A work of absolute genius

Go NOW and read T. Kyle King's The Sound and the Gameday, Part One. It's chock full of Faulknerian fancy. You will love it.

Sunday Badger Bullets

A few thoughts over a Miller Chill (besides "Why did I spend $6.99 on this poison?"):

* If you haven't been reading Dave Heller's blog at the Journal-Sentinel, you ought to start. He's managed to pick up quite a few nice Badger-related tidbits recently. It's summertime, so the journalists are in full list-making mode, and in the college football world, Wisconsin is figuring nicely into a bunch of these lists. For example, UW is playing in what CFN considers to be two of the top 15 games for the 2007 season, and they even go so far as to predict the scores; Wisconsin loses the 14th-biggest game by two touchdowns to Ohio State and beats Michigan in the eighth-biggest -- all of which goes to show that the good people at CFN probably haven't seen many UW-OSU or UW-UM games over the past quarter century.

* In possibly more-shocking listmania (again, courtesy of Dave Heller), Tom Dienhart of the Sporting News names Jack Ikegwuonu the best player in the Big Ten. He doesn't give any reason for doing so beyond "he's impressed me," but it's worth noting that UW, Michigan, and Ohio State get just about equal time in the top 20 Big Ten players for the season. (Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois each have one player in the top 20, while UW, UM, OSU, and PSU get multiple picks). Another caveat: this is the work of Tom Dienhart.

* John Oates thinks it's high time that UW gets itself a football title. I don't disagree. I'd talk more about this, but his point is so obvious that it doesn't warrant much comment: large athletic department revenue ought to lead to national titles.

* Alando Tucker has signed with the Phoenix Suns. He can now officially expect his team to score 115 points every other night but still manage to melt down in the postseason.

And finally, as a reward for having read this far, here is a picture of legendary Brewers' radio announcer Bob Uecker with a furry (hat tip to the Brewers' TV announcing crew for this one).

Things to read on while you're waiting for the weekend

New Northwestern blog Lake the Posts is counting down the Top 24(?) games in Northwestern football history. Expect the Badgers to figure prominently in this series ... they're already in there twice at #21 (the 1992 game) and #20 (the horrendous 2005 game in which the #14 Badgers gave up 51 points).

Bucky's Faithful does something I planned to do ... he has a four-part series about the Badgers' representatives in the NFL. You can see parts one, two, and three here. Part four begins with a prefatory note about Kammron Taylor, who worked out with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He has joined their summer league team, and I'm sure he's glad to have an opportunity to play with his hometown professional franchise.

Heh.

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated believes the Wisconsin-Michigan game is the fourth-biggest game of the year, UW Athletics produced the 7th highest revenue total of all athletic departments last year, and Trev Alberts has discovered Barenjager.

Badger Football: 2007 Storylines

2006 is long gone. After walloping non-conference cupcakes and dropping a single conference decision, the John Stocco-led Badgers defeated 2007 Heisman candidate Darren McFadden and the Arkansas Razorbacks for their second Citrus/Capital One Bowl victory in two years.

In the end, we saw a new coach, the irrepressible Bret Bielema, make a splash, starting his career with a 12-1 record (good for a .923 winning percentage!) We saw John Stocco become one of the most poised senior quarterbacks in the Big Ten, coming back strong after an injury sidelined him midway through the season. We witnessed a freshman, the tubby P. J. Hill, become the clear frontrunner in one of the most wide-open RB races in Wisconsin history. His path was cleared by big Joe Thomas, the lineman who wound up being the third overall pick in the NFL draft. On the other side of the ball, cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu became the leader of a unit that yielded just 12 points per game ... better than both the heralded Michigan and Ohio State defenses.

All in all, it was a very satisfying season. Thanks to a seamless coaching transition and a dozen victories, 2006 helped make the case that with Badger football, the sky ought to be the limit. Although the Bielema era is just a season old, it appears that we can discard any lingering fears of a return to the sub-mediocrity that preceded Barry Alvarez's tenure. At the very least, this program's going to be trekking to warm-weather destinations every year around Christmastime. But we're not interested in the very least; there's a not-insignificant portion of the Badger fanbase that believes that one of these years, a national championship should be on the radar -- and that year should be coming sooner rather than later.

I can't quite say I'm in that camp just yet. But I do think that Wisconsin fans have the right to expect big things this season. That should become clear as I outline what I believe to be the major storylines to watch for in the 2007 Wisconsin Badger season.

