Record Watch Update

Senior Marcus Landry's lone blocked shot against Purdue tied him with Louis Ely for seventh all-time in Wisconsin history. He has already surpassed his total from all of last season. Landry has 92 career blocks and at least 11 more games to play. Earlier this season, he also moved into 10th place among all Badgers in offensive rebounds, with 160.

Player - Career Blocks (Season Total)
4. Kurt Portmann - 102
5. Greg Stiemsma - 96
6. J.J. Weber - 95
7. Marcus Landry - 92 (28)
7. Louis Ely - 92

Player - Career Off Rebs (Season Total)
8. Patrick Tompkins: 181
9. Willie Simms: 176
10. Marcus Landry: 160 (32)

Classmate Joe Krabbenhoft pulled down six defensive rebounds in the game to break out of a tie with Brian Butch for ninth place all-time on the total rebounding ladder. He did not have an offensive board against the Boilermakers, but grabbed three against Illinois to move into a sixth-place tie with Michael Finley on the career list of offensive rebounders.

Player - Career Rebounds (Season Total)
6. Alando Tucker - 769
7. Larry Petty - 718
8. Dale Koehler - 680
9. Joe Krabbenhoft - 673 (137)

Player - Career Off Rebs (Season Total)
4. Sean Daugherty - 227
5. Brian Butch - 222
6. Joe Krabbenhoft - 205 (34)
6. Michael Finley - 205

The Perfect Storm Continues

There is no doubt that Wisconsin played better in its second meeting with Purdue than it has been lately. At least the Badgers came out with a little more intensity and toughness than usual, which was exciting to see. Unfortunately, the familiar contributing factors kept the Badgers (12-8, 3-5) down in the dumps again as they lost their fifth straight game, 64-63, on Tuesday night.

Wisconsin surrendered an effective field goal percentage of 66.7% to Purdue, which is the worst of the season by a wide margin. It looked as bad as the statistic sounds too. In the first half, the Badgers gave up too many layups to driving Boiler guards who faced no help defense. Though UW made up the halftime deficit with two quick 3-pointers, the adjustments to the penetration was a basic "pick your poison" situation. Purdue (16-4, 5-2) made three straight daggers from behind the arc in the final minutes to make the Badgers pay. And at least two of those shots were wide-open attempts.

:: Contributing factor #1: Wisconsin is a team of average defensive players. That will not cut it against Purdue, who has forced UW into two of its three least efficient nights defensively this season (Virginia Tech being the worst). In particular, Robbie Hummel does whatever he wants against Wisconsin since Purdue's screening offense leaves him wide open half of the time. I saw both Marcus Landry and Joe Krabbenhoft either make bad choices getting around screens or failing to keep up with the guy.

On the flip side, the Badgers were very efficient on offense themselves, but again, could not sustain the effort for a full 40 minutes. Whereas Trevon Hughes was penetrating earlier in the game, by the end, Jordan Taylor found no one calling for the ball at crunch time. In a game where the Boilermakers can individually shut down each of the Badgers with solid defense, submissiveness is a death sentence. The freshman point man took the last four meaningful shots for Wisconsin.

:: Contributing factor #2: The Badgers lack a true scorer with a leader's mentality. Give Purdue credit ... they turned it up a notch on defense when it counted. But the Wisconsin offense often looks its worst when a score is most critical. It bogged down on Tuesday night when each of UW's players became passive yet again. A big part of being a go-to player is knowing when to seize that inch that the defense gives you, even if it's early in the shot clock. Likewise, with Hughes in mind, the player must make sure he completes the play with a good finish or the best pass.

Though I don't fault Taylor for the his drive in the final 17 seconds, I think he is one of the last people you want shooting the 3-pointer Wisconsin was looking for when 35 seconds remained. Shooting percentages rarely lie and Taylor is hitting only one out of every nine shots from long distance.

:: Contributing factor #3: Jason Bohannon's slump is destroying the season. You would love to run a player like J-Bo off a double-screen every now and then to get him a good look, but even the open shots are not falling right now. It has gotten to the point where he is in his own head, passing up open opportunities. J-Bo will turn it around eventually, but I am not sure it will be in time to make a run to the NCAAs.

