Phil Steele might need to submit a hair and urine sample

Picking the Badgers to finish in a three-way tie for fourth in the Big Ten? Come on now! Yes, quarterback is a huge hole to fill, but I suspect Allan Evridge will step in quite capably. Beyond that, the Badgers have every piece of the puzzle: a stifling defensive line, role players in the secondary, wide receivers who are coming into their own, big-booty P. J. Hill powering through a capable offensive line.

Mark it down - the Big Ten title will come down to the winner of the Wisconsin-Michigan game at Camp Randall. Period.

It's an odd, topsy-turvy year, with Steele being so wrong and CFN picking the Badgers to head to the Rose Bowl. Wait and see, I suppose. Wait and see.

Badger draft action

As predicted, Joe Thomas was snatched up quickly; he went as the third overall pick to the Cleveland Browns. Only JaMarcus Russell (LSU/Oakland) and Calvin Johnson (Georgia Tech/Detroit) were picked before Joe. Congrats on the big-money gig, Joe, even if it means having to reside in the Mistake on the Lake.

Unfortunately, every other Badger is still on the board, and nobody really expects any of them to be drafted. Look for Mark Zalewski and John Stocco to sign free agent contracts with the team of their choosing, though. So, one guy drafted means that UW produced the same number of draft picks as UW-Whitewater; good luck to Derek Stanley in his career with the St. Louis Rams.

Speaking of the Browns, looks like Thomas will be blocking for the guy they passed over, the ostensible QB of the Future and the inevitable focus of breathless puff-pieces for years to come, Mr. Brady Quinn. He slipped all the way to #22, until finally the Browns traded up to take him off the board. Don't fall victim to the delusions that are running wild at Notre Dame blog the Blue-Gray Sky; worth a read, if only for gems like this:

The Browns got lucky, and anybody who tries to say that this was part of their "master plan" is kidding themselves. I realize Cleveland is now claiming that they were trying to get back in ahead of Miami to select Quinn, but that doesn't pass the smell test. When Miami goofed, that opened the door. Lucky for Cleveland.

They only got lucky from the standpoint that Miami appears to be the only franchise left in the NFL that believes that Joey Harrington is a great get. Of course, there are a lot of people out there that believe that Quinn has as much upside as Harrington does, hence his long wait in the Green Room on Saturday. What the Browns did was to take a calculated risk, knowing that there would be a chance to use the third pick on Thomas and pick up Quinn right around where he belonged.

That the Browns traded two picks, including their 1st rounder next year, could be significant. Brady, if he starts for the Browns, is controlling his own value -- but inversely so. The better the Browns do with Brady at the helm, the lower their first round pick next year, and the cheaper the cost of acquiring Brady in the first place. Weird.

All that says is that they're willing to give him a shot at being the franchise quarterback. And this isn't a question of finances or "cheapness" or what have you; what the Browns want to do is to win games, and if it does turn out that Quinn has the ability to lead an NFL team, that's just another hole they don't have to fill en route to, y'know, winning those games.

It was a perfect storm for Jamarcus. What other team in this draft would have taken him #1 overall? If the Raiders hadn't been picking first, Russell could have been the one "green-roomed" yesterday instead of Quinn.

I'm certain that this is based only on petty jealousy. Although, for the record, I don't see Russell doing much at the QB position in the NFL either.

Charlie's right. All Brady has to do to wash this day away is to strap it on and kick some ass. Time to walk the walk.

This is a tough thing to do even if you've walked the walk before. Considering Quinn hasn't, he might have some trouble.

Now, the genesis of this post isn't in good old-fashioned Notre Dame hating. Although I do agree with what Bret Bielema had to say about the Irish, my feelings for Notre Dame border on the tepid. It's great that they get all these pre-season accolades, that their quarterbacks are perennially overrated pretty boys, that they occasionally steal a win from Michigan but spend most of their time beating up on service acadamies and Syracuse and losing to the big boys, and that they go to a bowl game two tiers higher than they deserve and then -- never surprisingly -- they lose, and generally lose by at last two touchdowns (the Irish have lost nine straight, and only 2 losses have been by a margin of fewer than 14 points), but this is based in charitably correcting insanity.

BGS needs to loosen the faux gold helmet a little bit and breathe the same air the rest of us are. Brady Quinn doesn't win big games because he's not an outstanding quarterback.

And you thought "prime time" was supposed to be a good thing

On the surface, the Big Ten Network -- a TV station devoted wholly to Big Ten sports -- should have cable companies scrambling for the privilege of carrying it, at least in the Midwest.

But then you sit back and think about the very public battle between the NFL Network and the cable companies who refused to pay the high price (70-80 cents per subscriber). Then you think about the popularity of the Big Ten -- a single conference -- versus the popularity of the entire NFL. And the fact that the Big Ten Network wants even more money than the NFL Network did: over $1 per subscriber. The cable companies didn't buckle to the NFL, and the realization hits: this station just isn't going to be available.

The Big Ten, though, is easing into this thing. It's said that certain football games will be televised exclusively on its network. Evidently, they're trying not to step on any toes; take a look at the prime time schedule for the 2007 season:

Sept. 1 -- Indiana State at Indiana, 8 p.m. EDT
Sept. 8 -- Syracuse at Iowa, 7 p.m. CDT
Sept. 15 -- Duke at Northwestern, 7 p.m. CDT
Oct. 13 -- Indiana at Michigan State, 7 p.m. EDT
Nov. 3 -- Illinois at Minnesota, 7 p.m. CDT

Hmm. Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, and Michigan State fans will all have to fanagle a way to see one of their team's conference games. Who doesn't?

Fans of Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Purdue.

Like I said, the Big Ten isn't trying to tick anyone off initially. They've managed to keep the schools with the biggest, most rabid fanbases out of the death-hole of BTN Primetime.

That's about right

If you're not reading Penn State blog Black Shoe Diaries, you should be. This post is not why, but is still ... well, something.

Thank you, Jackie

For playing the most visible role in changing the landscape of American sports. Thanks for suffering through what you did, and doing so with grace.

A good piece about Jackie Robinson Day over at Bless You Boys, and a nice tribute illustration at BCRS.

I hear that

Nicole capably sums up the Badger basketball season.

I don't really get into spring football, and there are no collegiate spring sports that interest me (although if the Badger softball team catches fire, I'll probably pay some attention.) For now, the big deal is the NHL Playoffs; I'll have no problem rooting for the Detroit Red Wings as long as that maniac Todd Bertuzzi is out. Then there's baseball, and I'm a big fan of that, but baseball is not what this site is about, especially since UW no longer fields a varsity team.

So, I'll be around. Keep checking back. And try to forget about that stupid tournament.

Not with a bang, but a whimper

And that's that. The Badgers bumbled and stumbled their way through the first game in the NCAA Tournament and followed that up with a gag-worthy "effort" in the second round. They followed the same script in both games: run up a huge deficit, go on an improbable run to take the lead, and finish in cruise control. Beating the Islanders of Texas A&M Corpus Christi on cruise control wound up being a simple task. Doing the same against UNLV helped the Rebels win a date with the Oregon Ducks.

For all the highs this season, there were so many lows that the sum of the parts far, far exceeds the whole. Alando Tucker becomes the Badgers' all-time leading scorer? Great. The Badgers pile up the most regular-season wins they've ever had, aided by a record-breaking win streak? Fantastic. The AP dubs the Badgers the #1 team in the land for the first time ever? Let's answer that one with a question -- how many hours did it take for the Badgers to lose after that announcement? Like, 30? Just perfect.

This was supposed to be our year. We don't always get a year, but this one was supposed to be it. The Badgers' 2005-6 season left us champing at the bit; yeah, they got knocked out of the Big Dance in the first round, but they weren't even supposed to be there! This team was going to do special things next year; nobody that big was leaving, Landry and Stiemsma would play, it would be stupendous.

And it was! A lone loss to Missouri State was the only blemish on the Badgers' record for months. Alando Tucker was a beast, and most importantly, it seemed that every night a new role player would emerge with a previously-unknown skill. Flowers would work defensive magic. Bohannon would knock down energy-creating triples. Landry would flip the switch and become superhuman. Everything was falling into place.

Then, we got into February. Drew Neitzel and Greg Oden put down the #1 Badgers in consecutive games, and the Badgers entered a stagnant period that continued right through the end of the season. The Badgers, the team of destiny, watched as the Ohio State Buckeyes -- a team of freshmen -- walk away with all the awards that they knew they had the talent to win. After getting the victory in the first head-to-head game with the Buckeyes, the Badgers lost the next, getting bumped off of the inside track for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and losing the regular-season conference title in one fell swoop. Not long after, the Buckeyes were back -- the only thing standing between Wisconsin and a Big Ten Conference Tournament championship. And friends, that game was not even close.

