Just ours

During football season I made mention about how I often refer to preseason magazines throughout the course of the year, and the same is true for basketball. Yesterday I picked up the Sporting News college basketball preview to see how they broke down the Big Ten at the beginning of the season.

1. Michigan State
2. Indiana
3. Ohio State
4. Penn State
5. Wisconsin
6. Illinois
7. Minnesota
8. Purdue
9. Michigan
10. Iowa
11. Northwestern

Good call, guys. At least you got Northwestern right!

Much of the season preview is written about the Spartans' recent history of excellence, about Indiana's superstars, about Ohio State's boffo recruiting class. Here's what it says about the Badgers: "Wisconsin didn't win 30 games by accident last season."

Not much to go on, but prophetic. Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor were all-time greats, but the groundwork for this season's success was laid in their shadows. Even so, early this season there was little indication this team would be winning a conference title. Be truthful: when you saw Duke annihilating us at Cameron and Marquette edging us at the Kohl Center, did you see a trophy in March?

But, as Bo's best teams often do, this team improved dramatically as the season progressed and did what was expected of it.

Brian Butch found his confidence as a go-to post scorer and rebounder, and delivered shot 1A of the year at Indiana. Trevon Hughes started fast as a scorer, then settled in as a more traditional point guard and played with more control than Kam had at a similar age. When Pop was hurt at Texas, Michael Flowers asserted himself as a lead guard and hit the shot of the year in college hoops.

Joe Krabbenhoft still struggles with confidence shooting the ball, but does everything else well, and shut down Eric Gordon in the big win over Indiana in Madison. Early on, I questioned both Marcus Landry's and Jason Bohannon's scoring mentality, and here we are in March with those two serving as arguably our most attractive scoring options. Greg Stiemsma wasn't always used much because of matchups, but escaped the foul trouble that has plagued his career and played some terrific minutes.

What a joy to watch. At the end of the football season, I mentioned that as wonderful as last season was - 30 wins, a #1 ranking, arguably the greatest player in school history - fair or not, there was little tangible to show for it. Not the case this year. I don't care what happens next week (although we'd certainly like to see another trophy), or in the Big Dance, this will go down as one of my favorite teams.

One big reason: the seniors. Heralded as he was coming out of Appleton West, Butch has overcome a lot in his career, you have to feel good for him. Flowers embodies the blue collar, lunch pail ethic that Wisconsinites love, and his friendship with Max Bass is a neat story. Stiemsma overcame a freak high school knee injury and depression to build a nice career. And everyone loves Tanner Bronson, wouldn't be surprising to see him be the most successful member of the Badger coaching tree 15 years from now.

Good kids, all of them from Wisconsin. You don't see senior classes like that very often. They make us proud.

Cherish this championship. Even with all the success we've had under Bo, you can't take titles for granted. Seasons that start with all the promise in the world can end up nondescript (see Football: 2007; Basketball: 2001). The Big Ten is down this year, but Purdue is a rising power, Thad Matta is recruiting like a madman at Ohio State, Izzo will keep State tough as ever, and Indiana will probably come up with someone who can return that program to glory. There isn't a 55-year gap on that conference championship banner by accident - it takes true excellence to win this conference.

We captured that this winter, and it will be awhile before this smile leaves my face.

A Diamond for the Badgers

The members of the basketball program will be getting rings for their latest Big Ten championship, and now it appears they'll be getting the Diamond to go with it.

(Hah! I've still got the sportswriter's cheesy lead gene!)

Mark Stewardt of the Journal Sentinel is reporting that Diamond Taylor committed to UW last night. This one's important - I have no doubt we'll get the bigs and swingmen we need to be successful, but guards are just so important.

Sounds like Diamond, who I'm pretty sure sat by Andy and me at the Washington State football game in September, has really improved rapidly in the last year or so. Check out this blogger, who says that while the class of 2009 is the weakest in recent Illinois history, Diamond is at the top.

The other things you have to like about this kid are the fact that he plays for St. Joseph's (Hoop Dreams), a big-time program with a legendary coach in Gene Pingatore; and his dad is an assistant coach at Bolingbrook and runs a fundamentals camp, which has a website that plays rap music, which sort of startled me writing this at 10:30 p.m. I think Shaq is the artist currently dropping rhymes, "I Know I Got Skillz."