Keaton Nankivil's sweet touch was the silver lining for the Badgers in the midst of this mass of cloudy weather. You absolutely cannot waste a 21-point performance from someone who has given you nothing for weeks. Nankivil, who was averaging 4.3 ppg prior to the game, was feeeee-ling it. By hitting all five of his treys, the sophomore kept Wisconsin in the game all by himself. [box score]

Unfortunately, Nankivil's play also kept Jon Leuer on the bench for the most part. Leuer scored only two points and has been non-existent since the Minnesota game as his minutes have steadily dropped. I wonder what would have happened if Bo gave Leuer a chance to get in more of a rhythm last night alongside Nankivil. It would have come at the expense of Landry, but so what? JuJuan Johnson seems to render Landry invisible anyway. With Nankivil's outside shot falling, the team could have used Leuer's length and quickness in the mid-range zones. The lanky one seems to have fallen in love with the trey, though he is actually less effective on 3-pointers than Bohannon this year.

Boom-shaka-laka

8:12 p.m. CST -- Mr. Jackson, meet #45.

THAT'S WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT FOLKS!! Dishing out some pain ...

Mr. Krabbenhoft's forearm shiver was followed by Marcus Landry's strong finish on a steal and a second jumper by Keaton Nankivil. I wish I could turn off the television right now and rest easy.

-- End transmission.

Beanie Baby Badgers

Tuesday night's game against Purdue is one of Wisconsin's most important games in years. The momentum that has raised expectations over several seasons is on the verge of crumbling. The aura of invincibility surrounding the Kohl Center is fading. Onlookers are questioning the team's toughness. Beating the Boilermakers could restore the luster of the home court and make the statement that the Badgers will not ride silently into the sunset of this year's also-rans.

Then again, Wisconsin is in the kind of trouble that one game cannot fix. The last time the Badgers lost four games in a row was the final four games of the 2005-06 season, when UW went one-and-done in both the Big Ten and NCAA tournament. Despite RPIforecast.com projecting Wisconsin's final RPI to be in the top 40, the program is riding the worst Big Ten losing streak of the Bo Ryan-era.

The general consensus to start the year was that this was one of Bo's most talented teams from top to bottom. Wisconsin returned four experienced upperclassmen who contributed to back-to-back 30-win campaigns. So was everyone wrong about this team's talent? Does this bunch of players just not have the proverbial it?

One thing most people can agree upon is that Wisconsin has regressed defensively. The Badgers have an adjusted defensive efficiency rating much lower than in the previous two seasons, currently ranking 70th rather than in the top ten according to Ken Pomeroy's system. This places them in the middle of the pack in the improved Big Ten. In addition, bad positioning and perhaps a lack of inside size have led to UW committing far more fouls than usual, as John Gasaway's satire illustrates. In a related note, Wisconsin is shooting fewer free throws per field goal attempt and and scoring a lower percentage of its points from the charity stripe as well. The Badgers are taking the punishment, but not dishing out much themselves.

Once you accept these facts, it is easy to try connecting the dots from poor defense to less intensity, from lower intensity to a decrease in toughness. Even Bo questioned the hustle and toughness of his team this year. When faced with pressure, whether literal (UConn, Marquette, Purdue, Minnesota) or situational (Texas, Minnesota again, Iowa), Wisconsin's players shy away more often than they step up.

Take a look at the roster. Over the past two seasons, Wisconsin has bid adieu to one bonafide go-to player (Tucker), a streaky, fearless gunner (Kam), a tireless, lockdown perimeter defender (Flowers), a mobile, shotblocking presence capable of the occassional cheap shot (Stiemsma) and a fiery 7-foot former McDonald's All-American (Butch). Each of these players had a swagger about them. Several were true leaders and confident enough in their own abilities to take risks.

In case you missed it, Badger Centric took a fresh angle on what's been ailing the Badgers -- not enough bad shots from aggressive players. At the very least, an interesting thought. The current Wisconsin players appear uncomfortable stepping into the role of carrying a team on their back when needed. Balanced teams are great (see: 2007-08), but what you and I fear is a collection of highly-rated role players.

Having a team of skilled, "soft" players is not the only problem right now, but it cannot be swept under the rug. The toughest guy on the team is Joe Krabbenhoft, hands down. Krabby had an excellent game against Illinois, perhaps the only bright spot amidst terrible Wisconsin shooting. [box score] It is hard to spot any of his teammates playing similarly, however. I could make arguments for Tim Jarmusz and Kevin Gullikson possessing that intangible toughness and hustle, but neither is skilled enough to crack the rotation's top seven. That is a problem.

