt goes 6-4/307, EVH goes 6-7/325, and you would guess the "smaller" Moffitt could fly around a bit better.

It was also said Moffitt is the favorite to replace Marcus Coleman as the starting center next year, and I would guess EVH returns to his starting right tackle spot ... unless Josh Oglesby beats him out. It's shaping up as a nice line.

Wisconsin State Journal story about next year's line

You're in the Hot Box - hello! Chris Earl update

Earlier this year, I was on a conference call where we were mapping out the layout of a new website. Someone on the other end referred to one zone in the center of the site to the "hot box." To which I silently mouthed "Hello!"

If you lived in Madison in the fall of 1996, loved sports, and had nothing to do on Wednesday nights, you were watching cable access TV, specifically The Hot Box with Chris Earl.

I had gotten to know Chris in the spring of '96, when along with Schwalbach and some others we studied reporting in Journalism 206 with Steve Lorenzo. Steve was one of the best teachers I ever had, and he did a great job with the class. Studying under Steve was what I imagined it would have been like to attend a small, liberal arts college. Chris wrote a story about the health merits of running a marathon that was quite compelling.

Chris did a little writing for the Cardinal, and we bumped into each other around Vilas Hall quite a bit. When he stopped by the office one day to ask me to be on his new show, I said "Hell yeah!" Chris did a great job with the show, moderated a small roundtable - which included Steve Mann, and I believe Eric Gitter - and took calls, including ones from my roommates. When the caller was patched through, he would great him with "You're in The Hot Box - hello!"

One time he threw Gitter off the set for a seemingly minor infraction. Afterward we'd go to Steve's place (Steve was easily the most polished of the group) and watch the tape, good times. One time Chris walked into the gas station while Corbett was working; Corby, who had never met him, yelled "You're in The Hot Box!" to which Chris, instead of running, replied "Hello!"

Through the magic of LinkedIn, I reconnected with Chris last week. Turns out he's now a TV news anchor at WEAU in Eau Claire after sports stints in Duluth, Topeka, and Madison.

Also, as you may have read in On Wisconsin, the UW alumni publication, Chris has also published a couple of books: Gotcha Down, about greed and competition at fictional Wisconsin State and The Interim, about an unlikely basketball coach at the same school. Have to admit, I haven't read them, more of a non-fiction guy, but I owe it to Chris to pick them up now. It might be too late for Christmas gifts, but not Kwanzaa, so give Chris's website a look, www.chrisearlbooks.com.

In a sense, he's living the dream - who among us Cardinal sportswriters in the mid-'90s didn't fantasize writing a book at some point in our lives? It's early, and it still might happen, but Chris did it already. He also has a wife of nine years and two children.

Show of hands, who watched The Hot Box?

Badger-Green Bay thoughts

Very excited today, got some new basketball shoes. They're the adidas Pro Model, in red, Marcus Landry's shoes. I expect to play more like him from here on out.

Just got done watching yesterday's win over Green Bay (taped it, holiday party overlapped). Nothing too earth-shattering, as expected, but a nice win over a team that's not half-bad.

Love the balanced scoring, which will be the hallmark of this year's team. By my count we had eight guys with seven or more points. It reminds me of watching WIAC teams over the year, with even scoring and several guys capable of leading the team in scoring. Every couple years you get a superior scorer like Devin Harris or Alando Tucker who throws the model out of whack, but you return to this - not surprising given Bo Ryan's roots.

-That early stretch where Green Bay took the lead was the worst transition and perimeter defense I've seen from a Badger team. Obviously it got much better.

-Joe Krabbenhoft had some ugly shots early on, but what a terrific effort on the boards in the second half. He's going to go down as one of those all-time favorite guys for Badger fans.

-Any word on how bad Leuer's ankle is? I had the sound turned down and was listening to the Packer game on the radio.

-Michael Flowers has got to be better at staying out of foul trouble. It killed us against Marquette, and will kill us against teams like Michigan State and Indiana with multiple scoring guards.

-Another nice game from Landry, he looked very comfortable out there, especially with his back to the basket - strong post moves where he squared up properly.

