Hey pizza boy

As you've probably heard by now, Brian Butch was named MVP of the NBDL all-star game over the weekend, congratulations to him. What I don't get is why the leading scorer in the league needed another guy's NBA call-up to be named to this game?

And it's not quite Gatorade or Nike, but Brian has scored an endorsement deal, check this out:

Ouch

Fresh off yesterday's Packers loss, word comes this morning that Jon Leuer has a broken wrist and will be out indefinitely. Great. Sources are saying he'll miss 4-6 weeks, or 7-10 games. Could be more, that's a finicky injury.

Let's be honest: this just about kills our Big Ten title chances. They were probably a long shot anyway. It was nice to daydream.

OK, enough of that, glass half-full time.

Health: We haven't had too many bad injuries in the past few years, have we? Brian Butch at the end of the 2007 season and Alando Tucker in 2004 come to mind immediately as two in-season injuries to key players that really hurt. Pop hurt his ankle before that memorable Texas game. Sharif Chambliss hurt his knee in offseason workouts. Krabby had a lower body injury. My point is, we've been fortunate in the injury category, and should be thankful for that.

Keaton Nankivil: You have to shoot more now, big guy. You have to! Now! You are a really good shooter, particularly when you're looking for your shot. You're not going to do the same moves Leuer does, like shooting off the dribble, but you are better taking a pass and shooting off a guard's dribble penetration. You will replace Leuer's perimeter game. (Of course, you will also have a better defensive player checking you now.) You're also very good hitting the offensive boards. Now is the time for you to become the double digit scorer you can be.

Mike Bruesewitz: We've been impressed with your athleticism and active game in limited minutes. You will replace Leuer's rebounding and some minutes. You'll also be called upon to take Nankivil's minutes when he gets in foul trouble. (In the locker room at hoops today someone remarked that Nankivil has become Greg Stiemsma for refs' tendency to call fouls on him the minute a play comes near him. This is also known as Dave Mader Syndrome. It's not fair, but it's true.)

Ryan Evans: We've been impressed with your knack for scoring. You will replace Leuer's low post game, and become the quick trigger guy in the frontcourt. We love your confidence, even if your shot isn't everything it could be and will be.

Jared Berggren: You are now the only guy on the roster over 6-8 who is capable of playing against Big Ten post players. You're going to need to play double digit minutes some nights, if only because Nankivil's going to get tired or in foul trouble.

Like most injuries to star players, there's no way one guy can replace Leuer. But I am really excited in seeing what these four kids can do with their opportunities. Additionally, you would expect the guards to assume even more of the scoring load, like in the Purdue win. They're capable.

We've won games recently with limited minutes and production from Leuer. We ought to be able to tread water without him, and emerge a deeper, more experienced team.

But I don't want the Badgers to tread too long -- get well soon, Jon!

Sports Illustrated jinx for Clay?

Probably not. This is a cool shot, isn't it? It figures: I'd subscribed to SI for about 10 years and let it lapse earlier this year, and now they put a Badger football player on the cover.

The only other Badgers I can think of on SI's cover were Brian Butch and Alando Tucker on the 2006-07 men's basketball preview issue. Anyone else come to mind?

Duke: The afterglow

One of the best parts of last night's big win? Having every other person at work stop me in the hall or pop their head in my office to talk about it. The Badgers have created a buzz. Here are some other thoughts:

-J.P. Tokoto was in attendance, and apparently came away very impressed. I saw a cool picture of him talking with Brian Butch. Let's face it: it's still a long shot that J.P. will end up in Madison. But last night showed him that Wisconsin can beat the nation's premier teams, that the Kohl Center is an electric place, that being a part of the Madison student body is an incredible experience. Can't hurt.

-What do you reckon Trevon Hughes' scoring average will be this season? My money is on something like 15.5 ppg. He's playing at a higher level than any point guard we've had since Devin Harris. (Who, by the way, is getting criticized on Twitter for giving the Badgers props in the wake of last night's game.)

-As well as Pop played, we won this game in the frontcourt. Brian Zoubek, Lance Thomas, Miles and Mason Plumlee -- all of their dudes were highly-recruited post players. Yet Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil totally outplayed them, 25 points and 11 rebounds to six points and 14 rebounds. Our guys were more athletic.

-Seventeen assists, six turnovers for us last night (thanks for the catch nuclearbadger!). That'll win you some games.

