UW-Cal Poly thoughts

That was a lot less stressful than the last time the Badgers played Cal Poly.

First off ...

Was that a J.P. Gavinski dunk? My lord, that was exciting. And off a sweet feed from Brett Valentyn. That's why games like these are valuable, so guys like these two get some playing time.

Other than predictably good games from Trevon Hughes and Jon Leuer, there were some things to like:

-Keaton Nankivil came out lookin aggressively for his shot, and made them. He's a good shooter, and when he hits from the perimeter, we're much tougher to guard.

-Jason Bohannon looked comfortable shooting from the perimeter tonight. If he gains confidence from that and it spills over into our important game, tonight is valuable.

-Guys like Jared Berggren and Rob Wilson got more minutes than usual, and Mike Bruesewitz saw time after not seeing the floor much lately. I think our rotation might be too tight for them to see anything more than spot action, but they're all capable of contributing.

-We shot 61% from the floor, 54% on 3-pointers.

Badger Tweeters

Trying to numb my brain during the Badgers' lackluster first half against Fresno State on Saturday, I searched for as many current or former Badgers on Twitter as I could. Here's a list, sign up and follow. Some are more active and coherent than others. In fact, some were frighteningly incoherent. I guess that's what communicating in 140 characters or less does to people.

Chris Chambers
Antonio Fenelus
Tracy Webster
Devin Harris
Freddie Owens
Tim Jarmusz
Greg Stiemsma
Jon Leuer
Brett Valentyn
Jay Valai
Joe Krabbenhoft
Morris Cain
Erik Smith
Brian Calhoun
Lee Evans
J.J. Watt
Richard Kirtley
O'Brien Schofield
Louis Nzegwu
Marcus Cromartie
John Moffitt
Brian Butch

UW-Indiana thoughts

Nice to close out the regular season with a laugher. Get the seniors their own individual standing ovations. Get Morris Cain a bucket. Get Brett Valentyn a bucket for Pete's sake! Very nice.

To reiterate, our NCAA Tournament chances are solid -- good RPI, top-five strength of schedule, a winning record in our last 12 games -- so it shouldn't matter what happens against Ohio State on Friday.

-Here's the one disturbing thing about this game for me: the inability to stop Verdell Jones and Nick Williams. They are clearly the only two scoring threats Indiana has, and yet we were unable to stop them from getting good looks. They hit 13 of 19 field goals between them; they shot 54% from the field overall. That wouldn't have happened against any of our teams in recent years.

-Indiana's limited talent clearly shows up in its offensive performance, but they are apparently even worse defensively. Let's face it, any team that gives up 85 points to us is a sieve. And we did it with only two double-digit scorers.

-Nice moments for all the seniors. Nineteen points and nine boards for Krabby. Landry had six assists. Gully played 19 minutes and hit some nice baseline jumpers. Cain with his shot was a treat, nice moment for a good kid.

-Nineteen assists for the team, has to be a season high.

-Come on, Bo, please play Nankivil and Wilson earlier in games like this. They are going to need to step up big next year for us to keep this streak of success going, and any seasoning they get helps. There's pretty much no time left for them to get that PT this year, unfortunately.

-My mind kept drifting to next year during this game. Conventional wisdom says we will have many question marks and should struggle. But I can see Pop, J-Bo, and Leuer taking big steps forward, Nankivil and Wilson earning 20-plus minutes per game, and someone like Berggren becoming a limited contributor.

But first things first. As much as an early exit from the Big Ten Tournament might not be the worst thing in the world -- get some extra rest heading into the big one -- winning a game or two would do a world of good for these guys' confidence. They haven't been the most consistent bunch, but stringing together two complete games, regardless of outcome, would really help.

Ohio State is definitely beatable, although they figure to have many more fans at Conseco Fieldhouse than we will. Michigan State would likely be the semifinal opponent, and while beating them is a long shot, a strong showing against them would suffice.

Looking forward to the trip as usual, stay tuned for reports from the road later this week.

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.

Badgers shouldn't dance

Got a link to this video in the daily men's basketball update last week, and got around to watching it several days later. It's from the proceedings at Night of the Grateful Red, the basketball team's annual kickoff practice open to the public. All I can say is oh ... my ... god.

When I got done watching the Brett Valentyn dance number, I turned around to look at Charlie, who until then had been hopping away in his Jumperoo but had gone quiet. He had a look of stunned silence on his face, as if he had seen a ghost. Or a bunch of basketball players trying to dance. The look continued through that ridiculous group number at the end.

After that I couldn't stop laughing. Give it a view and your reaction will be the same.

It seems like the fellas had fun with it, and that's all that count. But it ain't gonna get YouTube play like Bo Ryan's Soulja Boy did last year.

Crazylegs=Crazy fun!

It wasn't the best day for the 27th annual Crazylegs Classic, with overcast skies and blustery wind. I finished 4,963rd, which was good for second place in our group. Unfortunately, it was 4,962 places short of finishing our quest for the perfect baby name; Jana and I made a deal that if I won the whole ball of wax, we'd name our son Elroy Hirsch Tappa. No dice.

For those of you who know us, the our quintet's finish was: 1. Tim Toohey (great race dude!), 2. me, 3. Matt Schwalbach, 4. Jim Polzin, 5. Andy Tappa. Andy and Jim crossed the finish line at the same time (sadly, not holding hands), but Jim crossed the start line a second before Andy.

A good time. Someone suggested I did some hits and misses for the day, so here goes:

Hits
-Here's who greeted us at the starting line: Morris Cain, Lance Kendricks, O'Brien Schofield, Kevin Gullikson, Brett Valentyn, Greg Stiemsma, Joe Krabbenhoft. Saw Brian Butch, wearing a big black hoodie, on Breese Terrace near the stadium entrance.