But in March, the season begins anew. Texas A&M Corpus-Christi figured that out about 12 basketball minutes before the Badgers did; once Wisconsin decided that you shouldn't spot anyone 14 points in the NCAA Tournament, even #15 seeds, things became less interesting and Wisconsin coasted on to the round of 32 by what looked like a comfortable margin.

Then they didn't even make the Sweet Sixteen. That's what the public saw, that's what the fans care about, and that's how this team will be judged. Regular season accomplishments keep things interesting from December to February. Individual honors are a feather in the cap, but ultimately meaningless. But when you're in the Big Dance, you need to samba like nobody's watching, and the Badgers did not do that.

I guess it's football season

Still simmering down over here. Updates tonight/tomorrow. I guess the tournament's officially into the Sweet 16 tonight so basketball posting ought to happen posthaste.

Maybe I ought to shift this site's focus to non-revenue sports; while the basketball team was bricking its way to an early demise, the women's hockey team won its second straight national title and the men's track team won its first ever NCAA Indoor title. Congratulations to both teams.

Much more to come.

Chasing down that one-seed

The Badgers did it again yesterday, using stifling defense to hold the Illini to a season-low 41 points in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament. So, the Big Ten tournament worked how it was supposed to; #1 Ohio State and #2 Wisconsin advance to the final, setting up a rubber match for the season series.

Obviously, a ton is at stake here; the winner will almost certainly get a one-seed for the Big Dance (although I think that Ohio State will get a one-seed regardless; people seem very high on them and their resume is strong) and will close out the season with 30 wins before the tournament even begins. The loser will fret for a couple hours, then ultimately hear their seeding, destination, and chump first-round opponent.

The Badgers' play in the tournament thus far has been encouraging. Kammron Taylor got his groove back, Alando Tucker's been a scoring machine (and he's become not only Big Ten Player of the Year, but UW's all-time leading scorer; congrats!), and Stiemsma and Krabbenhoft have filled in admirably for the injured Brian Butch. What you're watching is a team that's ready to make a tournament run. If they can go 13 minutes at a time without turning the ball over like they did against Illinois, the Badgers have a shot at going all the way. They just need to snap out of the offensive cold periods that they've experienced recently and they'll be all set.

It was nice to see the Badgers ready for Michigan State on Friday, too. After the first two games, I know most Wisconsin fans were dreading that matchup. Fortunately, Neitzel came out cold (and was remarkably well-defended by Michael Flowers), they played a sloppy, foul-and-turnover-filled game, and the Badgers didn't stoop to their level. I was once convinced that the Spartans were going to be a great sleeper pick for the NCAA Tourney, but after their struggles with Northwestern and their poor effort against the Badgers, I'm picking them to go one-and-done.

Hopefully this afternoon we'll see the Badgers come out with a fury and smoke the Buckeyes. Then we can look forward to that tense matchup with Central Connecticut State.

Spartans again

Three games in less than three weeks. Couldn't we have done this before the Spartans had their act together?

Keep gunning for that #1 seed, gentlemen. Best of luck.

Go Badgers!

One hour to the Big Ten Tournament

Here's how it goes down:

Thursday's Games
(8) Michigan 68, (7) Minnesota 61
(7) Michigan State 59, (10) Northwestern 44
(6) Illinois 65, (11) Penn State 53

Friday's Games
(8) Michigan 52, (1) Ohio State 51
(5) Purdue 67, (6) Iowa 59
(2) Wisconsin 60, (7) Michigan State 58
(3) Indiana 72, (6) Illinois 58

Saturday's Games
(5) Purdue 63, (8) Michigan 53
(2) Wisconsin 70, (3) Indiana 65

Sunday's Game
(2) Wisconsin 62, (5) Purdue 50

What, who'd you think I was going to pick?

More previews at Penn State's Black Shoe Diaries, Big Ten Wonk, the Final Score, and Buckeye Battle Cry.

Midweek update

Dead air kills ... here are a few juicy links:

Brian Butch is out 4 to 6 weeks. A quick recovery, then, gets him into some Final Four matchups. A slow recovery might have him ready for the national title game, or could keep him out of the season completely. What a rough break, not for the Badgers, but for him. You work so hard to be part of a high-achieving team ... and then this. I feel for you, Brian. I really do.

The hockey team got swept at Michigan Tech. All that buildup from a couple weekends ago is gone now. Hopefully they can close out the regular season in graceful fashion this weekend when they visit Minnesota-Duluth.

Big Ten Wonk thinks that Ohio State is overachieving. Their raw talent does indeed make them a prime candidate to be that 1-seed or 2-seed that doesn't make the Sweet 16.

The Sports Frog watched the OSU game and (surprise!) takes issue with something Billy Packer said!

The Wisconsin Sports Bar, with no trace of sour grapes, ranks the reasons why the Badgers lost to the Buckeyes:

1. Luck

2. They were on the road.

3. {An injury}

4. Home court officiating, again. Had the Badgers enjoyed their normal foul-shooting advantage they would have won.

5. Stupidity. How did they not get the ball at half court for the final play?

6. Bad free throw shooting. Kammron Taylor, you could have won the game.

Also, guys ... they got outplayed by one of the best teams in the nation. Just sayin'.

Michael David Smith at the AOL Fanhouse has a post all about Thad Matta's gum situation.

Nicole at Cute Sports wants you to join her March Madness Challenge.

Finally, why couldn't Drew Neitzel have caught the flu a week earlier than he did?

Losing streak

Unlike the pathetic contest with Michigan State, it's tough to sit back and instantly know what went wrong with this one.

Well, one obvious thing was having Kam Taylor at the free-throw line with a possibility to change a one-point lead in the dying seconds of the game to a three-point lead, only to have him miss the first shot of a one-and-one. The Badgers weren't doing great from the line to begin with (they didn't get there very much in the first place) but with a senior on one of the top teams in the nation, who has the sixth-best free throw percentage in the conference ... you just HAVE to make that shot.

This game was memorable for a lot of reasons. It was officiated very loosely; the referees "let 'em play," that's for sure. Greg Oden committed about twelve fouls and was actually called for three, which in my book means the game was called really fairly. (Seriously ... he didn't get away with as much as he usually did. Hell, they called him for a travel on a pivotal possession! What more can you ask for?) Then we had several replays of Brian Butch's injured elbow, a nice shot of Joe Krabbenhoft picking his contact lens off of the court and putting it in his mouth, then Thad Matta doing the same thing with a piece of gum. Jason Bohannon went off while the nation watched -- he'll ably fill the hole that Kammron Taylor leaves when he graduates.

So, the game ended with a blocked shot after a pretty finger-roll by Mike Conley, and the Badgers have now lost two in a row. It's funny; this is possibly the best team Wisconsin's ever fielded, and they're not even going to win the conference.

A Florida loss keeps some hope for a one-seed alive, and the Big Ten Tournament title is still definitely within reach. But this is a bad penultimate regular-season game result, and now the Badgers will have to go where they're going without Brian Butch's services.

So, now we sit and wait, and hopefully beat Michigan State at home. Hopefully there's some fun left for the Wisconsin Badgers this season.

(If you want to relive the game, the Capital Times has a liveblog up.)

Basketball Q&A with Around the Oval

Prepare to be Buckeyed: Sean over at Around the Oval thought it might be fun to do some basketball Q&A since this weekend's game is going to be bigger than Cats. His answers to my questions appear below; my answers to his should be up at his blog in a short time. Go on over and check out his fine site. You'll get all kinds of good info and commentary from the other side of the matchup as you anxiously await this Sunday's tip!

1. Michigan State beat the Badgers on Tuesday by doing three things, all of which were related: (1) They clogged the lane and didn't allow the Badgers to penetrate; (2) they forced Wisconsin to take a season-high 28 three-point shots, many of which they missed, and several of which occurred as the shot clock was expiring; and (3) they rebounded extremely effectively on both ends of the court. Which, if any, of these sound like hallmarks of Ohio State's game?

Number three is definitely a part of the Buckeyes' game; according to the Big Ten Wonk, the Buckeyes rank second in offensive rebounding percentage and first in defensive rebounding percentage. Number one is kind of a part of OSU's game. Players can penetrate the OSU defense, but as long as Oden's in the game and standing under the basket, those guys will generally either get their shot blocked or realize going inside was a bad idea and kick the ball outside. Number two is related to the first point in that Oden's presence forces a lot of threes (in Purdue's first game against the Buckeyes, Carl Freakin' Landry was jacking up threes). However, teams have been making enough of those threes for it to be worthwhile for them. It's great to see an opponent forced to shoot threes, but when they make 40% of them? Not so much.