-So many of the national stories in the wake of last night's games had a theme along the lines of "Never doubt Bo Ryan ... the Badgers will definitely make the NCAA Tournament ... they're a Big Ten title contender." I appreciate the sentiment but think that we might be getting ahead of ourselves. There are a lot of games left to play.

-No disrespect to any of our remaining non-conference opponents, but we should enter non-conference play no worse than 10-2, with Marquette being the team that can beat us. That would put us on solid footing for an NCAA berth, at 9-9 with wins over Arizona, Maryland and Duke out of conference.

Our early Big Ten schedule is brutal, though, with Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue in the first four. The latter half of our conference schedule is the easier half, so hopefully we can hang in there and not suffer a conference of confidence in January.

But all that is still a month off. Let's keep enjoying last night.

Brian Butch: Tweeter ... or Twitterer ... or whatever

This morning I got the coolest email: "Brian Butch is now following your Tweets on Twitter." Thanks Brian, I'll try to be interesting!

Full disclosure: Last night I read on UWBadgers.com that Butch was Tweeting ... or Twittering ... or whatever we're calling it. So I found him and began following. Following Twitter protocol, Brian returned the favor overnight.

Seems that Butch is playing in Greece for a team called Ilysiakos Athens. Following him will be easier with Twitter, looking forward to keeping close tabs.

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.

Deutscheland

The Badgers' recent play has me so distraught, I left the country.

Actually, my travel plans were made months ago, but it doesn't disappoint me in the least that I'm going to miss probably losses against Illinois and Penn State. I should be home and my body clock almost adjusted by the Iowa game, but by that time our NCAA Tournament hopes might be shot.

I'll be in Germany at the World Money Fair for the second straight year. We have a full schedule set for Berlin, and will be meeting with representatives from mints around the world.

When I heard that Brian Butch and Michael Flowers were playing professionally in Germany, I did a search to see if it would be possible to catch them in action, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

So Badgercentric will be partially shut down for the next week. Hopefully when we start it up again in earnest things will be looking up. They can't get much worse than they are now ... right?

What's wrong with these guys?

Gotta be honest with you: my enthusiasm for blogging about the Badgers is as low as it's been for quite some time. Football season was a major drain, but at least we had basketball season to look forward to. There's plenty of time to turn things around, but basketball is looking a lot like football.

But why? Lots of theories abound, here are mine:

-Lack of swagger/enthusiasm. Alando Tucker and Kam Taylor played with supreme confidence. Brian Butch and Michael Flowers were energetic, emotional players, especially Butch. Those things are missing right now.

Trevon Hughes plays with a swagger, but it's been missing the past three games, to the point where his place on the bench in the waning moments of regulation and overtime didn't seem that strange in retrospect. Marcus Landry shows emotion after really big shots, but it doesn't seem to be an emotion that spreads.

The rest of the key players -- Krabby, J-Bo, Leuer -- are about as even-keeled as they come. Ordinarily, that's the type of player I prefer. But during tough times like we're going through now, you need a spark and reassurance, and one of those five guys has to get it started.

-This may sound dumb, and may indeed be dumb, but I think Landry, Leuer, and Bohannon need to force more shots. Think about all the bad shots Butch and Tucker took. They were forced, but they forced defenses to be on their toes at all times.

This year's team seems to only take really good shots, Hughes excepted. That's all well and good when you're playing Coppin State and you get good shots relatively early in the shot clock. Against the excellent defenses of the Big Ten, those clean looks don't come with regularity.

So what you get is 30 seconds of "probing" that doesn't really test the defense at all, and Hughes is left to jack something up. Landry, Leuer, and Bohannon are all skilled shotmakers who should exert their skills outside of the parameters of the Swing, as Butch, Taylor, and Tucker did before them.

-We're missing Butch's and Stiemsma's height. This surprises me, since I thought we'd be able to get through the Big Ten season without this being a liability, given the seeming paucity of quality bigs.

Case in point: Last night someone named David Palmer scores 21 points and grabs seven rebounds against very little resistance inside. Two games ago JaJuan Johnson had his way inside with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

What can remedy this? Faster maturity from Keaton Nankivil? Force feed Ian Markolf minutes? Probably not the answer.

For all of Landry's and Leuer's skills, they are not able to carry the low-post defensive load without a bigger body alongside them.

-And all those turnovers. Oh, god, those turnovers make you sick.

