Tony Bennett

Did you see that Tony Bennett was hired as Virginia's head coach? My first thought on that was that it's surprising he did not pursue or take, depending on reports, offers to coach Indiana and Marquette last year when those jobs were open and he was a hotter commodity.

Virginia is clearly a better job than Marquette, and while less prestigious than Indiana there's less baggage accompanying the job. They have a new arena on the way and play in the ACC.

Sounds like the people at Washington State were stunned that he left. Not sure why. He had two outstanding years followed by a so-so year. As good a coach as Tony is, it's not a given that he would have gotten the Cougars back to the level they reached in his first two years. His stock is as high as it's going to be for awhile, so taking the opportunity to coach in the ACC makes a lot of sense.

My friends were discussing what this meant to Bennett's chances of succeeding Bo Ryan in Madison. I don't think it means much, unless he a. Succeeds spectacularly or b. Fails miserably. Both are possibilities, but the greater likelihood is that he'll have a fair amount of success that qualifies him, as a home state boy, to be the next guy in charge at Wisconsin.

Bo could do like Dick Bennett did with Brad Soderberg and position Greg Gard or Gary Close to be the next coach, but just as Pat Richter dismissed Sodes to take Bo, I can't see Barry Alvarez just rubber stamping Bo's preferred choice.

Best of luck to Tony in Charlottesville.

Comparisons up the Wazzou

Sunday afternoon Charlie and I watched a Big Ten basketball preview on ESPN, an ESPNU-branded superficial look at the conferences the network covers.

The announcing tandem first covered Purdue, then Michigan State, then the Badgers. Analyst Adrian Branch, in describing Wisconsin, referred to the team as a "Midwest version of Washington State." I looked at team statistics from last year, and Wisconsin led the nation in scoring defense, yielding only 54.4 points per game. Wazzou was tied for second at 56.4 ppg.

But even though Washington State has been very successful the last couple years under Tony Bennett, I resent the comparison and implication. Hell, I think Washington State should even resent it. Because no matter how long Bo Ryan has been coaching in Madison, or how much Tony may have changed things in Pullman, the implication is still that these teams play good defense, but it's only because they're limited offensively and are forced to win playing ugly.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dick Bennett and forever credit him for the work he did building Wisconsin basketball in all his stops around the state along the way. But I never liked the fact that in his system, it seemed that offense was sacrificed for defense except in rare cases. Rare was the team or player who had it both ways. It was really nasty basketball at times.

Wisconsin doesn't play like that now. We have guys who are talented offensively but can also be lockdown defenders. Marcus Landry could start for just about any team in the country because of his all-around skills.

We have it both ways. Yes, we led the nation in scoring defense last year, but we were also seventh nationally in scoring margin, averaging 67.3 ppg, a 12.9 ppg advantage. Guess how many times we averaged 67.3 ppg under Bennett? Zero.

Our lowest-scoring team under Bo was his first, 2001-2002, which averaged 67 ppg. Bennett's highest-scoring team was his first, 1995-96, which averaged 66.1 ppg. Those of us who went to a lot of games in '95-'96 might have a hard time believing that.

(Wazzou managed a 10-point spread because they had some guys who could put the ball in the basket, as well as defend.)

Yet college basketball analysts everywhere cling to their outdated opinions of of what Wisconsin basketball is all about.

In the end, though, the most important opinions have to do with wins and losses. To that end, Branch picked the Badgers to win the Big Ten this year. I wouldn't agree, but it's nice to hear.

The newest Badger

This morning at 2:22 a.m., Jana gave birth to Charles Edward Tappa. Charlie was 20.5 inches long, 7 pounds, 8.4 ounces.

I understand that's a little bit tall for a newborn, and sure enough: when my mother-in-law went home to check the mail for us, there was a scholarship offer for Charlie from Indiana University! I'm holding out hope he'll play for Tony Bennett in Madison.

When Will was born in May 2004, I had to walk him around OB unit to keep him calmed down in the first day or so. One of the stories I told him was the story of the 1993 Wisconsin Badgers, who magically shook off decades of poor play to win the Rose Bowl. We went through the two-deep, position by position. Haven't had to do that yet -- Charlie has been a terrific sleeper thus far -- but at least I have some fresh material for him: the 2006 hockey national champions, All-American Alando Tucker, Joe Thomas, the 2008 Big Ten basketball champions, etc.