-The wave start was done better than ever, meaning less running in place and a less congested first half-mile of running.

-Ron Dayne, talkative as ever, told the crowd he planned to play two more years in the NFL before retiring to work with the program. Apparently he's also spending a lot of time in Madison working with schoolkids. Nice to see a strong alumni connection to the current team.

-Free beer at the end is a really good thing about Crazylegs.

-Didn't miss any of the NFL Draft, which started later this year. Really enjoying the new 10 minutes between picks first round, kudos Roger Goodell.

-Always a great feeling to run onto the field at Camp Randall.

Misses
-The guy with the lip piercing who enforced the double-letter waves way at the end, who made kids move from BB to CC. Come on dude, lighten up.

-The folks with really bad leg tattoos who dressed up in full Joe Thomas UW uniforms for at least the second time. I appreciate the school spirit, but the tattoos are just creepy.

-Did not hear the theme song from Rocky once. Very disappointing.

-People who are walking on the running course should move to the right side and let us run through!

-Some dude was wearing an Adam Haluska Iowa jersey. I subtly pushed him into Lake Mendota.

-The course got kind of narrow on the lakeshore after the dorms.

-George Johnson, sports director of Channel 3 in Madison and the MC at the finish line, is a bit much for my tastes.

Already looking forward to next year. Will is asking to run with me next year. I'm not sure that's such a good idea, although there were some 6-year-olds who seemed to be finishing ahead of me this year.

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-Minnesota thoughts

Yet another game that was fun to watch knowing that we won. I really like how we took the crowd out of the game early, and it sounded like we had a lot of Badger fans at The Barn. Is that right Schwib and Toohey?

-A terrific game by Pop. He was never out of control, and he really anticipated the Gophers' lackadaisical passes en route to his six steals. My one concern is that he gets caught up in making steals and lets up on playing solid positional defense. Remember, steals don't equate to good defense, and I'm sure Bo won't let that happen with Hughes. I love Trevon's demeanor after all those big plays - no chest pounding, just business as usual.

-Minnesota doubled Butch and Stiemsma in the post at times in the first half, don't remember seeing anyone do that against us to this point. The big guys didn't exactly handle it spectacularly, just kind of survived. Thought the Gophers also used their hands guarding the perimeter more than any other team I'd seen this year, surprised they didn't get whistled for that more often.

-Matchups obviously dictate this, but we seem to be going with a smaller lineup a lot: Hughes, Flowers, J-Bo, Krabby, and Landry. Good lineup for closing out a game and for guarding the perimeter, but not bad rebounding either.

-Early in the second half Minnesota scored a few points in a row to cut our lead to like 15 points and I heard what had to be about 10 fans in the student section shouting the now cliche "Ohhhhhh!" It sounded like a dead cat moaning.

-Liked the offense overall, but too many possessions went down to the last five seconds on the shot block with Pop taking a 3.

-Let's pick a nit: way too many unforced turnovers.

-I think Tubby Smith played too many guys. Ten guys got eight minutes or more, and Tollackson - their only guy who scares me offensively - only got 16. They never seemed to have a cohesive unit on the floor. Do you really need to find minutes for a mediocre guy like Abu-Shamala? Contrast that to our tight rotation, which is eight at the most, and in the Minnesota game was really only six. Playing at that pace, you can use less guys.

-Even though they're not putting up Alando Tucker-esque numbers, Hughes and Butch, probably even Landry, can be counted on to score in double digits, which is important. It was concerning that Landry had three shots blocked, he seemed to be too relaxed on those shots.

-Is it me, or have Flowers and Krabby shot more reverse layups than anyone you've seen in the last 10 years? Those shots aren't easy.

-Finally, and I feel uneasy writing this because it is somewhat critical of a good kid: Tanner Bronson reminds me of a guy we had on our varsity sophomore year. His name was Christoph Schmidt, a foreign exchange student from Germany, and he was terrible. He'd get on the court in garbage time and run around like a chicken with his head cut of before doing something embarrassing.

To be clear, I do not think Tanner is embarrassing, he's a sharp kid who's busted his butt for four years and will be a success in whatever he pursues after college, likely coaching. That's admirable. But I can't remember a time when he's done anything productive with the limited minutes he's gotten at the end of games. Case in point against Minnesota: he misses two free throws badly, that's something he should be able to do. Finish the game on the right note - let Tim Jarmusz and Keaton Nankivil feel like their limited minutes count. Earlier in his career, it was cute, but now I'd rather see a guy like Brett Valentyn, who might contribute some day, get those minutes.

Badgers' Midnight Madness

Last night the Badger basketball team had its first practice, at the Kohl Center in front of fans; I don't think it was technically a Midnight Madness, but that's the generic term, so we'll use it here.

State Journal story and photo

I saw a couple highlights on the Big Ten Network, parts of the three-point shooting and slam dunk contests. Here's the part I found most interesting:

"... (Brian) Butch made his way down Section 108 sporting boxing gloves and a towel over his head. He then sparred with redshirt freshman guard Brett Valentyn near midcourt."

Butch, despite his flaws, is one of my favorite Badgers. He's got to realize how goofy he looks doing certain things, like sparring with redshirt freshman guard Brett Valentyn near midcourt, but he doesn't care. Wish I had more of that attitude. Reminds me a bit of another Butch we know.

One other thing after watching several other Midnight Madness highlights from around the Big Ten: not much spectacular dunking in store for conference fans this year - some really lame efforts in schools' respective dunk contests. Marcus Landry's was the best I saw.

Looks like it was called Night of the Grateful Red. I like Midnight Madness better.