The way I see it, the talent level is comparable to the team that won 31 games last year, and the coaching is presumably exactly the same. But you've got a little less maturity and personality, a little less height, a little tougher conference, and a point guard going through a midseason crisis -- add it all up and you've got a three-game losing streak.

Unfortunately, the schedule doesn't hold what appear to be any gimmes anytime soon. This year will be a great test for the program and its viability going forward. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

Big Ten hoops preview

In all the teeth-gnashing surrounding the football team over these last few days, I almost forgot that basketball season was starting. Wednesday we play Michigan in our Big Ten opener, a game I had penciled in as a win when the schedule came out but now see going the other way.

Because in general, Big Ten teams have outperformed expectations in non-conference play, with Michigan being the best example, beating UCLA and Duke. But Minnesota, Illinois, and Ohio State have also played better than I figured. Purdue and Michigan State, the odds-on favorites, have struggled at times against better competition, but are looking fine heading into the conference season.

The Badgers, on the other hand, have a good win at Virginia Tech, three acceptable losses to ranked teams, two tight wins over marginal teams, and a bunch of yawners to show for their pre-conference work. All this suggests a finish of somewhere between fourth and sixth in the conference. Something is missing from this team, although it's not always clear what. Flowers' on-ball defense? Butch's steady rebounding? Stiemsma's shot blocking? Tanner's play with the scout team?

I'm not that worried, though, as Bo's teams, with the exception of the 2006 squad, have typically improved over the course of the conference season, and this team should be no exception. Leuer is getting better all the time, Taylor and Wilson are gaining maturity, and Nankivil will prove he deserves more playing time. If Landry asserts himself and plays like the all-conference player he's projected to be, and Bohannon makes somewhere around 35% of his 3-pointers, we'll be just fine.

Anyway, here's how I see the Big Ten shaking out.

1. Michigan State

2. Purdue

3. Michigan. This prediction could be way off, but it just seems like Beilein has these guys playing the right way.

4. Wisconsin.

5. Ohio State. Don't think they have the point guard play to beat the top teams in the conference consistently.

6. Minnesota. But a solid sixth, a tournament-worthy sixth.

7. Illinois. But much-improved over last year's debacle of a team.

8. Northwestern. I'm not convinced we'll win in Evanston.

9. Penn State.

10. Iowa.

11. Indiana. Lipscomb? Yeesh. The natural inclination is to say they'll upset one of the top Big Ten teams this season, but they're so bad I don't see it happening.

UW-Texas thoughts ... sigh

That was disappointing. We played a great team even for 39 minutes and let it slip away. But that one wasn't lost because Gary Johnson banked in a 20-footer (and then pounded his chest for 10 seconds afterward rather than laughing at his good fortune). The game was lost:

-In the opening minutes of the game, when our offense looked like a JV team scrimmaging the varsity. So many bad turnovers, they were embarrassing. At least we righted the ship for the most part after that, but we gave up some easy points early, and those count just as much as the ones scored in the last minute.

-When we missed critical opportunities to extend our lead by missing free throws. Hughes, Gullikson, and Jarmusz all had trips to the line where they missed both, and Texas responded with scores immediately each time.

-Texas out-hustled us. Some of that is better athleticism, but some of it is desire, and that stings. We got out-rebounded 38-22. Thirty-eight to twenty-two! Inexcusable.

Also ...

-Would have been nice if Marcus Landry would have showed up tonight. He struggled to get shots early, but also struggled on defense and with boxing out, putting himself in position to pick up cheap fouls. We need more from him in big games.

-Hughes played well overall. Offensively, he was assertive and kept us in it early. Defensively, even though Abrams got 21 points and made some unbelievable shots, he needed 21 shots to do it.

-Sign of the times from Dick Vitale: "We've gotta get the economy going, get 'em jobs baby!"

-J-Bo played an appropriate game, staying within himself, not making too many bad passes, hitting four 3-pointers.

-Krabby, Leuer, and Nankivil had OK games. Overall, our guys showed some nice moves in the post, especially the dribble down, fake to the lane, then shoot a short bank shot. I thought Nankivil should have played more -- again. His logical matchups were with Atchley and Pittman, who had foul trouble, but play him anyway, make them adapt to him. He was the only one I had confidence in to pull down a tough rebound.

-Good to see Mike Flowers and Brian Butch in the house. Sounds like they'll be playing this winter in Germany. Maybe I'll catch them in a game if they're playing in Berlin while I'm there in February.

