Addressing Landry and a Banner Day

Thus far, Marcus Landry has been praised and criticized. Both stem from his metamorphosis as a player from supporting cast member in the post to the mantle-bearing replacement for Alando Tucker on the wing.

Landry has earned praise for letting the game coming to him and not forcing bad shots or making bad decisions, but also downgraded for appearing to be even less of an impact player than he was last season. Obviously, its too early to grade the transition. He has already slimmed down and one would imagine he spent the entire preseason continuing his improvements on lateral quickness now that he doesn't have to leave town to see his family anymore.

I've been quick to critique Landry for disappearing in games before, but I'm going to give him a temporary reprieve for a couple of reasons. It is probably for the best that he let the offense come to him while the team continues to adjust to a first-year starter at point guard. His splash of a debut notwithstanding, Trevon Hughes is still in his first year playing significant minutes, let alone leading a college team. Furthermore, we all know Brian Butch plays extremely well during the non-conference portion of the schedule, but seems to struggle late. Butch's much-improved conditioning should help him look more like a fifth-year senior than a polar bear during Big Ten play. Even so, once the conference season begins, Landry must have his bearings set, his body fit and his intensity brimming for the Badgers to enforce their will on foes.

We know Landry will get up for the Marquette game -- that's his game. But I won't be too surprised if he's still sluggish in a few of the other tilts. Let's hope that if the learning curve is steep for Landry, it's worth the wait. He's got six weeks until Big Ten play begins.

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It's official. Four high school seniors signed their names on Bucky's dotted lines today, completing the 2008 recruiting process for Wisconsin. Bo got good balance in this group, although both big men are HUGE. No superstars, but plenty of room for development by the top-notch staff.

Big men are always projects to some degree, but it sounds like Ian Markolf has a high ceiling and I have always liked the Jordan Taylor catch -- a poor man's Hughes to this point. Like Pop, Taylor has very good passing skills and doesn't chuck up shots. The more I hear about Robert Wilson, the more I think he might be the next unheralded UW recruit to produce some real numbers.

Rivals.com has the Big Ten ranked fifth among conferences for 2008 recruiting, with Wisconsin's class coming in at 29th. The site lists Milwaukee native Korie Lucious (Michigan State) as the Big Ten's top incoming point guard and former UW recruit Iman Shumpert (Georgia Tech) as the ACC's top incoming PG.

First Looks Around the Country

Rather than watch an awful football game, I tuned into ESPN2 tonight to happily find a full slate of college hoops. It just so happens that a total of three Wisconsin opponents were on in back-to-back games. So it was time to scout.

First up was Duke, which hosted New Mexico State. This game was a route early on. Duke looks much more athletic and aggressive at guard, pressuring the opponent into an endless amount of turnovers. Point guard Greg Paulus had a bad year in 2006, but he looked much more in command of the team tonight. Still, he's the latest in a long line of easy to hate Blue Devils.

As I've said before, I think the Badgers match up well with the Dukies, but they will need to contain the damage done by guys like DeMarcus Nelson and Jon Scheyer (22 points). The media is all over freshman Kyle Singler, a highly-rated recruit, but I didn't see much of him. For UW, I think Marcus Landry and Brian Butch can both have as good of a game as they want to in Durham. I can also envision Hughes and Flowers frustrating Paulus into a bad game.

In the next game, Ohio State downed UW-Green Bay, 91-68. The Phoenix played some heady basketball early, but could only hang tough for so long. Jamar Butler is back at the point for the Buckeyes and he was unconscious from 3-point land tonight, hitting on 5-of-7 treys for a total of 17 points.

Freshman gem Kosta Koufos is legit. He's incredibly athletic for a 7-footer and impressed me with how well he moves. Of course, Green Bay's lineup is so slight and/or short across the board, it would be hard not to dominate inside. Major problem. Also, Koufos and Othello Hunter wear the largest shorts in college basketball history -- are they sweatpants?!

In other news, another Big Ten freshman had an even more impressive debut than Koufos. As you might expect, it was #23 -- Indiana's Eric Gordon -- who exploded for 33 points in his first game on a variety of slick moves. There are a number of ridiculously talented frosh this season, just like last year, and many of them made their mark tonight. UCLA is on now and I'll be watching rookie Kevin Love in the post. I think Derrick Rose of Memphis may be the best of them all, but I'll have to wait to get a look at the Tigers.

