Badgers Bow Out

It is a sad day. We will never see Alando Tucker play in a Wisconsin uniform again.

Tucker couldn't put UW on his back this time. Falling behind by double-digits in the first half yet again is not a good idea against an underrated UNLV team with a chip on its shoulder. How can the Badgers come out so flat yet again? Is Bo Ryan partly to blame? Someone brought up a good point on the Badgermaniac message board about Bo's pattern of starting his upperclassmen: if Jason Chappell is so worthless, doesn't it benefit the team to avoid early deficits by playing your better players right away? The good news is that Chappell's scholarship is now free for the first time in five years.

Once again, Tucker's supporting cast seemed hesitant to feed him the ball in the post. That is an unfathomable outcome considering the team's current makeup and low 3-pt shooting percentage. With Krabbenhoft missing bunny after bunny and going "small" to match-up with the UNLV better, it is surprising the Badgers took a lead at all in this one.

Moving forward, Flowers has got to stay on the floor next year. Admittedly, I did not research this at all, but he seemed to be in constant foul trouble as the season wore on. I was glad to see him take it to the hoop a few times versus the Rebels, but he had turnovers on two horrendous passes that basically reversed the good karma. Until I decide otherwise, Flowers and our yet-to-be-determined offensive post presence are the two biggest keys to the 2007-08 season.

Three more observations:
(1) Landry finally executed another baseline spin move. Unfortunately, it did not result in a basket.
(2) Near the time UW took the lead in the second half, there was a pass ahead to Tucker that was basically a 2-on-1 with Landry. No alley-oop toss to Landry. No pass at all. Tucker pulled the ball back out. Indicative of how passive the team played for most of the day.
(3) In terms of our recent NCAA tournament losses, this one approaches both the SW Missouri State loss and the Georgia State loss. Being the first #1 or #2 seed to lose looks terrible nationally. If we thought we did not get enough respect before, look out. The season was not suppose to end this way for a team ranked No. 1 in AP poll only a few weeks ago.

At least 'Do seems like a great person. He will move on. I wish Tucker the best in life and hope we can follow him at the next level.