-Speaking of Flowers, I suppose tonight's game puts an end to the seemingly endless replays of our win in Austin last year. I'm a Badger fan, and even I'm sick of seeing it, can only imagine how Texas fans feel.

-Another banner game for Ed Hightower, eh? He flat-out blew two baseline calls on Leuer and Damion James, both made nice saves right in front of Eddie and he ruled them out of bounds. Why again is this guy not reffing West Bend City League games and instead of the Big Ten?

-What was Pop thinking on that last real possession? Down three with 20 seconds left, he drives into no man's land and takes a terrible two-pointer that gets swatted. That was wrong in so many ways.

-Dogus Balbay had five rebounds for Texas, more than anyone on the Badgers. That's right, Dogus Balbay, a 6-foot guard from Turkey whose previous season high for rebounds was two. He also apparently had a big steal to give Texas the lead for good, but ESPN was busy showing highlights of Abrams missing jumpers.

-Even in a loss, these types of games are always interesting because they provide a peak at what certain Badgers might play like if they weren't in Bo's system, and had the chance to play at a faster pace all the time.

Take Hughes, for example. He looked right at home taking a 3-pointer early in the shot clock, playing a step quicker than usual. Nankivil looked comfortable playing faster. I thought Rob Wilson would have fared well in tonight's matchup, but he didn't get many minutes. Leuer looked comfortable taking the ball to the rack when overplayed.

Conversely, the game seemed to moving a step fast for Landry, Krabby at times, Jordan Taylor.

When the schedule came out, I looked at the non-conference part of the schedule and figured 9-3 at worst, 10-2 at best. So overall this isn't too disappointing.

But the Big Ten is looking better and better all the time -- we're one of the only teams left without a signature win, unless you count Virginia Tech -- so my lofty predictions of 25 or 26 wins is looking less and less likely.

Happy holidays!

Jared

The other day I was reading an update on Jared Berggren, who has not officially announced intentions to redshirt this year, although it certainly seems to be trending that way.

Earlier this year I made a post detailing the history of basketball redshirts under Bo. Although it seems like a bunch of guys have redshirted, it's really only been four: Brian Butch, J.P. Gavinski, Mickey Perry, and DeAaron Williams. Not counting on Gavinski yet, that's a 25% hit ratio, with Butch being the only true success story out of that group.

But that's exactly why I think it would make sense for Berggren to redshirt. He's built like Butch. He faces a logjam of veteran talent ahead of him as a true freshman, like Butch. Hell, he even looks like Butch -- check out that picture of him running up The Hill.

I'm willing to bet that if he trades the 40 or 50 minutes of garbage time he might get this year (minutes that become more and more rare in conference play) for 25-30 minutes a game as a fifth-year senior, it will be best for everyone involved, just like it was for Butch.

To that end, I also like Ryan Evans' decision to redshirt, and think it would have been wise of Ian Markolf to do the same. But who knows? Maybe Ian is planning on graduating in four years and moving on to post-basketball life, so a redshirt doesn't make sense.

Big Ten Tournament title game thoughts

The Big Ten Network has been showing the Big Ten Tournament finale against Illinois this week, so I took the time to watch it on television for the first time. It was good to see things from a different angle than we watched it in Indianapolis, and to make some observations after the grind of the long season is over.

-Too bad we couldn't have gotten Stiemsma more of those 16-foot jumpers over his career, he was really good at those.

-Too bad Flowers didn't shoot 3-pointers more before his senior season, he had a really nice storke. He made one at a key point in the first half where he caught a pass, elevated over a solid close-out and was dead-on. In a different program, he could have been a 15 ppg guy.

-Jarmusz's play at the end of the year was really encouraging. Had this year's team not been so experienced, he might have seen as much playing time as J-Bo did as a freshman. He might be a real positive for the team next year.

-On certain days, the Badgers were a very good 3-point shooting team, maybe the best all-aroudn in recent memory. Five different guys hit threes in that game, and the Badgers were 9-of-18 overall.

-I'm worried about Pop's tendency to suffer seemingly minor injuries that disrupt the flow of his game. Then again, the injuries forced him to slow down and play under control more. He's really capable of some special things offensively.

-Illinois was just gassed by the time they played us. Just saw a play where Trent Meacham came off a pick in position to shoot, with a little room, and couldn't squeeze it off.