In other news on state teams:
- Marquette is not exactly clicking on offense.

Halftime, Game 1

After a sluggish start, Bucky zoomed back to carry a 38-32 lead into the break against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW). The school name is a mouthful and the team is poor, but it has a fantastic nickname (Mastodons). Trevon Hughes played the entire first half and scored 14 of UW's last 22 points to reverse a 27-16 deficit.

Hughes needed to get into a rhythm with his shot before Wisconsin could get back into this game. Pops is more of a scorer than a shooter obviously so I wouldn't be surprised if this is the norm. Taking a look at the halftime statistics at the break, you see some expected things, like the foul situation (UW 3, IPFW 11) and 3-point shooting (UW 14%, IPFW 42%). The pleasant surprise is free-throw shooting, where the Badgers are 11-13 (85%) in the first half. This should be an area in which this year's team is superior to last year's team, if only because of the Tucker effect.

Even though I'm forced to listen to this one over the radio (*sigh*), the energy and playmaking that Michael Flowers brings is again evident. I fully expected Flowers to step back in to the starting lineup -- mostly because Bo Ryan starts his seniors -- but it doesn't look like that is a given. The Badgers trotted out the same five that began both exhibition games.

Lepay and Lucas are toeing the company line and mildly giddy about Flowers coming off the bench. As I've mentioned before in this space, there have been rumors connecting Flowers' earlier absence from the team as much to his spot/position in the lineup than any medical issue. His cryptic comments to the media (check the odd quote in the seventh paragraph) did not dispel any such thoughts either. But if Flowers was upset about Hughes and Krabbenhoft getting the starting nods over his head, he should rest assured that he'll be on the floor as much as anyone this year. It's worth noting that the crunch time lineup so far this game has been Hughes, Flowers, Bohannon, Landry and Butch. Krabbenhoft has two fouls while Stiemsma and Gullickson have provided remaining minutes up front.

Wisconsin should cruise in the second half. I can't wait for Keaton Nankivil to check in to the game.

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- Addedum: Well, Leuer beat Nankivil to the floor and Tim Jarmusz did not play. All signs point to him redshirting this season. That would leave the team with a three-man class graduating in 2011 and the following year's senior class possibly five guys strong.
- Bo's postgame comments reinforced that Flowers might continue to come off the bench, saying "it doesn't matter" who starts.
- Hughes is simply the best player on the team and one of the most talented players to come through the program in some time. The stat line he put up tonight was sick: 25-5-5-6-1, with only one foul and two turnovers in 35 minutes. He is our sophomore point guard folks. Think about that ...
(By the way my standard line goes pts-rebs-assts-stls-blks)

Exhibition Opener

The first starting five of the year consisted of Trevon Hughes, Joe Krabbenhoft, Marcus Landry, Brian Butch and Greg Steimsma versus Edgewood College on Sunday night. Michael Flowers came off the bench quickly with Jason Bohannon though, and made an immediate impact. One would guess that Flowers will be in the starting lineup in place of Krabbenhoft to start the regular season.

Rumor has it (alarm!) that Flowers has been upset about being placed at shooting guard while he really desires to play the point this season. That's not likely to happen with Hughes impressing enough as a floor general to justify starting him and Krabbenhoft ready to reprise his sixth man, jack-of-all-trades role from last year.

Unfortunately, I was not able to see any of the exhibition game with Edgewood, but people are already drooling over Jon Leuer, who used a meaningless game against a Division III opponent to catapult himself from the team's most obscure freshman baller to its most hyped.

Poor Leuer is already on the short list of Badger players fighting an uphill battle for my admiration and respect. In my opinion, Leuer needs to improve dramatically to see much floor time as a first-year player. In fact, I even suggested after the Red vs. White scrimmage that he should think about redshirting. I still see a funky, slow-developing release on his shot and a perimeter-oriented game. His perimeter focus is not bad (in fact it will come in handy down the road), but Krabbenhoft and and Landry have a lot of minutes at the small forward spot already wrapped up.

As Leuer continues to fill in his tall frame and confirm his early reputation as a nice shooter, I am able to admit I was wrong ... about the reshirting. You just cannot sit a guy who can explode and exploit a matchup like Leuer has the potential to do. I really want to be wrong about this kid.

Flowers Back With Team

Nothing to add here, just a heads up via the Wisconsin State Journal since details are still fuzzy at best: Flowers Returns to Practice.