Bo Ryan Goes For 200th Win At Wisconsin

Life is good for Bo Ryan's squad. The national media has done the expected about-face and are now gushing over the Wisconsin Badgers after their impressive win over Duke.

Step two was to avoid a letdown, which UW did by beating Grambling St. last Saturday in dominant fashion, 79-46. Trevon Hughes continued his stellar play and was rewarded by being named the Big Ten's Player of the Week. Perhaps more importantly, Jason Bohannon found his shooting touch and Jordan Taylor continued to emerge as a vital cog in the Badger machine (11 pts, 7 rebs, 5 assts). [box score]

Now comes step three: the first true road game. The Badgers might even get some assistance on this task. Thanks to blizzard-like conditions in the area, who knows how many fans will show up in Green Bay tonight at the Resch Center or whether it will amount to any type of home court atmosphere for the Phoenix.

The game will be the first of two important back-to-back contests versus in-state opponents. If the Badgers are successful tonight, Bo will have earned his 200th win as UW's head coach. In his nine seasons at Wisconsin, Bo has compiled a 199-74 record, with a Big Ten winning percentage (71.2) that is better than any other conference coach with at least five season under their belt. He is now approaching 600 wins overall as a collegiate head coach.

Then on Saturday, Wisconsin tries to snap a two-game losing streak to Marquette at the Kohl Center. The Badgers will need to handle possible changes in expectations, adapting from the hunter to the hunted once again. It is yet another chance for Wisconsin to show the nation that it's for real ... potential recruits included.

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Hughes' ascension as an All-Big Ten caliber player is obviously a huge reason the Badgers are back on the radar. In hindsight, Hughes probably deferred a too much to seniors Joe Krabbenhoft and Marcus Landry last year, which meant the Badgers lacked that alpha dog on the court. While Hughes has always made a splash in the non-conference schedule, I expect Hughes to play well against the in-state opponents and continue doing so for the rest of the season thanks to his own increased sense of ownership of this team.

When a player like Hughes has success under Bo on a national stage, it only strengthens Bo's credentials and can elevate the perception of the program, maybe even with recruits. Specifically I mention Hughes because he was unique: a highly-touted guard recruit; big city kid with a flashy style of play; starter from day one of his sophomore year. Bo has won with rosters full of guys much different than Hughes.

You could see the growing pains as the head coach broke down his point guard for three years, Bo often kept Hughes on a short leash and the Queens native struggled through a couple of roller coaster seasons. He was hesitant at times, out of control at others. Some folks, myself included, wondered if Bo hadn't hollowed out a talented player by removing his flashy instincts. Meanwhile, some of the better high school recruits in recent years avoided Madison as their basketball home, occasionally citing style of play or atmosphere.

Fast forward to today and the leash is off entirely. Hughes leads the 20th-ranked Badgers as they restake their claim as the premier Division 1 basketball program in the state. Now instead of pointing to Devin Harris, who is sooo five years ago, the coaching staff can show aspiring ballers another lead guard with an A-game. This ain't no fluke, it's a promise: You will win at Wisconsin, you will become the best you can be, and yeah, you can even look good doing it (cue the faux-hawk).

Bo Ryan has built a perennial winner and is working toward a great tradition and legacy. Two hundred wins will do that for you. Recruits beware.

No Such Thing As Squeaky Clean

The Wisconsin men's basketball program prides itself on running a clean operation. Badger fans can usually rest assured that Bo Ryan will not stoop to unsavory levels to sign certain types of superstar athletes.

But even the best slip up at times, especially when the NCAA guidelines that universities must follow are occasionally outlandish and convoluted. That is why I found Andy Baggot's report on compliance in the UW Athletic Department interesting. While Wisconsin has avoided a major infraction since the infamous Shoebox scandal, the university has committed 35 secondary violations over the last 11 months.

Both the men's basketball and football teams at Wisconsin self-reported five secondary violations in that time. As you might expect, high-profile revenue-generating sports like football and basketball traditionally are more prone to transgressions across the country because of the cutthroat recruiting battlegrounds the coaches deal with.

As the print version of the Wisconsin State Journal column detailed, four of the five violations pertaining to the men's basketball team relate to recruiting in some way. Here are the five incidents, which serve to show how difficult it is to remain completely error-free in this realm:

*Dec. '07 - Impermissible contact with prospective student-athlete [NCAA 13.02.4.4]
*Jan. '08 - Impermissible discount to student-athlete [NCAA 16.11.2]
*Jan. '08 - Impermissible benefit to prospective student-athlete [NCAA 13.2.1]
*Jan. '08 - Impermissible per diem [NCAA 16.8.1.2.3]
*Jan. '08 - Impermissible comments about a prospect by a student-athlete [NCAA 13.02.5.1-(b)]

The discounted merchandise incident was one of three violations singled out and acknowledged by the university. The impermissible contact with a recruit during an NCAA quiet period was identified as inadvertent.

