Big Ten Opener: Ohio State @ Wisconsin LIVE

Pre-Game Thoughts
The last day of the decade brings a brand new season of Big Ten basketball to Wisconsin, as the Badgers welcome the Ohio State Buckeyes to town. Join us for the live blogging event that will begin about 15 minutes before the 1 p.m. CST tip time.

Since Evan Turner's injury, OSU junior David Lighty has been needed to pick up the slack offensively. As the team's best defender, it will be interesting to see how that affects the other half of his game. I assume Lighty would be charged with checking Hughes or Bohannon, since "locking up" Tim Jarmusz would kind of waste his skills.

Thad Matta has kept his rotation very shallow even after losing Turner. He only seems to be playing six guys regularly in the last four games. Jon Diebler has missed Turner the most, since he is primarily a spot-up shooter that benefits from someone like Turner breaking down an opponent's defense. Conversely,sophomore William Buford has picked up the slack in many areas. Either way, Matta's key players are playing a ton of minutes.

Jon Leuer will face an imposing interior defender in Dallas Lauderdale. But I am already having visions of Leuer dumping the ball off to a lurking Keaton Nankivil for a dunk. At the very least, one of the two Badger big men should be able to corral a few second-chance opportunities in this contest.

While Leuer and Jordan Taylor continued to excel in the final tune-ups against Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Illinois-Chicago, Trevon Hughes faded to the background somewhat. Against the Buckeyes, Hughes will need to turn the switch back on. As I mentioned earlier, Lighty is a plus defender, but I'm not sure P.J. Hill and Jeremie Simmons are going to stop a locked-in Hughes.

Running diary: Wisconsin @ Minnesota

7:30 - We are still watching the final seven seconds of the Northwestern-Purdue game. Purdue is playing for nothing. A Northwestern win coupled with a Wisconsin loss tonight makes these two teams' tournament resumes more similar than Badger fans would like to admit.

7:37 - Marcus Landry loses a rare opening tip. Some changes to the Minnesota starting lineup tonight and frosh point guard Devoe Joseph proceeds to sink the game's first bucket. This crowd is in it to win it tonight.

7:40 - Keaton Nankivil is in early and it pays off with the first two points for Wisconsin as he uses a nice kiss of the glass. With the ball now in Minnesota's hands, get this ... wait for it ... two missed dunks in one possession! Thanks Goofs!

7:42 - All the Badgers' shots have been short thus far. Nerves? Nah. However, they don't look entirely comfortable yet. Despite missing his next two shots, I think Nankivil is playing pretty well. He is looking for his shot and wisely called a timeout during a scrum for a loose ball. Out of the timeout, Hughes is back, along with Tim Jarmusz, meaning Bo Ryan has gone eight deep in the first five minutes of play. Ugly game so far -- Minnesota leads 6-2.

7:49 - Trevon Hughes gets bumped and falls to the floor trying to draw a whistle. Pathetic. There is no way that contact should have sent Pop to the floor. It results in another Badger turnover.

The Gophers off of Tubby Smith's bench: Lawrence Westbrook, Al Nolen, Paul Carter. Not bad. I like those three a lot better than the first three UW reserves.

7:51 - Minnesota 11, Wisconsin 7. After Jon Leuer nails a deep three from the sideline, Carter responds with a trey of his own since Leuer decided not to guard him at all. Leuer then throws the ball out of bounds on offense. Getting uglier ...

7:55 - 10:29 left in the half. Landry is having a tough game. He has not been on the floor much and his best play has been drawing an offensive foul from Jonathan Williams. Hughes launches one.

7:59 - Jordan Taylor with a great effort to hold big man Colton Iverson at bay on a mismatch. Taylor then skied for a key rebound on the Nolen missed layup. This may have contributed to Iverson using his arms a bit too much posting up Gullikson; I think it was a weak call if you ask me.

8:01 - Krabby is krafty! His lay-in ends a grueling scoring drought for both teams. Wisconsin has not been able to get into any kind of comfort zone on offense, perhaps due to the more frequent substitution pattern that Bo has gone with. I think he is trying to keep his key players fresh considering Minnesota's deep bench. Wisconsin has six turnovers already and must be shooting about 20%.

8:05 - Terrible traveling call made on Nankivil. Not sure which play the refs were dreaming about there. Seven TOs now. Two minutes later another BS call on Leuer made by Ed Hightower to bail out the Gophers on a bad entry pass. Minnesota extends their run to 10-2 on this possession.

8:10 - Minnesota 21, Wisconsin 13. Landry answers with a much-needed 3-pointer after getting burned by Iverson on the other end. The Badgers are getting crushed inside. The early-season struggle with offensive aggression is rearing its ugly head. Only Hughes is taking it at the Gophers.