-Krabby set a hellacious pick on Chester Frazier, really knocked him down. He's so good at those little things. Frazier, to his credit, bounced up and got back to play defense, I really like that kid.

-Billy Packer said Jeff Jordan had scholarship offers to play at Davidson and Valparaiso. He should have taken one of them.

-J.P. Gavinski runs pretty well for a big guy.

-Why call timeout to get Gullikson in there for five seconds at the end of the game?

-Ed Hightower ... sigh. There's a play where Brian Randle trips over his own feet and bowls over Butch, and Eddie calls a foul on Brian. Hightower is just the worst.

-I was damn happy to be there.

Jason Bohannon

Every year in college hoops, you look at your favorite team, look at who's not on the team anymore, and wonder who is going to make up for all the points that just graduated. If you've got a strong program, it takes care of itself. Bo's done it after losing Kirk Penney, Devin Harris, Alando Tucker -- he'll figure out how to replace Brian Butch and Michael Flowers.

Who sees his scoring average jump the most in 2009? My bet is it's Jason Bohannon. Which isn't a total upset pick by any means, but you have to wonder: If he's such a sure thing, why didn't he average more than 8.2 points per game?

Two words: Opportunity and consistency. I think Jason has the arsenal of offensive moves and shots to get the job done. He's a good 3-point shooter, but he also makes good cuts to get himself open for layups and has a nice runner/floater. He's also our best bet for closing out games at the free throw line. And while at the beginning of last season many of us were fretting about his ability to create his own shots, that no longer worries me.

The opportunity for more shots will be there. Butch and Flowers took almost 18 field goal attempts between them, and I see Landry and J-Bo assuming the lion's share of those. Of course, this also means he'll be facing the other team's best perimeter defender. The nice thing is, the Swing makes it harder for teams to focus on a certain guy, like we did with, say, Drew Neitzel.

Consistency is the big thing. J-Bo scored in double figures 13 times in 36 games last season. He also scored five or fewer points 11 times. The nice thing is, he finished strong: eight of his double-digit games came in the Badgers' last 14, and most of his clunkers came in the early non-conference schedule, when it was speculated he was battling an injury.

The key number to me is 69. Sixty-nine percent of J-Bo's field goal attempts last season were 3-pointers. If he can bring that number closer to 50% by working more off the ball and maybe developing a post-up move or two, he'll be much more effective.

Lots of things worry me: gas prices, the Brewers' bullpen, whether Jim will ever propose to Pam on The Office. Jason Bohannon? Not worried about him.

Marcus Landry

I've been watching a lot of NBA playoffs lately -- cue the boo birds -- and have gotten to thinking: is there any player on the Badgers' 2008-09 roster that is capable of playing in the NBA?

From what I've seen, probably not. Trevon Hughes has some of the required attributes, but guys his size usually need to be a lot quicker or much better shooters to make the league. J-Bo's a great shooter, but sometimes has troubles getting his shot off against college defenders. Jon Leuer is a darkhorse, a big guy who can shoot; hell, Steve Novak is still playing professionally stateside, so why not?

Actually, it's one of Novak's Rockets teammates, Carl Landry, who piques my interest. Carl was a helluva college player -- powerful, good mid-range jumper, workmanlike. Thought he was an inch or two too short to make it in the NBA. Was wrong. He played a key role on one of the league's most overachieving teams this year. Good for him.

So what about his younger brother? The buzz on Marcus coming in was that while he was not as strong as Carl, he was more advanced skill-wise than his older brother at age 18. Carl was an instant success at Purdue, but that was after two years of junior college ball.

Marcus has become a fine college player, but has he reached Carl's level? It would be a reach to say yes. There have been times when he has seemed on the verge of becoming a dominant player, then fades back into being just another guy spreading the wealth in the Swing offense. Granted, Carl's Purdue teams were not nearly as good as Marcus's Badger teams; Carl never had an Alando Tucker or Kammron Taylor go-to guy on his roster.

As a freshman, Marcus was ready to contribute, and was getting about 15 minutes of playing time per game until sitting out the second semester with academic troubles. His absence hurt more than Stiemsma's, in my opinion, and was a major reason for what was really the only mediocre season in Bo Ryan's time in Madison.