Jon Leuer is probably the most aggressive Badger offensively and you can see shades of that trait already in Rob Wilson. (Speaking of Wilson, Bo simply did not play the freshman enough against the Illini, which was inexcuseable in my mind. Wisconsin desperately needed his length and athleticism to slow down Demetri McCamey, as well as someone to shake things up on offense). In the starting five though, Trevon Hughes is the closest thing to a go-to guy and he's already been benched once this year. Marcus Landry and Keaton Nankivil are too laid back. Jason Bohannon is beyond laid back.

Collectively, Wisconsin has been forced out of its comfort zone. As a team and as individuals, the response has not been up to snuff.

Right now, I see a bunch of complimentary players. To turn the season around, Wisconsin needs to find some warriors.

Big Ten Power Poll: 1/23/09

I guess it was time for a shake-up. Eight teams changed positions in this week's power poll, with the top and bottom of the league stable, but everything else up for grabs.

With Purdue healthy again, the Boilermakers have been Hummeling along nicely. Along with Michigan State and Illinois, Purdue has emerged as one of the clearly stronger top three teams that has started to put some imaginary distance between themselves and pack behind them. While those teams just feel superior when you watch them, I call it imaginary distance because no one is too far ahead in the win column this early in the year.

My rankings try to give strike a balance between a snapshot of how each team is playing at the time and the overall body of work. Unexpected swings can be expected from week to week, but overall movement should never be more drastic than a few slots.

For instance, Northwestern just posted the best pair of back-to-back wins the Big Ten has seen this season when it spanked Minnesota at home and then toppled Michigan State in East Lansing. The Wildcats had lost four in row previously and if you look at their schedule, could continue to build a nice winning streak. But in reality, the stars have probably just temporarily aligned for Northwestern, thus they only managed to sneak up to #7.

Northwestern jumped both Ohio State and Michigan; the Wolverines continues to be underwhelming in my book. Wisconsin is completely out of sync but remained at #6 since the last two losses were near-misses in overtime. Still, Wisconsin and Michigan share the conference's longest non-Hoosier losing streak at three games. It could get worse before it gets better for Wisconsin over the next five games and Michigan's next six games on the schedule appear brutal as well.

	Rk	Team	Record (Conf)	Poll Avg (Jan. 19)	Pomeroy Rank	Key Wins
	1	Michigan State	15-3 (5-1)	7	23	Texas, @Minn, Kan, Ill
^	2	Illinois	16-3 (4-2)	24.5	16	Mizzou, OSU, @Purdue
^	3	Purdue	15-4 (4-2)	18	14	BC, Davidson, Wis, @Minn
v	4	Minnesota	16-3 (4-3)	20.5	49	L'ville, @Wis, OSU
^	5	Penn State	15-5 (4-3)	-	68	Purdue, Mich
v	6	Wisconsin	12-6 (3-3)	-	40	@VT, @Mich
^	7	Northwestern	10-6 (2-4)	-	43	Minn, @MSU, Fla. St.
	8	Ohio State	13-4 (3-3)	31	47	@Miami, ND, @Mich
v	9	Michigan	13-6 (3-4)	41.5	75	UCLA, Duke, Ill
	10	Iowa	12-7 (2-4)	-	79	Iowa St., Wis
	11	Indiana	5-12 (0-5)	-	249	TCU

Big Ten Power Poll: 1/16/09

Thursday night's game in Madison not only determined which team would rise to sole possession of second place in the Big Ten, but also held the key to whether it would be Wisconsin or Minnesota behind Michigan St. in the second Hoops Marinara Big Ten Power Poll.

The result was not 100% definitive, but it points to good things for Minnesota down the road. And for Wisconsin? A total lack of momentum. The Badgers drop to fifth this week in the poll, behind a couple of other teams who also helped to clear up the conference race a bit earlier in the week: Illinois and Purdue.

The Boilermakers were not that impressive in Evanston, but managed to escape with a victory. Survive and advance, I suppose. Illinois, however, is firing on all cylinders right now. Led by goofy 7-footer Mike Tisdale, the Orange Crush put Michigan in its place ... smack dab in the middle of the conference ladder. There was no movement in the bottom half of the league.

