Paul Chryst to Purdue announced Friday?

Schwalbach just emailed me that, according to a co-worker, Rivals is reporting on the paid content portion of its Purdue site that Chryst will be named the Boilermakers' next coach on Friday. He's skeptical - it hasn't been reported anywhere else yet that we can find - and so am I.

For the record, here's what the Rivals teaser says:

by GoldandBlack.com staff
The climax of Purdue's search for Coach Joe Tiller's successor-in-waiting has arrived and will soon be announced, GoldandBlack.com has learned. Find out when and who the finalists are in this Ultimate Ticket report.

If this is true, sheesh, what a day. Will reserve further comment until this is confirmed by reputable media (no offense, Rivals).

Yikes - bad morning

Check the Journal Sentinel Badger Blog first thing this morning and find almost nothing but bad news since logging off last night:

-Ike is leaving for the NFL.
-Wes Kemp de-committed and committed to Missouri.
-Mike Hankwitz has seemingly been fired.

Will discuss more after work

Badgers on Facebook

My brother and I were talking about Facebook the other day, and he made this not completely untrue statement:

"Dude, when people like you are getting into Facebook, that's when you know it's not cool any more."

Ouch, but I do have a history of coming in past the prime time of cultural phenomena: downloading music, cell phones, online shopping, direct payroll deposit, high-speed Internet at home. We've purchased DVR four years after TiVo became popular, but DirecTV keeps messing up and we haven't gotten it hooked up yet.

So I don't have a great track record as an early adopter, but I'm trying to change that (why does nobody seem to care about all my Twitter messages?). However, among my long-time close friends, only Butch and Toohey have signed up for Facebook, which makes me as cutting edge as all my college-aged cousins and 40-something co-workers.

If/when you decide Facebook is for you, a. Become my friend, b. Sign up for Facebook's best Badger fan community:

http://www.facebook.com/add.php?api_key=c24ac9233116fef04c3e92aee417d3d2&next=?refuid=3097947

The coolest thing about this is the Badger trivia section. With plenty of time to kill over the holidays, I answered every last one as quickly as possible, and ended up in fourth place. Then I took the time to create about 50 questions, which put me in first until the guy I overtook for the lead noticed and created 60 more. Game on, Jeremy David Jones.

Since I found out about this community from my old college friend Vikram Naik, I joined his team and saw where we ranked among other teams. Not high - Toohey is stuck on a goose egg. But I did see who led other "teams" of trivia guessers: Zach Hampton, Justin Ostrowski, Marcus Coleman, Brandon Kelly, Brad Thorson. Looking further at these teams, I found Matt Bernstein, Paul Standring, Joe Monty, Kurt Ware, Darrin Charles, Mike Allen, RJ Morse, Jonathan Clinkscale, Kalvin Barrett, LaMarr Watkins, Andrew Weininger, Mark Gorman, Josh Balts, Ryan Flasch.

There's nothing that remarkable about finding these guys there; after all, they were/are college students, and that's what college students do nowadays. It was just cool to see these names again, as I'd forgotten most of them. Also: didn't see too many all-conference types on there. Is it too much of a hassle for a star college athlete to put himself out there on a social network? I think it makes these kids seem more like regular students.

-On another note, Mike Lucas is reporting that Bob Palcic is leaving UW to be Rick Neuheisel's offensive line coach at UCLA. Bring your guitar and canoe, Bob, Ricky's a real player's coach.

Lucas says Bob Bostad will probably take over, which makes sense. He'll probably do fine - the tight ends are better than ever right now. Bostad was here only two years, but he did a good job replacing Jim Hueber and upholding our reputation for producing top-notch offensive lines. Can't give him too much credit for Joe Thomas, but give him lots of credit for plugging holes created by graduation and injuries.

Purdue pursuing Chryst

The Lafayette Journal & Courier is reporting that Purdue is pursuing Paul Chryst to be its next coach, in a scenario like the one where Matt Painter came on board and assisted Gene Keady for a year before taking over. Interesting. For the various reasons Potrykus spells out in his story, I don't think will happen. Chryst seems like a Madison guy who is made for being a coordinator, and he knows it, but as Tom Mulhern points out in the State Journal , he did recently interview for the Washington State job.

While losing him would not be catastrophic, in my opinion, it would sting. Chryst has added a level of diversity and consistency to the Badger offense that wasn't there under Brian White and Brad Childress. Who knows, maybe it was Alvarez's influence on the scheme, and only late in his career did he embrace the importance of a competent passing game.

