"This looks familiar"

That's what my dad said when we coughed up yet another lead tonight in Evanston. Embarrassing.

It was fun being there, though, and I have all sorts of stuff to write about this, and photos to share. But the Embassy Suites actually charges for Internet access, and I'm sure not going to pay 10 bucks to write about this mess right now. Tune in tomorrow ...

Evanston, here we come

Five-game losing streak be damned, we're going to Evanston today!

Granted, it would be much better if we were riding a five-game winning streak, or if we were within a stone's throw of first place, this game would be much more interesting. But it's still a chance to see the Badgers in person, in a new venue, which is a real treat.

I believe this is the first time I will have seen the Wisconsin basketball team in a true road game. Hopefully the host fans are gracious.

It would be great if there are more Badger fans in attendance than Northwestern fans, as appeared to be the case in our Big Ten title-clinching win at Welch-Ryan Arena last year. The recent losing streak may have tempered the enthusiasm to drive even two hours to suburban Chicago, but I'm thinking we'll be well-represented.

Missing a Stiem engine

Heading into the basketball offseason, I made the note that I really wish Greg Stiemsma had redshirted as a freshman, rather than playing 10 minutes or whatever he did. Hadn't thought my about it lately until frequent Badgercentric commeter Mr. Man commented on his own blog, Camp Lambeau, that Stiemer's presence would make this year's team much more interesting.

Let your mind wander. With Stiemsma starting and playing 20-plus minutes per game ...

-The interior defense is obviously better. Post players have a tougher time scoring. Penetrators have a tougher time finishing. Shots are blocked.

-The perimeter defense is probably not much better at stopping 3-pointers, but with an eraser behind them they are a bit more aggressive, resulting in more steals.

-The offense has a guy who takes and consistently makes 17-footers, which opens things up for Landry's post game and Hughes' penetration.

-Keaton Nankivil's progress is not as critical, and his contributions are pleasant bonuses.


How many win or fewers losses would he be good for at this point? Hard to say; maybe three or four. Maybe none. But the team would be better.

Watching Keaton's coming out party Tuesday gave me the same thoughts. He played what, 46 minutes as a true freshman? It's not inconceivable that if he keeps gaining confidence and smoothing out the rough edges of his game that in two years, we'll be wishing like hell he would be sticking around another year. Kids and their crazy decisions ...

Negative feedback loop

Lately, the downbeat economic news that has become so unavoidable has begun making mention of the economy being in a negative feedback loop. It's fairly easy to understand: businesses struggle, which leads to job losses and less consumer and business spending, which means to more business struggles, which leads to more job losses and even less consumer and business spending, which ... you get the picture.

That's what it feels like to be a Badger fan nowadays. Forget the basketball team's strugles, if you can. This cold spell has caused many fans to question the future of the program under Bo, by the most successful Wisconsin basketball coach of the modern era. (Read this post on Camp Lambeau, which is interesting, even if I don't completely agree.)

But the comments posted on a recruiting story the other day on Badger Beat really took the cake. The comments on the Madison newspapers' website, as they often are on the Journal Sentinel's blog, are typically ridiculously juvenile and ill-considered.

One poster at the end of the story, cleverly named http://www.firebretbielema.com/, claims that he is part of a group of 50 alumni who have been contacting recruits who orally committed to play at Wisconsin and asking them to cancel their recruiting visits. This poster expects his heroic efforts to pay off with several decommits before now and signing day. All in the name of trying to get our football coach fired.

Really?

Granted, this guy is probably full of crap, but just think if they actually did this. If you were, say, Montee Ball and you got a call from some random guy in Wisconsin, claiming to be a Badger fan, advising you to decommit, your reaction would be Are you friggin' nuts? right?

And if they were successful at sabotaging a recruiting class and getting Bret Bielema fired, and this became a publicly known fact, well that would make the Wisconsin job very attractive for hot coaching prospects, wouldn't it?

This negativity is just feeding on itself. It's to the point where the last two verbal commitments to our recruiting class, Dezmen Southward and Jacob Pedersen, are getting raked across the coals on the Internet by anonymous cowards who aren't impressed by these kids' resumes.

Southward, a teammate of Conor O'Neill at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, the #1 high school team in the country this year, is a raw prospect who chose us over some Big East schools. (On a related note: Conor O'Neal has decommitted and pledged to Boston College and its new coach, sparing Matt LePay much future confusion.) Pedersen, who plays for the UP's top program, had the gall to be recruited by some MAC and Division I-AA schools. Apparently this isn't good enough for the snobs who think every one of our recruits needs to have offers from Oklahoma, Florida, and USC as well.

My advice: take a step back everybody. Deep breath. Remember why you became a Badger fan in the first place. Cheer for the kids and coaches we have and that we're bringing in. Enjoy the wins, don't let the losses bug you too much. Break the negative feedback loop.

UW-Purdue thoughts

Un ... effing ... believable.

