Hoops Marinara

Monday, May 12, 2008

Wisconsin Still A Football School

The Wisconsin State Journal ran a sidebar in Sunday's paper detailing the financial expenditures of each UW sports program, accompanying an article that highlighted a few of the low-budget success stories.

With the escalating success of the men's basketball team, Bo Ryan has made a Kohl Center ticket a tougher find than one to Camp Randall. However, follow the money and you'll find that football still reigns supreme in the Badger State. Though both Ryan and head football coach Bret Bielema both reportedly earn a $400,000 base salary, Bielema's $900,000 in additional multimedia package revenue dwarfs Ryan's $550,000 package of the same kind.

The multimedia revenue figure for Ryan was raised significantly after the 2006-07 season in which the Wisconsin reached their first ever #1 ranking. It seems a bit peculiar that the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported at the time of Ryan's raise that he would be guaranteed $1.25 million for this past season, whereas the WSJ breakdown showed only $950,000. The $300,000 difference appears to come from a previous deferred-compensation agreement that is also being honored, though I am not sure why or how that number is not reported. I'm not sure what's missing in that equation, but it is clear that no one on either staff is hurtin' for cash.

Every assistant coach in football and basketball is paid more handsomely than any other head coach in the athletic department, except for the aforementioned big wigs and those leading the men's hockey, women's hockey and women's basketball teams. Offensive coordinator Paul Chryst ($300,000) is one of the state's highest-paid employees. If you were wondering, both Greg Gard and Gary Close pulled down $137,902 last year and Howard Moore earned a measly $102,566.

Speaking of Close, shortly after he was passed over for the head coaching position at Drake, former Iowa basketball player Jess Settles wrote in to the Des Moines Register with a fiery defense of Close. That open letter was then followed by this rather thoughtful column on Close in the same newspaper. Wisconsin is clearly lucky to have still have Close on staff, whose temperament may make him the perfect coaching compliment for Bo Ryan's bench.

Other numbers released in the article were for the 2006-07 season. The men's basketball team spent only $55,254 on its recruiting, compared to $177,170 for the football team which must cover many more players. However, travel costs for that season were nearly identical for the two teams.

What's cooking:
- Derrick Rose is gaining steam as the top overall player on this year's draft board. The updated simulator seems to favor D.J. Augustin for the Bucks ... T.J. Ford, the sequel?! Nooooooo!!
- Rob Hernandez relates the recent flap by a high school track and field star to Doug Chickering's vision of the impending curse of young elite athletes.
- From the "They Said What?" Department - Recruiting Desk: Rodney Williams is still claiming an offer from Wisconsin, Jordan Prosser still really likes Wisconsin and '08 G Jacob Jenkins has an offer from the Badgers "on the table." High comedy.
- Don't forget to check out the Senior Salute over at UWBadgers.com for this past season's four seniors.
- A list of state players still ballin' overseas, plus some nice additional links and commentary at Badgercentric.

Rivals150 Rankings: The Breakdown

When Rivals.com released its final Class of 2008 rankings, the Big Ten sat fifth among conferences with 16 of the Top 150 recruits. That number is especially interesting because of how much talent the region produces. There are a total of 30 players from states that contain a member university (I begrudgingly included Pennsylvania even though Penn State is nowhere near the dominant basketball program in the state). The breakdown is as follows:

2008 Rivals150 Recruits: 16
Michigan State: 3
Minnesota: 3
Ohio State: 3
Purdue: 2
Indiana: 2
Wisconsin: 2
Iowa: 1

Players-by-State in 2008 Rivals150: 30 (2007: 41)
Ohio: 9 (8)
Illinois: 7 (7)
Indiana: 4 (8)
Pennsylvania: 3 (8)
Iowa: 2 (0)
Michigan: 2 (6)
Minnesota: 2 (2)
Wisconsin: 1 (2)

As you can see, Ohio produces far too many high-caliber players for the Buckeyes to keep all to themselves each year. And it is true, the Fightin' Illini truly were slacking off in that department in recent years--including this class. Thirdly, it truly was a down year for top-flight high school talent in Wisconsin and Michigan ... yet UW and MSU managed to steal some recruits from surrounding areas. That is how you avoid rebuilding phases.

Despite losing out to Indiana for Verdell Jones, Minnesota claims two of the players who moved significantly higher in Rivals' most recent rankings. Tubby Smith successfully recruited one of the league's top soon-to-be-freshman centers in Ralph Sampson's son of the same name.