Chryst has done some wonderful things with the offense, most notably in 2006 when he lost all his skill players and three offensive linemen from the powerhouse 2005 unit. His role developing John Stocco and Tyler Donovan can not be understated, and he will be key to getting Allan Evridge up to speed for 2008, and hopefully Curt Phillips for the four years following.

Hopefully whatever happens, it happens quickly. We've got about a month left in the recruiting race and losing a successful offensive coordinator could really hurt.

Big Ten overrun with spread offenses

On a similar note, after the basketball game yesterday over lunch at Brats, Andy told me about a conversation between the couple sitting next to him. The woman, a candidate for Wife of the Year, raised the point that with Rich Rodriguez going to Michigan, who in the Big Ten was left not running spread offenses?

Good question. My unofficial scorecard looks like this:

Weenie Ball
Michigan
Minnesota
Northwestern
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana

Man's Offense
Wisconsin
Iowa
Michigan State
Penn State
Ohio State

So Michigan hiring Rodriguez is officially a tipping point - the league of pro-style offenses and three yards and a cloud of dust now has more in common with the WAC than it does with the NFL. Ugh.

Despite all my criticism of the spread, you can't deny that it was first a good tool for helping less-talented teams compete with more-talented teams. Now, with teams like Florida and West Virginia running it so well, and Texas to an extent with Vince Young, it has permeated the elite levels of college football. It would be interesting to see, if Paul Chryst left for Purdue, if Bret Bielema would be tempted to hire a spread-based coordinator, given how much trouble we've had stopping it over the years. God I hope not.

My real hope is that Rodriguez's hiring at Michigan becomes the point at which the spread jumps the shark like past schemes du jour in college football - the run and shoot, the Wishbone, the 3-4. Usually it takes defenses at least five years to catch up with trends like this; when the majority of your opponents are running an offense, that almost becomes the default scheme for which you prepare and recruit, not the novelty that you only address in game weeks against those teams.

For instance: if seven of Bucky's 12 opponents next year are running the spread, is run-stuffing Elijah Hodge still considered the starting middle linebacker, or is the more mobile Jae McFadden?

I hope this is the beginning of the end for the spread. Let's get back to playing football, not Harlem Globetrotters basketball on grass.

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.

Michael Flowers: Another reason to love him

My brother-in-law Nick sent me a link to a great story today that I might have otherwise missed. It's a Cap Times article about Michael Flowers befriending a leukemia-stricken boy whose favorite player is Flowers because both wear #22. Unfortunately, my brother is now just my third-favorite #22.

Apparently the boy got the chance to meet Michael before the Texas game, and we all know what happened next. Having just read the story, I've got tears in my eyes. Any parent can relate - put yourself in Max's mother's and father's shoes at that game, where your sick little boy just got a huge jolt of hope and inspiration. That's 100 times more important than us having a big road win for tournament seeding come March, or winning a game without Pop, and it makes my thoughts following that game feel somewhat trivial.

Remember how my dad and I commented that Bo seemed more emotional than usual after that one? Maybe this had something to do with it. Less emotional thoughts on this story:

-The basketball program always seems to have no shortage of guys doing things like this. Alando Tucker, for one, was always visiting hospitals and cheering kids up, and I remember Sharif Chambliss doing it too. That's icing on the cake for a program that wins consistently ... or should consistent winning seasons be icing on the cake for a program filled with class acts?

-Schultz's story refers to Flowers as enigmatic and says he has been reluctant to speak with reporters this season. I had totally forgotten about the couple weeks he missed during preseason practice, doesn't seem to have had any lingering effect on his play this season.

-Read the comments following the story. Most of them are nice and supportive. Then there's this "reality" commenter who goes on and on about how musicians and construction workers don't get enough credit for visiting sick kids in hospitals. Well, maybe if that sax player wore #22 he would have been Max Bass's hero, too. Then this "pappie" chimes in with a slander job on Flowers and his family, and Flowers' mom - or someone using her name - responds. Bizarre.

TCT and the Journal Sentinel blog both allow comments, and for every nine reasonable comments, there is one idiot who completely steers the discussion the wrong way. Ahh, Internet anonymity. Why take the time and energy?