This is just a miserable time to be a Badger fan, isn't it? It would be one thing if we were getting blown out by bad teams every night and absolutely nothing was working. But this is the third time in the last five games where we were in position to win late but could not finish. Such a tease.

Purdue is obviously the better team, a very formidable group that's only going to get better. Talented, well-coached, balanced, good defensively.

But when Keaton Nankivil makes 5-of-5 3-pointers and scores 21 points ... well, you should win. Especially at the Kohl Center.

-How did Jordan Taylor's last shot rim out? Because we aren't getting any bounces nowadays, that's how.

-Really thought that when Krabby leveled Jackson early that it would set a tone for us to be in control throughout. It did look like Joe extended his forearm and probably could have gotten whistled. It looked like Jackson sort of milked the hit for a long time afterward.

-J-Bo's struggles are killing our offensive balance. He's not making shots, and he's getting gun-shy. If we're going to play Jordan Taylor and Pop at the same time, it might make sense for J-Bo to sit at those times, at least until he gets his stroke going again. Northwestern is up next, and they were the opponent for Jason's career night a couple weeks ago, hopefully the matchup can get him going again.

-JaJuan Johnson just makes Landry a non-factor, doesn't he? Marcus had nine points tonight but I can't remember any of them. Johnson is just the perfect defender to put on him.

-Really missing Michael Flowers. Purdue got way too many wide-open looks on the perimeter tonight, in particular the 3-pointers by Hummel and Kramer that essentially won the game for the Boilers. I can't stand watching those two guys celebrate, it's super annoying.

-The silver lining was Nankivil. Regular readers will no doubt remember that I've been begging Keaton to shoot more all season long, and tonight he showed worthy of those pleas.

Just checked, and no one's got a site up at www.fireboryan.com. Better get on that, superfans!

NFL Badgers

Last week Corby asked me my thoughts on the most successful Badgers currently playing in the NFL. [ADD: In general, this is based on 2008 performances.] What do you think?

1. Joe Thomas

2. Jim Leonhard

3. Owen Daniels - did you realize he had the third-most receiving yards of any tight end this year?

4. Lee Evans

5. Chris Chambers

6. Mark Tauscher

7. Casey Rabach

8. Aaron Stecker

9. Jim Sorgi

10. Alex Lewis

11. Nick Hayden

Remember 1998?

A fact I heard many times before, during, and after the Badgers' loss to Illinois on Saturday was that Wisconsin hasn't lost four games in a row since the 1998 season. It's a season I remember well -- my senior year in college, the first year of the Kohl Center, and the last year we didn't make the NCAA Tournament.

There is absolutely no parallel between this year's team and the '98 team. The '98 team lost Ty Calderwood before the season started, which killed any momentum built by the surprising run to the tournament the year before. Dick Bennett played a bunch of young guys heavy minutes that year -- Mike Kelley, Andy Kowske, Mark Vershaw, Maurice Linton. They took their lumps, but those lumps paved the way for a three-year tournament run for that class, punctuated by the Final Four run in 2000.

This year's team, while often described as "young," starts two seniors and two juniors, veterans of five NCAA Tournament games and countless important Big Ten games. No injuries have taken down important players. Promising underclassmen are getting minutes, but there's little suggestion that they will shine brighter in the future than Marcus Landry, Joe Krabbenhoft, and the other old-timers are now.

What could turn this season around?

-A win against Purdue. Bo talked earlier this week about how Pop needed to get his mojo back, and he's right. But it's really the whole team that is missing its mojo, and one big win over a good team can start the pendulum swinging the right way.

-Jason Bohannon gets some steals that lead to fast-break layups. Which would, in turn, build his confidence on his jumper -- he's shooting just 38% from the field.

-The Pop-J-Bo-Taylor three-guard lineup leads to more better dribble penetration, which leads to easier looks for Landry and Krabby.

-Rob Wilson takes Tim Jarmusz's minutes and provides a much-needed energy boost. Why isn't Rob playing more? Early returns on him were so promising, and it doesn't seem like he's been horrible in his limited minutes lately.

-Keaton Nankivil shoots more, and starts hitting the 17-foot jumpers that Greg Stiemsma made so often last year, the shots that demoralized opposing defenses.

-Krabby continues to score in double figures. This development surprises me, in a good way. If you would have told me that Krabby would have 16 points, 12 rebounds against Illinois, there's no way I think we lose that game.

-Jon Leuer's post defense improves.

Really, the first one is the most important. The Badgers just have to put together a good, winning effort against a good team that washes away the memories of Minnesota and Iowa (Purdue and Illinois were excusable losses). College sports teams ride such emotional roller coasters that all these kids need is a nudge in the right direction. They get that chance tomorrow.

UW-Illinois thoughts

Sorry for the lateness of this post (Jim), yesterday my cousin and her fiance watched the boys while Jana and I enjoyed a relatively stress-free day in Appleton. We got home late, went to church first thing this morning, then naps for the boys. So I just got to watch the game.