Four teams have played five conference games at this point, with everyone else at four games. Minnesota improved the most over the last week according to the Pomeroy numbers (even Wisconsin improved despite back-to-back losses), while Northwestern and Penn State took the two significant tumbles in those rankings since the last Power Poll.

	Rk	Team	Record (Conf)	Poll Avg	Pomeroy	Key Wins
	1	Michigan State	14-2 (4-0)	7.5	24	Texas,@Minn,Kan
^	2	Minnesota	16-1 (4-1)	17.5	40	L'ville,@Wis,OSU
^	3	Illinois	15-2 (3-1)	27.5	16	Mizzou,@Purdue
^	4	Purdue	13-4 (2-2)	19	18	BC,Davidson,Wis
v	5	Wisconsin	12-5 (3-2)	33.5	37	@VT,@Mich
	6	Penn State	13-5 (2-3)	-	76	Purdue
	7	Michigan	13-4 (3-2)	24.5	51	UCLA,Duke,Ill
	8	Ohio State	12-3 (2-2)	44	41	@Miami,ND
	9	Northwestern	8-6 (0-4)	-	56	Fla St.
	10	Iowa	11-6 (1-3)	-	63	Iowa St.
	11	Indiana	5-11 (0-4)	-	237	TCU

The Missing Ingredients

What a choke job from the Badgers. Wisconsin made Minnesota look like high schoolers for 33 straight minutes in the middle of Thursday's game. With about three minutes left, Tubby Smith FINALLY reapplied full court pressure and the wheels came off.

Then the Badgers looked like the high school team. The trademark defense that Wisconsin rediscovered in the first half melted away like strawberry jello. In the waning moments of the second half, Minnesota drove to the rim at will to dump in uncontested layup after uncontested layup.

Normally you would expect the team who rebounds well, takes care of the ball and scores more off of free throws to win, but the disparity in easy buckets by the end of the game was too much for UW to overcome. [box score]

Stats by StatSheet.com

On the other end, Bo Ryan's crew had no idea where to go for a key bucket. The referees stopped bailing them out. Were they gassed? Marcus Landry certainly did not have the legs to power in the available looks he got in the post. On numerous occasions, players like Landry, Trevon Hughes and Jason Bohannon failed to finish on the press break when open layups were presented to them (although I think J-Bo's was goaltended). The result was a heartbreaking 78-74 overtime loss.

Wisconsin was no better than Northwestern tonight, who also handed over a victory to a ranked opponent. So instead of continuing to blog in disbelief, I'll leave you with the story I would have written if the Badgers had held on ... you know, if Wisconsin was actually a quality team this year ...

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Poise. Movement.

Wisconsin's offense possessed both of those ingredients against #18 Minnesota for 33 straight minutes in the middle of Thursday night's game. As a result, the Badgers were able to turn a terrible start on its head, dominate the Golden Gophers and deny Minnesota its first win at the Kohl Center.

Oh, and one more thing: Defense

Most viewers were probably wondering what took Tubby Smith so long to go back to the full court pressure that made the first four minutes of the game pretty miserable for Wisconsin. Well, the Badgers were playing lock down defense for the remainder of the first half and continued doing a decent job on defense through much of the second half. Without being able to score, Minnesota could not speed up the game with a consistent press.

That brand of defense has been the element most absent from Wisconsin's game plan so far this year. If the Badgers can sustain that kind of defense (closing out on shooters, disrupting passing lanes and rebounding) for 40 minutes, UW will be a conference title contender once again. Defensive intensity, poise and good movement on offense are the three missing ingredients to a successful 2009 season.

Kevin Gullikson, of all people, opened up the offense for Bo's boys. Gullikson -- aka Captain America -- played a superb first half. He made spectacular entry passes to Landry and it was contagious. You had players cutting to the hole religiously and effortlessly, which led to easy buckets when the Badgers kept their eyes peeled.

I cannot believe Gullikson did not get more minutes actually. This is the first time I remember genuinely questioning how Keaton Nakivil's career will turn out with the Badgers. The sophomore forward is giving his team zero quality minutes right now.

Once again, Trevon Hughes shows how valueable he is to Wisconsin. Pop really toyed with the Gopher guards for the majority of the game. Except for some lapses when Minnesota reapplied a the late press, Hughes was virtually flawless in the second half. The transformation was remarkable.