Two other notes tonight:

-The Business Journal of Milwaukee reports that Forbes has pegged Wisconsin as the ninth-most valuable college hoops program, with a $15.7 million valuation on $9.6 million in profit. Not that hard to believe, given our sold-out modern arena and expert sales and marketing efforts. We're behind Indiana and Illinois in the Big Ten - a bit surprising since those schools play in older facilities.

The top 20 goes: North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville, Arizona, Duke, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina State, UCLA, Oklahoma State, Michigan State, Maryland, Syracuse, Arkansas, Xavier. Not bad company to be in.

-Schwalbach reminded me today that tomorrow's the big high school basketball event in Minneapolis. A request for Schwib, Millie, or Olson to email me a report on Berggren and Taylor, and the event in general. Let's hope you guys see a show like we saw in Reece Gaines back in the winter of '97!

Football thoughts: Feeling hollow about '07, good about '08

OK, had about two days to digest the finality of the 2007 season. On Tuesday, I said if you feel like complaining about a 9-4 season, I feel sorry for you, but ...

This isn't a complaint, but this season does leave me feeling hollow, especially after blowing a shot at 10 wins. This feeling really set in for me the week of the Ohio State game, when I realized that everyone had picked us to finish ahead of the Buckeyes, and here they were in position to run away with the Big Ten. How often does Wisconsin enter the season as a consensus choice to play in a BCS game? Once every 6-8 years? That's why this season, without any major milestones, feels empty. I like that comparisons are being made to the aftermath of the 1998 Outback Bowl loss to Georgia, that is exactly what I was thinking of later Tuesday - we'll have a shot at something special next year, but after this year it won't be expected, we won't be ranked in the top 10 to start the season.

In a way, I felt the same way in March about the basketball season. Here we had our best team in modern times, our best player ever ... and a bunch of teenagers from Ohio State won the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, and UNLV's gunnin' grad student beat us in the second round. So what did we actually win, other than some very memorable regular season games? At least we made it to #1 and won 30 games for the first time in school history.

I'm starting to sound like one of those spoiled kids who enrolled at UW in 1998 and complained when we missed a bowl after the 2001 season, so let's get back to talking football, mainly with an eye on the future.

Quarterback
When Tyler Donovan was a backup, he looked horrible, and I feared the day he might have to start. Then he became a starter and, despite his flaws, was one of our all-time tough guys and played pretty damn well. This is why I'm not too concerned yet with Allan Evridge. He looked overwhelmed when inserted into game action this season, but give him a full spring as the starter, all the reps with the first-string line and receivers, and I think he'll be fine. I am excited to see what Curt Phillips is all about, but hope Evridge is good enough that Phillips can redshirt, then start for four years. This position is more important than ever, and may be the difference between another 8- or 9-win season and a truly special one.

Running back
Feeling good here if everyone stays. Even if one guy leaves, we should be OK, but we need three solid guys back there. As should have become clear by now, I still think P.J. Hill is our best guy by far. Lance Smith is fast but dances too much at times. Zach Brown is tough but doesn't have P.J.'s burst. John Clay is an unknown going in.

You know another guy I'm happy is coming back? Chris Pressley. Not so much for his on-field play, although it's solid, but because he strikes me as the kind of thoughtful, charismatic locker room leader type that great teams need, like a Joe Panos or Chris McIntosh.

Receiver
Beckum's back, he's a known entity. It remains to be seen whether he puts on weight and works on blocking (and how that affects his receiving) or if he stay sat 225 or so and remains the same type of player - a dominant college player. Very excited about him and Garrett Graham in two-tight end sets next year. Kyle Jefferson had a nice rookie year but tailed off late, he can put on 20 good pounds without losing his athleticism. Who's the other starting wideout? My money is on Daven Jones. Something strikes me about this kid - he had to fight to get to Madison, then he worked his butt off on special teams this year. We really just need 25 catches or so out of that spot, and I think he can get them.

Offensive line
Marcus Coleman is the only loss, and while he was good and will be missed, we usually come up with a good center. Really liked Gabe Carimi's freshman year, and he can put a good 20 pounds on the 292 he played at this season. I think he could be the first four-year starter at left tackle since McIntosh. Unless Josh Oglseby is as good as advertised and pushes Carimi to right tackle, which I would not mind seeing. Figure Andy Kemp and John Moffit will play left guard and center. And Kraig Urbik might be the best of any of these guys, wherever he ends up. This should be a strong position.