2. What cost the Buckeyes the game when they came to Madison? Have you seen improvement in that area since then?

I'd say it was Greg Oden playing injured and being rusty, and the lack of a second quality big man. Oden had an okay game (ten points, seven rebounds), but OSU needs better than an okay game when they play one of the top teams in the country. He wasn't as dominating as you'd (or rather I'd) like to see. Some of that was because he was playing injured, and some was because of foul trouble. He's still not the absolutely dominating player you expect, but he's playing better, and he's playing smarter, so there has been improvement there.

If memory serves, Oden picked up at least a couple of those fouls defending pick-and-rolls away from the basket. Pulling Oden away from the basket like that was a good move: he doesn't defend nearly as well when he's not in the low post, and it freed up the inside, leading to Kammron Taylor driving to the basket over and over and getting put on the line sixteen(!) times. Now, if a team tried that, OSU would probably put Othello Hunter, a 6'9" forward who's really improved over the season, on the big man that sets the screens and have Oden just stay under the basket.

But on the other hand, the Buckeyes played pretty well in Madison. They shot well from outside, they contained Alando Tucker, they spread the scoring load. OSU has looked far worse in some games since then (in particular, they haven't shot threes as well as they did in Madison). So the improvements noted above may be offset by the Buckeyes playing worse in other facets of the game.

3. What's with the close calls to Penn State? The Badgers had no problem with them, and the Buckeyes seem to be a very solid team, and (possibly most importantly) the game wasn't on TV in Wisconsin, so I'm curious.

That's a good question. In the first game, the Buckeyes blew a big first-half lead, so the consensus was that the Buckeyes just took PSU too lightly and eased up in the second half. But then the rematch happened, and Penn State was in the game for its entirety, even leading for a while. I think the Buckeyes just had trouble with the Nittany Lions' 2-3 zone, especially the shooters, who didn't shoot well enough to take advantage of the openings given by the zone. Additionally, Oden didn't get the ball enough, particularly in the second game, though I'm not sure whether that's a result of the zone or Buckeyes players choosing to ignore the 7', 280 pound guy going up against 6'5" Jamelle Cornley in the low post. Overall, I'd chalk the close games up to a lack of focus by the Buckeyes (something the Badgers probably won't be able to take advantage of) and trouble handling a zone (something the Badgers might be able to take advantage of, if they so desire).

4. Rapid fire prediction time! Give me the percent likelihood of the following: Ohio State wins the Big Ten regular season title; Ohio State wins the Big Ten tournament; Ohio State makes the Final Four; Wisconsin goes farther in the NCAA tournament than the Buckeyes.

Regular season title: 60% outright, 95% co-champs with Wisconsin (assuming that, as in football, a team can share the title with a team that beat them)

Big Ten tournament: 40% (several teams will have more to play for than the Buckeyes and might pull off an upset, then there's the possible re-rematch with the Badgers)

Final Four: 30% (16 of 40 one seeds have made the Final Four in the past ten years (40%), then a deduction because the Buckeyes could be a two seed and because they aren't a dominating team like many of those one seeds)

Wisconsin going farther: 55% (I'm still hoping the Buckeyes reach their potential and play like a great team, but the Badgers have been more consistent and more consistently impressive this season)

5. Fill in the blank: Greg Oden will play basketball in Columbus for _____ season(s).

I gotta go one season. Oden could improve his game by staying for another year (or more), and college is fun, but he has nothing to gain financially by sticking around, and he'd be risking injury or slipping down draft boards Leinart-style. As much as I'd hope otherwise, and regardless of what he says, I still expect he'll make the safe financial decision at the end of the day.

Women's hockey: in a position for huge embarrassment

I might be late to the party on this one, but I just noticed that women's hockey is hosting North Dakota this weekend for some WCHA playoff action. And guess what:

Wisconsin won the WCHA regular season crown with 50 points and a 23-1-4 record in conference play. North Dakota finished the regular season 0-27-1 in the WCHA.

Can you imagine if the Sioux were able to knock off Wisconsin this weekend? What an enormous embarrassment.

Go get 'em, Badgers!

In non-losing-to-Michigan-State-news

Two things: football offensive coordinator Paul Chryst, rumored to be headed to any number of NFL teams as a coordinator, will in fact stay in Madison next year. There's an Ash Wednesday joke about Chryst in there somewhere, but that's not up to me to find.

Also, it appears that the University has bullied a few high schools in Iowa and forced them to give up their versions of the Motion W logo. Way to protect that trademark!

Looks like the AP voters were wrong

Brent Musberger said it first, and everyone else on the planet has repeated it by now: this Sunday's matchup between Wisconsin and Ohio State will still be a #1 versus #1 affair, since the polls don't come out till Monday. But I can say with relative confidence that the team that we saw playing the Michigan State Spartans last night has a long way to go before they can be considered the top team in the country.

First, let's look at the consequences of this loss. Obviously it gave UW a second conference loss, which means that Ohio State now has sole possession of first place in the Big Ten. It most likely got the Spartans into the NCAA Tournament, which is a bad thing since they're obviously a dangerous squad and they'll have a low seed. They might cause some chaos in those March brackets. And finally, it reduced the Badgers' claim for a #1 seed in the Big Dance (although I think it would take another loss to cost them completely).

So, why did the Badgers lose last night? There were plenty of reasons, some of which were under their control and others that were not. The spark that ignited the Spartans was Drew Neitzel, who kept the Spartans in the game during the first ten minutes by scoring 13 of Michigan State's first 15 points and who nailed clutch shots throughout the second half to keep the Badgers at bay. That's one of those things you can't control; a guy is going to get a certain number of open looks every game, and if he converts on ten of the seventeen shots that he tries, you simply can't stop that.

But one hot hand is not sufficient to derail the Badgers. And the Neitzel situation was most certainly not the biggest reason for the loss. The two things that absolutely killed the Badgers was their inability to get inside due to a pesky Spartan defense, and their propensity for taking stupid shots. Down the stretch, the typical Badger possession looked something like this:

* Get the ball
* Pass it around the perimeter until the shot clock get to about 8
* Fire off an errant triple
* Watch the Spartans get the rebound because all the Badgers are busy watching from beyond the arc

Mix in a couple uncharacteristic Alando Tucker travels for variety, and voila: the perfect recipe for a road loss to a tenacious team.

The inability to penetrate combined with the frantic three-point shooting kept the Badgers off the boards and forced them into coinflip situations; either come away with three big points, or surrender the ball after one field goal attempt.

Kammron Taylor didn't make a shot all night, which didn't help matters, but Marcus Landry came up huge. It looked like he was ready to will the team to victory, but the team wasn't ready to follow. And that's too bad.

The Ohio State game was a must-win before; now it's a really really really must-win. The Big Ten regular season title WILL be won on the floor on Sunday.

(Over)reacting to Number One

It's the classic admonishment, the finger-waving warning to those who wish to be graceful winners: "Act like you've been there before."

Well, the Badgers haven't been there before, so we get things like this:



Yes, you can go to Bucky's Locker Room, plunk down $18.99 plus tax and shipping, and celebrate the fact that a near-plurality of members of the media thought the Badgers should inherit the number one spot.

After weeks and weeks of enduring complaints of no respect, even the most stalwart complainers had to recognize that the national media are, in fact, paying attention to the Badgers. Everyone has something to say, and everyone is searching for a fresh angle; some frame the #1/#2 tandem of Wisconsin and Ohio State as a point of pride for the conference, others are playing up the takedown factor the opponents are salivating over, but ultimately the news of the #1 ranking becomes the story, and the result is full-on exuberance. In their state of freewheeling euphoria, the mainstream media has even sunk to the level of reviewing the reaction from homers on the internets.

So, excuse us for not acting like we've been here; we haven't.

Also of note: Greg Stiemsma has co-opted the hockey tradition of the playoff beard; Big Ten Wonk urges the Spartans to be wary of turning the ball over and fouling the Badgers; a messy weekend has kept the hockey team's postseason hopes alive; Alando Tucker is good at basketball, even on the road; Nick Polczinski, captain of the 1990 football team, has died at age 39; and MGoBlog takes a hilarious look at a hockey game at Lake Superior State.

Hey Badgers -- please don't look past Michigan State!

"Could we please stop with the talk about Sunday's Wisconsin at Ohio St. game until after the Badgers play at Michigan St. tomorrow night?" asks Lance Burri of the Badger Blog Alliance, echoing a thought I had as I watched the Spartans dismantle Iowa at the Breslin Center on Saturday. And one that Bo Ryan had, too, apparently:

Well, I just talked to the AP guy, with a New York accent, so I figure he’s from out East. And I told him, he asked me, when I was told by Brian what my reaction was and everything, and I told him, my kids have this number one red foam rubber thing in the house, in the closet, and it was a party favor from New Year’s Eve, those things you blow on, it rolls out. And I tore up some newspaper and threw that in the air, blew the thing, and ran around with the No. 1 sign, and then went back to my office and saw Michigan State go up 30-some on Iowa. Slowly went to the closet, put that away, put the party favor away, cleaned up the paper and went back to work. That’s what happened. So I was pretty excited until I saw the Iowa/Michigan State game, but then, of course, I told him that’s what ran through my mind.