On the whole, though, the Big Ten schools are getting worked over by their out-of-conference peers in their own back yards lately.

The conference wrapped up just three of the 25 five-star prospects in the Class of 2008, according to Rivals. Ohio center B.J. Mullens moved up to the top spot in the 2008 rankings and will join guard William Buford at Ohio State. Michigan State will receive the services of another highly-rated big man, Delvon Roe. Had Devin Ebanks and Terrell Holloway each stayed committed to Indiana, the conference's haul this year actually would have been a big improvement over 2007, when it landed only two of the 28 five-star prospects.

With the departures of Indiana's D.J. White and Ohio State's Kosta Koufos, there are no menacing big men returning to the Big Ten. Brian Butch's graduation leaves Goran Suton as the most skilled player 6'10" or taller. Penn State's Jamelle Cornley, at 6'5", is one of the league's most effective returning power players. Is this what they mean by "a down year"?

The timing could not be better I suppose. Wisconsin's perceived weakness next season also will be in the frontcourt, where their only true pivot players have virtually no experience. Luckily, though Mullens, Roe and Sampson may immediately become a few of the conference's best big men, none appear too talented for a disciplined team effort from the Badger defense, with or without a real center.

Last season, the Badgers had the luxury of having two very capable seniors at center that happened to be legit aircraft carriers. Looking forward to 2008-09, Wisconsin's most effective post player, Marcus Landry, will be undersized at 6'7". Freshmen Jared Berggren (6'10") and Ian Markolf (7') may compete with redshirt sophomore J.P. Gavinski (6'10") for a spot in the rotation. But considering the difficult transition to collegiate defense, none of the three may crack it if the more athletic sophomore Keaton Nankivil (6'8") can fill in suitably.

If none of the young big men stand out as able to contribute immediately, Bo Ryan will have to look elsewhere on his bench to give Landry and Nankivil a rest. Finding someone to pick up those minutes will be one of the program's more interesting storylines of the summer and fall. Kevin Gullikson (also 6'7") will be back--albeit without a scholarship--and he should be able to provide stretches of decent play while the young guys adjust. For all we know, wiry Jon Leuer (6'10") could bulk up and see increased minutes down low rather than on the wing. Leuer showed that he can be is an offensive weapon in the Big Ten, but not yet as a back-to-the-basket type. As Leuer found out, a hot start does not guarantee you a spot in the rotation at the end of the year, so he should have as much motivation as anyone to earn minutes any way he can this season.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Keeping Tabs on Big Ten Transfers and Indiana's Rebuilding Project

Big Ten experiencing more costly defections
You know the offseason is in full swing when the transfer announcements are flowing freely. Last year, four Big Ten programs (Indiana, Purdue, Michigan St. and Minnesota) each had one player defect to a different school. Chris Lutz (PU) and Maurice Joseph (MSU) were the only ones you may have even heard about.

While Michigan and Illinois will welcome in two highly-regarded players at the start of 2009, and Penn St. a third, this latest offseason has been particularly unkind to the Big Ten's talent level so far. A total of nine players are expected to transfer out of the conference and continue their collegiate careers elsewhere. That total gives the Big Ten the highest average transfer rate of any major conference (per member - Big East has 12 so far out of 16 schools). If last year is any indication, there are more announcements to come. After the 2006-07 season, the BCS conferences lost many more players, yet the Big Ten easily had the fewest departures.

More alarming is that many of the names this year were significant contributors to their teams previously. Scott Martin averaged almost 22 minutes and 8.5 points per game as one of the heralded Boilermaker freshmen. Tony Freeman led Iowa in scoring and assists as a shoot-first point guard, and Michigan's Epke Udoh easily topped the league in blocks (2.9/g) while playing 26 min/g. And I have not even mentioned Indiana yet ...

Revamping the Indiana roster
The most obvious victim of this flurry of transers is Indiana, which only has itself to blame. Tom Crean inherited a tough situation from Kelvin Scampson. Crean is no stranger to seeing players bolt from his program for different pastures, but losing the following would be difficult for any team to overcome:

- best player graduates to the NBA (D.J. White)
- as expected, freshman phenom jumps to the NBA (Gordon)
- top returning scorer and second in assists dismissed (Bassett)
- top returning rebounder and leader in assists dismissed (Ellis)
- two frontcourt rotation players graduate (Stemler & Mike White)
- a senior-to-be post player was asked not to return (Thomas)
- freshman post transfers (Holman)

That leaves four returning players, and only two previous 2008 recruits who decided to stick with the Hoosiers. In reality, Crean had nothing to lose by keeping Bassett and Ellis off the team. The community's expectations are now at rock bottom and Crean gets to trumpet a perceived "cleaning up" of the program in academics and attitude.