Didn't have to. Listened to much of it while driving around Appleton and checked the box score when it was over, and that would have been all I would have needed to do to analyze this game.

Often, when we play noontime hoops at the fitness center in Iola, we'll be catching drinks from the bubbler between games when members of the losing team will say "What happened?" And much of the time the simple answer is "They made shots and we missed ours."

Which is what happened in Champaign. The Badgers' effort, on the whole, was encouraging. We held a slight rebounding edge, and had 10 offensive boards. Only five turnovers. Only one technical foul. Krabby had a really nice game --16 points, 12 boards. The three-guard offense featuring Jordan Taylor, which matched up against their three-guard lineup, seemed to generate more movement than we've seen on offense in recent games.

But oh, the shooting woes -- 35% from the field, 29% on 3-pointers, 69% from the free throw line. Illinois -- 50% from the field, 40% on 3-pointers, 82% from the line. Game over.

Really, we were missing makeable shots. The Illini defense was good, as expected, but we still got good looks that just didn't go down. Our defense is still just missing something that has made it elite over the years, and yielded good looks. They made their open looks.

Pop played better than at Iowa, but still shot 5-of-13, dragged down by the usual shot clock-beating heaves. Landry was more assertive but still missed some bunnies, as did Krabby. J-Bo and Leuer were totally off their games.

The final spread was seven points, and as I watched the game it dawned on me that Chester Frazier scored seven iffy points by himself -- a banked-in 3-pointer, two free throws on the Krabbenhoft blocking foul that drew Bo's technical (tough call, could have gone either way), and a desperation scoop he threw up to avoid a charge minutes later.

Purdue next ... could be another brick in a demoralizing stretch or could be the perfect foil for a momentum-changing win.

Alando Tucker

For some reason, the other night I watched the Celtics blow out the Suns. Horrible game, outcome never in doubt. Only reason I watched was to see if Alando Tucker would get in -- and he did. He had 11 points, a steal, and an assist in 12 minutes of action.

He's actually gotten into six games lately, albeit in very limited minutes.

His jump shot still looks the same, which is to say not good, yet he's shooting 73% from the floor. He threw down a left-handed dunk off a turnover, showing that smooth explosiveness we know him for.

Hopefully he'll keep earning more minutes and start getting into non-blowouts with greater frequency.

What's wrong with these guys?

Gotta be honest with you: my enthusiasm for blogging about the Badgers is as low as it's been for quite some time. Football season was a major drain, but at least we had basketball season to look forward to. There's plenty of time to turn things around, but basketball is looking a lot like football.

But why? Lots of theories abound, here are mine:

-Lack of swagger/enthusiasm. Alando Tucker and Kam Taylor played with supreme confidence. Brian Butch and Michael Flowers were energetic, emotional players, especially Butch. Those things are missing right now.

Trevon Hughes plays with a swagger, but it's been missing the past three games, to the point where his place on the bench in the waning moments of regulation and overtime didn't seem that strange in retrospect. Marcus Landry shows emotion after really big shots, but it doesn't seem to be an emotion that spreads.

The rest of the key players -- Krabby, J-Bo, Leuer -- are about as even-keeled as they come. Ordinarily, that's the type of player I prefer. But during tough times like we're going through now, you need a spark and reassurance, and one of those five guys has to get it started.

-This may sound dumb, and may indeed be dumb, but I think Landry, Leuer, and Bohannon need to force more shots. Think about all the bad shots Butch and Tucker took. They were forced, but they forced defenses to be on their toes at all times.

This year's team seems to only take really good shots, Hughes excepted. That's all well and good when you're playing Coppin State and you get good shots relatively early in the shot clock. Against the excellent defenses of the Big Ten, those clean looks don't come with regularity.

So what you get is 30 seconds of "probing" that doesn't really test the defense at all, and Hughes is left to jack something up. Landry, Leuer, and Bohannon are all skilled shotmakers who should exert their skills outside of the parameters of the Swing, as Butch, Taylor, and Tucker did before them.

-We're missing Butch's and Stiemsma's height. This surprises me, since I thought we'd be able to get through the Big Ten season without this being a liability, given the seeming paucity of quality bigs.

Case in point: Last night someone named David Palmer scores 21 points and grabs seven rebounds against very little resistance inside. Two games ago JaJuan Johnson had his way inside with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

What can remedy this? Faster maturity from Keaton Nankivil? Force feed Ian Markolf minutes? Probably not the answer.

For all of Landry's and Leuer's skills, they are not able to carry the low-post defensive load without a bigger body alongside them.

-And all those turnovers. Oh, god, those turnovers make you sick.

The way I see it, the talent level is comparable to the team that won 31 games last year, and the coaching is presumably exactly the same. But you've got a little less maturity and personality, a little less height, a little tougher conference, and a point guard going through a midseason crisis -- add it all up and you've got a three-game losing streak.

Unfortunately, the schedule doesn't hold what appear to be any gimmes anytime soon. This year will be a great test for the program and its viability going forward. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.