Defensive line
Matt Shaughnessy is a nice player, but I would really like to see him dominate in his senior season - no more second team All-Big Ten, how about first team All-American? I think he's got it in him. Feel pretty good about Kirk DeCremer and/or O'Brien Schofield opposite/behind Shaughnessy, they showed good signs this year. Worried about defensive tackle - think Chapman will come back strong, but Brandon Hoey apparently has injury problems and if Jeff Stehle were capable, he would have played this year. Mike Newkirk reminds me of Ben Herbert from earlier this decade - a nice swing DL who is too small to be a regular DT. Hoping one or both of these junior college recruits can give some quality snaps - the coaches would not have brought them in if they didn't think it was necessary.

Linebacker
This position should be very strong next year. Jonathan Casillas is on the verge of an All-American performance for his senior year, he's so fast. DeAndre Levy is so versatile, and I rarely find myself fingering him for missed tackles. The key to this unit, and maybe the whole defense, is Elijah Hodge's knees. if he can stay healthy and practice regularly and play, our run defense gets a lot better. And though he's a liability in coverage, Jae McFadden is a pretty good nickel or dime LB, depending on whether or not Levy lines up at end.

Secondary
This all depends on whether or not Ike returns. If he does, we're average here. If he doesn't, we're well below average. Let's assume he's off to the NFL. Ordinarily I'd like the Langford-Henry pairing, but both are coming off knee injuries, and we saw what that did to corners like Brett Bell. Shane Carter has great ball skills, but missed so many tackles this year. Strong safety is a crapshoot. It looked like Aubrey Pleasant got benched in the Outback Bowl, and it's hard to argue with the move. Jay Valai was OK, but Kim Royston continued to miss tackles as well. As noted earlier, apparently Chris Maragos will get a shot here, hopefully he can bring some consistency. Bottom line: we need Ike's ability to neutralize top receivers.

Special teams
David Gilreath was clearly a shot in the arm for the return units, and let's give credit to the blocking as well - he wasn't making something out of nothing, he was making something out of the window of opportunity presented him. In the kicking game, no matter who replaces Taylor Mehlhaff and Ken DeBauche, there will be a drop-off. It just can't be as big as the drop-off in the post-Davenport/Pisetsky/Stemke years, when the kicking game was god-awful. Also: long snapper Steve Johnson graduates, but we usually find an NFL-caliber guy there.

Coaching
This year, there were two games where we didn't seem prepared to play: Penn State and Tennessee. That's curious, since you think we would have been fired up coming off the Illinois loss, and we had a month to prepare for the Outback Bowl. Only two games in my mind were well-played all the way around: Indiana and Michigan.

Other than that, the defense wasn't as good as expected, but my sense is that had more to do with injuries and things like the Jamal Cooper dismissal than coaching. Still, the tackling needs to improve, and the safety situation needs to improve. Offensively, the staff seemed to get along fine without Henry Mason, but it sure would be nice to have him back. Hopefully Paul Chryst won't leave, as seems to be a possibility this time each year.

Leaders
Don't laugh, this has been an important part of all our best teams. My nominees: Pressley, Beckum, Casillas, Langford. These guys need to set the tone for the offseason and keep things headed in the right direction come fall.

So, 2008 in a nutshell:

-Feel good about: running back, receiver, offensive line, linebacker, return game
-Could go either way on: quarterback, defensive line, secondary with Ike
-Worried about: secondary without Ike, kicking game
-Overall: Feeling pretty good. Depending on how things break, this team could win anywhere from seven to 11 games.

My fingers are sore, what do you think?

Wisconsin-Michigan thoughts

It doesn't carry the same emotional wave as Saturday's win over Texas, but tonight's win at Michigan is very satisfying in its own way. Winning the conference opener on the road. Different heroes. Trevon's injury is not as bad as I feared. We absolutely own Michigan, and those pseudo-intellectuals in the Maize Rage can stop hopping up and down and slink back to their dorms beaten convincingly by a clearly better program.

This was a nice game to ease the hangover from the Outback Bowl ...

-Not sure what can be said about Jon Leuer's career-high 25 points that isn't obvious, but I'll try. Love that he catches the ball ready to shoot from behind the arc. Love that he's not afraid to stick his nose inside. Don't love his free throw shooting - at one point he was 5-for-5 on 3-pointers and 0-for-3 on free throws. But that's picking nits tonight.

-Also really liked Marcus Landry's effort tonight. Love how comfortable he looks in the post. Love how he and Leuer played off one another. Love how he skied for rebounds and threw down that dunk off a post. Don't love how many layups he missed, way too many.