Uh ... OK.

After MSU's lackluster performance for 80% of the game against Michigan, I wrote the Spartans off, thinking that this just wasn't the usually-competent squad's year. And then they came alive against Iowa, taking a 44-17 lead into halftime courtesy of an 18-0 run and an unbelievable 65% shooting percentage.

There are numerous reasons for taking the Spartans seriously, both current and historic. They're one of the greatest success stories of the past decade, appearing in the Final Four in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2005. Indeed, in odd-numbered years, Michigan State has had success; the odd year that's missing above is 2003, the year when the Spartans were bumped from the tournament after reaching the Elite Eight by the Texas Longhorns. Let's not forget that one of the wins the Spartans had en route to their national title in 2000 was over another Big Ten team that made the Final Four ... the Wisconsin Badgers.

This season, while they already have six conference losses, MSU is the only Big Ten team other than the Badgers and Ohio State that the Big Ten Wonk would consider as having a good offense AND good defense. With the crafty Drew Neitzel (who averages 18 points a game and is a 90% free throw shooter) and stellar freshman Raymar Morgan (who's scored in double figures in 15 of the 20 games he's participated in), this is a team to be reckoned with.

The storylines surrounding this visit to East Lansing don't bode well for the Badgers. Michigan State is a historically strong program with a proud tradition, and they'll be eager to help the Badgers shed that #1 ranking. They've got two games against UW in the next couple weeks. Since the Spartans are not assured a bid to the NCAA Tournament at this juncture, you'd better believe that those two games are looking like opportunities just waiting to be seized. Their coach, the wily Tom Izzo, has led teams into the fire before; he undoubtedly knows exactly the right words to use to motivate his current group of players. It's going to be a loud, intimidating environment for the visiting Badgers tomorrow.

Still, the Wisconsin players have given me no reason to believe that they won't go in to the Breslin Center and return to Madison victorious. Their focus has been superb; if they were able to get up and dominate Minnesota and Penn State last week, they'll be able to get up for the Spartans as well. They faced adversity on the road against Indiana, and now that they've been tested, they'll be prepared to enter hostile environs and succeed. Their big men, Goran Suton and Drew Naymick, aren't fit to carry the towel of Brian Butch, Greg Stiemsma, or Jason Chappell; indeed, I'd wager that any of our three bigs would start over Suton and Naymick. They have no answer for Alando Tucker, and if they try to clog up his lanes, Kammron Taylor will pick them apart instead. And -- maybe most importantly -- the Spartans are the most turnover-prone team in the Big Ten ... and the Badgers are the least turnover-prone. Turnovers will kill tomorrow night. Hopefully the trends of the year to date continue.

The Badgers have the superior talent, tons of momentum, and a coach who just might be ready to take over the title of the league's best. They go to East Lansing and they win. Maybe not by a lot, maybe not in beautiful fashion ... but they do.

Number One

The AP voters have tabbed the Badgers as the top team in the nation for the first time ever.

Stupendous. The Badgers can widen their margin over #2 Ohio State with a win on Sunday.

Two seasons get interesting down the stretch

The men's basketball season is getting out of hand. With their 26-point walloping of Penn State, these Badgers became the first in school history to win 26 games, they've run the all-time record at the Kohl Center under Bo Ryan to a ridiculous 90-5, and with the Gators losing, there's an outside chance that the Badgers' play this week will help them leapfrog Ohio State to get the #1 ranking in the nation. (I suspect, though, that the Buckeyes will trounce Minnesota on national TV this afternoon, and the voters will see that and give them the top spot.) Even if they don't, only the Michigan State Spartans stand in the way of an epic clash between #1 and #2 on February 25. But the Badgers did it with three-point shooting yesterday, connecting on shots that had simply not been there for them most of the season. The last thing they need to do is convince Alando Tucker that free throws are worth sinking, and this team will be ready to go.

Meanwhile, the Spartans bombed Iowa back to the Stone Age, and Michigan stole a victory from Indiana in Ann Arbor. What once looked like a clear-cut postseason picture became muddled in a couple hours' time yesterday. The team with the best conference record outside of Madison and Columbus is Indiana, whose 7-5 stands a hair above Iowa's 7-6 mark. Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue all come in at 6-6. If a couple of those teams ends the season on a tear, we might see very different teams dancing than those whose fates were declared certain a couple weeks ago.

And speaking of interesting conclusions to the season, the hockey Badgers did it again this weekend, using their last home series of the year to take 3 of 4 points from #4 St. Cloud State. Last night's 2-2 tie, coupled with other key league results, put the sixth-place Badgers two points out of a tie for fourth place in the WCHA with Colorado College and North Dakota. The Badgers close out the season with series against teams that are below them in the conference standings -- on the road against Michigan Tech and Minnesota-Duluth. However, given the fight that Minnesota-Duluth put up against North Dakota this weekend, this is very much an uphill battle, though a winnable one.

Here's to watchable endings!

Trading the Big Ten

The guys over at PROTRADE contacted me a few weeks to talk about how the market for various Big Ten teams was looking. If you're not familiar with Protrade, it's a sports stock market that is free to play. You sign up and they give you $25,000 to spend on various individual professional athletes or NCAA basketball teams. Then you get paid based on how the athletes/teams do. Here's how the payoffs break down for basketball teams:

* $3 for each Div I regular season win
* $5 for each conference tournament win
* $5 for each NIT Tournament win
* $20 for each NCAA Tournament win
* $10 for qualifying for the NCAA Tournament
* $10 for making the Final Four
* $10 for making it to the Championship game
* $10 for winning the Championship

And here are the teams and how they're trading right now:

WISCONSIN
Trading at: $218.45
Analysis: What you're paying for when you purchase shares of Wisconsin is a national title game appearance. If you think they're going to go that far, spend away. This price is going to fluctuate based on the way the Ohio State game goes on the 25th. Think the Badgers are going to win that one? BUY now (or, wait and see if they barely squeak by Penn State or Michigan State; their stock may drop and you might be able to pick them up for less.)

OHIO STATE
Trading at: $204.55
Analysis: With games at Minnesota, against Penn State, against Wisconsin, and at Michigan, the Buckeyes will finish the season 3-1 at worst or 4-0 if they knock off the Badgers. That would give them 26 regular season wins. Even with a Big Ten Tournament win and an undefeated regular season, you're still looking at losing money unless the Buckeyes make the championship game. I don't see that happening so I'd say SELL.

INDIANA
Trading at: $108.25
Analysis: The Hoosiers have 17 wins right now and should finish the season with 21. They'll make the tournament and get a couple Big Ten tourney wins as well. That projects to $83. After last night's loss to Purdue, their stock dropped considerably (hurting my portfolio), but if this team makes the Sweet 16 you're virtually assured a profit. IU could be one of those six-seeds that nobody wants to see, and as they've shown with the Badgers they're a threat to beat anyone, any night. I'd BUY their stock.

MICHIGAN STATE
Trading at: $94.39
Analysis: This is a tough call to make. The Spartans have two shots to get marquee wins against Wisconsin before the end of the regular season. They only have one sure-thing win on the schedule, though, and I really feel they'll be in the NIT when all is said and done. However, they'd be a real threat to win that tournament. And if they do get to the Big Dance, they're a threat to win there too (although they won't be taking the whole thing.) I think the Spartans are currently a BUY, but maybe it would be best to wait on that till after the Badgers beat them.

ILLINOIS
Trading at: $81.68
Analysis: Probably a BUY as well. They could very well not realize a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament, and a first-round win might be the extra $5 they need to push their stock into profitability. Right now, the Illini have 18 wins, so a NCAA tourney bid and a single win would put them at $84 -- higher than where they are right now.

PURDUE
Trading at: $72.99
Analysis: Here's the deal: the Boilermakers have 17 wins and four games remaining. Those games are against Iowa, Northwestern, and twice against Minnesota. That smells like three wins to me. A win in the conference tournament and a NCAA Tournament bid makes them profitable. Even with the bump in price from yesterday's win over the Hoosiers, I'd say Purdue is, again, a BUY.

MICHIGAN
Trading at: $71.18
Analysis: This team is in a full-on meltdown, giving up over 80 points to Minnesota at home, and dates with Michigan State and Ohio State won't help that. They have 17 wins and are generally a good bet to win a couple NIT games, but for now I think they're very much a stock to avoid. SELL.