But my fists were still clenched through the whole game -- with good reason. Minnesota was determined to make it a battle and frustrated many of the Badgers with pressure. Nothing new. With Jordan Taylor not yet trustworthy, the only reliable ballhandlers/decision-makers other than Hughes are Bohannon and Joe Krabbenhoft. Neither of them are quick enough to get separation from quicker players, which comes back to bite the Badgers in those situations.

Tim Jarmusz did not have a good game. To be honest, I question why he was in the game at the end against the full court pressure -- he's almost out there by default. His handle is not that good and he is not quick enough to get open either. One of those wide-open 3-pointers would have been nice Timmy.

On a brighter note, Wisconsin made 12-of-14 FTs over the last nine minutes of the second half to salt away the win. The Badgers finished 23-of-28 (83%) from the charity stripe -- a pleasant surprise.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Finally, there were more than enough questionable calls in this game to warrant mentioning. And for the most part, I thought Wisconsin got the better end of the deal (non-Badger fans are toasting their brethren right now). And Ed Hightower wasn't even involved ... just his running mate Ted Hillary.

The calls/non-calls included:
- Paul Carter's goaltending on J-Bo's shot
- Hughes' fourth foul when he poked the ball out of Westbrook's dribble
- The whirling Westbrook drive that ended in a surprising and-1 ... I didn't see any contact there
- Damien Johnson got screwed when he cleanly blocked Pop's layup attempt in the closing minutes.
- Johnson was also called for a foul earlier when blocking Landry's jumper ... looked clean

Recruit Review: 1/12/09

Now seemed like as good of a time as any to recap the weekend for those soon-to-be Wisconsin Badgers still playing at the high school level. Hopefully this can become a regular addition to the site, much like the Recruiting Roundup over at UMHoops.

For more details on each recruit, seek out the Prospect Profile pages in the recruiting sidebar. The collection of news, videos, stats and pictures opens up once a player has verbally committed to Wisconsin. Four such players donned their school colors this weekend, with mostly positive results ...

2009

:: Diamond Taylor led Bolingbrook to a 68-40 win against a depleted Romeoville squad in the second head-to-head meeting between future Badgers this season. The Raiders (10-4) were not impressive during a four-game losing streak earlier in the year, but it is good see Taylor leading the team back. The senior guard scored 19 points and was instrumental in a 10-0 first quarter run that gave Bolingbrook control. The most recent Wisconsin recruit, sophomore Devon Hodges, paced Romeoville with 10 points.

:: The recent Twin Cities battle in which Hopkins topped Henry Sibley, 77-65, has already been documented here. Standout forward Mike Bruesewitz did not have his best game, but got to the line and was his usual self on the boards (10 rebs). Bruesewitz continues to show off his versatility against the toughest competition. With Sibley's guards unable to handle the pressure imposed by Hopkins, Bruesewitz took over some of the point guard duties in the second half for the Warriors. The previous week, Bruesewitz had 20 pts, 11 rebs and 5 assts in a tough loss to Madison Memorial before posting 20 & 12 in a win over Tartan. Sibley (8-2) will try to bounce back Tuesday night against North St. Paul.

2010

:: Madison Memorial traveled out of state yet again this past weekend. The Spartans (9-0) took care of business, too. Jeronne Maymon's monster game led Memorial past the Lafayette (Mo.) Lancers, 65-62, in a St. Louis-area invitational on Saturday. Lafayette features senior forward Tyler Griffey, a well-regarded Illinois recruit, and just recently dropped out the area's top ten rankings. Memorial junior Vander Blue aided the winning effort with two more 3-pointers en route to 17 points. Blue's outside shooting ability was one question mark about his game coming into the season, but he is systematically removing that criticism with each passing week, hitting multiple treys in six of nine games so far. A well-rounded Blue will be much more valuable on the perimeter for Bo Ryan's offense once he hits campus in the 2010.

:: Eau Claire North took its first loss in the Big Rivers Conference last Thursday, 47-44, as it continues to wait for center Evan Anderson to return from his ankle injury. The 6'11" Anderson is expected to return at the end of the month, but will probably be eased back into the lineup.

2011

:: See above. I hope to have an interview with Devon Hodges on Hoops Marinara in the near future. Stay tuned.

Revenge Will Have To Wait

I was not feeling too good on Sunday afternoon and laying in bed watching the Badgers play poorly did nothing to raise my spirits.

