Elite 8: The Storybook Closes

Davidson, 2008's Cinderella story, needed to hit one more shot to advance to the Final Four but could not get a clean look for Stephen Curry at the game's climax. Instead, four #1 seeds will battle in the Final Four for the first time.

But the Wildcats proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were one of the top ten teams in the country this season. Likewise, Kansas proved that it has the defensively capabilities to get an important stop in crunch time, which could be the difference in slowing down the Carolina machine.

What a phenomenal display of team defense by the Jayhawks on that final play. I think everyone was shocked that Curry didn't choose to just force the last shot up himself, as it took a lot to force the ball out of Curry's hands. Although Brandon Rush struggled offensively, he recovered nicely after stumbling to the ground and stuck with Curry. After he jumped in the air, anticipating a shot, it was Sherron Collins who slid in with an air raised high in Curry's face that ultimately forced the pass. Well done.

The UNC-Louisville game was the one I was most anticipating this weekend, though, and it nearly lived up to the hype. However, Louisville's carelessness with the ball denied them another win.

Wauwatosa native Jerry Smith provided the early spark for the Cards and finished with a team-high 17 points. His shot was looking very good from deep range, but he was held scoreless for the final 11 minutes of the contest. It's not worth comparing Smith to Hughes or J-Bo at this point, but I like Smith's energy in the Louisville's pressing scheme and his shooting has really improved. Obviously, he could have helped the Badgers much more than J.P. Gavinski has thus far.

Round 4 data
How the #3 seeds fared: 0-2 (10-4 overall)
(1)North Carolina 83, (3)Louisville 73 [box]
(1)UCLA 76, (3)Xavier 57 [box]

My picks: 37/60 (61.6%) overall | Round 4: 3/4 (75%)

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Washington State's Tony Bennett has turned down the offer to coach the Indiana Hoosiers. According to Hoosier Scoop, Indiana will spare no expense to get Xavier's Sean Miller to fill the vacancy. Former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery will also be a top candidate.

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The future Badgers from the Land of 10,000 Lakes went one for two in capturing state championships this weekend. Benilde-St. Margaret's won the Class 3A, 58-52, over last year's champs, Senior point guard Jordan Taylor made a strong case for Minnesota's Mr. Basketball all week long. Taylor capped off a great all-around tournament with 20 pts, 10 rebs & 6 assts on Saturday night. At State, he averaged 27 pts, 7 rebs, 5.6 assts, 2.6 stls, with over a 4:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. I'd say Taylor's ready for college.

Mike Bruesewitz's Henry Sibley team ran out to a big lead on favored Minnetonka in the Class 4A final, but faltered under pressure, losing 68-59. The junior commit had another nice all-around game, but struggled from the free throw line in the second half. Bruesewitz finished with 39 rebounds in three games at the state tournament.

Now that Royce White has transferred to Hopkins, both the champs and Sibley will be chasing Minnetonka's rival next year.

Sweet 16: Admit One To Dumpsville

Right around the five-minute mark, Jason Bohannon drove the lane and found Brian Butch for an easy lay-in. Bo Ryan immediately called timeout. As the camera cut to him, you could clearly see Bo tear into his team, "That's what we needed. Not any of this ..."

The words became unclear, but as Bo waved his extended hand out over the court, the television audience got the message. Friday's meltdown was one of failed execution. Several Badgers passed up opportunities to drive to the hoop, even turning 180 degrees at times to double back toward the midcourt area to deliver another meaningless hand-off pass. In particular, Joe Krabbenhoft (no surprise) and Marcus Landry did not look for their shot, while Butch didn't seem to make much of a concerted effort to get good position in the post at any point. The offense looked pathetic, the rebounding position was inadequate, the effort was listless ... the tentative Badgers were simply outplayed in almost every way.

I have not felt so wrong about a prediction since I boldly proclaimed in the student newspaper that the Wisconsin football team would upset Michigan in 2001. Not only did Butch fail to show up for this game, but it did not resemble a close game in any way after halftime [box score].

ESPN's Pat Forde wrote the following in a forthright column after the game:

"This was a basketball lecture rapped into Wisconsin's knuckles. The Badgers played most of the game a man down after the injury to guard Trevon Hughes, but that's no excuse. They were the inferior team."

Harsh words to swallow. I'd like to refute the statement eight different ways, but it would just be grasping at the runaway loose end of a long season's rope. Abysmal second-half shooting (23.8%) led to the most embarrassing Badger loss since the infamous Southwest Missouri State game. It will be an entire year before Bo has another chance to prove he can beat a team with a single-digit seed, that he's not prone to postseason upsets and that Wisconsin can hang with unfamiliar and up-tempo teams.