-Another nice game for J-Bo. He played with composure and was a playmaker at times in the first half. Really liked his pass to Stiemsma for a dunk after Greg sealed off his defender. Bohannon was a nice closer late, hitting a runner, a 3, and five free throws to close things out.

-He had a relatively quiet game after his huge performance Saturday, but Butch was solid tonight too. After a 21-point game, his tendency could have been to force things and take bad shots, but he stayed within himself and took only six shots, and had an efficient nine points. One of his moves tonight reminded me of Kevin McHale.

-Awhile ago I wrote about how much I enjoyed seeing Michael Flowers making cuts in halfcourt sets. Here's another thing he does that I enjoy: he is strong with the ball. Some guys, it looks like you could poke it out of their grasp with your pinkie. Our whole team does a nice job of being strong with the ball while in triple-threat position, but for some reason Flowers really stands out to me in this area. He's got to do better at staying out of foul trouble; he has replaced Stiemsma as our most foul-prone player.

-One negative on the night: Krabby's play. A detailed box score hasn't been made available yet, but he probably played close to 35 minutes, and he struggled big-time. He was not strong with the ball - had a bunch of turnovers. Several times he made a nice cut or move to get in position for a layup, but didn't take it or missed it. He was 1-for-6 from the floor. He'll be okay.

-Anyone else notice how long it took Gully to get in the game tonight? He played a lot against Texas, but not much against Michigan. It seems like he and Leuer are an either-or combination.

-It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's great we're back in the top 25. To me the biggest benefit is that our scores get shown more often on ESPN's Bottom Line - more exposure.

-Don't want to get out of control here, but our upcoming schedule shapes up nicely: home against Iowa and Illinois, at Penn State, home against Northwestern and Michigan. We could very easily be 6-0 in Big Ten play heading into a game at Purdue.

Wisconsin-Tennessee thoughts

Tough loss. Tennessee definitely deserved this one, but it's a game we could have won without an extraordinary effort. It boiled down to some things that have plagued us all season, and some unexpectedly subpar coaching calls at times. Don't want this last game recap to be overwhelmingly negative, but that's what sticks out right now.

-Really have to like the way the defense played in the second half. But ... the Vols converted on so many third downs that we never got the decided field position edge that we needed. A number of bad missed tackles and familiar culprits - Elijah Hodge, Shane Carter, Kim Royston - that gave UT 15-20 yards a crack more than they should have had. Not getting off the field in these situations was the big difference between this year's defense and last year's.

-More execution gaffes: Hubbard's fumble, Jefferson's drop, all those procedure penalties, Donovan's underthrown last pass. Using two timeouts early in the second half also hurt.

-Two of Chryst's calls really struck me as bad from the snap: the pitch left to Smith on third-and-five, and the fourth down call in the fourth quarter that had Donovan rolling right with nobody even remotely open. We're Wisconsin, run the ball right at them on those plays. Reminded me of the option call at UNLV.

-The field seemed very soft, lots of guys slipping around. Wasn't a difference-maker, though.

-We seemed to have more fans there, or at least our fans were much louder than the assembled hillbillies wearing orange. (Sorry, made it almost 14 hours into the new year before a bitter slip.)

-Not sure why Beckum wasn't more involved, if he was well-covered, if Donovan was missing him, or, least likely, if he wasn't prominent in the game plan. If you would have told me four hours ago that he wouldn't get the 40 yards he needed for 1,000 on the season, I would have laughed.

-Thought the staff took too long to put P.J. back in during the second half. He played great today, no signs of rust. I'll follow up on this later this week, but is there still doubt that he's our best back? He is our best chance to consistently beat good teams by controlling the ball on the ground.

-Hodge's missed tackle or two aside, the linebackers played well. Hodge made a nice play to block the field goal attempt - thought we almost got an extra point earlier. Casillas and Levy were constantly around the ball, Casillas in the backfield, Levy in coverage. Schofield and DeCremer also made nice plays in the second half.

-LePay just said the senior class ends up as the winningest class in UW history - 40-11. Congratulations to these guys.

Disappointing end to a season that didn't deliver on high expectations, but we played a close game on January 1, won nine games for the fourth straight year, had a winning Big Ten record and went undefeated at home. If
you feel like complaining about that, I feel sorry for you.

Look for a more detailed season recap or two in the coming week.