It's early, but it's hard for someone like me not to daydream about taking Will, Charlie and Jana to Camp Randall on fall Saturdays in the not-so-distant future. Those are some of my best memories of my dad and brother growing up, and hopefully my boys and I will make similar memories.

God willing, these two will follow their father, uncle, grandfather, and many other wonderful people to Madison for college. When I graduated from UW 10 years ago, most of the best moments in my life took place there. They're still great memories, but nothing beats holding your newborn child ... even if they end up going to Northern Michigan.

Sunday morning thoughts

Still smiling about Carolina's humiliating defeat last night, thank you Kansas. Thinking about the tournament in general.

-The most unexpectedly impressive player I saw yesterday was Cole Aldrich from Kansas, and teammate Sherron Collins provided a huge energy boost during the Jayhawks' first half blitz. In the other game Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts were the expected big stars for Memphis. Where are they from? Big Ten country.

Rose and Collins are from Chicago, Aldrich from the Twin Cities, and CDR from Detroit. Kansas has long taken guys from Big Ten states - Julian Wright, Kirk Hinrich, and Nick Collison come to mind - and lots of good players leave Detroit and Minneapolis as well. Maybe if Michigan and Minnesota did a better job building a wall around their home states instead of chasing recruits from elsewhere, they wouldn't have fallen so far.

-It seems that Marquette is seriously considering promoting assistant coach Buzz Williams to the head job in the wake of Tom Crean's departure for Indiana. I think this would be a bad move. Beyond the absurdity of having a head coach named Buzz, promoting assistant coaches to ensure recruiting stability is seldom a good idea. You've got to pick the best coach available, period, not the one who'll placate your recruits.

Remember how Stan van Gundy turned out in Madison? Yeah, he got Sam Okey to come to UW, but in the meantime he flopped miserably coaching the Rashard Griffith-Michael Finley team, and Okey couldn't coexist with Dick Bennett.

It worked pretty well for Kansas State this year with Frank Martin's promotion ensuring Michael Beasley came to Manhattan. But none of Marquette's recruits is in the same league as Beasley (few would be). Marquette should do what's best for the long-term health of its program, not cater to the whims of an 18-year-old in New Jersey.

-Chris West writes a terrific blog about Wisconsin college basketball, and this post nicely summarizes the Marquette situation.

-If MU does choose Williams, it'll be interesting to see how that affects their Midwest recruiting, as most of the Gold's recent commitments have come from different regions. Highly-regarded high schoolers, but not ones they're competing with us for. Will they still butt heads with us for Jamil Wilson and Evan Anderson? Or will they be chasing some kid we've never heard of in Texas? Even though I like our track record against Crean, he did get lots of quality kids from the state to Milwaukee - Diener, Novak, Merritt, Matthews, Christopherson.

-On that note: Will recently measured in the 95th percentile for height among 3-1/2-year-olds, and on Friday he got a scholarship offer from Indiana. That's us practicing for signing day 2021.

-On that note, I'm relieved to see Tony Bennett is seemingly out of the running for the Marquette job. What loyalty he's showing to Washington State. It's got to be somewhat of a slap in the face to the Gold that their job isn't seen as enough of a step up from Wazzou or Xavier or Virginia Commonwealth for their coaches to move to the Humongous East.

-You know what UCLA right now reminds me of? Duke in the late '80s. A team that gets to the Final Four every year but falls short because they don't have the horses. It was sort of amazing to me that so many people had the Bruins as the national championship favorite ... although I did have them losing to Georgetown in the finals (good call moron!). Ben Howland's team seems to lack something electric that makes a team a champion.

-Glad I didn't fill out a bracket for money this year, my predictions were god-awful. Then again, I did write "If you made me bet $1 million on the Final Four I'd pick: UCLA, North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas. Strong #1 seeds."

Indiana chooses Tom Crean

Looks like Indiana has chosen Tan Cream to be its replacement for Kelvin Sampson. Not sure how I feel about the move. I can't hate him as Marquette's coach anymore, but he will now be with one of our Big Ten rivals, so I guess he sentiment remains. He'll have his work cut out for him in Bloomington.

