A word on hockey

Good news on the hockey front: the Badgers went undefeated in their weekend series against Minnesota. The kicker: Minnesota isn't very good right now, at least not as good as they've been since I've been paying attention.

Both Todd Milewski and Andy Baggot did a good job in their Saturday gamers describing why these teams have fallen off a bit from their pace at the beginning of the century. The reason: the NHL's collective bargaining agreement has made it more logical for teams to sign their draftees, which keeps them out of the college game.

I'm not an expert on these things, but off the top of my head I can think of these guys who have left Madison prematurely in the last couple years: Robbie Earl, Joe Pavelski, Jack Skille. The Gophers have been hit just as hard, if not harder. It's even money that Kyle Turris, who Wayne Gretzky made the #3 pick in the last NHL draft for Phoenix, will leave after this season.

So why is this hitting the Badgers and Gophers harder than, say Colorado College, Denver, or North Dakota? I can't say for sure, but it's probably a parallel to college basketball programs that recruit Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, and Michael Beasley types - you hope to get one great, transcendental year out of them a la Carmelo Anthony. Meanwhile, programs recruiting three- and four-year guys are just consistently solid, like Badger basketball.

It seems that the Badgers, for all their struggles this season, are still in good shape to make the tournament, where anything can happen. Here's hoping Turris gets to raise a championship banner in Madison before putting on a Coyotes jersey for good.

Minnesota tickets! and other Monday Badger thoughts

Got the email from Toohey today that we've got tickets to the UW-Minnesota game, the last of its sort at the Humpty Dome. Very excited about heading to the Twin Cities in a month to hang out with the More Points crowd for one more game this season ... unless we reconvened in Tempe in late December, a possibility Jimmy raised in a comment yesterday.

Tim's email said the tickets cost $64, which is fine, will gladly pay it. But, unless these are really good seats - and I can't imagine the U giving Badger fans really good seats - it seems high. When Andy and I went to the opener against Washington State, we had seats on about the north goal line, about 40 rows up, and they were $39. Decent seats, decent price.

But $64 for a University of Minnesota football ticket? My high school economics teacher wasn't that great, but he taught us enough about supply and demand for me to know that when a school puts a mediocre product on the field for 40 years and plays in front of half-empty stadiums, a $64 price tag is high. Guess paying off Clem Haskins' old tutors isn't cheap.

-On the ride home from work tonight the local radio news reader, paraphrasing Bielema's presser today, said the coach believes the team lost the 1-0 focus these last couple weeks. And I threw up in my mouth.

-Reading the quotes from the press conference, I see Chris Maragos was the scout team MVP for the second time this season, and BB expects big things from him in the future. We might be in bigger trouble than I thought.

-Someone, I think Will, made the comment earlier that those of us in Vegas knew there was something wrong with this team and that it probably wasn't a title contender. I will be honest and admit that I didn't feel that way at the time - fully expected them to return home, throttle The Citadel for 60 minutes, roll through the first three Big Ten games, then battle Penn State. Must have been those cardinal-colored shades I picked up before the flight.

-As much as I realize the passing game needs Jefferson and Gilreath to continue getting acclimated with Donovan, what I would really like to see is for the Badgers to run the ball about 60 times for 400 yards, with Brown and Smith splitting the second half. That's what I thought going into the Citadel game, too, and that game didn't go so well, although we did run the ball as well as we should have. I also remember five years ago, watching UW play Northern Illinois with my dad at my aunt Karen's house, and watching Bollinger get sacked 10 times, so you just can't take anything for granted.

-Jim's story today touches on whether or not a bye week would be good for the Badgers this week. I think it's a good thing they're playing so they don't stew over the Penn State game. In another season, I might think a bye is perfect here in week eight. Something you just can't tell until a season starts going.

-Kyle Turris is off to a great start for the Badger hockey team, two goals and four points in two games. You'll be hearing his name a lot, even if you're a casual fan, especially our friends in Phoenix (Coyotes draft pick).

-For Andy: Diamond Taylor was at Night of the Grateful Red, per Schultz in the Cap Times. He's spending a lot of time in Madison. We have to get this guy, can't think of a better name in Badgers hoops history.