Notes From A Big Week

Take a listen to Bo Ryan's weekly press conference. He talks about the wear and tear that his guards are experiencing at this point in the season. Bo is also clearly unhappy with Trevon Hughes' shot selection. These clips and other recent quotes after the past few games are as close as you'll hear Bo come to calling out a player. Assorted thoughts on Purdue and Indiana are sprinkled in as well.

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I pulled out a few tidbits from the Journal Sentinel's Badger Blog. As you know, I've been keeping an eye on Brian Butch's climb up the Wisconsin career rebounding list. Dave Heller delivers the update on the offensive side, where Butch is up to 207 offensive boards, overtaking Michael Finley this past weekend for fifth all-time. The Polar Bear may have about 10 games left in his career in Madison, so it's likely he'll wind up between Andy Kowske (240) and Sean Daugherty (227) for fourth place in the books.

What's amazing about the offensive rebounding leaders is how far ahead of the pack both Alando Tucker (314) and Mike Wilkinson (311) are. Both of them played on successful teams and played more games than some others on the list, but I consider those extra games hard-earned. Tucker, of course, had the benefit of four extra games the year he broke his foot and redshirted, so I think I can safely proclaim Wilk to be UW's "King of Offensive Rebounding."

Note: Overall, Butch's current pace of 7 reb/g should sneak him into ninth place for total rebounds, ahead of Kowske.

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This tangent has been slow-cooking on the back burner for awhile, but I'm finally giving up on my secret hope that Finley could squeak into the Basketball Hall of Fame. At basketball-reference.com, he is the 27th most likely candidate among active players ... Manu Ginobili is even in front of him! Ginobili just got to ride the Big Fundamental's coattails longer, methinks.

You're a HOF'er in my book Finley ...

It's About Time

Tonight's title is appropriate on two major fronts. First of all, I'm taking a break from studying accounting to make my first post in 15 days. It's not like nothing has been going on in sports, just nothing that shook the earth so much as to invade my tightly-packed schedule in these busiest of days.

But secondly (and more importantly), I join all Wisconsin basketball fans in taking pleasure that Michael Finley has won his first NBA Championship with the San Antonio Spurs. In his twelfth NBA season, Finley reached arguably the apex of his career while scoring a career-low 9 ppg during the season.

Finley also played a career low 1,823 minutes, which isn't too surprising considering the club for which he now plays. As much as the nickname is tossed about, this man truly deserves to be called "Iron Mike" for the minutes he has logged over the years. He currently sits 70th all time on the NBA's list of most minutes played and will wind up in the top 40 with about three more decent seasons like he had this year. That type of list is understandably littered with centers and power forwards, but we might soon find Finley in the company of wing players like Clyde Drexler, Jerry West and Alex English, above even Larry Bird. The former Badger's pro career has been one worthy of admiration. Especially since he has accepted a lesser, contributing role with a champ after laying the foundation for for years with another Western Conference juggernaut along the way. We forget what a beast Finley was during the 2002 playoffs with Dallas.

I do not hesitate to dub him the "best Badger ever." Consider Finley's NBA career in that discussion. Or don't. It doesn't matter. It's just the truth. The bar is set pretty high, Alando. Shoot for it.

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Speaking of Tucker, if I'm not going to keep you up to date with his comings and goings on the pre-draft circuit, I might as well point you to someone who gets paid to: Dave Heller. Heller's UW and the Big Ten blog at JSOnline includes a wide range of Badger info, but he's got all Alando's tryout appearances nailed down. The Sporting News also had Tucker going 19th to the Lakers in a mock draft published in its latest issue. Senior writer Sean Deveney cites a correction in Tucker's shooting form:

"In May, trainers found a slight flaw in Tucker's mechanics. He has been shooting the ball well since, which fixes the main concern about his NBA potential--his inconsistent perimeter game."

Then again, Deveney also has Tucker going 24th to Phoenix in Version 3.0 of his online mock draft. Go figure. He also has been fooled into thinking 'Do can play some point a the next level.

The thinning of the draft field on Monday (ESPN's Andy Katz analyzes) probably did not affect Tucker in any way. Let's just hope he avoids a situation that might land him on a "bust" list. Keep your fingers crossed for Tucker on June 28.

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The next crop of freshmen to hit the Big Ten next fall have the marquee name (Eric Gordon) and the highly-rated depth to make the top of the conference very powerful over the next few seasons. Four of the top 15 recruiting classes for 2007 belong to Ohio State, Purdue, Indiana and Michigan State, respectively, according to Rivals.com. Wisconsin is listed as bringing in the "sleeper class" of the league, one that focuses on big men rather than the highlighted influx of guard talent.

I cannot find anyway around calling Indiana the team to beat this coming season. I really see them becoming scary good under Kelvin Sampson. They lose two exceptional shooters and yet return two more that are just as good, not to mention the frosh.

Back, back, back, back, back ...

Pardon my Chris Berman impression, but it looks like this upcoming season will be the last for the 19'9" 3-point line. The NCAA men's basketball rules committee has approved a change to move the 3-point line back exactly one foot, to 20 feet, 9 inches. So starting in 2008-09, treys will be a little harder to sink, pending the approval of one final committee on May 25.

I don't think this will affect the players as much as it might strategy and game planning by the coaches. Most big-time college shooters that reach the NBA continue to be great shooters when they transition to the pro game anyway. If I'm wrong and the "amateurs" have tough time overall shooting the same percentage, that can only benefit a team like Wisconsin, which has not relied very much on 3-point shooting under Bo Ryan. Either way, Jason Bohannon will be finding the bottom of the net from deep for the next three years.

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Speaking of 3-pointers, I cannot go any longer without applauding Michael Finley for the season he is having with San Antonio. He absolutely crushed the Denver Nuggets in the Spurs' close-out win on Wednesday night by nailing 8-of-9 threes and scoring 26 points.
For the series, Finley shot 52.8% on 19-of-36 shooting from behind the arc.

The biggest knock on Finley coming out of Wisconsin was his outside shooting and it's refreshing to see an old dog finally master a new trick. Once Gregg Popovich went back to bringing Manu Ginobili off the bench, Finley has excelled as the starter in a spot-up outside shooting role. He only averaged 9 ppg overall this year, but averaged 13 ppg since March 25. Finley hit on 34 of his 67 3-point attempts in that 14-game span to end the regular season. That meant a lot of Finley highlights on SportsCenter. It's good to have him back. And all he had to do was relax.