Not a bad hire for the Hoosiers, but I think they could have done better. Crean did a good enough job in Milwaukee, but if Dwayne Wade has better grades coming out of high school, Crean never goes to a Final Four, MU is still in a hyphenated conference, and he's got one NCAA Tournament win and a bunch of NIT bids to show for almost a decade there. It will be interesting to see who Gold fans want as their next coach. Majerus! Majerus!

The good thing about this is it saves Tony Bennett for us for when Bo retires, whenever that may be.

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.

Sweet 11, er, 16 thoughts

Quick story: in 2000, Jana and I were working at the Oshkosh Northwestern, and the Badgers stunned Arizona to reach the Sweet 16. Working that night, it was my job to get her teaser copy for the A section of the paper. My penmanship is, ahem, not the best, and when she brought over that section for me to proof I gasped and saw we were about to go to print with "Badgers Advance to Sweet 11." Of course, UW won two more games and made it to the Final Three before losing to Michigan State.

Fitness Center in town is closed today, so no hoops and a bonus midday Badgercentric post! Here are some thoughts after the first two rounds:

-Really happy for Tony Bennett and Washington State. They don't have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Carolina in another home game for the Heels (Raleigh then Charlotte - nice job site selection committee), but Tony has clearly established himself as a candidate for a higher profile job. Indiana?

-Thankfully Carolina will have to beat either Louisville or Tennessee to reach the Final Four. Louisville is looking really tough right now, and has the inside-outside balance to win two games this weekend. The Vols looked really vulnerable against Butler.

-Any way Villanova can beat Kansas? No. Although, in 2005 I gave the Wildcats similar odds of beating Carolina in the Sweet 16 on the other side of our bracket, and came within a refs' decision of doing it.

-Is it just me, or does it seem like Michigan State always fares a little worse than it should in the Big Ten, and a little better than it should in the NCAA Tournament? Why is that? Maybe the familiarity that comes within a conference has more of an adverse effect on Izzo's schemes than it does on other Big Ten coaches' strategies. Because State clearly had the most deep, talented, balanced roster in the conference this year, and underachieved with it. Yet they go out and pound a Pittsburgh team that many thought would reach the Final Four. Does it all depend on the Spartans' outside shooting, particularly Neitzel? After seeing Memphis struggle against good teams lately, and sizing up the personnel, I would almost favor State to win that matchup.

-Texas-Stanford is a fascinating contrast in styles. At least Texas has Atchley to provide something of an inside presence. Stanford-Marquette was fascinating, for that matter. Stanford had no chance of stopping Jerel McNeal until he missed himself, and the Gold had no chance of stopping the Lopez twins unless they missed. In the time I watched (part of the first half and crunch time) Marquette got one basket from a non-guard, and Stanford got one basket from a non-post. Really good game. One more season for MU's two excellent guards to win something of significance, unless James bolts for the NBA.

-UCLA-Western Kentucky, Xavier-West Virginia. Boy, that West Region is a dream for CBS. Watching UCLA and Georgetown, I imagine, is like watching what the Badgers would look like with higher-rated recruits.

-Wisconsin has outlasted the three teams to beat it this year: Marquette, Duke, and Purdue.

Sunday thoughts

Some thoughts on a big Sunday (furniture shopping! naps!)

-Lost in the hoopla surrounding the basketball team was the men's track and field team's eighth straight indoor Big Ten championship. Just think about that for a minute - eight straight conference titles. Like Andy told me, if Ed Nuttycombe had that kind of success coaching football or basketball, imagine how wealthy he'd be or how many buildings would be named after him. The guy has 24 conference titles overall. Congratulations, men.

-While driving to Madison on Thursday I listened to Mike DeCourcy, college hoops writer for the Sporting News, talk to some Chicago radio host idiot. DeCourcy brought up Tony Bennett as a great candidate for the Indiana job. Sort of makes sense, doesn't it?

-Along those lines, I'm really glad Indiana didn't even come close to sharing the conference title. Given what Kelvin Sampson likely did to break the rules, they certainly didn't deserve it.

-My early thought on the 2008-09 Big Ten basketball standings: 1. Purdue, 2. Michigan State, 3. Ohio State, 4. Wisconsin, 5. Minnesota, 6. Michigan, 7. Indiana, 8. Iowa, 9. Illinois, 10. Penn State, 11. Northwestern. Matt Painter is building a beast, and MSU and OSU both have lots of talent coming back, but I like our chances.