IOWA
Trading at: $49.00
Analysis: If the Hawkeyes can find two more wins, anywhere, they'll be profitable. I can see them winning two of at MSU, Purdue, at Penn State, and Illinois and stealing a win in the Big Ten tournament as well. Hell, they might even get a couple in the NIT. I find the Hawkeyes to be a good BUY.

PENN STATE
Trading at: $40.91
Analysis: In order to make money off the Nittany Lions, they'd have to win four more times. With away games against Wisconsin and Ohio State and three conference games after that, this is not going to happen. No chance. You'll lose money here. SELL. NOW.

NORTHWESTERN
Trading at: $35.47
Analysis: The 'Cats need to win twice more to be profitable. The secret is that they're playing Texas Pan-American, which has recorded losses to North Dakota State, South Dakota State, and Utah Valley State. That's a win. They get one more, you profit. I just bought a few shares of Northwestern. I say BUY.

MINNESOTA
Trading at: $32.42
Analysis: Do you think the Gophers have enough left in the tank to get two more wins? Maybe they beat Michigan at home, but I doubt it. The Gophers are cooked. SELL.

Badgers 75, Gophers 62

In the beginning, the game looked like it was going to be one of those last gasp upset bids, those everything-but-the-kitchen-sink efforts that a team that's going nowhere somehow pulls out against a contender in the final weeks of the season. The Gophers were hitting triples, minimizing Wisconsin's scoring chances, and went into the locker room down only four, and, maybe more importantly for a team that had been on the wrong side of eighty-plus-point efforts in consecutive games, having only given up 28 points total.

But the Badgers came back and did what they do: hit big shots, wear you down, leave your arena with a win. Alando Tucker put up a gaudy 29 points (despite a cold run in the second half where he went 0-for-5), Kam Taylor and Michael Flowers scored in the double digits, and Jason Chappell shut down the Gophers' most potent scoring threat, Spencer Tollackson.

The Badgers were helped out by Gopher miscues, but ultimately this was a win that they created on their own. The most encouraging thing to take away from last night's game was that the things that went wrong went wrong because of the inherent inconsistencies in basketball. Some nights, you have a half in which you shoot 29%. Some nights, your star misses a couple layups. But if your team is strong enough and doesn't commit errors, you'll win. And that's what the Badgers did.

Looking at the two-point victory that the Buckeyes squeaked out over the Nittany Lions, Saturday's matchup with Penn State would appear to be more of a showdown than anticipated. With any luck the Badgers' effort on Saturday will look more like their Wednesday game, and not the Buckeyes'.

Why don't you go check out the greatest website of all time?!

It's called "Around the Oval" and it's right here! A friendly Buckeye saved me hours of linking and I am tremendously grateful. I didn't even think to use Google's cache; I saw that the site was not on my computers and not backed up at archive.org and figured I had a bunch of work ahead of me.

Not so! Thank you, Sean!

Daily Cardinal wins today's headline contest

On the Minnesota game tonight: Valentine's Day Massacre Possible.

They also have a short snippet from Alando Tucker, talking about mega-talented Longhorn Kevin Durant:

It doesn't matter, Tucker said. If you are doing the things to help your team win, if you have all the ability, then I don't think there should be an age limit on that. [Durant] put himself in a position to be a candidate and that's fine with me.

Good, but I would've preferred, "I'm not thinking of Player of the Year. I'm thinking about winning the Tournament with my team."

Technical difficulties

I clicked some stuff and now all my links are gone. If anyone has a way to restore those, please, PLEASE let me know.

Damn it.

One week of basketball, one good quarter

All I have to say right now is that the Penn State game was awful, and that the way the Badgers played last Wednesday would be the perfect way to ensure an exit from the NCAA tournament at the hands of a Missouri Valley or Conference USA team. Kudos to Kevin Gullikson and Michael Flowers for having big games and adding a couple bright spots to an otherwise dull game.

Probably the best thing to happen to the Badgers this week was the halftime deficit they experienced in the Iowa game on Saturday. That sparked a huge second half that featured brilliant defense and sound shooting.

I have a feeling that the games this week will feature more of the same; with the Gophers and the Nittany Lions on the slate, Badger fans can be forgiven if they fixate more on Alando Tucker's chase of Michael Finley for the all-time Badger scoring lead than the actual games themselves. I don't think the outcome of either is in doubt.

Indeed, the only game the Badgers have any business losing is that away date with Ohio State. I watched the Michigan-Michigan State debacle tonight, and the best parts of that game were when ESPN mercifully cut away to the ending of the UNC/Virginia Tech tilt. Michigan is an embarrassment to the conference yet again, that we know; but man, the Spartans are almost as awful as the Wolverines. That might be refreshing if the Badgers didn't have their number year in and year out, but as it stands UW could use some quality competition to prepare them mentally for their NCAA tournament run. What they get instead is Drew Neitzel, Raymar Morgan, and a bunch of scrubs.

It's nice to see UCLA, North Carolina, and Texas A&M laying eggs down the stretch and helping the Badgers look more and more like a lock for a one-seed, but let me tell you this: if Wisconsin loses to Tom Izzo and his crew of hacks, even on the road, they should be seeded no higher than second just on principle.

(By the way, even though the Grateful Red might indeed be the stupidest student section name in all of college basketball, at least it's not made up solely of morons. I pose the question: is there a student section that is stupider than Michigan State's Izzone? Maybe it's just because it was Michigan night in East Lansing, but I've never heard a home team booed so much. Especially in a game that they ended up winning! If you've got the first half recorded, just listen to the crowd. Wow.)

If the Spartans go 8-8 in the conference, they probably will get a bid to the Big Dance. That'll be for two reasons: Tom Izzo, and name recognition. If they make the field of 64, use ink and write their opponent into the second round.

This is the wrong place to look for Signing Day news

I find recruiting completely uninteresting, and I don't care how good a player was in high school. Years and years of unheralded recruiting classes were good enough for 12-1 this year. Bielema, by all accounts, is a great salesman. Plenty of talented kids should want to play for a 12-win Big Ten team. That's all I've got.

Places that will tell you more about recruiting are here, here, and here.

Hockey and Football ... together at last!

Much as I'd like to see those 300-pound linemen strap on some skates or see a field goal kicker try to convert from forty yards out on a sheet of ice, this post is actually just a collection of links about hockey and football. Sorry for any disappointment.

As far as hockey goes, the Badgers basically need to with the WCHA tournament to have a shot at defending their crown. They're well out of this tournament projection (thanks Western College Hockey) and would probably be a 4-seed even if all the necessary miracles were to occur. Maybe the world's worst refs could see us into the field of 16. Or maybe one of the people/computers/coin-flipping machines that create the bad bad naughty Pairwise Rankings could maybe forget to carry a 1 somewhere and let us in. Given the odds, I'd advise the hockey fans out there to simply enjoy the end of the regular season.

On to football: National Signing Day is coming up on Wednesday, and I know zilch about recruiting. Well, a little more than zilch; I know that a certain percentage of zealous fans will hate a high school kid forever if he chooses the wrong school, and a certain percentage of those actually seem to enjoy recruiting more than the actual football. But Wisconsin isn't hemorrhaging in-state talent as it has in years past, although the very large O-line recruit Josh Oglesby is going to need time to heal. He'll be on the shelf with Andy Crooks and PJ Hill. For up-to-the-minute recruiting, rumor-trading, and panicking, this is your link.

Basketball Miscellany

Do you hate moving on? Maybe you'd like to retread the Badgers' loss to Indiana with the very linkable Big Ten Wonk.

The WSJ has a piece about Jason Bohannon that's worth a read.

While I was away, ESPN's Pat Forde wrote a nice piece about the state of UW basketball. (Thanks to Nicole for pointing it out.) I do take exception to the insinuation that Wisconsin suffers from a lack of basketball tradition. Anyone here familiar with the 1912 national champs? The one-loss team of 1915? The 1941 tournament champions? In the end, though, the selection committee will probably be too mired in the present to recognize the Badgers' greatness; they tend to prefer teams that have a history of performing well in the field of 64 and pay a little less attention to the field of 8 of six decades ago. Let's put it this way; if it looks like the Badgers and UNC are going to be vying for the last #1 seed, I would be shocked if UW wound up as anything besides a #2.

Can we please end the season today?

Finally, the loss to IU cost the Badgers their #2 ranking. They're now #4 in both polls, just behind #3 Ohio State. That ranking makes a lot of sense, because the Buckeyes have one more loss than the Badgers and lost the head-to-head matchup. Hopefully the Selection Committee does a little better than the coaches and the sportswriters when seeding time comes around.