1. Settling the quarterback controversy

It's a rare year when Badger fans don't know who their starting QB will be to begin a season. And yet, here we are. This uncertainty is a luxury, though, as I'm not sure how optimistic people would be if we knew that 2007 meant a full year of 6'1", 187-pound Tyler Donovan backed up by the (by all accounts) raw Dustin Sherer. It's a little worrying to have such a small guy in a key position when every team, at least in the Big Ten, is going to have defenders orders of magnitude larger than that bent on destroying the QB every single down. Donovan is a mobile quarterback, definitely the exception for the Big Ten and Wisconsin in particular, but even as a fifth-year senior, as Jeff Potrykus puts it, "his overall play continues to be marred by curious decisions and errant throws."

Donovan is game-tested, having filled in marvelously during the Iowa game after John Stocco was hurt and, well, I guess I don't feel comfortable with calling the Buffalo game "game experience." You'd think that would be in his favor, but the guy who's competing for his job has actually played in more games. Allan Evridge sat out last year and joins the team as a junior, transferring from Kansas State after the departure of head coach Bill Snyder prior to the 2006 season. I'm not concerned by the middling numbers he put up as a Wildcat, as even good players but up so-so numbers when surrounded by mediocre talent. What you lose in mobility when going from Donovan to Evridge you gain in bulk, and probably arm strength and, eventually, poise. For now though, Evridge has struggled in spring practices.

For now, I think Donovan will be the starter -- but he'll be kept on a very short leash. I don't know an incredible amount about Bret Bielema, but I don't think he's the kind of guy who'll put Donovan out there just because he's been a Badger for five years now; his job is to win football games, and he's going to play the guy who is most likely to help him finish that job. I think that the years of experience that Donovan has had with essentially the same offense is going to be the determining factor in this quarterback race, but if he's not performing, look for Evridge -- maybe before the Big Ten season begins.

2. Picking up where the 2006 team left off

Eleven regular season wins, one loss, and an ugly, gritty victory over Arkansas in the Citrus Bowl. The question before this Badgers is this: was 2006 a stepping stone to an even more spectacular season, or is 12-1 a high water mark for the program?

Several things have to go right for the Badgers this year. They need the quarterback controversy settled, period; that's the single biggest issue for this team. Following that, everyone needs to pitch in and do his part. P.J. Hill needs to be the leader of the offense, even though he's just a sophomore; on an average play, more than half the guys out on the field will be blocking for him, stalling for time so he can use his bulk and his eyes to pick up chunks of yardage. The receiving corps, including Luke Swan and Paul Hubbard, grew up before our very eyes last season and need to continue to improve; the best medicine for a raw quarterback is a WR who can make plays on his own. Travis Beckum at tight end is already being hailed as Wisconsin's best pro prospect; he's a guy other teams will have to worry about.

As for the defense, they need to keep on keeping on. The cornerbacks should be fine, with Jack Ikegwuonu leading the way, and evidently the safety position, while questionable, has found a couple of nice surprises in the persons of Shane Carter and Aubrey Pleasant (who, incidentally, judging by their first names, might actually be girls. They are not helped by being backed up by Kim Royston.) With any luck, the linebackers will stay strong, and the defensive line will continue to improve in rushing the quarterback.

The bottom line for the team is to learn from where they've been and replace the guys who've had to depart.

3. Defining Bret Bielema

After a couple seasons as defensive coordinator and one season as head coach, we know a little bit about who Bret Bielema is. In being picked by Barry Alvarez as the heir to the UW coaching throne, Bielema was pegged as a star, and after the enormous raise he received a few months back, it appears that UW is gunning to keep him here for a very long time indeed.

He's a winner, that's for sure; indeed, he was the first Badger head coach to amass seven wins in his rookie season since the venerable William Juneau managed the feat in 1912. He's a hard-nosed recruiter who can close a deal with a high school kid; he played a major role in recruiting at Kansas State and before he landed the head job in Madison.

Still, we don't know a lot about the guy. It will be interesting to see how he handles the Donovan/Evridge situation; my gut feeling is that he'll be very interested in building continuity, and keeping Evridge for two years is more likely to pay off than a one-and-done stint for Donovan. I also feel that he's a loyal guy, which would seem to bode well for the fifth-year senior, but he's more loyal to a winning game plan than to individual players.