-Looks like the Bucket Boys performed at halftime. If you've never seen them, you're missing out. The Boys, who have played at the Big Ten Tournament since we've been going, basically play overturned buckets like drums, and don't stop at breakneck speed for 10 minutes or so.

-Good minutes for Stiemsma today.

-Dumbest quote of the night from the folksy color analyst: "They've got four guards out there on the floor if you consider Landry a guard." Uh-huh.

-Green Bay really misses Ryan Evanochko, their excellent point guard from the past couple seasons. Cordero Barkley really impressed me, but he was about it. Mike Schachtner appears to be having a very good year but bombed yesterday. He could use him; Bo probably didn't want another 6-7 guy in the class with Krabby and Landry, but Mickey Perry's long gone.

The GB program seems to have plateaued under Tom Crean disciple Tod Kowalczyk after a few years of improvement. They've got some good players and you can see where they're capable of nice runs, but they're also prone to dry spells.

... On a diferent note, not going to devote a whole post to this, but congratulations to the UW-Whitewater football team for knocking off Mount Union and winning the Division III national title yesterday. The Warhawks are now clearly the dominant program in the country's top Division III conference, and did the state proud yesterday.

Brian Mangardi, RIP

This is a tough post to write. Today I got two emails from old friends in college informing me of some terrible news: Brian Mangardi passed away on Wednesday. Friends say he experienced some chest pains playing basketball on Tuesday, and his parents found him the next day ... how awful must that be. Too soon for this one.

Update: Tymer's thread on Buckyville. If you knew Brian, a must-read.

Can't say that I've been in touch with Gardi much since college, although the one time we did connect was terrific. Last April, after finishing Crazylegs at Camp Randall, I was taking the timing chip out of my shoe and heard a "Hey Tappa!" Turned around and it was Gardi. We talked a little about how life was going, and I was taken aback by how similar he looked to
the day we moved into Sullivan Hall in 1994 - check out the picture I found of him. It was easily the highlight of my weekend, told everyone how I'd seen Gardi.

Here's what else I know about Gardi:

-He was very smart, good at math. At Crazylegs he told me he was into financial planning; I was envious, cool line of work.
-He was a fantastic athlete. He gave me better racquetball games than anyone (apologies to Jon Thomas and Butch), was a great basketball player, and played a key role on the Bryan Ice intramural football team. (What a horrible name!)
-He had a laugh that you never forget. My description won't do it justice, but it was like a machine gun clogged with molasses filmed in super slow motion.
-He was a great Brewers fan. One time we were sitting around our dorm talking '87 Brewers with my friends from West Bend, and we got to talking about Juan Nieves' no-hitter. Everyone remembers Robin Yount's dramatic catch at the end, but Gardi's favorite moment was a big catch by Jim Paciorek - or, as he pronounced it, Jim PAH-Chore-Wreck! And the catch, as Gardi said, as "relatively in-sig-ni-fi-cant at the time."
-He had a great group of friends from Middleton that made a West Bender feel welcome in their town, including his freshman and my sophomore roommate, Denis Krull.
-He was a great critic of What's on Tapp. When it was good, we would discuss what was going on in Badger sports. When it was bad - during my general column days of autumn '97, I once wrote a forgettable column about going to the dentist, ugh - he let me know about it.

Thinking about Gardi has brought back some great memories, many listed above. I can see the Sullivan Hall room he and Denis shared, across from mine and Butch's. They didn't have a carpet or lofts; you could see the basketball courts and IM football fields out their window. In general it takes me back to Madison in 1994-95, and what a special place it is for those of us who were privileged enough to attend school there.

Olson and I were talking once about what it would be like to live in Madison after graduation, and he thought it might be a downer; yeah, you're in a great place, but you're an adult with responsibilities, and you're not surrounded by a group of like-minded homeboys with whom you play out your youth in spectacular style. Let's say Gardi and I both lived in Middleton and worked for the same company - it's not like we could call it a day, play ball, and zone out drinking Busch Light and playing Madden '94 until 12:30 a.m. That's part of growing up, and this stage of life is very cool for its own reasons ... but what a four-year ride.