Nice to see the tradition of UW guards named Taylor continue, with Diamond following in the footsteps of Kammron and Jordan. But Diamond thinks he's more like Devin Harris, which we'd be OK with too.

Now if we can reel in Jamil Wilson, ranked #6 nationally on this list, to round out this class, I'd be thrilled.

-Follow up note from a guy mentioned yesterday: Madison Memorial's Vander Blue almost had a double-double tonight against Oshkosh West: nine points and nine turnovers. Memorial went into the fourth quarter with a 23-point lead and let it dwindle to four before pulling it out. How many teams get outscored 34-14 in the final quarter of a game and win? Jeronne Maymon was the man again with 29 points.

My day in Madison: State basketball

The best part of my day: getting within 12 inches of the Big Ten Championship trophy awarded to the Wisconsin basketball team last night. Of course, we were separated by thick glass and a geriatric Per-Mar security guard (is there any other kind?), but I admired it longingly as it stood front and center in the men's basketball offices at the Kohl Center.

It's a pretty impressive display, really - the new hardware flanked by all the other trophies we've racked up in the last decade. Conference championship trophies, Big Ten Tournament trophies, regional championship trophies. A video loop of recent highlights playing on a big flat screen. I'm ready to sign Will up for the program right now.

Andy and I were at the Kohl for the state boys basketball tournament, which we went to regularly in the '90s. Back then we saw B.J. LaRue and Mukwonago fall valiantly to Jose Winston and Milwaukee Vincent at the dawn of their dynasty. We saw Madison West's Reece Gaines have a horrible game in front of the home folks. The years we didn't go, we'd stay glued to the TV, watching the games and eating Girl Scout cookies.

It was time for some new memories, and we got them.

-The primary reason I wanted to go was to watch our Iola-Scandinavia Thunderbirds in a Division 3 semifinal. It wasn't pretty, but the kids gutted out a three-point win over a very capable Eau Claire Regis team. Our headliner, Mike Griffin, scored 21 in spite of a tough shooting day, but a little guy by the name of Chad Gunderson was our hero today, hitting some big 3-pointers and coming up with some key steals.

-In Saturday's final we play LaCrosse Aquinas, who looked really tough in beating favored Whitefish Bay Dominican. Aquinas just has a bunch of kids who know how to play basketball the right way and put the ball in the basket. This year's senior class in Wisconsin doesn't have many Division 1 college prospects, but Dominican's Kwamain Mitchell is one of the best, and he'll play for Rick Majerus at St. Louis.

-One of the state's other Division 1 kids, Oshkosh West's John Benkoske, overcame foul trouble to help his team beat Germantown in overtime. Benkoske is following former coach Lance Randall and former West stars Tom Levin and Andy Polka to Loyola. Andy and I left this game at halftime, the first half was notable only for the banter between the two student sections. The second half was a thriller and so was the OT. This was the second-worst decision I've made to leave a game at halftime; the worst was in 1998, when we left an Ohio State-Michigan State game at halftime, and the Spartans came back to upset the #1 Buckeyes.

-In the other game we saw, Madison Memorial beat Lake Geneva Badger. The interesting player in this one was Memorial's Jeronne Maymon, a man among boys with 28 points, 12 rebounds, eight blocks, and four assists. There has been talk about him becoming a Badger. Looking at his game, I'm not sure. He's got a nice face-up game up to about 15 feet, and is skilled, but he is still dominant because of his superior size (probably 6-6, 220) and athleticism. Don't think he could do it like that at the next level. However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought Alando Tucker was probably a similar type of player in high school, and he turned out all right.

The two things that concern me: he missed a game this year with an "academic issue," and there were too many times today when he was loafing, not playing with consistent energy. Almost like Shaq. I can't recall anyone like that coming into our program. We'll see.

The other guy from Memorial that is drawing recruiting attention is a 6-3 sophomore guard by the name of Vander Blue. In today's game Vander didn't really distinguish himself from Memorial's other guards - Maymon's older brother Devonte had a great game - but he still had 13 points, seven boards. Smooth athlete, seemed to glide a bit, and fit well with Memorial's full-court pressure defense. He'll be a good one, and let's hope that if he's good enough, he stays home.