The sad thing is that you could see this coming. Wisconsin recently began shooting more and more 3-pointers, attempting 17, 18, 16, 22 and finally 23 shots from behind the arc over the last five games. As the Badgers became more proficient as shooting the trey as the season wore on, you could see the players become more willing to settle for that type of outcome. When threes are going in, they were in the first half Friday night, you can stay close in games and win them down the stretch. However, an intelligent coach might see those postseason 3-point shooting percentages (34.7, 40.9, 18.7, 50, 29.4) and build a game plan designed to limit interior looks and take his chances with the outside shooting.

But the Badgers seemed to keep banging their heads against the proverbial wall. It is hard to dictate a slower pace in a game against a superior transition team when you are missing long shots, not recovering the rebound and then compounding the threat by not getting back on defense quick enough. Curry's freeze-and-fire that saw Krabby sailing through the air was not only a very heads-up play by a smart player, but also a microcosm of the game as a whole: Wisconsin was never in the right place at the right time.

Perhaps the most frustrating part is seeing another team apply consistent defensive pressure and see your own team fail to do two important things in return: (1) respond aggressively on offense to draw fouls on the pressure defense and (2) man up and increase your own defensive pressure in return. Wisconsin could not score to keep up with Davidson and did not make the Wildcats work very hard to get their buckets. After dominating the glass in the first half, seemingly every bounce went Davidson's way in the second half as the rebounding totals shifted completely back to even by the end of the game.

Davidson possessed the X-factor. Stephen Curry. Meanwhile, Wisconsin's lack of a go-to scorer finally caught up the team. Not even the senior leaders, Flowers and Butch, could muster the emotion or confidence to help get UW's mojo back after the Wildcats had stolen it. The Badgers were out-gunned and they acted like they knew it before anyone else.

Two minor subplots would be the continued inefficiency of the Badger inbounds plays and the lack of depth. With Hughes shelved for what looked like poor performance, but was later revealed to be the gimpy ankle flaring up, Wisconsin went only six players deep. Not to sound like a broken record, but it would have been nice to pull a more seasoned Keaton Nankivil or a third shooter off the bench to shake things up a bit.

At least Michigan State got blown out by a #1 seed. Big Ten down? I think so ...

Round 3 data
How the Big Ten fared: 0-2 (5-4 overall)*
(1)Memphis 92, (5) Michigan State 74 [box]
*.556 winning % is sixth among conferences with more than one team

How the other #3 seeds fared: 2-1 (10-2 overall)
(2)Texas 82, (3)Stanford 62 [box]
(3)Louisville 79, (2)Tennessee 60 [box]
(3)Xavier 79, (7)West Virginia 75 [box]

My picks: 34/56 (60.7%) overall | Round 3: 3/8 (37.5%)

Beat Those Wildcats ... Again

Davidson College famously offered free transportation for the 648-mile trip to tonight's game in Detroit, along with paid tickets and lodging, but only about 350 students will be making the bus trip due to the short-term logistics. Conversely, the Kohl Center is 406 miles from Ford Field, so you've got to hope for a large UW contingent to make up for all the Kansas, Villanova and Davidson fans cheering for the Wildcats in what could be one of the largest crowds ever to see an NCAA Regional game. Diverted traffic will be wreaking havoc on Motown's motorists this weekend, but the thick, unwelcome snow that fell last night hopefully has not kept the Badger faithful from arriving safely in town.

Much has been made of the cavernous atmosphere of Ford Field. Incidentally some have speculated whether something similar is a factor behind Wisconsin's success within the Kohl Center. Much ado about nothing I say. There will be a few constants in this Badger game: Flowers will D up and Curry will still get his shots off (although, didn't you notice, he is on a downward scoring trend? 40, then 30, now ... 20?!)

When it comes down to the strategy, you know Bo is sticking to his plan. Touch the post. It should be Brian Butch's world tonight, with everyone else just a guest. The truly remarkable story will be if Wisconsin can win the game and Butch doesn't have his national coming out party tonight. In that case, one of the other Badgers will have stepped up at the game's tipping point, because without Butch blowing up, this one is going down to the wire. But my money is on Butch; I just feel it. The state will be giddy to advance one its favorite native sons to the Elite 8 in his final trip around the block.

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After reviewing the highlights of Benilde-St. Margaret's quarterfinal victory, I can see why Jordan Taylor nailed so many treys: no perimeter defense. Without seeing the whole game, maybe his attacks to the hoop were so devastating that the other team laid off, I dunno. Taylor did shoot 16-of-18 from the charity stripe and fouled out his defender after all. It was more of the same Thursday night as BSM advanced to the Class 3A championship game with a 100-70 waxing of Minneapolis Patrick Henry.