As a sophomore, Landry apprenticed under Tucker, and while he averaged just 5.9 points per game, he shot over 50% from the field. Comparisons to Alando probably held him back at the beginning of his junior season -- Marcus was slotted to play the 3 and become the team's go-to scorer. But in reality, Landry, like his brother, is more of a 4, and his personality is not comparable to Tucker's. He played much better when Stiemsma was taken out of the starting lineup and he returned to the 4 spot. His scoring average increased by about 5 points per game, but his field goal shooting percentage went down about 5 points.

So what can we expect from Marcus Landry as a senior? Without Brian Butch around, he becomes to unquestioned first option in the post. The more I think about it the more I think that Landry is more like Butch on the court than he is like his brother. So here's a projected stat line for Landry in '08-'09: 13.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.1 blocks per game. About 45% shooting from the field, a willing 3-point shooter. Guards the other team's top big man. First team All-Big Ten.

Will Marcus Landry reach the NBA? Probably not. But if he hits those projections, and the Badgers contend for a title in what is looking like a weaker-than-ever Big Ten, then his career will have to be considered an overwhelming success, no matter how his resume compares to Carl's.

And by the way: if you're not watching the NBA playoffs, you're missing Chris Paul's coming out party. The guy is amazing. Deron Williams is pretty awesome, too.

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.

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.

UW-Davidson thoughts

Boy, am I glad I didn't drag my family to Detroit for that craptastic display of basketball. Before getting into the pity party full swing, let's get the two disclaimers out of the way.

Davidson played very well, deserved to win. They are a legit team. Still think Kansas will beat them, but it's not as sure a thing as I would have thought three hours ago.

This Badger team far exceeded my wildest expectations. Terrific season, guys. In the coming days I will reflect in greater detail.

To lighten the mood, here's a picture of Erin Andrews holding a bag of fish. Courtesy of UWBadgers.com.

OK, then. Let's get to the gruesome details.

-That was embarrassing.

Two days ago Millie commented:

"I've watched this team play far too many games to think that they're going to have their first 'bad' game since the Duke debacle now."

Frank commented:

"Given the fact that they haven't had a truly bad loss all season ..."

And I whole-heartedly agreed. Well, there it is, a truly bad loss. Again, Davidson played well, but we've beaten better squads than that this year. I saw a lot of bad firsts out of the Badgers:

-First time I remember two turnovers in the backcourt that were not press-related. They came on lazy lapses in concentration after rebounds.

-First time I remember the Badgers allowing a transition basket after made baskets - twice! Davidson is quick, but I'd wager Texas and Michigan State are quicker.

-First time I've seen a Badger opponent in the bonus with 15:24 left in a half. That's lazy, play-with-your-hands defense.

-First time I've seen a Badger team take two timeouts in one offensive possession, in the first half.

-First time I've seen the Badgers attempt more 3-pointers than 2-pointers. Could be wrong, but it seems like an anomaly.

Sure was a bad time for all that to hit at once. Let's review my game keys.

-Stephen Curry's going to get his points, but we have to make him work for them and beat him up in the process. The job falls on everyone, not just Flowers. Flowers was on an island out there and did the best he could. Curry got his, but he still needed 22 shots to do it. The failure with Curry was not exploiting him more on defense.

-Turn Richards into a shooter and cut off his feeds to their bigs - Sander, Meno, and Lovedale. Richards made a couple ridiculous shots, but he was 4-of-13 overall, so pretty good there. But he had close to 10 assists, and Lovedale had 12, including a couple spirit-crushing dunks.

-Pound the ball inside to Butch, Landry, and Stiemsma. Landry had just four field goal attempts, Stiemsma three, and Butch nine - six of them 3-pointers. UW took 23 3-pointers and 22 2-pointers, and missed eight free throws.

In retrospect, Davidson outplayed Wisconsin in the first half, but all our made 3-pointers obscured that fact.

-I don't think Hughes' injury was a deciding factor in this game, nor was fatigue. In the NCAA Tournament TV timeouts are about 10 minutes long, so the kids get plenty of rest.

-Text message from Burch at 7:02 p.m.: "pound the f'in ball inside!"

-Text message from Burch at 7:24 p.m.: "i feel like this is cabrini-holy angels." I think in his mind Davidson was playing like my mighty St. Frances Cabrini Warriors, Wisconsin like the downtrodden little guys from Holy Angels. A brief good memory to offset the pain.