-In the last game, I watched Wauwatosa East play Eau Claire North on television. East is the better team and won, but I was interested in seeing North's Evan Anderson, a 6-11 sophomore. Some outlets have put him as a national top 10 recruit for the class of 2010; some people who have seen him play wonder why he averaged only eight points per game this season and say he's a UW-Green Bay-type player.

Watching him tonight, I think he can definitely be a Big Ten player. Of our current and recent bigs, he reminds me most of Butch, only he doesn't have much of an offensive game more than five feet from the basket. He does run much better and more naturally than Butch, shows confidence using both hands, and has a knack for shot blocking. It's rare for a 6-11 sophomore to have a refined game, so you're really just projecting future development, and from my admittedly limited exposure to the kid's game, there doesn't seem to be any reason not to recruit him.

Badgers: Big Ten champs

Image courtesy uwbadgers.com

You know what the best thing about tonight's game was? Watching our kids' smiles. Not grins, or smirks, not chest thumping self-congratulation. Ear-to-ear smiles when their teammates made a nice play, or when their play set up a teammate's nice play.

J-Bo beaming after a 3-pointer rattles in from the corner. Greg Stiemsma smiling - an on-court career first? - after a terrific pass setting up Joe Krabbenhoft's dunk - a college career first? Michael Flowers going crazy after Stiemsma's follow-up dunk. Every last person on the team (in Wisconsin?) smiling when Tanner Bronson made that 3-pointer. It's like kids playing around at the Y, just having fun.

It's nice to know that they're enjoying it, because these guys have given me thousands of smiles this winter. It's also nice to know that we may not be done smiling. LePay and Lucas were just commenting as the game wound down that with last year's team, you had a sense they had hit a wall at season's end; with this year's team, you have a sense that they're getting better every time out.

I've got some more thoughts that I'll get to after Saturday's game, win or lose, but wanted to make one more observation:

Our opponents' student sections rush the floor when they beat us. Our students rush the floor when we win championships. As recently as my years in college, this would have been a pipe dream.

Bo has built this program to unforeseeable heights. Here's hoping we haven't seen the peak yet.

-As for the game, it reminded me of the Michigan game in 2002 where we wrapped up our first Big Ten title in 55 years. Or like the football game against Iowa in '99, the Dayne Game. The opponent was almost invisible. The outcome tonight was never in doubt, nor should it have been. Poor Penn State, losing Cornley on top of Claxton.

-Tim McCormick and Wayne Larrivee kept talking about how good our bigs' footwork was, and it was a great point. Landry and Stiemsma in particular got themselves some great looks tonight by not just getting in the right spot, but getting there ready to go up strong. Love how we pounded the post.

-Stiemsma is picking the perfect time to be playing the best ball of his career. As much as Butch is still clearly our starting 5, it's nice to know he can get more rest, play more aggressively, or team with Stiemsma against teams playing two traditional bigs.

-Dunks tonight: Stiemsma, Butch, Krabby, Gavinski. Gavinski? Stiemsma's follow-up dunk gave me goose bumps.

-Pop looked quick and strong tonight, hopefully the six-day layoff helped his ankle get better.

-When Tanner hit that 3, I felt awful for previously suggesting he shouldn't be playing, even in garbage time. What a great crowning moment for the young man and his family after putting in so much hard work on behalf of the program over the years.

-Was it me, or did Gene Keady list one of our second half keys as "keeping Cornley off the boards"? If so, mission accomplished.

-My one complaint is that we still switch to quickly defensively on pick and rolls. Tonight, it didn't seem like our guards even made an attempt to get through the screen, and Penn State's bigs weren't exactly wide bodies. PSU's decent guards capitalized a couple times, and you'd have to believe we're going to run into better guards who will hurt us more.

I'm so excited, think I'll go to the Kohl Center tomorrow ... to watch Iola-Scandinavia play Eau Claire Regis at the state tournament. A freaking 9 a.m. start - hope these kids drink coffee!

Let's make this thing ours alone Saturday in Evanston.

Thanks Thad

Oh yeah, some good news in Wisconsin: Purdue lost. Not sure how - every time I turned on the game one of the Boilermakers' freshmen was making a shot or Ohio State was missing a layup. I'm impressed with what Matt Painter has going on there, it's going to be tough for us to keep pace with them for years to come.

