WIAA - Thursday Session Updates

Live stats :: Streaming audio (ESPN 1070)

11:59 p.m. - Just a quick note on Evan Anderson from tonight: As we know, he is not dominant in any way; he's just too young and too raw still. I would not go as far as saying that he impressed me, but he made an impact defensively with several blocks and was able to be a go-to guy on some possessions for Eau Claire North. At nearly seven-feet-tall, Anderson does not have much trouble getting a shot off at this level. The Huskies, however, got zero points from their bench and fell to a superior Wauwatosa East team, 50-38.

The Red Raiders, who count Devin Harris and Jerry Smith as alumni, will play Brookfield Central (as expected) in tomorrow's late game.

5:45 p.m. - Ridiculous finish to the second D1 quarterfinal. I couldn't resist and listened to the entire second half, with the accompanying live stats, which were actually running about 10-15 seconds ahead of the audio.

As I suspected, 3-point shooting was the key. Nick Doedens in particular kept Germantown in the game, going 6-of-10 on treys to keep the Warhawks in the game. Bowers then hit the game-tying 3-pointer with two seconds left in regulation. Overtime began tied 58-58.

In the end, however, Germantown also died by the three. It was a vicious cycle, as the Warhawks settled for threes, only to see Oshkosh West's big boys snatch all the rebounds. Shoddy free throw shooting by the Wildcats kept this close, as Averkamp's 3-pointer rimmed out on the final play. Germantown's big man had a quiet game down the stretch, neutralized by Benkoske and Anderson. Oshkosh West advanced again with the 66-63 win.

West's zone could pose a problem for Memorial in the semifinals. A lot of its offense is predicated on penetration and with two 6'8" players waiting for the Spartans in the lane, nothing will come easy out of an offensive set, even for Maymon. It will be an interesting clash in style; braun versus full-court pressure.

The next game (Bay Port vs. Brookfield Central) does not thrill me, so it's time for a dinner break. Make sure you catch tonight's game, though, to get a glimpse of Eau Claire North's 6'11" sophomore, Wisconsin Badger recruit Evan Anderson. I'm admittedly excited for that because I have not seen him play live yet. The Huskies run up against a darn good team in Wauwatosa East -- a team definitely capable of winning it all.

4:30 p.m. - Germantown--my darkhouse pick of the D1 tournament--is now trailing two-time defending champion Oshkosh West 41-37 after a flurry of action at the end of the third quarter. By the way, have you noticed how everyone on ESPN is now referring to halftime as "recess" these days. I feel like I missed a memo or something ...

Regardless, this game features some serious height. The Warhawks feature 6'7" junior Ben Averkamp, but West counters with 6'8" twin towers: senior John Benkoske and sophomore David Anderson. All three of the talented young big men are attracting significant collegiate interest. Averkamp has an impressive 118 blocks on the year entering the contest and the radio guys cannot stress that enough apparently. He's blocked a few so far, but foul trouble has again limited the star players in this game. Guard Ricky Bowers and the outside shooters from Germantown could be the difference because you know the Wildcats will want to pack it in defensively with their 2-3 zone.

Speaking of blocked shots, Maymon totaled a D1 tounrey record eight blocked shots in Memorial's 79-63 win earlier today. The junior's stat line was sickening -- including 28 pts, 12 rebs, 5 stls & 4 assts. I hope Maymon can get his academics in order at a junior college and find his way into a D1 college program. I would hate to see all that talent go to waste.

2:07 p.m. - The morning session concluded a few minutes past noon at the Kohl Center, with the Division 3 semifinals kicking things off. Fouls down the stretch against Eau Claire Regis allowed Iola-Scandinavia to complete a great comeback in the first game.

We already have an "upset" of the day, as LaCrosse Aquinas started and finished strong to beat D3 favorite Whitefish Bay Dominican. Both Jerel Harris and Kwamain Mitchell [listen] fouled out for the Knights, squashing any hopes of a comeback. Rising star Jimmy Whitehead led the Blugolds with 17 points.

Madison Memorial ran out to a nice lead in the first Division 1 quarterfinal to start the afternoon session. Just a few minutes ago, Jeronne Maymon picked up two quick fouls and went to the Memorial bench with the team leading 28-16, giving Lake Geneva Badger some life. The Spartans were playing an inverted triangle-and-two defense during this period, in which the Badgers closed the gap to 34-29 at the half.

Since I cannot really follow along on radio consistently right now, I am also checking the March Blogness posts off the Wishoops.net's state tournament coverage page.

Amen!

Wisconsin, 2007-08 Big Ten Conference Champions
... for the third time in head coach Bo Ryan's seven seasons at the helm. 'Nuff said.