-The United Colors of Davidson, with their geographically diverse roster, whipped our fannies. I've been trying to work up some of my patented post-loss bitterness, and all I can come up with is this: Davidson is being treated like the ultimate feel-good story, but basically it's an elitist school for children of privilege. A lot was made of the college (smaller than West Bend East and West combined) paying for any student who wanted to get to the game. Great, but what pays for that? Their $41,000-per-year tuition! How about funding some scholarships for some underprivileged kids?

Yeah, it's weak and a reach, that's all I have ...

-And now the "Even Lebron James wanted Davidson to win" storyline will probably get some legs, it made the first-draft Associated Press gamer.

-Len Elmore is one of my favorite basketball analysts, he does a great job in a low-key manner. Gus Johnson is good, just wish tonight he wasn't calling Cinderella beating my team.

-Silver lining: one more game of balanced scoring, with four guys between 10 and 12 points. Davidson really did play good defense.

I understand that Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" was Davidson's theme song for the tournament, and heard it playing coming out of the last TV timeout. Interesting, that ties back to another painful loss in my fan history. After Super Bowl XXXII, in which the Packers lost to the inferior Broncos, we went at it hard, prompting a later-arriving Will to say, "Did I see the wrong score?"

That night I fell asleep/passed out on the floor with my hand on the CD player belonging to the boys on Bowen Court, repeating "Sweet Caroline" to Toohey's dismay. Currently, I'm on my fourth Leinie's Sunset Wheat, but promise you it will not be anything like downing Todd White's homemade apple cider schnapps made out of Everclear and, I think, an apple Jolly Rancher.

It took me a long time to get over that loss, both physically and emotionally. In fact, it was probably the loss that convinced me not to put anything and everything on the line for a sporting event. So this loss won't be that bad. I'm too proud of these kids for all they accomplished this season, and for all the joy they brought basketball fans in Wisconsin.

Tomorrow Jana and I will go car shopping in preparation for #2's arrival (anyone have any insights on SUV vs. minivan, specifically Honda Pilot vs. Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey?), and we'll spend a Will-free night of dining, movies, and relaxation at the Paper Valley Inn in Appleton.

But we'd planned on making it home for the Badger game Sunday. Now we don't have to. Bummer.

Coaches need a timeout - metaphorically - and Davidson thoughts

Just got done watching the Xavier-West Virginia game, a fairly exciting game. I really like that Joe Alexander kid for WVU, he's a stud, but Xavier's balance is impressive. The kid who hit the big 3-pointers for Xavier, B.J. Raymond, played his high school ball for Toledo St. John's, one of the top programs in Ohio, which played Fremont Ross my two two years there, one a blowout and one an overtime thriller.

My only complaint about the game is the endgame, which took about an hour because of timeouts. Timeouts absolutely kill the excitement of basketball games - it calms the crowd down and gives everything such a scripted feel. I'd like to see college coaches get one or two less timeout per game, take some control away from them and give it back to their kids. (In case you were wondering, Schwalbach, when I saw this photo I thought of you and busted out laughing.)

In the other game that we in Wisconsin were mercifully spared from watching Carolina beat Washington State in what might be Tony Bennett's last game at Wazzou. Carolina's inevitable march to the Final Four is utterly joyless and has all the excitement of a trip to the grocery store, no suspense whatsoever. I'm planning a longer rant in the event that they win it all, but the Tar Heels' success sickens me.

Onto our game. Granted, haven't watched a ton of Davidson games, but here's what I'm thinking are the keys to this game:

-Stephen Curry's going to get his points, but we have to make him work for them and beat him up in the process. The job falls on everyone, not just Flowers. Especially important are the bigs. Usually their role in perimeter defense is limited to hedging on ball screens, which I think our bigs are so-so at. In this game it will be important for them to hedge on Curry peeling around off-the-ball screens so he either doesn't get the pass or is forced to catch several feet beyond his desired spot. Several highlights have shown our job against Neitzel in Madison, that was textbook. A similar effort is needed tomorrow.

Russell Westbrook and UCLA did a nice job on Curry in their game earlier this season, holding him to 15 points on 6-of-19 shooting. I think Flowers can be that guy.

-You look at Jason Richards' numbers and the first thing that comes to mind is "college Steve Nash." Those assist numbers are really good for a college team that plays pretty conventional offense. But I remember a strategy a year or two ago, when the Suns were really humming, when teams chose not to help on Nash's penetration, sticking on his passing options, in effect forcing him to shoot. And he's a great shooter and scored a bunch of points. The thing is, he's not the shooter Nash is - 42% from the field, 32% on 3-pointers. Turn Richards into a shooter and cut off his feeds to their bigs - Sander, Meno, and Lovedale.