But that's the future. Against the odds, we got the help we needed for an outright conference title. First step is tomorrow night. Who would've have thought we'd be able to clinch a share of the conference title on Senior Night?

Thanks for the memories, Brett

Over the past few years I found myself wondering what it would be like when Brett Favre retired. Not just the following season with Aaron Rodgers or Tim Couch whoever starting at quarterback and getting hurt every fifth game, but the day news of his retirement came out.

Here's how: I'm sitting in my office when one of our sales reps comes into my office and says "Guess we'll be drafting a quarterback, huh?" Not being a morning person, and having just read a Favre-less Journal Sentinel online, I didn't make the connection and thought I'd missed the story where Rodgers had gotten hurt mowing his lawn. But he explained it to me, and then the emails, IMs, shouts over the cubicle walls, etc., started pouring in. It wasn't as surreal as I thought it'd be.

No sense in analyzing this, as a million people already have. Why did he do it? Did Ted Thompson force him out? What does Travis Jervey think about it? All interesting questions if you have an endless amount of time to obsess over it.

It does surprise me. It wouldn't have surprised me last year or the year before, when he was coming off marginal to bad seasons on marginal to bad teams. He played well in 2007, his last pass notwithstanding, and the Packers are the youngest team in the league.

Here are my top Favre memories:

-The day Ron Wolf traded for him, I was watching one of Andy's basketball games at St. Mary's in West Bend, and my dad and one of the other parents asked this sports nerd what he knew about him. "Big arm, gunslinger, had a few feet of intestines removed in college," I said.

-Early in his career, when he would send my dad into alternating fits of joy and madness, I often thought that Don Majkowski could have been just as effective in Mike Holmgren's system. Blasphemy, but there's the opinion.

-I was working at Pick 'n Save when he threw that bomb back across the field to Sterling Sharpe at the Silverdome to beat the Lions in the playoffs. Big arm, indeed.

-Hill always called him "Bart Farve" and "cheater" on account of the vicodin addiction.

-A girl who worked with me at Pick 'n Save told me I looked like Favre. You can't see it now, but 17 years ago it wasn't that far-fetched. Maybe she had a thing for me.

-There was a time when Favre had been in the league for a few years and he was still younger than the Badgers' starting quarterback, Darrell Bevell.

-Favre's reaction after throwing that early touchdown to Andre Rison in the Super Bowl win over New England was priceless, made us all remember why we play and love to follow sports.

-I was at Lambeau for the game I thought would end his consecutive-games played streak, when Lavar Arrington just about ripped him in half. That's one tough sonofabitch we had there.

-Could have sworn his last game was the win over the Bears at Soldier Field last New Year's Eve.

Just hope we don't have to see what it's like to be a Bears, Lions or Vikings fan and start every season with a different guy under center. I've got faith in Thompson, although if it is ever definitively proven that he chased my favorite player of all time to his lawn mower before before he was 100% ready, that faith will forever be shaken.

Great career, Brett, thanks for making Sundays fun.

The Hill made Devin leave early

Well, not really, but Devin Harris said that with a smile in this very good story in today's Newark Star-Ledger. It's not the longest story, but it works in quotes from Bo, Travon Davis, and Latrell Fleming. It's got good anecdotes about The Hill, the first time Devin met Davis, the time Devin ruptured his spleen in an AAU game, Devin's record-setting gym rattedness.

At first I was bummed about the trade that sent him to New Jersey (that's a USA Today picture of him in Times Square the day before he was drafted; he was headed to Hamburger Harry's). With apologies to my good friend Angela, who works for the Star-Ledger, who the hell would want to live in New Jersey? But the more I've thought about it, the more I like it.

In Dallas, Devin was never going to be The Man - that would always be Nowitzki, or at least Mark Cuban. In Jersey, he has the potential to be every bit The Man that Kidd was, even if they are very different players. Vince Carter is still really talented, but his days as a first-tier superstar have passed. Richard Jefferson is really talented, too, but he has #2 guy written all over him.

Davin has the skills and personality to be a big star, and in the process, be the NBA example we can show recruits, like Marquette has with frequent free throw shooter/NBA turnover leader Dwayne Wade.