Bret Bielema Arm Candy Watch

The fact that the Wisconsin State Journal ran this story on Bret Bielema and his date, one Sabrina Holtzman (don't Google-stalk her, you'll just get her half-marathon time), at the 2007 Frostiball (read: prom for upper-middle-class-and-better adults who live in the Madison area) makes it acceptable -- nay, it obligates me! -- to post about it.

The latest

The basketball team won on Saturday, beating Northwestern 69-52. You wouldn't figure they'd won by 17 based on this headline from ESPN: "Wisconsin avoids upset bid." Upset bid? Evidently, the only part of the game the writers saw was the 14-0 run that Northwestern put together in the second half. What they should've taken into account was that at the beginning of that run, the Badgers were up by 24, and when the Cats pulled to within 10, they came back to life and pulled away again. That 14-0 run, in my opinion, doesn't say as much about UW as the 24-point lead that preceded it. Don't sweat the technique.

The hockey team got swept by Colorado College, so they'll need to win the WCHA tournament to secure an NCAA tourney berth. If I have time I'll take a look at how the tourney (the Big Skate?) is shaping up. Don't hold your breath.

Also, PJ Hill will be having surgery on his shoulder. Come back stronger, big guy.

The perils of speaking too soon

It was nice while it lasted. The Badgers were in a 59-59 tie with under 5 minutes to go, and despite some late clutch shooting by Kam Taylor, found itself on the wrong side of the scoreboard at the final buzzer. The winning streak ends at 17 games. Time to start a new streak, guys.

Take a look at my previous post. "Indiana lives and dies by the triple?" Well, in the second half they went 5-for-6 from beyond the arc, and that (along with shooting 62.5%) was what finished off the Badgers.

This was a fantastic game, despite the result. Wisconsin shot 50% from the floor in the second half, a good effort. There were four ties and nine lead changes, big runs by both teams, hot shooting, strong defense, everything you could want besides the win. Indiana had the three-point shot working and scored 11 points on fast breaks, and at the end of the game their fans got to rush the court.

Hats off to the Hoosiers. They'll be one of those dangerous 4, 5, or 6 seeds -- the one that nobody wants to see on their side of the bracket.

There are plenty of insults to add to tonight's injury, too. Florida managed to parlay their 11-point halftime deficit to a 17-point win over Vanderbilt and UNC wound up bashing Miami in a gaudy 41-point win. If those teams hold serve through the weekend, the Badgers will almost definitely drop from their program-high #2 ranking. Worse, Ohio State came alive and held off Purdue, so they're now tied with the Badgers for the Big Ten lead. Indiana is now one game back. But with Iowa's win over Michigan, I think it's safe to call this a three-team race for Big Ten title contention.

(Bonus note of petty bitterness: A. J. Ratliff has stupid Dumbo ears! Go get some Ear Buddies, dummy!)

Halftime score: Wisconsin 28, Indiana 26

Despite a turnover-heavy half, the Badgers are in the lead as the teams head to the locker rooms. Alando Tucker already has 14 points, but it looked like he was walking off the court with a limp. Hopefully just cramping or other temporary soreness; time will tell.

The Hoosiers live and die by the three-point shot, and thus far they've only scored on 2 of 12 attempts. If that doesn't improve, the Badgers will almost certainly leave Bloomington with a win.

The crowd is electric, and the game is turning out to be the battle most of us anticipated. Highlights from the first half include Chappell hustling to catch a Hoosier on the fast break and reject his layup, Tucker making something out of nothing as the shot clock ran out, and Bohannon sinking the last shot of the half to quiet the boisterous crowd.

In other action of consequence, #1 Florida trails unranked Vanderbilt by 11 at the half, and Ohio State has opened a small lead on Purdue at the beginning of the second half. While it doesn't look like UW will be getting that extra cushion that a Boilermaker upset would provide in the conference, a Gator loss might be enough to make Wisconsin the top-ranked team in the nation come next week. Hey, if everyone's looking to get a piece of you, might as well be #1 while they're doing it, right?

And we're into the second half ... Badgers now lead 30-26. On Wisconsin!

Basketball presides over two demolitions

The last couple of wins have been a nice change for the basketball team. The wins against Michigan and at Iowa came much more easily than those that made up the early stretch of Big Ten play, and it was nice to see what this team is capable of even while on cruise control.

The Michigan game looked ugly early, when the Badgers spotted the Wolverines nine points and kept putting up bricks. But then they got their heads together and went on a tear, closing out the half with 33 points to Michigan's 17, and finishing the game with appearances from 5'11" former walk-on and manager Tyler Bronson and walk-on Morris Cain, whose only other Big Ten action came in the trouncing on Minnesota. The game was only as close as it was (13 points) because Tommy Amaker kept some of Michigan's starters in while the Badgers' rarely-utilized bench players (see, I didn't call them scrubs!) got some playing time. Take away those nine early points for Michigan and you can see what a slaughter this game actually was. How a school like Michigan has maintained this protracted period of futility is beyond me. (Not beyond the Wonk, though.) I couldn't believe that the guys they put on the floor were juniors and seniors. It's clear that Amaker has no idea how to go about developing players; they played a sloppier game than almost any other I've seen all season. And on Saturday, they got killed by Indiana, although that was more a function of the Hoosiers draining something like 20 3-pointers. But still.

And the Iowa game ... well, after the Badgers went on a 14-0 tear in the first half, the lead never got smaller than four points. They went on the road and got a home-game performance out of the trip, which was highlighted by UW-Platteville naming their court after Bo Ryan. Alando Tucker had a brilliant game, scoring 27. Good enough for Big Ten Player of the Week honors. Brian Butch is really starting to emerge as a spark for the Badgers; his 13 points and 14 rebounds provided the difference in this game, and his hustle after a ball that sent him into the Hawkeye bench and three-point shooting should be mandatory viewing for every big man who thinks his job is to sit under the basket and make easy dunks.

So, 21-1. Better than even the legendary season of 1915-6. 17 straight wins. #2 in both polls.

But we're only halfway through the Big Ten campaign. Save the "what-ifs" for late February.

Third prize is you're fired

Someone get the Badgers some coffee, because they are most definitely closers.

You ever take a dump made you feel like you'd just slept for twelve hours?

Now, had the Illini made more than half of their free throws down the stretch, we might be singing a different tune this evening. But that's the difference between a great team and a good one. With four minutes left, the Badgers were down by one. They went three for three from the floor and buried six free throws in six tries. In that span, the Illini went 0-for-6 shooting and made two free throws in four attempts.

Illinois stuck around all game long, coming back from eight down halfway through the second half to take the lead on a Rich McBride triple with just over five minutes to go. But then the Badgers did what they've been doing all year (save for one effort in South Padre), and at the end of the day they remained alone and undefeated at the top of the heap in the Big Ten, running their win streak to 15. Suddenly, the Illini are 2-4 in the conference and probably looking at an NIT bid if things don't change.

The Badgers get Michigan next. It's a home game, tipping off at 8 pm Central. The Wolverines aren't as good as their record suggests. I'd be surprised if Wisconsin wins by any fewer than 12 points.

Finally: is Alando Tucker the best Badger ever?

Badgers get by Purdue, visit Illinois tomorrow

The Badgers overcame a slow start on Wednesday to finish off the pesky Purdue Boilermakers, 69-64, at the Kohl Center. The game swung on Jason Chappell's otherworldly 13-point, 8-rebound performance. Wisconsin sniffed out Purdue's gameplan and exploited what they saw. That translated into several double-digit leads for the Badgers late in the game, and that was the difference in the game as the Opossums weren't able to get closer than two scores to UW.

(Speaking of Chappell, here's something that opposing fans are sure to start mocking: his J-Cheezy ... er ... fashion line. More examples here.)

As if we needed another reason to be proud of them: Congrats to the basketball team for posting the highest GPA of any fall sports team at UW.

Tomorrow the Badgers will try to run their winning streak to 15 games as they visit Illinois. The Illini have struggled thus far this year, losing at Michigan, at Michigan State, and at home to Ohio State. The Badgers need to realize that playing down to their competition as they did at Northwestern and versus Purdue simply won't work against the Illini. (Or whatever they're called, if they're not allowed to use the Illini name by tomorrow.)

Misc: hockey has a bye this weekend; the Dance Team got high marks at a competition; and the Badger Herald has a good metaphor for bringing bottom-feeding opponents to a revamped Camp Randall Stadium.

We must destroy the elder Landry

Truth be told, I'm not too worried about any of the other games the Badgers will have to play at the Kohl Center this year, now that Ohio State has come and gone. Maybe the Indiana game. Maybe. But that's it.

