Badgers-Gophers: A '97 classic

March 8, 1997 is a special day for me. It was the day the Badger basketball team beat Minnesota at the Fieldhouse in a dramatic game to clinch a birth in the NCAA tournament. It preceded a great pull-out section we put together for the Cardinal, and propelled a few of us to a memorable trip to Pittsburgh.

And the Notorious B.I.G. was killed that night.

The Big Ten Network brought me back to that day by replaying that game, won 66-65 by Wisconsin, on its recent Wisconsin day. Watched it last night, and here are some thoughts:

-Starting lineup for Wisconsin: Ty Calderwood, David Burkemper, Sam Okey, Sean Daughtery, Paul Grant. That's a big lineup, like ours this year before Flowers was reinserted into the lineup, probably too big and slow to win big.

-Daugherty would have been a good fit in the Swing offense. His game was similar to Butch's, but he was smoother and Butch was more assertive.

-Grant was somewhat clumsy at times, but really athletic and pretty jacked. Not too hard to see why the NBA made him a first rounder. Just checked, and he played 111 minutes in his NBA career, and interestingly had five years between stints with the Bucks and the Jazz.

-Burkemper was rocking some Hasselhoffian chest hair.

-Minnesota had a really good team, so deep and balanced. Courtney James was a stud. Sam Jacobson was an awesome athlete. Quincy Lewis was just flashing what he would become. That doesn't even mention Bobby Jackson, the best of the bunch.

-All that said, looking at Clem Haskins makes my blood boil. He and the athletic department that enabled him got what they deserved.

-Calderwood's shot wasn't pretty, but it was courageous. That kid was just a winner, flat-out. You could see his importance to our program in how the team did the next year when he was injured - the last losing season we've had.

-Did you know Mike Kosolcharoen's dad was an Olympic swimmer for Thailand? Ahh, Special K. My memory's fuzzy, but didn't we do a point-counterpoint in the Cardinal debating whether he should be starting (when he was), with Gitter taking the point that he shouldn't be? And didn't Mike call Gitter up to share his opinion?

-Man, did the Fieldhouse get loud. Always thought the move to the shiny new Kohl Center would mean a diminished home court advantage. Good call.

-The Badgers played great defense in that game, but it looked different than the great defense we play now. It was much more frenetic and scrambling than our current scheme, and probably more than Bennett's usually was. Minnesota was the first and only opponent to score 60 points in the Fieldhouse that year, that's impressive.

-I really like that on the Badgers' last offensive possession, which ended with Calderwood getting fouled, Bennett didn't call timeout. Trust your kids, let them play.

-Okey, Okey, Okey ... what could have been. I wonder how he would have fit in under Bo, or Stu Jackson for that matter.

There were times when I'd go "Huh" or "nice shot" and Jana would say "I thought you were at this game." True, but I didn't remember every last bounce of the ball. I remembered the winning free throws and steal, but that's about it. That's what's great about this series on the BTN, and why I can't wait to watch the other games.

Alumni basketball game

On his short radio segment tonight following our local news, Bo was talking to LePay about the alumni basketball game, which was played Saturday before the UW-Purdue game. They talked for a while in generalities about how special it is, the great guys, yadda yadda yadda.

In Brian Lucas's courtside blog for the actual game I found this mention of the alumni game:

Tonight's honorary captain is Charlie Wills. He was part of the alumni game that took place earlier today. Sean Mason led all scorers with 19 points to lead the Red team to victory. Dave Mader paced the White team with 16 points.

Not surprising that Mason could still fill it up. That wasn't a bad two-person class - Mason and Sean Dougherty - was it?

Earlier in the week Lucas's daily email mentioned other notables:

... rumored to be in attendance include Clayton Hanson, Dave Mader, David Burkemper, Sean Mason and Charlies Wills ...

What was Burkemper, the ref? Lord knows he's got the whistle.

The game got me thinking about what my dream UW alumni game would be - with guys playing in the shape I'm guessing they're in nowadays, so Joe Franklin and Wes Matthews probably wouldn't qualify. Here's my matchup:

Cardinal: Devin Harris, Sean Mason, Michael Finley, Sean Dougherty, Mike Wilkinson

White: Kammron Taylor, Roy Boone, Kirk Penney, Alando Tucker, Rashard Griffith

Who do you think wins that matchup?

Wisconsin-Iowa thoughts: Return to the Kohl Center

After falling from the top spot for one day, my brother is now back to being my all-time favorite #22. He got us two awesome seats for today's Wisconsin-Iowa game at the Kohl Center - lower bowl, roughly 40-yard-line, 12 rows up, right with all the big boosters.

As weird as it may seem, this was my first Badger basketball game at the KC since its first year in business, and my last year in school, 1998. If memory serves, it was against an Ohio State team led by Michael Redd and Scoonie Penn, which beat the last Badger team not to make the NCAA Tournament. I believe it was Senior Day for Sean Dougherty.

I've been back to the Kohl many times since, for graduation, hockey games, and high school hoops, but this was different. The atmosphere is so professional. The scoreboard is incredible; when late arrivals blocked our view, we just watched the action on the scoreboard. The amenities are top-notch, and there are nice historical displays in the concourses of UW athletics through the decades.

The Nitty Gritty was packed afterward, and we tried to get in by telling the hostess we knew Mike Milinovich, but she said "Who?" Just kidding, we went to State Street Brats ...

-This team is so balanced and versatile. Think of the last three games in terms of hockey's "stars of the game" system. Texas: 1. Butch, 2. Flowers, 3. Bohannon or Landry. Michigan: 1. Leuer, 2. Landry, 3. Hughes. Iowa: 1. Butch, 2. Krabbenhoft, 3. Could be one of a handful of guys.

-Butch was at his best today with 22 points and seven rebounds. Iowa needed to double him and Landry, and when they didn't our posts got good looks either turning to the middle for mildly contested jumpers, or going baseline for contested layups. Butch goes 5-6 moves before getting his shot sometimes, and thought it looks ugly at times, he usually gets a decent look. The toes on his pivot foot must be about 12 inches long. Picking nits again, Brian was 0-for-3 on 3-pointers.

-Krabby had a solid game with 12 points and seven boards. What he did a nice job of was controlling the ball in traffic and getting fouled. He shot free throws better than usual.

-Pop passed up some open looks today from both inside and outside the arc. It looked like he was making a conscious effort to not shoot to soon in the shot clock, and those were pretty good shots. Iowa did a nice job defending his penetration, and did a pretty good job overall. Hughes also had three steals and a great block on an Iowa big man and generally played good defense.

-We gave up some wide open layups off back cuts or penetration, sort of surprising.

-Only seven turnovers - nice!

-Iowa scored only 51 points, but they were better than I thought they'd be. Justin Johnson is a good scorer, Tony Freeman a good point guard, and Cyrus Tate and Kurt Looby are active big men. They'll win a few games this year.

-Leuer was down to two 3-pointers today, but like against Michigan, they came at key points for momentum.