Senior starters

Thought I'd take a look at the converse of the Badgers' reluctance to start freshmen -- what is the frequency of senior starters? While UW has had 11 freshmen who were primary starters in the last 26 years, it has had 49 senior starters, according to the team's record book. That's an average of 1.8 a year.

2008 2
2007 3
2006 1
2005 4
2004 2
2003 2
2002 2
2001 4
2000 1
1999 2
1998 2
1997 1
1996 1
1995 3
1994 1
1993 1
1992 1
1991 4
1990 1
1989 2
1988 0
1987 3
1986 2
1985 2
1984 0
1983 0
1982 2

You can't read as much into this as you can into the lack of freshman starters. The only real correlation I see comes in Bo's years: 2006, in which Ray Nixon was the only senior starter, was the Badgers' worst year under Bo (it's all relative, of course: 19 wins and a trip to the NCAA Tournament). Also, the 2005 team, with four senior starters, overachieved in the Big Dance, advancing to the Elite Eight before losing to eventual champ North Carolina.

The 2002, 2003, and 2008 Big Ten championship teams all had just two senior starters. The 2000 team that went to the Final Four had just one, Jon Bryant; that same roster, the next year as seniors, was bounced in the first round by Georgia State. And the 1995 team, with three senior starters, was the most underachieving team in recent memory - no team with Michael Finley and Rashard Griffith should have a losing record.

Experience and leadership are important, but it doesn't necessarily have to come from seniors.

Badgers basketball coaching tree, part 2

Thanks to Hazaert, anonymous, and ajs for their input, which I'm going to break out here into a new post:

-Sharif Chambliss, a student-athlete mentor/tutor for Rob Jeter at UWM who sits on the bench during games. In the UWM athletic department directory, he's listed compliance/athletic assistance. (Thanks to Andy for pointing out my earlier mistake.) Also on Jeter's staff is Duffy Conroy, who was video coordinator and director of basketball operations for Bo in Madison.

-Brian Good, who Hill and I used to joke about being the best free throw shooter in the country a long time ago, is the head coach at Queens University in Charlotte.

-Brian Vraney, a walk-on hero in our first couple years in Madison, is the head coach at Beloit. He previously coached in the Midwest Conference (Vershaw's conference) at Ripon and Lake Forest.

-Chris Conger, the subject of a Chris Earl story in J206 for Steve Lorenzo, coaches at Lake Forest, where he is the winningest coach in the program's history.

-Jon Bryant ("I'm Jon Bryant") runs a basketball school in Minnesota called Triple Threat Academy. I found this mugshot on a site called www.eurobasket.com.

-Freddie Owens is an assistant coach at Adams State College, a Division II program in Alamosa, Colo., and is apparently aiming to recruit Milwaukee hard. Found this mug on a website called www.sportsmanagementworldwide.com, also found Chambliss there.

Good stuff here, it's fun tracking these guys down.