Anyway, Purdue's coming to town, fresh off a demolition of Michigan. They'll be the first to get a shot at the new-and-improved #2 Badgers, and they've got Marcus Landry's older brother on the team, but that's where the interesting storylines begin and end. While any team that manages to beat the Badgers could justifiably point to that win and call it "huge," the Boilermakers would especially be thanking their deities of choice if they could go home with a victory. They're in desperate need of a marquee win; Joe Lunardi currently lists them as one of the last four teams to be left out of the Big Dance, and that loss to Indiana State is going to need to be pushed out of the spotlight by the time the selection committee gets down to business.

Still, the Kohl Center is a fortress and the Boilermakers don't have the talent to overcome what the Badgers are going to throw at them.

Fightin' words

The sometimes cliquish, sometimes petty world of blogging occasionally becomes tiresome, but the gems that a certain rare type of argument can produce make sifting through the reast of the average stuff well worth it. Take, for instance, the feud between Georgia-based Braves and Birds and widely-read HeismanPundit.

I've been an anti-fan of HeismanPundit ever since I first ran across his writings for two reasons: (1) his primary focus is on one of the least meaningful awards in all of sports, and (2) his tireless insistence that, even with piles and piles of evidence to the contrary, offense wins championships. Given this, you can imagine my private glee when Braves and Birds wiped the floor with HP's "insight" last Wednesday, and then burned the mop earlier today.

My bottom line is this -- anyone who offers up "offensive scheme" as the deciding factor behind why teams win and lose games must be an unapologetic selective listener. As an example, I offer up the Michigan Wolverines. Did they win 11 games this year because they "outschemed" opponents? I mean, did you watch the Ohio State game or the Rose Bowl? Their scheme was run, run, lob or screen pass, punt. Just as it had been all year long. Michigan's offensive coordinators call a damn boring game, which features "run right" and "run left" with rare inclusions of "bomb it to Manningham" and "set up the play-action screen." But their defense takes the field and stops their opponent from scoring.

Another team that doesn't exactly rewrite the playbook is our very own Badgers, although Bielema and company are more willing to deviate from their tendencies than the Wolverines are. The Badgers did win their bowl game, after all. And who did they beat? Only the schemiest bunch of schemers this side of Urban Meyer, the WILDCAT FORMATION-loving tricksters from the University of Arkansas.

How? Why?

How do these teams that can't gameplan to save their lives wind up in prestigious bowl games? How can these dinosaurs win a dozen games as Wisconsin did, or keep their names in the national title conversation into December like Michigan? To HP, this must be a huge mystery (either that, or he deems these squads "outliers" and as such discards them). To most people, it's not. Good on Michael at Braves and Birds for getting HP's attention ... and getting the better of him.

Badger basketball team ascends to #2

Thanks are due to the Virginia Tech Hokies, who, in upsetting North Carolina, set the stage for the Badgers to continue to climb to heights they've never seen before. They're officially second in the nation, according to the AP, and the target on the team's collective back is getting larger as the weeks wear on.

The Badgers succeeded this week by riding Kam Taylor to victory. His performance was noted by the Big Ten, and he is currently the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week. Congrats to Kam.

The game against Northwestern was ugly. I don't have to tell you that. Basketball's a weird game; the three-point victory over OSU looked a lot more decisive than the six-point victory over Northwestern. The Wildcats just wouldn't go away; they capitalized on a lot of Wisconsin miscues, including a particularly ugly sequence to end the first half. Apparently, some members of the press were trying to call this a "moral victory" for Northwestern, and as this Wildcat columnist says, that tag is just inappropriate when you're close to getting an ACTUAL victory
instead. (And, by the way, Chris West sensed that the Wildcats would mean trouble for the Badgers.)

In hockey, the Badger defense showed up on Saturday, but there was no offense to be found as they split the series with Minnesota on the wrong end of a one-goal shutout. I watched the game half-interestedly at the bar on Saturday ("the sound was off, but I think I got the gist of it") while taking in the Eagles-Saints game. Whether my torpor was a result of the numbing effect the Colts-Ravens game left on me or the libations consumed during the game is anyone's guess. Anyway, the Badger Backer did watch the game, paying close attention, so see what he says right here.

In other news: the House Rock Built is grateful for the Badgers' Capitol One Bowl victory; Forbes says that the Wisconsin football team is the 15th-most valuable college team in the nation; and if you ever wonder why we only hear about the negative off-the-field incidents perpetrated by college athletes, this guy's got the perfect antidote.

Badger Hockey: Wisconsin upsets Minnesota, 2-1

Sounds like it was an exciting one. Ross Carlson of Duluth, Minnesota scored both Badger goals. Must've been extra sweet for them.

The Badgers go for the sweep at the Kohl Center tonight at 7:07 pm.

Here's the UWbadgers.com report.

Clarifying the "no respect" angle

Welcome to those of you who found their way here from the Isthmus. Unfortunately, the link that brought you here kind of bore a sensationalized title, namely "Sports media "desperate to find fault" with Wisconsin basketball."

I don't believe this is the case at all. The national media has, by and large, given the Badgers their due. The early versions of Joe Lunardi's Bracketology have featured UW as a 1-seed. Luke Winn of SI.com has them as the #1 team in the nation in his Power Rankings. They're getting plenty of respect.

What I don't care for are these self-styled maverick columnists who feel the need to do something nonsensical in order to stand out. Take, for instance, the guy who voted Boise State first in his final football poll, ignoring the forty-odd points Florida hung on until-then wire-to-wire #1 Ohio State. Or the jerk from a paper known as the Chicago Southtown, who somehow has the power to help decide whether or not baseball players get into the Hall of Fame. He turned in a BLANK BALLOT when voting time came around. Why? Because he's not sure who used or didn't use steroids. We don't know who's guilty, so let's assume everyone is! Or at least, let's do something ridiculous to drive traffic to our paper's website, right?

So, that's why I took on Jeff Goodman. His logic ("the Badgers beat a team I consider elite, but that doesn't mean they're elite! They only won by three!") did not impress me That's all.

People who are complaining that UW is getting no respect are letting their feelings from football season (well, to be fair, the last fifteen football seasons) run over and give them something to complain about. The national media is on to the Badgers. They like what they see. Simmer down and enjoy.

ESPN takes a step in the right direction

Stephen A. Smith will still be all over ESPN, but he won't have his own show. Cut and paste from the Journal-Sentinel's SportsWatch:

"Quite Frankly" with Stephen A. Smith, a sports interview and talk show on ESPN2, has been canceled by the network.

The last installment of the show is to air today at 10 p.m. on ESPN2. The show debuted in August 2005 in a 5:30 p.m. time slot, Central time. It was moved its current 10 p.m. slot on Jan. 30, 2006.

"Quite Frankly," a one-hour show that aired on weekdays, was hosted by Smith, a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. The show was taped before a live audience at a studio in New York.

The show was created by Mark Shapiro, who was an executive vice president of ESPN. Shapiro is no longer with the network.

Smith remains at ESPN.

According to ESPN executive vice president Norby Williamson, Smith is to be featured regularly on ESPN's many outlets.

Desperate to find fault

Much has been made of a blog post by FOX college basketball writer Jeff Goodman, and rightfully so. He entitles his post "Badgers still aren't elite" and then proceeds to inform us that he's "taking nothing away from Bo Ryan's club."

Goodman says that the Badgers beat Ohio State because they are older and more experienced, and they were at home. One gets the impression that Mr. Goodman looked at the ESPN Bottom Line, saw that the Badgers only won by three, and fired off this post. Says he:

Has Alando Tucker's supporting cast improved all that much? Brian Butch is still inconsistent. Michael Flowers is still a good role guy. Sure, they added a couple of solid freshman guards in Jason Bohannon and Trevon Hughes, but is it enough to warrant a No. 4 ranking?

Well, if you buy into the notion that OSU is the #5 team in the nation, and the Badgers beat them, then the answer appears to be yes.

He then goes on to make this specious argument:

The bottom line is that Wisconsin will probably be the same team in six weeks when the two teams square off again while Ohio State will likely make major strides because of their youth and the fact that Greg Oden will be 100 percent by then.

Thad Matta will have fully integrated Oden into the offense by the time the Big Ten's top teams meet again - on Feb. 25 in Columbus.

At this point, if you're not thinking, "Are you KIDDING me?" then your name must be Jeff Goodman. Let me get this straight: the Buckeyes, led my Thad Matta, are capable of improving as the season goes on. The Badgers are not.