"We wanted to put our foot on their throat and not let up," Taylor said.

With the win, the Red Knights earned a Saturday rematch with St. Thomas Academy in a repeat of last year's final game.

Mike Bruesewitz notched an impressive 18/16 double-double to lead Henry Sibley into the Class 4A title game on Saturday. He also won the match of wits with uber-talented Rodney Williams. I don't think the Warriors will be intimidated at all by Minnetonka in the championship. This should be a nice comparison of prep hoops between Wisconsin and Minnesota since Madison Memorial spanked Minnetonka earlier this year. Needless to say, I was not that impressed with the Skippers at the time.

Life At The Top

A lot of people say they do not care about how high their team is ranked during the season, but I disagree. I think it's a really big deal to make it to the top ten and stay there. Think about ESPN's Bottom Line: no matter what programming is on at the time, you know when the college hoop scores scroll by, they are going to show results from top ten teams. It's free, extraneous publicity.

Free pub is also a benefit of making it to the second weekend of the tournament. To be able to stay on people's minds, even if it's not by choice, enhances the brand. In this case, Wisconsin's brand. When you lose as a high seed, especially on a Thursday or Saturday, people are rehashing your unexpected demise over and over. Advance to the Sweet 16 and every sports website around is digging up stories on your team--The Sporting News, ESPN, SI, Fox Sports ... even the Washington Post. (Oops, I guess the Badgers aren't familiar to entire nation quite yet.)

But some national love is coming UW's way. On Tuesday, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram discussed the obvious turning point in Wisconsin's season, the Badgers' gritty win at Texas without Trevon Hughes' services. Since then, the Badgers have gone 21-2. Their 12-game winning streak is tied for the second-longest in the nation with UCLA. Wisconsin will try to end the longest winning streak in the land, Davidson's 24 in a row, on Friday night.

Gary Parrish at CBS Sports gives another great example of Bo Ryan's sense of humor as well. The article dovetails well off of my comments the other day about being able to accept winning ugly or playing "boring" basketball. The program is really starting to get its due as a winner.

Locally, both UW's future has been discussed from two different angles. The UW assistant coaches shed some light on the progress Wisconsin's freshmen class has made and what to expect in the future. The legacy that the current senior class will leave is significant also. The loss of Alando Tucker and Kam Taylor last season could be spun as a step toward a more cohesive and balanced team, but I think the void left by Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma inside is glaring no matter how you look at it. Add Mike Flowers to that mix and the losses are every bit as significant as last year. Then again, look where that got the Badgers.

Update: Minnesota Recruits
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune named its Metro Player of the Year this week, selecting Minnetonka's Anthony Tucker over Badger recruit Jordan Taylor. That must have gotten Taylor fired up because he tore into Como Park for 43 points tonight in the opening round of the Minnesota Class 3A State Tournament. Minnetonka. Benilde-St. Margaret's is the top seed in their division and will play Minneapolis Patrick Henry on Thursday in the semifinals.

The paper also released its All-Metro teams and named Taylor, Tucker and Jared Berggren to the first team. This might sound familiar, but Taylor and Tucker appear to be very close (even though Tucker will be a Hawkeye). Again, it sounds like Jordan comes from a solid family and will no doubt be a great addition for Bo next season.

Another UW recruit, Mike Bruesewitz, also picked up a win tonight in the Class 4A tournament. Bruiser's Henry Sibley team advances to face Rodney Williams and Robbinsdale Cooper tomorrow. Williams was a second-team All-Metro selection while Bruiser was a third-team pick. Speaking of which, someone tracked down some video highlights of Bruisewitz and John Millea says Bruiser talks to himself.

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Lost in the shuffle of the NCAA tournament hype was the firing of Milwaukee Bucks GM Larry Harris, who had manned the position since July 2003. This might have been strategic timing by Sen. Herb Kohl to allow Harris to slither out of the limelight without much attention. That would of course assume anyone is still paying attention to the Bucks at all.

The draft picks of the Larry Harris Era have been hit-or-miss, with no uncovered gems. Even though a couple of big free agent blunders (Jamaal Magloire, Dan Gadzuric, Bobby Simmons) have left the Bucks in an undesirable salary cap situation for the near future, Harris will probably be remembered for the inane shuffling of inexperienced head coaches that took place on his watch. I wonder if he'd take Terry Porter back now. You have to wonder if that rumored trade for Zach Randolph nixed by Sen. Kohl could have save Harris.