8:13 - Johnson's fall away jumper epitomizes the first half. His dribble was dead and then Krabby knocked it loose, allowing Johnson to reset and fire. Yes! Landry with another three ... well, if you can't do squat inside, take your chances outside I guess. Minnesota 23, Wisconsin 16.

: : :

Key Halftime Stats:
The score remains Minnesota 23, Wisconsin 16 at the break. All you need to know is Wisconsin has eight turnovers and is shooting 5-of-20 (25%) from the floor. Leuer is getting all sorts of looks and clanging them all off of the front of the rim for the most part. Jason Bohannon is a complete non-factor, though he D'd up Westbrook to some degree.

Wisconsin played all 10 rotation guys in the first half. Bo spoke about the "chemistry not being there" for his guys. Interesting. For the Badgers to win, Hughes must step up his game and an offensive threat on the blocks must emerge. The need to keep Minnesota off the boards goes without saying.

New show coming out on the Big Ten Network: The Big Ten Quad, hosted by Eddie George. Not sure how I feel about this, but apparently Ron Dayne is an early guest. Look s like he's still rocking the fuzzy beard/shaved head combo. Nice.

: : :

8:40 - Minnesota 23, Wisconsin 21. Hughes drives down the middle of the lane with the shot clock running down and throws a wild no-look pass over his head to the left corner where Leuer sticks the landing with a 3-point splash.

8:42 - Fronting the post is simply not working tonight. Since we know Bo is not very flexible in his strategies, this may be the team's downfall tonight. Minnesota is spreading the floor such that the Badger defender will not have any help defense in sight. Iverson sinks both free throws since he cannot seem to make a layup. Meanwhile, Wisconsin is racking up fouls at an alarming pace. JT has to burn a timeout due to the Gopher press after the made FTs.

8:46 - Out of a timeout, Wisconsin suffers a shot clock violation. Unbelievable. Either none of the coaches mentioned this in the huddle or every UW player on the court is brain dead. Nobody remembered the 7-9 seconds that they burned trying to bring the ball up the floor before the timeout.

8:50 - Bo is right. That was technically an intentional foul on Damian Johnson trying to keep Leuer away from the loose ball. By the way, Ed Hightower is heating up ... he may yet take over this game.

8:51 - Great hustle by Hughes to run down the Gopher fast break and steal the ball. Wisconsin needs to stifle the momentum. Krabbenhoft hits one of his two free throws at the other end.

8:53 - Ring it up! Landry making a living from distance. After Iverson answers inside, good ball movement results in a Hughes 3-pointer. Minnesota 29, Wisconsin 28.

8:59 - Fun fact: Wisconsin has already put Minnesota in the bonus. If Taylor would have made that trey, I would have screamed, Braveheart-style, from the couch.

9:01 - FREEDOM! Landry with another 3-pointer. All tied at 33.

9:02 - Brutal charging call goes against Westbrook. Landry lucked out there, as he was not completely set. This leads to a prayer by Leuer going in off the backboard off his own miss by virtue of a gritty offensive rebound. Westbrook then gets redemption with an "and-1" drive on J-Bo. He sinks it to put the Gophers back up by three, 38-35.

9:08 - A Jason Bohannon sighting -- he blocks a Johnson bunny! Wow. This after a pair of free throw to give Wisconsin its first lead at 39-38.

9:10 - Nice sequence leads to a Minnesota timeout with 5:21 left to play. Badgers complete a nice 6-0 run, highlighted by J-Bo and Hughes getting past their men on the bounce and delivering great passes. Nice ball handling by J-Bo after the rebound too.

Hightower needs to let these guys play. It's so unenjoyable to see touch fouls called. Landry has to sit with his fourth foul and Minnesota hits two FTs to pull within one.

9:14 - Hughes with two freebies for the Badgers. Wisconsin 43, Minnesota 40. Now with 4:14 left in the game, Minnesota is in the double bonus after another pretty weak call goes against Nankivil. Johnson splits the two attempts.

9:16 - Following the Krabbenhoft's pick with "extra sauce" on it, Wisconsin puts its best defensive showing of the night perhaps. Nankivil steps up on help defense and stuffs a pass attempt. The team forces a traveling violation seconds later with only a few ticks left on the shot clock. If Wisconsin can come out of the media timeout with a basket, that could be the key play of the game.

I would enjoy nothing more than to pull out a last-second win in this game, but I would feel a lot better about this team if it didn't come down to that. However, I see no other way.

9:20 - Hughes at will to the rack. Follows with a rebound and a foul drawn on Nolen. Pressure is on the Gophers right now. They just missed a W I D E O P E N 3-pointer and the crowd has been taken out of it. Pop sinks one of two FTs. Wisconsin 46, Minnesota 41.

9:24 - Shades of Game 1 when Westbrook took over in overtime. His two runners have made the score 46-45. Jordan Taylor cannot handle him. Need a defensive switch. Timeout Wisconsin with exactly one minute remaining.