Wisconsin had a great opportunity to put some useful distance between itself and the conference wannabes with a road win in West Lafayette, but the return of Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer proved how much of a fluke an 0-2 conference start can be.

JaJuan Johnson had a double-double for the Boilermakers, but I think his great game was more of an effect, rather than the cause, of the 65-52 spanking delivered by Purdue. [box score]

Take Hummel for example. He played 28 minutes, scoring 16 points and grabbing five rebounds. No one on the Badger roster was able to stick with him on the court. Hummel shot 4-of-8 from behind the arc and I swear every outside shot he put up was uncontested. You could see it coming ahead of time: Landry, Leuer, Nankivil, Krabbenhoft, Jarmusz ... I cannot remember who all got a chance to guard him, but you saw the defender going under a pick repeatedly, giving Hummel just enough separation to hit a few daggers. And to their credit, the Boilers found their go-to guy in the right spots.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin's best offensive players did throwing up terrible shots and then missing tons of easy ones. I am looking at you Mr. Landry, Mr. Leuer and Mr. Hughes. Very simply, UW came out flat and nothing went it's way as a result. Once again, Wisconsin shrank and cowered in the face of pressure defense, rather than exploit it.

Make no mistake: Purdue's defense was outstanding. They consistently extended pressure on the ball all the way to half court and basically suffocated the Badgers, who settled for too many jumpers. Wisconsin hit 6-of-20 threes (30%), but I think any time UW hoists more than 15 or 16 from that range, you know that the offense is out of sync.

To be fair, neither backcourt was very impressive in this game. Wisconsin held Purdue's leading scorer, E'Twaun Moore, to four points on 1-of-12 shooting. I cannot recall who guarded Moore, but I know Jason Bohannon got blown by a few times, so maybe Moore just had a bad day finishing too. J-Bo did not make up for it on offense either.

While Bohannon was merely invisible for most of the game, Trevon Hughes was just bad. This came on the heels of the Capital Times giving Hughes props for developing into a top on-ball defender. Though it was not very evident from the box score, I thought pint-sized freshman Lewis Jackson schooled Hughes on a number of occassions, both offensively and defensively. Hughes finished with five turnovers, matching his season-high from the UConn game.

I was really disappointed (and surprised) that Rob Wilson did not get more playing time. The team needed his aggressiveness and I have to nitpick at Bo Ryan's rotation in this game. Yes, Wilson is a freshman and it was a tough road environment, but what did Bo have to lose?

I never thought I would say this, but Joe Krabbenhoft was clearly the best offensive option on the court for Wisconsin. With Wilson collecting dust on the pine, Krabby was the only one playing smart, aggressive basketball. He missed only one of his seven field goal attempts and was the onnly Badger in double figures.

On the bright side, I watched the Illini absolutely crush the Hoosiers on Saturday and thanked the Wisconsin Athletic Department out loud for splitting up the Northwestern and Indiana games on the half-season ticket packages.

: : :

Links:
- Get the mainstream media and one blogger's perspectives on the recent #1 vs. #2 class in Minnesota prep hoops. Mike Bruesewitz and #2 Sibley fell, 77-66, to the high school all-star team known as Hopkins. Everybody is already anticipating a rematch for the state title in March.
- The Wages of Win Journal concludes that the more Devin Harris shoots, the better the New Jersey Nets play. Check out Table Two for a comparison between Harris and an average NBA point guard. The mythical "Wins Produced" projection tells you what Badger fans already know: Devin is the man.

Badgers Tame The Same Old House Cats

If you saw the Power Poll from the other day, you already know I didn't think too highly of Northwestern in spite of their solid Pomeroy rating. Wednesday's beatdown at the hands of the Wisconsin Badgers may have doomed the Wildcats to lower end of the conference standings once again.

I find it amazing that Northwestern's football team can rise up every 8-10 years and put a nice product on the field, but the basketball team cannot seem to make any progress. Wisconsin's lead ballooned to 30 points in the second half, thanks to Jason Bohannon's sharpshooting. Bohannon actually quietly set or matched career highs in points, rebounds and assists. Wow. On the flip side, no Wildcat scored in double figures. [box score]

The Badgers have started out 3-0 in conference, but in my opinion, have bested three teams in the bottom half of the league. Associate head coach Greg Gard called the team's free-throw shooting the biggest disappointment of the night. A late rally by J-Bo and Marcus Landry left the team at 63.6% on the evening, so I suspect Gard had Trevon Hughes and and Jon Leuer (they shot a combined 3-of-9 on freebies) in mind when he said that. If that is the worst thing you can say about your team's performance, you are always coming away with a 'W' against Northwestern.