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Assorted Prep Links:
- (3/25) Jeronne Maymon didn't sound too eloquent in the Wisconsin State Journal's Q &A last Sunday when he was named area POY, but apparently, former Badger Hennssy Auriantal has a plan to get the junior's grades up.
- (3/1) Catching up with Rodney Williams at GopherHole.com
- (2/22) An older article on Texas giant Ian Markolf landed him on the cover of RISE magazine [requires login]

Round 2: Two Down, Four To Go

There is a large measure of satisfaction in this Wisconsin team (31-4) making the Sweet 16 after last season's collapse. Setting a new school mark for total victories in a season stands on its own merit too. The team is soaking it in, but has its sights set on bigger things. To loosely quote a great video game, "Congratulations Bucky, but our princess is in another castle."

Wisconsin is one-third of the way through the national championship journey. The Badgers now hold the Omaha belt, but need to win two more "mini-tournaments" to claim the prize of an undisputed champion. Thankfully, next weekend's venue has a Big Ten flavor (Detroit) rather than being in Davidson's home state, where second-seeded Georgetown ran into quite a partisan crowd. That was actually the last game I filled out on my personal bracket. I knew Davidson could scare the elite teams as they had North Carolina, UCLA and Duke early in the season, but didn't have 100% faith in Stephen Curry and Co. to actual knock Georgetown out. Although Davidson might be a better matchup for Wisconsin, I couldn't help but want the Badgers to get a shot at the Hoyas.

Davidson has a recent history of losing to high-ranking Big Ten teams in the NCAA tournament, but it's safe to say this is not your father's Davidson Wildcats. Sophomore Stephen Curry has been the breakout star of the tournament, scoring 70 points in the 10th-seeded Wildcats' two NCAA victories. Davidson will undoubtedly be another en vogue pick to upset Wisconsin. The university has revamped their home page to center on the phenomenon. Most people are probably excited to see Mike Flowers match up with Curry, but I think Curry will be a different assignment than a player like Drew Neitzel. Curry does not have to work nearly as hard to get his open shots -- heck, he doesn't need to be open at all to get a look. As we've seen, even from the Badgers, the team that hits its 3-pointers will most likely win. Good thing Wisconsin has outscored its last three opponents 107-76 in the second half. Nice adjustments Bo.

While some teams like UNC blow out the opposition with hundreds of points, the Badgers have shifted into another class. Along with Washington State, Wisconsin has been one of the most impressive teams in the tourney because they are systematically choking their opponents over the course of the game. If Bill Simmons is right that this year "the best MacGyver team is going to win" than Wisconsin is in great shape. Apparently, the Sports Guy doesn't know that Wisconsin is one of those teams he's talking about, since he picked USC to beat the Badgers.

Greg Stiemsma proved his worth in shutting down Michael Beasley (along with Butch and Landry) and giving him fits on the offensive end as well. The Stiemboat's efficiency numbers were off the chart (14 pts/7 rebs in 14 mins) and his body control on the 3-on-1 fast break finish that led to an old fashioned three-point play was my favorite play of the game [box score].

Like Stiemsma, Trevon Hughes had a phenomenal and efficient game as the Badger guards completely outclassed Kansas State's guards. Even though Hughes led the team in scoring, I was surprised to see that he had scored 25 points ... I'm too used to everyone chipping in their 8-12 points I guess. Do you think the announcers will start to acknowledge that Wisconsin has developed into a very good outside shooting team? They act so shocked when UW's shots start to fall. Wisconsin actually had their fifth-best offensive efficiency performance of the year, posting its second-highest effective field goal percentage (62%).

Meanwhile, Wisconsin's nemesis Michigan State got the benefit of some terrible officiating down the stretch in its win over Pittsburgh. A highly questionable moving screen call on Gilbert Brown was followed by an outrageous charging call on Levance Fields in the final minute. It may not have mattered, but Kailin Lucas was nowhere near having position on Fields as he drove, not to mention a clear-cut swipe by Neitzel that caught all arm. Please Sparty, no more complaints to Badger fans about officiating, huh? Nevertheless, Saturday was another great round of games, particularly because Duke, the nation's nemesis, lost. Sunday's round of cakewalks left something to be desired.

Round 2 data
How the Big Ten fared: 2-1 (5-2 overall)*
(5)Michigan State 65, (4)Pittsburgh 54 [box]
(3)Xavier 85, (6)Purdue 78 [box]
*.714 winning % is best among conferences with more than one team

How the other #3 seeds fared: 3-0 (8-0 overall)*
Xavier (see above)
(3)Stanford 82, (6)Marquette 81 [box]
(3)Louisville 78, (6)Oklahoma 48 [box]
*only the #1 seeds are also undefeated; #2s: 6-2, #12s: 4-2

My picks: 31/48 (64.5%) overall | Round 2: 9/16 (56%)