-Pound the ball inside to Butch, Landry, and Stiemsma. Duh, right? But it's important not to think we can replicate the outside shooting seen against Kansas State - that would be great, but I'd rather go to our horses down low. Plus, I think they've got some pretty good perimeter defenders, especially that kid from Canada with the '80s haircut (Gosselin).

-Davidson was down double-digits against both Gonzaga and Georgetown and came back. The Badgers are pretty good at holding leads of that size, as seen during the first two games, but I'm still begging for that early knockout blow that takes away the opponent's will.

-I don't think anyone's taking Davidson lightly. They fit the Cinderella bill, but given their resume this year - close losses to Carolina, Duke, UCLA, N.C. State, the wins over Gonzaga and Georgetown - they might as well be the third-place ACC finisher. This isn't an underdog, this is a damn good team that would have contended in the Big Ten this year.

As Frank commented, I really just want this one, and it's going to be a bitch to get it.

Wisconsin-Kansas State thoughts ... Sweet

Terrific win for the Badgers, as close to a perfect second half as we could play. As the minutes wound down, I started thinking big picture about what this win over an upstart like Kansas State, with the kind of players it has, means.

It's validation in Bo's way of doing things: defense, control, steadiness. It's validation in the strength of building your program on veteran players who stick around for four or five years rather than one-and-doners who arrive on campus with one foot in the NBA draft. It's validation of an offensive philosophy that stresses balance rather than dominance. Last year, losing the Big Ten to Ohio State in spite of our tremendous team shook my confidence in this method. Now I'm back feeling good about it again.

It adds up to 31 wins and counting, and a chance to play into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time this decade. Just try to wipe this smile off my face.

Game and second half thoughts:

-Good time for Pop and Stiemsma to have career games. Pop for the most part played under control, his charge notwithstanding, and showed K-State's youngsters how to make a shot. Stiemsma was around the ball and active all the time. Man, I wish he would have redshirted as a freshman, I'd be feeling a lot better about our chances next year.

-Landry gets two points - with zero field goal attemps! - and we win by 17? Wow. His third foul was careless.

-I was dead wrong that Krabby on Beasley and Flowers on Walker would get us beat. Beasley didn't do much in the second half, primarily against Krabby while the game was still in the balance. The announcers speculated it might have been his ankle. It was probably some of that, and probably some of us adjusting the defense to take away his drives.

Flowers battled Walker hard, that was a tough assignment. Walker was pushing a lot before the refs stepped in, but he's an athletic freak whose game is more fitted to the NBA game than the college game right now.

-Speaking of Walker, I thought the refs did a nice job of gaining control of the game when it was teetering on getting out of hand. The double technical on Walker and Butch was the right call, and they called some other ensuing chippy acts, and things settled down. K-State was upset about some of the fouls being called, but you know what? They were using their hands on defense - a lot. We don't, much. That's why we see the foul disparities most of the time, not some far-reaching officiating conspiracy funded by Andy North's golf winnings and orchestrated by the devious Bo Ryan.

-I love legal bone crushing picks, like Landry's on Pullen. There were a couple vicious ones in the West Virginia-Duke game. Shame on the on-ball defender's teammates for not calling it out.

-Think I heard that we play Friday, which is nice - an extra day to rest Pop's and Bohannon's ankles. Five full days off is golden this time of year, especially with a physical battle with Georgetown looming.

-One thing I like about winning this game so early on Saturday is our win will be scrolling across he bottom of the screen for the final 14 games, reminding people that we're still playing.

-Think I read in Brian Lucas's newsletter that we are one of only three Big Ten programs to win at least 30 games in back to back seasons, along with Indiana and Michigan State. Nice.

-A final thought before coloring Easter eggs: this team can still play better. Imagine an effort in which the guards are hitting their shots and locking down their guys; Butch and Landry are scoring inside; we are locking down the defensive boards; Stiemsma and J-Bo are doing their thing off the bench; and we're making 75% of our free throws. I would argue that of all the things the Badgers are capable of doing very well, in most wins we see only about 75% of them. We're going to need 100% efforts to beat Georgetown and Kansas.