Another area of interest will be that of discipline and academics. Big-time recruit John Clay, the running back out of Racine, is confirmed as having some issues to work out before the season begins; those issues are rumored to be academic in nature, with one source saying that Clay hasn't even been admitted to UW yet. As for discipline, Bielema is in the unenviable position of having his star cornerback working his way through the legal system. Ikegwuonu was arrested in Novemeber but played in the bowl game, which seems to be a pattern for Badgers accused of doing wrong thus far; both Jamal Cooper and Elijah Hodge were suspended from the team last season (Cooper for academic reasons; Hodge had actually been arrested), only to be reinstated immediately before the next game, and James Kamoku received no public reprimand for a vicious, unnecessary twist to the leg of Michigan's Steve Breaston on a special teams play. This is something I addressed previously:

Wrong, coach. You're the new guy on the block so you make an example out of someone who makes an obviously dirty play. End of story. Kamoku needs to be out against Indiana. Even if he is, though, the opportunity to show the conference the type of disciplinarian you are has gone out the window.

I didn't like the reinstatement of Cooper right before the season started. I didn't like the fact that I saw Hodge in the game on Saturday. I don't like the fact anything less than singling out and making an example of Kamoku was the course of action taken in this instance. But what I really, really don't like is the pattern that's emerging. That pattern, so far, indicates that Bret Bielema wants to win football games -- and he's not particularly interested in how that happens or the character of his athletes. Any positive vibe I had from the dismissal of Booker Stanley has dissipated.

Thus far, it would appear that either every Badger is innocent or that Bielema is lax when it comes to discipline. Hopefully Jack Ikegwuonu has to face the consequences of his actions. I like our teams to win, but I dread watching UW become a place where thugs run wild.

4. Racing toward a conference title

It's a wonderful thing to force oneself to be realistic and still see the possibility of a Big Ten title on the horizon. If the quarterback situation is sorted out (big if, I know), UW could be looking at a championship year. The Badgers miss Purdue and Northwestern this year, which is just as well since these are teams that have provided inexplicable struggles for Wisconsin through the years. The two tough road games will be at Penn State and at Ohio State, and unless my predictions are way off, I expect the Badgers to walk out of those two venues victorious. Even though Ohio State always has truckloads of talent, it seems like everyone with game experience chased the NFL money last year (as opposed to that sweet, sweet Ohio State money) and I think they'll be a little bit depleted. As for Penn State, if we can mount any kind of a pass rush, Anthony Morelli is going to be rattled; I really don't think he has what it takes to win the Big Ten. The date to circle is going to be November 10 when Michigan invades Camp Randall; with their all-star offense, Michigan is going to be putting up 40 points a game, but with their utter lack of defense, they might be giving up 40 as well. Mark it -- that game is for the Big Ten title, or at least a share of it.

Blogs to watch

Before I begin to get into football gear in earnest, I'd like to call your attention to a few other places around the internets that might be of some use to you. (For those who are already looking for Badger football stuff, here's a little something: John Clay! Allan Evridge! Tyler Donovan! Bret Bielema! Waaaugh!!)

We'll begin with the creme de la creme, which obviously means the Badger blogs:

* Wisconsin Badger Sports Fan has a fantastic name and has been live since February. Look for all things UW from this site.

* Online since May, Midseason Forum covers much more than just Badger sports. Check out his recent work regarding the impending NBA draft.

* Literally born yesterday(!), Bucky's Faithful is off to a strong start. Get over there and encourage Fest to stick with the blog project!

On to the others ...

* Death Cab for Woody is an Ohio State blog that's full of snark and is touchably soft.

* There are many reasons that you're going to want to look to Hawkeye State for your Big Ten previews this season, not the least of which will be because I once again have no idea what to make of the 2007 Hawkeyes.

* Anything Hoosier, which is possibly actually entitled "IU Sports," makes mention not only of basketball but also Indiana football. Come for the Hoosierdom, stay for the early preseason basketball picks that keep Wisconsin out of the top 5 in the Big Ten!

* Defend the Rock is also a Hoosier blog and has far less to do with Sean Connery than one would suppose.

And finally, there are the Gopher blogs. At this time last year, you couldn't find a single blog devoted to Gopher football, but lately they've been popping up all over. If any more show up, I'll be tempted to go out back with a rake and crack their tiny skulls open. One imagines that this has to do with the Dynamic Duo of Tim Brewster and Tubby Smith. These blogs are all high-quality, which makes me believe that more Wisconsin residents are taking advantage of that whole reciprocity deal than I previously thought.

* Paging Jim Shikenjanski sets the standard for the new Gopher uprising. With 57 posts under his belt since May 16, PJS is sallying forth at a torrid pace. Check this site every day.

* Down with Goldy is down with the Gophers, but not down with Goldy the Gopher. Got it?

* Gopher Gal writes Minnesota Golden Gophers with brevity and aplomb. Good tidbits to be found here.

* The posts at Gopher Nation are thorough and are generally long enough to be enjoyable reads. Plus, if you need a laugh, you can always scroll up to the blog's subtitle, which reads, "We're going to take the Gopher Nation to Pasadena!"