I respect Greg Oden's game, and I think he will be a difference maker, but teams will still be able to shut him down. The Buckeyes' MO is obvious; if you can't heave up a triple, get it inside to Oden. They give up a lot of the court that other teams (like the Badgers) use successfully in order to take high risk, high payoff shots. Get Oden into foul trouble (which -- some people are already grumbling -- is tough to do. I don't buy into the notion that NCAA refs are told to "protect" stars, but if it happens in the NBA, it's formally a possibility at the collegiate level too) and you take away half of the Buckeyes' game. Guard the perimeter effectively and you shut down the rest. This is something the Badgers did successfully for over 35 minutes on Tuesday, but if all you're looking at is the final score (coughcough Jeff Goodman coughcough) you don't really see that.

Bottom line is that before the Badgers intentionally softened their defensive scheme at the end of the game, they absolutely shut down Ohio State. If one of the three-pointers that the Buckeyes put up in the final minute hadn't gone in, or if a couple more of the four free throws the Badgers bricked in the same time period had been successfully converted instead, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. But some people only saw the forty-second ESPN highlight that showed that final OSU triple clunking off the back of the rim, and valorous defenders of the Badgers are forced to defend their team's performance when it was obvious to all viewers that for greater than 95% of the game the Badgers were firmly in control.

As further evidence, I point you to Big Ten Wonk, whose credentials meet or exceed any "real" columnist's as far as college hoops are concerned.

#4 Wisconsin 72, #5 Ohio State 69

Oh, what a night to have been at the Kohl Center. (Speaking of, why on earth would the UW Athletic Department force students renewing their tickets to go through the same lottery process as first-time applicants? Don't they want to encourage loyalty? What they're doing is alienating future customers. But I digress.)

Anyway, the Badgers looked good in all phases of the game tonight. The slim margin of three points is deceptive; the Buckeyes never got within more than 8 points of the Badgers for a stretch of over ten minutes that spanned from 11:16 to go in the game up until the 0:45 mark, when the Badgers went into a very soft defense that allowed the Buckeyes to get great three-point opportunities. Granted, the last three-point attempt that Jamar Butler heaved up just before the buzzer provided a tense moment for all the Wisconsin fans. But looking at the way the game played out, it is certain that the Badgers were the best team on the floor for 36 minutes. The last two minutes, obviously, is when the Buckeyes gnawed away at the Badgers' lead. The first two minutes provided Ohio State with is biggest lead of the night: 3-0, after their fourth attempt at a triple fell. They held that lead for all of 29 seconds when Kammron Taylor tied it up with a triple of his own. 37 seconds later, a Michael Flowers layup made it 5-3. Once the score ran to 7-6 Wisconsin, the Badgers kept the lead till the very end.

Alando Tucker did his usual big-game thing, scoring 17 points; Taylor had 25. Everyone seemed to make a contribution tonight. Flowers, Chappell, Butch ... they all showed up and added needed blocks, steals, assists, and points. This team needs to maintain its focus, and it can go far.

And Greg Oden should shave his damn beard.

Basketball Mania

The Badgers are now #3 in the AP Poll, a dizzying new height for the team. They've actually picked up a #1 vote, courtesy of one Nick Jezierny. Why a man with this much insight is still at the Idaho Statesman is anyone's guess. Sadly, the polls don't mean all that much in basketball, but the recognition is nice.

They remain #4 in the Coaches' Poll, which is generally the inferior poll. The fact that the AP decided that the Badger football team was #7 (behind Louisville and Boise State) while the coaches had the good judgment to rank them #5 is trouble. But I digress.

About that game tonight: Chris at the Wisconsin Sports Bar reckons that it's Wisconsin's turn to drive the whole state of Ohio to mass suicide. Not swallowing the cyanide capsule just yet was Eleven Warriors, who concedes that the Buckeyes "will need to shoot a much higher percentage [than the 31% effort against Illinois] from deep to steal this game." The news out of Columbus is that Greg Oden's health will force him to be less active which will be a remarkable advantage for the Badgers; the combination of agility and size he possesses is thought to be exceptionally rare. He'll still be a threat under the hoop, but he probably won't be patrolling the perimeter, which plays right into Bo Ryan's offensive scheme. Yum.

Don't neglect the defense, though. The Badgers have been forcing opponents to take bad shots for several weeks now, limiting their last four foes to 36% shooting. Perhaps Michael Flowers will have a momentum-swinging steal and dunk that will ignite the Badgers again tonight.

The Badgers picked up a basketball recruit yesterday. Jared Berggren of Princeton, MN has committed to the team. According to Scout, Berggren is 6'10" and averaged about 10.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks per game. It seems that Bo Ryan's still getting whatever talent out of Minnesota that he wants, and that's just fantastic. It'll be tough for the Gophers to improve if their state keeps hemmorhaging recruits and sending them to Madtown.

Finally, some hockey: the CSTV Rink Rats rank Wisconsin #17 in hockey this week. Will the big series this weekend against #1 Minnesota change any minds? We can only hope.

If you want to read a great Ohio State-Wisconsin preview

you need look no further than Big Ten Wonk (obviously).

The Big Game is coming up!

It's finally here! Two absolute powerhouses are scheduled to butt heads. An epic matchup looms. One team will celebrate, and the other will suffer misery. The question is: does Ohio State have the talent to get the job done?

I'm a little biased, but I'm going to have to say no. Greg Oden is powerful but raw. They don't have what it takes to get by Taylor, Tucker, and the rest of the Badgers.

Why talk about this game? Because the Buckeyes are going to win the football game tonight. By a lot. Nobody else is in the same class as Ohio State this year. Maybe USC. Maybe.

As far as the Big Ten is concerned, once tonight's football game is over, all eyes will be on the Wisconsin-Ohio State tilt at the Kohl Center. One has to imagine that the winner of this game will be on the fast track to the Big Ten title. Yeah, Michigan and Iowa are undefeated thus far as well, but does anyone really expect that to last the week? (The Wolverines go on the road against Purdue, and Iowa plays at Illinois and a home game against the Gophers.)

Let's go Badgers!

Hey Blogpollers

If Florida wins tomorrow, would it be wrong to vote Boise State #1?

A Resolution for 2007

Mine is to update this site. How novel!

I've got a million thoughts in my head right now, from how jaw-droppingly excellent this football season was, to how watchable the BCS is this year, to the lofty expectations everyone has for the basketball team. So stay tuned, once I take care of a few pressing matters, this blog will be full steam ahead.

Technorati tags: wisconsin badgers, university of wisconsin

Quick thoughts from a deadbeat blogger

Hola. I'm still really busy. I am planning to devote a few minutes a day to this site, though, so more updates should be on the way.

A few things:

* The Big Ten managed to set a new record for number of teams being absolutely screwed by the BCS: 2. The one everyone's talking about is Michigan, and yes, let me repeat: they got screwed. Period. And if Florida would've gotten snubbed, I would've devoted this space to letting you know that the Gators got screwed. This system, when it works, works perfectly. When it doesn't, ridiculous things happen. The BCS was created to "let 'em play it out on the field." Well, Michigan and Florida won't be playin' it out on the field, will they? I say this: Ohio State was the only one left standing after the season. Give 'em the trophy. Let 'em go play a one-loss team as an exhibition. Or pair them with undefeated Boise State so we have one and only one one-loss team at season's end.

* Wisconsin, of course, is the other team that got screwed. A one-loss team from a major conference isn't getting a BCS invite because two others are. The system is broken. I'd even say that Auburn got screwed. That Boise State is in at large and the Tigers are not is ridiculous. That Notre Dame is in and the Tigers are not is potentially even more ridiculous. It seems that all the top teams in the country are in the Big Ten and the SEC this year, with the exception of USC. And since every conference needs to get its share of the bowl money, good teams are kept out.

* The matchup with Arkansas in the Citrus Bowl (that's what I'm calling it ... forever) is a great one. If Darren McFadden was playing at his peak level, I don't know whether I'd call it so great or not. But with him hobbling around, I think the teams are evenly matched, and this will be one of the greatest bowl games of the season. It will certainly be better than Central Michigan-Middle Tennessee State. I think a good drinking game would be to take a shot everytime the announcers say "WILDCAT!" And by "good," I mean "one that would likely kill you before the end of the first half."

* Basketball is exactly where I figured it'd be ... one forehead-slapping loss to Missouri State, a close call at home against Winthrop, and a sumo match against Marquette tomorrow. Now, if only I could care about anything beyond final scores, conference standings, and tournament brackets with regard to this mind-numbing sport.

* And as for hockey ... we lost something like a dozen players after the title season. Did the pollsters take that into consideration when they were giving the Badgers their #1 votes?

* Congrats to Joe Thomas, who won the Outland Trophy in February when he announced he was returning to the team and collected it yesterday. And it's good to see that the Maxwell voters haven't left the Harris Poll voters out to dry as the only mindless goons who make important decisions in college football.

Technorati tags: wisconsin badgers, college football, university of wisconsin, UW-Madison