Almost. I wanted to comment on the game's box score, since I missed the second half to play our city league hoops game (an overtime thriller!)

First of all, this is the kind of carnage (final score: 77-41) that you like to see from a team entering the postseason. Critics can only knock your schedule so often if you are beating conference foes by 30+ points. In a game where seemingly everyone played well, Michael Flowers deserves kudos for putting up nine assists, two steals and zero turnovers while pulling down eight rebounds. Phenomenal. In fact, the the Badgers had 17 assists as a team, which is very solid. It appears that Jon Leuer is still cold, but J-Bo is back on track from deep. Greg Stiemsma's minutes were very impressive as well.

From the scoreboard, you might expect a few more players to be in double figures scoring-wise, but as was the case year all year until this point, this was a classy, team effort. And Tanner hit his trey to boot! I've dogged Tanner a bit in the past, but what he did for the team was very commendable and his feel-good story is something the whole state should be proud of.

Senior Video Tribute: http://uwbadgers.com/video/default.aspx?mid=2027

And speaking of Flowers, enjoy this piece about Mike and Max Bass, courtesy of the Big Ten Network:

Good News For Wisconsin

For many, yesterday will forever be known as the day Brett Favre retired. For players on the Wisconsin men's basketball team, it will be known as the day the sea parted for them.

In the interests of full disclosure, no, I am not a Packer fan. But I do like Brett Favre. Since this is not a football blog, I will not go into detail about how much I loved to watch Favre play or any of that. After all, a Big Ten Championship could be headed to town.

Thanks to Ohio State's 80-77 overtime win versus Purdue, Wisconsin is now alone atop the Big Ten standings with a 14-2 conference record. More importantly, the Boilermakers relinquished control of their own destiny and now the Badgers alone will decide which team earns the hardware. The team can clinch a share of the title tonight with a win against Penn State at the Kohl Center.

So remember Wisconsin sports fans: Tuesday, March 4, 2008 was a good day.

State Tournament Field All Set

Maymon, Blue advance; Wilson's big game not enough
This weekend brought to rest many dreams in the world of high school basketball. In Wisconsin, the Division 1 field has been pared to eight, while the three lower divisions have now determined their final four participants.

Personal fave Janesville Craig lost a heart breaker on Friday night, 65-62, when Lake Geneva Badger made 15-of-32 treys, including one in the final seconds. Lake Geneva (18-5) then jumped all over top-seeded Verona in the first quarter of the Sectional #6 final, thus sailing into Thursday's first quarterfinal match-up with Madison Memorial. The triumphant Spartans (21-2) marched through three games as the top seed in Sectional #3, winning by an average of 21 points. On Saturday, Memorial pulled away from Waunakee, who entered the game 23-0 after sneaking by Madison LaFollette.

After fighting off a midweek ankle injury, junior forward Jeronne Maymon poured in 27 points against the Warriors, while sophomore guard Vander Blue contributed 16 for the Spartans. Memorial exhibits fearsome pressure that opposing coaches have called "relentless." The style reminds you of a few Milwaukee high school teams from years past, which is ironic now that the boys state tournament will lack a team from the Cream City for the first time since 1978. Memorial has the look of a favorite.

Of course, several Milwaukee area teams may still stand in its way. Top-seeded Germantown (22-1) escaped Sectional #5 by beating second-seeded Milwaukee Vincent. Ready to greet Germantown in Madison is gritty defending champion Oshkosh West. West (17-7) got no love in being assigned a 4-seed, but "upset" crosstown rival Oshkosh North to make their third straight trip to the Kohl Center.

Another team making its third straight appearance is Brookfield Central, which will play Bay Port in the quarterfinals. The Lancers (18-5) overcame a mammoth performance from Jamil Wilson to beat Racine Horlick and secure their seventh trip to the state tourney in nine years. Central countered Wilson's 37 points and five threes with its own 3-point shooting in Horlick's own gym. Luckily for Wilson, he has one more year to get to state with most of the team returning intact next fall.

While Milwaukee King toppled undefeated juggernaut Milwaukee Washington, 59-58, on Thursday, Wauwatosa East (23-1) eliminated the Generals to win Sectional #8. Now it will be the Red Raiders facing off against Eau Claire North (18-4) in the late game this Thursday. So college fans will get to see at least one potential Wisconsin recruit, center Evan Anderson, on the big stage. UW assistant Gary Close was in attendance at the Marshfield sectional final, so you can bet Anderson is the team's to priority for 2010.

Breaking it down, four #1 seeds, three #2 seeds and one #4 seed advanced to the D1 state tournament. Monroe is one of three #1 seeds that moved on to State in D2. The Cheesemakers will take their first step toward a repeat championship when they play upstart 4-seed New Berlin Eisenhower.