Answering Trev's Questions

The borderline ridiculous questions answered below were devised by the wily Trev Alberts over at Fire Mark May.

Give the more zealous portion of your fanbase a religion. What's this cult following? Feel free to give the splitters a derogatory nickname.

The most passionate fans in all of Badgerdom are those who fulfill all the stereotypes outsiders hold about Wisconsin. They're Wisconsin's biggest fans because they're, well, the biggest fans -- the older gentlemen who've grown obese after gorging themselves for decades on bratwurst, deep-fried cheese curds, and a whole mess of other foods and food-like substances. They drive in from the outskirts of Eau Claire and Manitowoc, find a prime parking spot, and down the LaCrosse Lager and Point like they were water (or, at least, really watery beer). To these portly, sauerkraut-scented gentlemen, I give the name Boozin' Buddhas. They're always so jolly -- are they close to enlightenment, or is that just the half dozen Korbel old-fashioneds they mixed up in the back of the truck?

Bucky dons his Boozin' Buddha gear

Your biggest rival is in town, and College Gameday is coming....to your citaaaaaaay... Create a blatant corporate sellout promotion to appeal to the mass unwashed.

Sack of gopher bait, anyone?

Sorry, not very creative. Instead, let's pass out free Hefty bags to the crowd as a tribute to the Golden Gophers' home field. This useful promotional item can be used to pick up plastic Miller Lite bottles after the game, or can aid our Gopher friends in hastening death when they realize the only thing they have to look forward to after yet another loss is a four-hour car ride to an academically-questionable campus located in a patently awful city in which to be young and irresponsible.

Add one local delicacy to your stadium's concessions. Post-tax pricing is optional.

I never buy food at Camp Randall, so I don't know whether they serve cheese curds, but if they don't then WHY GOD WHY.

But the item they really ought to be stocking is the deep-fried pickles from Ella's Deli. Honestly, dill pickles, ranch dressing, deep-frying ... what's not to love?

With an unlimited AD budget, add or subtract one thing to your school's gameday experience that has nothing to do with football.

Good thing the budget's unlimited, because we're razing the engineering buildings, most of the apartments across Breese Terrace from the stadium, and re-routing University Avenue and Campus Drive about half a mile to the north. We're paving half of it for dedicating surface tailgating lots and making the rest of it verdant splendor, perfect for tossin' around the ol' pigskin before the game. The fact is that Camp Randall Stadium is shoehorned into a weird little corner of campus, and all the congregation and mingling has to be done at private residences or establishments of wildly varying quality along Regent Street. Or if you don't want to do that, you have to take the party WAY down to State Street ... a fun place, a nice walk if you're in the mood, but this all adds up to a discontinuous fan presence. Maybe if the kids didn't have to drink their Kool-Aid and Fleischmann's at Chadbourne and instead could carouse with their friends and treasured alumni just steps from the stadium gates they'd actually get to their seats before the second quarter begins.

Coin a hilariously unrealistic stereotype that you would like to "make stick" for this upcoming season.

Bring back "three yards and a cloud of dust" for the Big Ten! No more of this wacky forward-pass flim-flam, Vegas is setting the over/under of the Purdue-Ohio State game to 15.5! When I think Big Ten football in 2007, I want 90% of the action to occur between the 35-yard lines.

Redesign your conference or independent schedule with reckless abandon. Be prepared to include compensation for jilted schools and conferences in your explanation.

This year, the Badgers play the following teams out of conference: Washington State, UNLV, the Citadel, and Northern Illinois. Compared to previous years, this isn't so bad. We'll keep our local MAC school (NIU) and weak PAC-10 opponent (WSU) for starters. We'll expunge that road game at UNLV; we all remember when the freaking power went out at their crap-ass facility, and we're pretty bitter about the whole Big Dance fiasco, so they're gone. Also, the Citadel? Please. D-IAA has no place on this schedule, and horrible D-IAA teams are just plain out of the question. Instead, we'll replace those opponents with two more major conference opponents. What we need to do is travel for one game, but we must be certain that we can win there, and we need to invite a generally-decent team to Madison and smother them at home. So, we'll play an away game at Syracuse ... after all, if that undermanned Iowa team from last season was capable of winning at the Carrier Dome, we'll have no problem. For our home foe, we'll go with a middling Big XII team ... say, Oklahoma State or Nebraska.

The conference schedule is actually very good as well; coming to Madison are Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, and Indiana, and we travel to Ohio State, Minnesota, Illinois, and Penn State. That means we miss Northwestern and Purdue, both of which register a big fat "so what" from me. The Badgers seem to do pretty decently in Columbus, so the only thing we change is making Penn State visit Camp Randall. In exchange, we play MSU on the road. That makes things a little more favorable for UW.