So now Crean is doing what he does best: selling his program. Three new players have bought in so far, with undoubtedly more on the way. He even stole a recruit from Tubby Smith's grasp when Verdell Jones verbally committed on Monday. Not only was Minnesota shocked about the choice, but Hoosier Nation seemed a little confused too.

I would expect Indiana to be in the market for one or two of this year's transfers, depending on how it wants to spend its plethora of open scholarships. Otherwise, there are many different routes the Hoosiers could go with its roster. I think walk-on Kyle Taber should probably get rewarded with a senior-year scholarship for what he's put up with in the last year (ed: apparently Taber was awarded a scholarship last fall). Expect Crean to sign a star JUCO big man that can help immediately and maybe even a third JUCO if another 2008 recruit is not signed. If all that happens, IU would have 1-2 more scholarships left for the 2009 class and then use the 2-3 expiring JUCO/transfer scholarships for its 2010 class.

Luckily, Indiana got a free pass on its low Academic Progress Report score and will not suffer an additional loss of scholarships in light of "significant improvement." Wisconsin scored a passing grade in the 50th-to-60th percentile; Purdue apparently already dealt with its impending APR penalty during the past season, while Ohio State already knew it was in line to lose a schollie. Retaining a full arsenal--for the moment--should allow Crean to go after players like Jamil Wilson with renewed fervor until the NCAA sanctions, if any, drop.

One player Crean doesn't seem to be going after is Jeronne Maymon, who has finally seen his production translate into a cache of offers from high-majors. But when you see how demanding his father appears to be, it easy hard to understand why some schools, like Wisconsin, kept their distance. But I'm still pleased for the kid's sake that he has apparently hit the big time. He has played for several AAU clubs already and most recently was dominant for the Illinois Bobcats at the Speice Run N' Slam tournament, where ChicagoHoops.com said Maymon "punished opponents all weekend long." I hope Jeronne's dad let's him take enough time off this summer to attend those summer classes we've heard so much about. Or maybe Tennessee, USC, Marquette, Baylor and Iowa State told them not to worry about that ...

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Evan Anderson's Decision Wraps Up 2010 Class

With Vander Blue committing to play for Wisconsin earlier in the week, Evan Anderson snapped up the last tentative scholarship for 2010 by verballing in favor of the Badgers late Saturday night.

Only a sophomore, Anderson was already one of the most sought after high school players from Wisconsin in years, rivaled only by Brian Butch and 2009 prospect Jamil Wilson in terms of national interest. Anderson reportedly chose Wisconsin over programs like Kansas, Kentucky and Boston College. An impressive score for Bo Ryan ...

The Badgers have had the luxury over the past four years of being one of the larger teams in the nation, with numerous players like Butch, Greg Stiemsma, Jason Chappell, Jon Leuer and J.P. Gavinski all standing 6'10" or taller. Because several of those players (add Dave Mader to the list) were not real threats offensively, people don't realize how fortunate UW has been just having those options out on the floor. By adding Anderson to 2008 signees Jared Berggren and Ian Markolf, Wisconsin ensures that this facet of its roster remains strong.

Anderson can be a defensive presence in the middle, a la Stiemsma, and develop his go-to post moves in the next two years. He will never be a Polar Bear-level outside shooter and he knows he needs to work on his perimeter game. Think of Anderson as a combination of several recent Badgers: the shot-blocking ability of Stiemsma, knowledge of some moves on the block (Gavinski) with athleticism closer to Chappell. That's pretty decent for a player not yet a junior in high school.

Amazingly, with the recruiting classes pretty much set for the following three seasons, Wisconsin has a glimpse of what a Badger starting lineup could look like four years down the road. Both Anderson and Blue fill big areas of need in their class and figure to be prominent pieces for UW as early as 2011.

Potential starting lineup, 2011:
PG - Jordan Taylor, Vander Blue
SG - Diamond Taylor, Wilson, Blue
SF - Robert Wilson/Ryan Evans
PF - Mike Bruesewitz, Berggren, Evans
C - Jared Berggren, Evan Anderson, Ian Markolf