Wisconsin certainly had its way inside with Landry and Leuer, which was fun to watch. I mentioned before halftime that anything less than about 16 points from Marcus would be a disappointment. Unfortunately, he caught a few bad bounces on good looks, winding up with 12 points and five boards.

Leuer asserted himself early and often, stuffing the stat sheet with 15 pts (6-of-9), 8 rebs, 3 blks & 2 stls. His active hands and improved defense have led to an increase in playing time, much to the amusement of Badger fans.

Stats by StatSheet.com

Another positive was the starting backcourt combining for nine assists. A couple of Pop's dimes were particularly pretty. I am still amazed at how much criticism Hughes took after the Texas loss. It was totally uncalled for; Hughes is one of, if not the most valuable player on this Wisconsin team.

: : :

Links:
- Iowa's Matt Gatens is the only Big 10 frosh to make BP's list of the Top 25 freshman in this "down year".
- I am hoping to get to a Madison Memorial game soon. I wish I could have seen the Spartans squeak passed Mike Bruesewitz's Henry Sibley squad last week, where future Badger recruits squared off against each other and fellow D1 talent.
- Harvard! Finally good for something besides hockey and spawning The National Lampoon. Can you say "let down" game? And Michigan fans, haven't we heard this Amaker story somewhere before?

Big Ten Power Poll: 1/7/09

Injuries are already causing havoc within the Big Ten standings.

A bad back has rendered Robbie Hummel ineffective over the last few games. Without Hummel and Chris Kramer in the lineup last night, Purdue dropped to 0-2 in conference play with a loss at Penn State.

David Lighty's extended absence has sent Ohio State into a tailspin, adding to the troubles the Buckeyes were already having at point guard. The team has lost three of its last four games and will get little help from the schedule. Ohio State gets the gift of Indiana squeezed in between four straight road games to start the Big 10 season.

Anthony Tucker's slow return from a suspension in Iowa is also being attributed to an illness now. It's no surprise then that the team who recently welcomed back a key player is atop Hoops Marinara's first Big Ten Power Poll of the season.

With Goran Suton back in the starting lineup for the past four games, Michigan State is heating up. Road wins against Minnesota and Northwestern, plus Tuesday's win over Ohio State puts Michigan State alone in first place with a 3-0 record.

Wisconsin, who has avoided the injury bug so far, is the only other undefeated team in league play and hosts Northwestern on Wednesday night. The Badgers posted an impressive win in Ann Arbor and then withstood the Nittany Lions to start 2-0. Bo Ryan's crew boasts the second-best non-conference strength of schedule among Big Ten teams and always seems to have the right stuff come January.

There were only three Big Ten teams (MSU, Purdue, Minnesota) left in the traditional polls entering the week. Meanwhile, the conference settled into fifth amongst all conferences in Ken Pomeroy's ratings. While the league might be as competitive as it has been in years, chances are the teams will be beating up on each other, preventing the true breakout year that many anticipating in the early going.

So despite four teams with three games played already (and Indiana with only one), let's get this inaugural list underway, shall we?

Rk	Team	Record (Conf)	Poll Avg	Pomeroy	Key Wins
1	Michigan State	12-2 (3-0)	10	23	Texas,@Minn,OSU
2	Wisconsin	11-3 (2-0)	34.5	48	@VT,@Mich
3	Minnesota	13-1 (1-1)	20.5	63	L'ville,OSU
4	Illinois	13-2 (1-1)	30.5	21	Mizzou,@Purdue
5	Purdue	11-4 (0-2)	14	18	BC,Davidson
6	Penn State	13-3 (2-1)	-	65	Purdue
7	Michigan	11-3 (1-1)	27	57	UCLA,Duke,Ill
8	Ohio State	10-3 (1-2)	34	42	@Miami,ND
9	Northwestern	8-4 (0-2)	-	39	Fla St.
10	Iowa	11-4 (1-1)	-	50	Iowa St.
11	Indiana	5-8 (0-1)	-	226	TCU