Speaking of restricted "dead periods" there are two coming up this summer that coaches will have to abide by on the recruiting trail, including all of August. The on-and-off design of the summer evaluation schedule seems a little silly, but unfortunately, it's necessary. Unlike Wisconsin, many other programs would set up shop in a recruit's backyard if they could.

Coaching staffs are also prevented from seeing even their current players through much of the summer. This is when UW's strength and conditioning coach Scott Hettenbach earns his keep--part babysitter, part drill sergeant, part liaison. Now that Stiemsma has moved on, my guess is that Krabbenhoft holds down the stereo in the weight room. From what I've heard in the past, he prefers rap to hard rock or country.

Big Ten Fans Rule The Roost

For all the heat the Big Ten conference takes for experiencing a down cycle in on-court quality, the fans are still supporting their teams at a record pace. Wisconsin led five Big Ten teams that placed among the nation's top 25 in average home attendance for the 2007-08 season, according to the Big Ten Network.

The release of these figures confirms the Big Ten's status as one of the premier basketball conferences in all the land, with consistent support from fans and athletic departments across the board. Many quality basketball programs around the country may have the ability to sell out every game, but do not have the matching commitment or resources from the university to maintain state-of-the-art facilities. The reverse is also true in other cases. The Big Ten has the best of both worlds. Together the 11 conference teams averaged 12,978 fans per contest, easily out-pacing the SEC's average.

Badger fans packed the Kohl Center for all 18 regular season home games, for an average sellout crowd of 17,190, good enough for seventh nationally. It marked the fifth consecutive season that UW has announced a full crowd for every home game. Wisconsin has consistently placed in the top ten for attendance since the Final Four season of 2000, thanks to increased capacity at the Kohl Center.

Indiana improved to reclaim the ninth spot in the rankings. Illinois (#11), Ohio State (#12) and Michigan State (#17) also placed among attendance leaders. Almost a thousand fewer fairweather Buckeye fans attended OSU games this season without Oden and Conley, while the putrid Illini still had the benefit of playing of in front of a packed house at Assembly Hall, much like the Spartans in East Lansing.

See: 2006-07 attendance numbers

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After reigning in a giant JUCO project and another impressive 2009 prospect, Indiana may have another 2008 recruit in its sights. Emmanuel Negedu is being released from his LOI at Arizona and will take a closer look at the Hoosiers. However, if Tom Crean wants to stay alive in the Jamil Wilson sweepstakes (or in the running for any other 2009 player for that matter), any further scholarships extended for 2008 must be to an incoming senior who has already sat out a year or is coming from a non-Division I school. Highly unlikely. (ed: Problem solved!) The other option? Cross that bridge when you come to it and run off an incoming 2008 recruit after one year of play. Two candidates would be Matt Roth or Tom Pritchard, who were already committed to Indiana when Crean hit the scene.

Final Four: Mapping The Rosters

A classic championship game between Kansas and Memphis brought the 2007-08 season to a close in proper fashion last night. The Jayhawks' 75-68 win came in the seventh overtime game in NCAA championship game history. [box score]

When you look back at this tournament a few years from now, Wisconsin's exit will not appear as poor as it seemed at the time. When Davidson hung with the eventual national champion until the final shot, the whole Midwest Region got a boost. If you can't win, you hope the team that beats you was the best in the country. In UW's case, this was close enough. From one angle, you could make an argument--albeit a shaky one--that Wisconsin lost to the second-best team in the tournament this year.

In days leading up to the title game, I started thinking back to a recent New York Times piece on the composition of Wisconsin's roster (thanks to Jon Linder for pointing it out). The map got me thinking both about the direction UW's program is headed and also about what it takes to build a truly elite, NCAA Championship-level squad these days.

Wisconsin has concentrated traditionally on snagging the best players from the state and filling in needed pieces from its midwestern neighbors. Bo Ryan has placed a premium on finding players who will best fit his swing offense and embrace the team concept. It's easy to fill a roster with that kind of players when your legendary head coach has inspired half of the high school coaches in the state to run his system.

I have constructed some player origin maps to show how this type of roster-building strategy appears spatially. Almost every program is going to fill extra roster spots with walk-ons from around the state, so I concentrated on mapping the scholarship athletes. Though we have been able to cherry-pick some talent from Minnesota lately, the 2007-08 roster was still heavily local:

Now look at Monday night's title game match-up. See where Kansas and Memphis are pulling players from? All over. Compare these maps and apparent strategies with Wisconsin's more regional map:

Both school's rosters featured scholarship players from 10 different states this season. Kansas has natural ties to the heartland, but nearly every corner of the country is represented. Memphis' turf seems restricted only to anything east of the Mississippi River. These are two of the nation's premier programs which can basically pick and choose the recruits they want. Similarly, top-flight prospects desire to play for these schools, no matter where they grew up.