This is infuriating. The Wisconsin offense the last three times down is to run down the clock and let Hughes try something on his own when the shot clock winds down. Really? This is the best we can do guys? Wisconsin got the lead by being aggressive and making plays at the hoop. Of course, they wouldn't want to try putting someone else on Westbrook. Minnesota leads 47-46 after two Westbrook FTs.

Minnesota wraps this one up with free throws and a brutal turnover on an inbounds play where it looks like Hughes was not totally focused on holding onto the ball before heading up court. Wisconsin only trailed 49-46 at that point with three seconds left. But Westbrook iced it with a pair from the charity stripe.

: : :

Final score:
Minnesota 51, Wisconsin 46. [box score]

I thought Bo's strategy of resting the key combatants early was going to work as I watched Wisconsin makes its run. Unfortunately, out of my halftime keys to victory, UW failed to achieve two of them. Wisconsin won the battle on the boards (27-25, excluding "team rebounds"), but the guard play did not improve and neither did the post-up game. Landry, who had a game-high 18 points, kept the Badgers in this game through his outside shooting alone. Hughes and Bohannon, on the other hand, only showed glimpses of what the team needed from them.

Links:
- The Badgers weren't the only Wisconsin team to lose their way tonight. Pittsburgh went on an 18-0 run to pummel Marquette.

Big Ten Opener: Wisconsin @ Michigan LIVE

To commemorate Wisconsin's Big Ten opener on the road against Michigan (10-2), live blogging will make it's debut at Hoops Marinara on Wednesday afternoon. The game tips off at 1 p.m. CST.

Pregame notes courtesy of UWBadgers.com.

12/3 - Wofford at Kohl Center

It's either a shocking upset or an angry, gut-check bounce back game.

Running Diary? I think so ...

7:56 - Will the game really get bumped by a women's game? Geez, I hope not.

8:03 - Yup. We've been treated to three timeouts, numerous fouls and an atrocious flop job that fooled an incompetent ref into awarded three free throws.

8:08 - Now we're looking live at Madison, Wisconsin. Luckily for ESPN, the coaches kept UW ranked #23 in this week's poll, so there's at least a smidgen of promotional value. Since we missed the tip, I have to consult the web to see if Bo Ryan indeed made his first starting lineup change of the year. Bohannon and Flowers are in for the senior redwoods, Butch and Stiemsma.

8:11 - Since nothing is happening, it seems like a good time to mention the Badgers are wearing throwback uniforms from the 1941 NCAA Champion squad. Someone forgot to tell UW that they don't have to play like it's still 1941.

8:13 - First basket for Wisconsin comes at the 15:32 mark on a J-Bo trey, bookended by two traveling violations by Wofford. Brutal on both sides right now.

8:21 - Though it's been slow, the Badgers are now outscoring the New England Patriots! A steal and layup by Trevon Hughes sparks a mini-rally from the team. Some good defense underneath stymies some reckless, aggressive play by Wofford, then Butch scores on a nice post move. I hope to see a lot more of that tonight. Jon Leuer, getting inserted early this game as expected, looks especially skinny in the striped throwback socks.

8:27 - Wisconsin is already in the bonus with more than 11 minutes to play. Ah, business as usual. Hughes sinks two. UW 13, W 5.

8:28 - Nice up and under drive by Flowers. That's the way I like to see him play -- need more of it for the Badgers to be successful.

8:31 - J-Bo like butter over an outstretch defender's hand. Nothing but net. The Badgers feed Leuer in the post and he abuses his man and gets the roll. The kid has up, Up, UPSIDE! UW 23, W 10.

8:36 - As soon as I type it, Leuer gets himself into a bad position on defense and pretends to hold his ground while shuffling, arms raised, into a defender. The result? A three-point play, of course. UW 25, W 13.

8:37 - Flowers again gets into the lane and delivers a bounce pass to Landry for the two-handed flush.

8:38 - Facing no resistance, Butch puts up a weak flailing miss with one hand instead of a drop step and dunk. Color analyst Stephen Bardo of Flyin' Illini fame actual calls him on it. Nice work. Stiemsma immediately checks in for first time.

8:41 - Wisconsin settles for a 3-pointer from Krabbenhoft. The shot looks slightly forced and rims out but J-Bo swoops in with a gentle tip-in for the score. He is playing really well, with 10 points so far. Looks like a different player.

Wisconsin is shooting A LOT of threes in the first half. Stiemsma finds himself all alone with the rebound after a Flowers miss from long-distance and decide to bank it home. C'mon Greg. In the words of the immortal Bill Walton, "Throw it down big man!"

8:49 - And now, the Steamboat totally redeems himself with a picture-perfect bounce pass from the top of the key to Krabby for a back-door layup. He continues to impress me as a passer; he may be the second-best on the team behind Hughes.