-(Tappa pessimism alert) So it's either Michigan or Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. We could lose to either of those teams, and the BTT is notorious for favorites not winning. I just want to see the Badgers play three times, like we have two of the three years we've gone to the tournament. Three wins would be even nicer.

-I love the Packers, but get upset when they upstage the Badgers, and Brett Favre's retirement was the second time in two years that happened. The same day the Badger football team beat Auburn in a huge Capital One Bowl win, Barry Alvarez's last game as coach, the Packers fired Mike Sherman, relegating Bucky to second-hand news. This year, the day before the basketball team wins an unlikely Big Ten championship, Favre retires, and the day after is his official press conference.

-The Badger hockey team will start the WCHA playoffs on the road, after finishing one point behind St. Cloud State for fifth place. That referee's blown goal call in Denver that cost us one or two points looks pretty big now, doesn't it? Unbelievable.

Badgers basketball coaching tree

It's funny: when doing the Wisconsin football coaching tree, I was able to remember dozens of former assistant coaches, even guys who were only with the program for a couple years. But when trying to remember basketball assistants, I drew a blank. Thankfully the media guide materials available for download at uwbadgers.com has a list of all former assistant coaches, just as it did for football.

Writing this before I start the compilation, my gut feeling is that this list might be even more impressive than the football list. Let's see.

-Stu Jackson, executive vice president of basketball operations for the NBA. The man who really got the ball rolling on the Badgers' basketball renaissance is in the news a lot, mostly for suspension and referee-related issues.

-Stan Van Gundy, head coach of the Orlando Magic. Stan Van was the head man during my freshman year, 1994-95, arguably the most underachieving team in UW athletic history. How do you finish with a losing record with Rashard Griffith, Michael Finley, and others? Still, if Pat Riley had an ounce of selflessness in his body, Stan would have won an NBA title with the Heat two years ago, on the heels of the league refs' Dwayne Wade free throw-a-thon. Good for him.

-Tony Bennett, one of the hottest coaches in the nation for the job he's doing at Washington State. Give Dick a lot of credit for his plan, it worked out well for both WSU and his son. My gut says that Tony should move on to a better job after this season, since he'll lose a lot from a veteran team. Maybe he, not Jeter, is Bo's heir apparent.

-Rob Jeter, leading a baffling turnaround at UWM. If he gets some more talented kids who play with the kind of chemistry and fire his current kids are playing, they'll be a force.

-Saul Phillips (left), head coach at North Dakota State. He's an up-and-comer, and has Bo's kid, Will Ryan (right - what a resemblance!), on his staff. Also of note from this staff: Dan Weisse, former UWM and Oshkosh West standout, is Saul's director of basketball operations.

-Brad Soderberg recruited the players who scored 20 points in a game for St. Louis a couple weeks ago, and current coach Rick Majerus is throwing him under the bus. Classy, Rick. (If you haven't, read the SI story about Majerus, it showed a side of him I hadn't heard about before. Interesting guy.)

-Mark Vershaw, head coach at Monmouth (Ill.) College. From the little bit I've seen, his team is struggling.

-Howard Moore returned to UW after Jeter left and is doing a nice job for Bo.

-Tracy Webster has hooked up with Billy Gillispie at Kentucky. They're struggling, last night's win over Tennessee notwithstanding, but even money says Billy has them in the Final four within five years. He just needs time to fix the roster after Tubby Smith left it relatively bare.

-Brian Hecker, scouting information director for the Miami Heat.

-Sean Miller, an assistant for one year under Stu, is the coach at Xavier and one of the real rising stars in the profession.

-Tim Buckley, an assistant under Stu, is back at Marquette after stints at Ball State and Iowa.

-Bob Beyer, the third assistant on the 1993-94 staff, is an assistant at Dayton.

-Dave Bollwinkel, an assistant under Van Gundy, is a part-time scout for the Boston Celtics after serving as St. Mary's coach.

-Ray McCallum is an assistant with Kelvin Sampson at Indiana after being a head coach at Ball State and Houston.

Whew! That's more than I thought there would be. Who am I forgetting?