In Division 3, the expected domination by parochial schools continues. As I suggested about a week ago, the percentage of private school teams from larger urban areas increased each round. They comprised five of the eight sectional finalists and now three of the four semifinalists.

A few years ago, many thought undefeated state champ Whitefish Bay Dominican was the best team in any division. With St. Louis-signee Kwamain Mitchell at the point, this season's squad is in the hunt for another gold ball. Over the weekend, top-ranked Dominican avenged last season's tournament loss to fellow D3 powerhouse Racine St. Catherine's. Joining Dominican at the Kohl Center will be Iola-Scandinavia, Eau Claire Regis and LaCrosse Aquinas. In another case of dominating margin of victory, Aquinas has won by 59, 31, 26, 29 and 29 points over its five-game waltz through the bracket. Unfortunately, Aquinas and Dominican meet right away in the semifinal round.

Not surprisingly, Randolph punched a ticket to Madison for the 12th time in the last two decades. Leading scorer Bryan Johnson teams with 6'9" sophomore Kyle Kelm and another Tillema (Tyler) for the Rockets, who are looking for their sixth D4 state championship in seven years. See Wishoops.net for a description of how Tyler differs from his more recognizable older brothers.

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Links:
- The Star Ledger has a couple of interesting tidbits in a recent article on Devin Harris.
- Somehow, Hoops Marinara was mentioned in an ongoing argument regarding recruiting in the comments section at the JSOnline's Badger Blog. I'm flattered to be sure -- people are reading. But to the fellow who wasn't too pleased with my "blogger" profile, next time you quote something, at least be accurate.

Stephen Bardo Is A Moron

Immediately after Wisconsin dismantled Michigan State in front of a nationwide cable audience, the ESPN talking heads asked "analyst" Stephen Bardo to name which team he would pick to go farther in the post-season. Bardo went on to spew some vague, nonsensical reasons why he likes Michigan State better. Can someone get him a television set? The Badgers improved to 24-4 and 14-2 in the Big Ten by holding the Spartans (22-6, 10-5) to 42 points! Bardo must be dreaming.

I was hoping to be able to provide a running diary of this game, but the opportunity did not materialize. My lack of both the Big Ten Network and a DVR has made that type of post difficult this season. But even if I had put one together, I may have been at a loss for words -- how does one react to an "comfortable" victory over Michigan State?

The obvious answer would be to react jubilantly. After all, this may have been the biggest game of the conference season given the timing and possible title implications. This was the type of game where every single basket is magnified in importance. Taking care of the ball is paramount. Bo Ryan and Trevon Hughes saw to that, as the team set a school record with only one turnover.

One could also respond with a bit of surprise. Take a closer look and it was a game of bucking expected trends. Michigan State's problem all year has been turnovers, but the Spartans cut down on those versus the Badgers. Joe Krabbenhoft hit two long jumpers to keep MSU's defense guessing as it sagged to limited UW's inside game. Those jumpers were vital, as Krabby's garbage hoops did not fall and his attempt at leading a 2-on-1 fast break with Michael Flowers was pathetically timid. Instead of Jason Bohannon raining threes, it was Brian Butch catching fire from 3-point land. Those four treys, a career-high, were crucial to proving Izzo wrong: Wisconsin can beat you from the outside. [box score]

A quick Butch 3-point shooting breakdown ...
First 18 games: 3/32 (9.4%)
Last 10 games: 15/25 (60.0%)
Season total: 18/57 (31.6%)

Besides the Polar Bear's hot streak, one constant in this latest Badger winning streak has been Flowers. My affinity for him has been well-stated. His shooting accuracy is no longer a fad, it is reality. Through trial and error, Flowers now possesses the perfect level of aggressiveness on offense and defense. We have not seen him pick up a fourth foul in a game since January 10. Yet the results are even better, whether it be hounding Neitzel into a 1-for-10 shooting night or picking up his offensive production. Since the second loss to Purdue (5 games), Flowers has made 10-of-18 3-pointers, doled out 17 assists with 6 TOs and 6 steals.

I love the rivalry with Michigan State. Those with hatred for Marquette might disagree, but there is no bigger matchup for me each year. Nothing else touches it. It feels good to be on the winning side again, even if the Spartans seem a little off their game this year.

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Devin Harris got busy tonight against the Bucks in his New Jersey home debut. Check out the video highlights for his vicious drive and flush over Andrew Bogut. He moves so fast, he can't even stay upright all the time. Harris has some very nice running mates in Jersey like Jefferson and Carter, so hopefully he stays healthy and continues to spread his more-chiseled-yet-still-scrawny wings.