America's Youth Classic Recap

It was a whirlwind weekend, so not much could be written on my end about the Badgers cakewalk through the round-robin tourney at the Kohl Center. All I have to say is, that is the kind of butt-kicking you like to see to begin a new year. As we've already seen this season, a lot of talented teams play down to their competition. But not this crew -- it has too much to prove.

Bo would have you believe that the threat of Wisconsin's running game is leading to a manhandling of the opponents on the boards. However, statistically, the Badgers are pretty efficient offensively and fantastic defensively -- but not any faster paced that usual. It's hard to tell whether or not that is due to opposing teams guarding against the fast break when Wisconsin has such a gargantuan size advantage. Maybe those three teams just figured they weren't going to be able to compete on the glass, so why bother.

I think it's just further evidence that the most important part of running the fast break is rebounding. The rebounding feeds the speedy point guard, who in turn changes defensive philosophy of the guy sitting on the other bench.