On the other end, Stiemsma swats a shot from behind, but then fails to call for the ball on offense when he was miles from anyone other than his puny defender. Unacceptable. The Badgers need to enforce this will on all teams, let alone Wofford, by identifying and exploiting those few seconds of a clear mismatch. He didn't even put his arms up, in defense of the ball handler, but perhaps Stiemsma figured he'd never get that pass anyway.

Bonus Bardo: He just suggested that Kansas State's Michael Beasley be renamed Michael "Beast-ley." I've heard him made that reference three times already during different Big Ten games this young season. I guess we know Bardo's 2008 campaign platform.

9:53 - Drew Gibson nails a 28-footer right before the buzzer to bring Wofford within 38-20 at halftime.

At halftime, we're informed that Indiana's Eric Gordon injured his back today and sat out the second half of another Hoosier victory. Hopefully nothing serious, because we only have a year to watch this kid before he bolts to the Association.

: : : Second Half

9:09 - Butch is still O-fer from 3-point land but breaks toward the hoop hard and gets the ball back from Krabby for a moster slam.

9:11 - Wofford's leading scorer Corey Godzinksi fouls out!!! The second half is only a minute and a half old! Honestly, it was a very weak call. At least he sandwiched a 3-pointer in between his fourth and fifth hacks.

9:13 - At 17:58, Junior Salters of Wofford runs into and knocks over Stiemsma, who was trying to cut off Salters' progress to the hoop. Stiemsma tries to subtly scissor lock Salters legs while still on the floor and a broo-haha ensues. I know Salters made a movement or two to antagonize the big guy in the whole ordeal, but the replays were not kind to Stiemsma and the elbow shove he delivered at the end. It results in a double foul and a technical for Stiemsma. In a related piece of trivia, which Badger appeared as Hulk Hogan at the team's Night of the Grateful Red introduction? You guessed it.

9:23 - Because of the score, the announcing team has the time to detail how Wisconsin's 1941 team only had to win two games to win the NCAA tournament. Great, thanks guys. Really. Kick us while we're down.

9:25 - Hughes hits the deck hard after a blocked shot attempt that result in a foul and Pop leaving the game. He looks like he'll be fine luckily. Noah Dahlman from Wofford has the ugliest free throw form in the nation this year. The wind-up is underhand (with the right hand), the rest is straight out of the Bill Cartwright handbook. Somehow, this guy is Minnesota's all-time leading prep rebounder.

9:30 - The crowd is noticeably restless as Wofford cuts into the lead. Luckily Krabby goes baseline for a contested reverse with 12:33 remaining that puts Bucky back up, 48-31.

After a Landry bucket in the post, again we are subject to comments about the switch from power forward to small forward. Who cares?! This is supposed to be the swing offense. If Landry is a small forward now, that's an even bigger reason to feed him the rock in the post. No small forward can handle him there.

Broadcast Bonus: The Boston Celtics/Hoosiers commercial. Still not getting old, because Jeff Van Gundy is an all-time classic.

9:35 - Another good vs. bad sequence: Leuer is defending a guard and even though he gets beat, is long enough to recover and alter the pass, resulting in a Wofford turnover. Landry winds up with the ball, but opts not to pass to Krabbenhoft on the fast break. Therefore, Landry gets caught from behind, fouled and cannot convert.

9:43 - The crowd is crowing loudly whenever Wofford's #23 (Marcus Jackson) gets the ball. Not sure why, but it's good to hear something original coming from the student section.

9:37 - Leuer misses three bunnies in rapid succession, padding his stats in a Charles Smith/Lance Wade type of way. The next trip down, he is blocked by a guard at point-blank range after a no-look dish by Hughes. Ouch ... baby steps ...

9:40 - There is 9:07 left and the Badgers have 55 points. There's no reason UW shouldn't have posted 90 in this one.

9:46 - Salters ends a 13-0 Badger run with a 3-pointer. UW 61, W 34.

9:49 - With about six minutes to go, Gully is getting some run ahead of of Keaton. Frustrating.

9:51 - Interesting attendance stat shown on the tube: Wisconsin's sellout crowd tonight (17,190) is larger than last season's total home attendance at Wofford, by about 2,000.

9:53 - Garbage time begins with 3:17 remaining. Bo calls a timeout to get Tanner, Gavinski and Jarmusz in to join Nankivil and Leuer. Four from the freshman class and one senior. Whitewash alert!

Notes: Wisconsin gets outscored in garbage time. Gavinski is soooo S - L - O -W ... Jarmusz with a hoop, but misses both of his FTs ... Tanner pounds the dribble to wind down the final seconds. C'mon ...

Wisconsin wins, 70-43, extending the nation's third-longest win streak to 28 games. The Badgers shoot 3-of-13 on 3-pointers, but still shoots 47% [box score]