The question is, will Bo Ryan change his recruiting. Does he agree with the pessimists that decry a lack of athleticism on his team and feel the need to look outside Wisconsin's borders to find it? More likely is that (1)the recent classes of high school seniors in Wisconsin have been less talented than usual and (2)the Badgers continue to raise their profile nationally in the minds of prep hoop stars.

This fall, five new freshmen will join the Badgers, none of which will be from Wisconsin. The departing senior class this spring consists of four in-state contributors (3 scholarship, 1 walk-on). In just one year, Wisconsin has added three new states to it's recruiting footprint* to up the total to eight. As I mentioned before, this is probably more of a drastic blip than an official trend. If the team keeps winning 30 games a year, though, the opportunities to pick and choose become even greater and more frequent.

*This map assumes 2008 recruit Ryan Evans will occupy Kevin Gullikson's 2008-09 scholarship.

Round 5 (& 6) data

With all the Big Ten teams long-gone and no other 3-seeds left to compare to Wisconsin's run, there is nothing left to track but my pathetic bracket. When North Carolina and UCLA were both eliminated at the Final Four, the debacle was complete.

My picks: 37/63 (58.7%) Round 5 (& 6): 0-3

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]

A Pair of Badgers Get Some Respect

It looks like being a mature, likable, well-spoken, four-year player with big dreams does pay off.

On Monday, Converse signed Alando Tucker to a shoe contract worth at least one million dollars. So even though Tucker does not appear to be a lock to get drafted in the first round, he is already going to be one of the first athletes in his draft class to get paid (insert Ohio State joke here). That is simply unheard of in NBA circles. He joins Dwyane Wade as non-smoking, non-drinking basketball spokesmen for Converse, which is actually owned by Nike.

Even on his worst days this past season, Badger fans could tell that Tucker was the heart and soul of the Wisconsin basketball team because of his leadership on and off the court, and his interaction with teammates, coaches, fans and the media. It's nice to see a good person be rewarded for being just that -- a good person. Well, and a very good basketball player.

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Speaking of honors, Brian Butch was recently one of 30 college players invited to the USA team trials to be held July 12-14 for the 2007 Pan American Games. When I finally looked at the list of invitees, it reflected quite well on the state of basketball in the state of Wisconsin.

Along with Butch, two other players on that list hail from a Wisconsin high school. Washington State's Kyle Weaver is from Beloit and Marquette's Wesley Matthews played his prep ball at Madison Memorial. Only two other states can boast as much talent in the pool: Illinois and Maryland.

Of course, there is a difference between being invited to compete and actually being selected for the team. As has been mentioned on Badger message boards, Butch is one of only two centers invited to try out. When you think about it, isn't Brian Butch exactly the type of player USA Basketball would want in an international competition. Sure, Butch's athletic shortcomings are well-documented, but the guy can really shoot. I think he has a great shot at making the team, and that is coming from the self-proclaimed "Sports Pessimist."

As for Weaver and Matthews, though, the competition is a bit tougher. Weaver is still diversifying and strengthening his offensive game so he would have to make the team in a defensive stopper role. He's one of the better defenders on the list, but you'd expect the staff to select someone who could score more consistently. Matthews, on the other hand, does a lot of things well, but nothing great. The team will almost certainly have dead-eye shooters like Chris Lofton, Drew Neitzel and Jon Scheyer, in addition to some pure scorers. When you add in the necessary bangers and board men down low, a couple of true point guards and maybe one or two straight-up freak athletes, Matthews will likely be weeded out.

Fellow Golden Eagle Jerel McNeal would seem to have a better shot at the team, again because of his defense. In all, three players from Wisconsin colleges were invited to the team trials, a number matched by Washington (Wash/Wazzou) and Tennessee (Memphis/Tenn/Vandy), and surpassed by only -- you guessed it -- North Carolina (Duke/UNC/NC St.).

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Now I wish Tucker had gone to the NBA's Orlando Pre-draft camp, just to see his workout numbers. No surprise here: Mike Conley Jr. was the fastest guy in camp. Somehow they manage to rate the value of each category and concluded that Conley was the fourth-best prospect based on measureables. Carl Landry performed well and was rated fifth, mostly because he is wicked strong on the bench press (21 reps at 185 lbs. tied him for second most) and pretty quick too. The top dog according the ratings was Maryland's D.J. Strawberry, so take them with a grain of salt. I know you will.

Feel free to check out the body fat % on the future No. 1 draft pick of the Milwaukee Bucks.

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.