Following up on your new realignment, blow up the BCS and devise a national playoff system, money grabs and missed exams be damned. Using your new fantasy conferences is optional.

Well, now that (1) defense wins championships, (2) the Big Ten is the best defensive conference in the land, and (3) it's a big deal when Big Ten games feature more than 13 points between the two teams, the parts of the country with short attention spans will be paying minimal attention to college football when our conference's teams grind away national title games with paralyzing 15-play, 88-yard, 11-minute touchdown drives. (For the curious, these are the short-attention-span parts of the country: the East Coast, any region with PAC-10, ACC, or SEC representation, and Texas.) That will allow us to sneak in a twelve team playoff:

* 6 automatic berths: 1 each for the Big Ten, Big XII, SEC, ACC, Big East, and PAC-10 champions
* 6 at-large berths, no restrictions on who can fill these slots (could be a MAC team, Notre Dame, a Mountain West team, and three major conference teams, or 4 Big Ten teams and 2 SEC teams, or anything else!)

The top four teams in the RPI (details of which are not yet clear to me), regardless of whether they won their conferences, get a bye. Then #5 plays #12, #6 plays #11, #7 plays #10, and #8 plays #9. This will give the top teams a chance to let their students take exams, and after four teams are eliminated, they can take exams immediately, leaving only four schools in the whole country with exam conflicts after one week of the playoffs. SO THERE.

Anyway, then #1 plays the lowest remaining seed, #2 the next, and so forth, and this re-shuffling of seeds continues throughout. Finally, after four weeks, we have an undisputed national champ. Well, undisputed by everyone but team #13. But who cares about #13?

Elect one public figure to replace NCAA president Myles Brand. Anyone with proper name recognition is eligible.

What characteristics does the NCAA president need to have? He needs to be reasonable -- he needs to be the type of guy who realizes that providing a star player's family with a million-dollar house or giving a recruit keys to any Escalade in Columbus is a different offense altogether than buying the O-line pizza when they show up to practicing weighing 245 apiece. He needs to realize that football and men's basketball are different animals than field hockey and gymnastics, and those lame sports need to be de-emphasized. He needs to be so rich that he doesn't care who's making what kind of money. And he needs to be willing to throw himself completely into the job ... and we all know the best way to do that is to have something from which you need to escape.

For those reasons, why not former President Bill Clinton? He's been sick to death of Hillary for nearly a quarter century, he can make six figures by shaking hands for forty-five minutes in Manhattan, and he's so manipulative that nobody'll notice that he wrote Title IX out of existence ... they'll all be captivated by that swarthy Southern drawl.

Cow-tipping, UW Hockey-style

Cow-tipping. After beer-pong, Wisconsin's most popular sport. A sacred tradition, a rite of passage, an easy go-to insult for the most slack-jawed out-of-state dunderheads to fall back upon.

Well, it really appears that Badger defenseman Kyle Klubertanz is living the dream. The Anaheim Ducks prospect was fined $200 Thursday for cow-tipping. But, as always seems to be the case with Badgers who run afoul of John Law, the story comes with a humorous, embarrassing twist:

It wasn't an actual cow.

No, it was a cow sculpture, as the Capital Times story helpfully illustrates:



The cow in question is called "Looking for Bucky" and stood, for a longer time than it should've, outside of the Kohl Center during last summer's Cow Parade. Over a hundred of these damned things took up space and helped bring stereotypes to life for an unbearable stretch of months last year, and then almost all of them sold for inexplicable five-figure amounts at a charity auction.

Reading the article, though, it certainly seems that Klubertanz and his nerdy sidekick, Badger alum Jeffery Slinde, picked on the least offensive cow in the vicinity. "Looking for Bucky" was accompanied by "Moo Rah Rah Wisconsin" (groan) and "If You Want to Be a Moosaic, Come Along with Me" (straight up WTF!?). Bill Wineke wrote, "the names alone make one want to damage the cow," and sure enough as I was typing all that in my tippin' shoulder was starting to get that telltale twitch.

So, $200 fine, 30 hours' community service, no mark on the permanent record. And Badger hockey once again gives people all around the internets something to talk about.

Rest in peace, Terry Hoeppner

Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner died this morning after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. He will be missed. Hoeppner seemed like the kind of guy who had a shot at raising Indiana's profile in the football world after a great run as coach of Miami-Ohio. He seemed like a genuinely good guy, and his players definitely respected him.

Here's to IU ... weather the storm, guys. May perpetual light shine upon you, Coach.

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?