Also:

-You can see Elver Park from Deuces' condo. You still go up and down 20 times, right Andy?

-How sad was it that we never got to see Fleming in a Badger uniform? Many people thought he was every bit as good as Devin. Glad to hear he's healthy and living a productive life.

Abusive college basketball fans

Sports Illustrated had a good story this week about abusive behavior by college basketball fans. Certainly, this is nothing new, but it has taken an uglier turn this season with episodes at Illinois (directed at Eric Gordon), Oregon (directed at Kevin Love), and Alabama-Birmingham (directed at Memphis, in particular Robert Dozier). Take a look at the associated photo gallery.

A sidebar went down some of the ugly crowd behavior of all time, and somehow this made the list:

Before playing at Wisconsin in February 1998, Michigan State guard Mateen Cleaves was arrested for underage possession of alcohol (a misdemeanor for which he completed a first-offenders program.) After the Grateful Red student section serenaded Cleaves with 99 Bottles of Beer, Spartans coach Tom Izzo had to restrain Cleaves. "I had to drag him off the floor because he wanted to fight the whole place," Izzo says. "Then again, maybe he had some of it coming."

Come on! This is nowhere near as malicious as the other things on that list and about 100 other things Duke fans have done. A Google search of the phrase "mateen cleaves 99 bottles of beer" shows that most impartial Internet message board posters agree. Like Izzo said, he had it coming.

Can't say I'm completely innocent on this front. At last year's Big Ten Tournament in Chicago, UW fans highjacked Illini fans' highly annoying "I-L-L, I-N-I!" call and repeat chant, serenading that team's drunk drivers, Rich McBride and Jamar Smith, with chants of "I-L-L, D-U-I!" What do you think, is that crossing the line?

Creativity is good, mean is bad.

-On a related note: State scores 103 points against Indiana one game after getting 42 on us. This was my comment after our win in Bloomington two weeks ago: "IU is talented, but missing something that makes a good team an elite team. Probably defensive stoppers ..."

Now we need help from Ohio State for a shot at winning the Big Ten outright. Unlikely? You bet, but stranger things have happened.

Iola-Scandinavia headed to state

Time for another brief foray into high school sports. Last night at Ashwaubenon High School Iola-Scandinavia beat Manitowoc Roncalli to advance to the Division 3 state tournament in Madison next week. Exciting game, the boys won by three against a really good team that had a shot to tie it at the buzzer.

Our main man Mike Griffin had 27 points despite getting called for his third foul midway through the second quarter, a truly terrible call. But just about everyone else who played stepped up and made big contributions.

We also got Will to stay in the same spot for nearly the entire game. He even showed his first use of the We're Number 1 hand signal, even if it was premature. Afterward I asked Will "Wasn't that exciting?" "Yeah!" "Do you want to be a basketball player when you grow up!" "No!"

Oh well, I've got time to fix that.

On a Badger note, I showed Will the picture on the wall of former Ashwaubenon star Aaron Stecker, and of future Badger linebacker Mike Taylor, who just won a state wrestling title for Ashwauebenon last week. Taylor may be one of those unsung players who come in under the recruiting radar but end up being really solid players for us.

Badgers come back, Kevin Borseth blows up

Who's seen the video of Michigan women's basketball coach Kevin Borseth blowing his stack after losing to the Badgers the other night? You've got to take a couple minutes to watch it if you haven't yet.




Basically, Wisconsin came back from a 20-point second half deficit to win by two in Ann Arbor. A big reason was the Badgers' 23 offensive rebounds, which Borseth has a comment or two about.

Borseth is pretty well-known around here, having led a tremendously successful run at UW-Green Bay before heading to Michigan. Everyone was disappointed to see him go, he was very popular. Never saw any evidence that he had one of these in him, though. Illustrates the difference in stress between the Horizon League on the Big Ten.

That meltdown overshadows the fact that Lisa Stone's Badgers, after a terrible start to the season, are red hot lately, winning eight of their last 10. It's too bad it took Borseth going all Jim Mora/Dennis Green/Mike Gundy to get them noticed.

For comparison's sake, this clip puts the Gundy rant after Borseth's. Thank God for Youtube!