This sucks. People like Gardi shouldn't be dying. I believe he is the first college or high school friend of mine to pass ... are we really to that stage in our lives? When did that happen?

All our ree-cruits live in Texas ... and Florida

My Hotmail inbox has been flooded with messages from Scout over the past couple days updating me on new Badger football commitments. Here are the last four:

CB Marcus Cromartie, Arlington, Texas (two pictures of him at right)
DT Eriks Briedis, Miami
DE Anthony Mains, Naples, Florida
CB Devin Smith, Coppell, Texas

Scrolling down the list we see:
S Shelton Johnson, Lewisville, Texas
S Kevin Claxton, Lauderdale Lakes, Florida

So that makes three recruits apiece from Florida and Texas. Without going back and analyzing past recruiting classes, I'd guess this is the most we've gotten from either state in a single recruiting class, and to get six from the two combined is an eye-opener. By contrast, we've only got one recruit from Ohio, and none from New Jersey, out-of-region areas that have been good to us. Maybe Henry Mason's health problems have hurt us in Ohio.

Florida isn't that much of a surprise, given Bielema's background there. Elijah Hodge, Zach Brown, and Aaron Henry are already contributing. Texas has me worried, though. Who of note have we pulled from that state? The only one who comes to mind is Michael Broussard, and he flamed out quickly.

I'm not saying we should intentionally stay away from Texas, or anywhere else for that matter - if there's a potential contributor in Alaska bring him in - but if we're going to focus on "hotbeds" I don't think Texas is a place to focus. This usually ties in to who your assistants are. Whatever, now that they're almost Badgers, I hope they set the world on fire.

Of all those guys, Cromartie is the most intriguing. Toohey keeps asking if he's the brother of Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie - probably not, since Marcus is from Arlington, Texas, and Antonio is from Tallahassee. Isn't the difference in the two mug shots of him above hilarious? Why is it a requirement for football players to act like hard asses in their official mugs? That said, I want to see the guy on top show up for coach B, ready to smack someone.

Badger hoops recruits - future info

Before moving back to football, I wanted to call attention to some really good comments under a post from last week, A look at the Badger basketball recruits. A special mention to poster Heavystarch, who gives an in-depth look at our recruiting prospects for the next few years.

And if you're into this type of thing, Heavystarch gave a link to a great recruiting message board. Thanks Heavy!

UW-UWM-thoughts on Rob Jeter

Was only able to listen to the game tonight - no ESPN 360 and I had homework to do, budget time of year - and it didn't seem like I missed much.

Sounds like Marcus Landry had a nice showing - 16 points. At one point Matt LePay made the comment about how Marcus had a good feel for tonight's game, and that was a good illustration of why he's different than Carl or Alando Tucker - Marcus feels the game and figures out his role in it, Carl and 'Do imposed their will on the game.

Hughes seemed to play under control, and Stiemsma was a presence inside. Too many turnovers.

It might sound silly, but I'm concerned about UWM. I've always pulled for them in every game except the one against UW, and was delighted by their runs several years ago. They are just brutally bad right now. Last year's struggles were inevitable - they lost a huge senior class that had won a lot of games. But things should have improved this year. Dismissing Avery Smith obviously hurt, but beyond Torre Johnson and Paige Paulsen, they've got nothing.

I hope they give Rob Jeter time to prove himself in Milwaukee. Bruce Pearl appears to have left the cupboard empty, and it takes time to fill it back up, especially when none of the holdovers were recruited to play in the Swing.

But if the losing continues, it probably eliminates Jeter from the short list of candidates to replace Bo Ryan after he hangs it up. Two years ago the UWM seemed like a great apprenticeship for Rob; now it seems like a land mine, and he can't be considered a viable option right now. He seems like too smart, driven, and well-taught to struggled long-term. Hopefully he gets that program on the right track in the second half of this season and rolls into next year.

Mock draft features Ike

A Rivals.com mock NFL draft featured on Yahoo has Jack Ikegwuonu going in the last pick of the second round to New England, 64th pick overall. No, Ike hasn't declared yet, but this is one (of many) thoughts on his relative draft value. No mention of Travis Beckum.