Update: Pro Badgers Around the Globe

Since everyone has been keeping an eye on Marcus Landry's attempt to stick on an NBA roster, it seemed like a pretty good time to review which ex-Badgers are still playing professionally:

Marcus Landry
- After finishing up the preseason schedule, Landry will find out Monday if he will be staying with the New York Knicks. The Knicks currently have 13 players with guaranteed contracts and Landry is up against two other players with partially guaranteed contracts -- Joe Crawford and Chris Hunter -- for the final roster spot. Keep your fingers crossed. [edit: He made it!]

Greg Stiemsma
- Stiemsma played in South Korea, Turkey and the D-League last year and has been in Sioux Falls, SD, and the Madison area this month. According to reader Stephen Chung, however, Stiemsma was the #2 overall pick in the Korean Professional Basketball League's international player draft this summer. If you have a Korean character set installed on your 'puter and speak Korean, here's an article!

Brian Butch
- Butch landed in Athens, Greece and got off to a decent start the other day. His coach with the Ilysiakos club has instructed him to only shoot 3-pointers! You can follow the Polar Bear's adjustment to Greek living on his Jump Around blog for the Big Ten Network.

Michael Flowers
- Flowers is ballin' in Holland with Matrixx Magix Nijmegen. He's teammates with the Great White Flight, Henry Bekkering. Brother Jonte is doing well in France's top league. [stats]

Alando Tucker
- Tucker is struggling to find his stroke and playing time in the preseason. [stats]

Kam Taylor
- Kam is killin' it in France with STB Le Havre, which I believe is in the top French league also. After three games, Taylor is one of the league's scoring leaders. [stats]

Mike Wilkinson
- Wilkinson is back in Turkey after a year in Russia.

Devin Harris
- Harris is injured (strained groin) ... again. But you can buy a personal appearance -- and Nets tickets -- for $25,000!

Kirk Penney
- In case you had not heard, Penney was the Australian National Basketball League MVP last season. He is playing with the New Zealand Breakers again this season.

Michael Finley
- Meanwhile, Finley scored 20 points the other night to lead San Antonio to victory. His game has aged quite nicely.

Others
- Jason Chappell (Austria), Ray Nixon (France), Zach Morley (Spain), Rashard Griffith (Romania)

On the Stove Top: Media Day Edition

Edited 10/22 to include Media Day videos & additional content
Wednesday was Media Day, so folks got to ask Bo some questions after his first few practices of the season. We know what to expect Bo to give the media at this point: nothing specific. He said that practices have been very competitive though.

Two small things stood out after seeing video of the session. First, Bo was asked if he has been able to identify this early who the defensive stoppers might be on this year's team. He talked about Jordan Taylor and Tim Jarmusz specifically. No mention of Rob Wilson, which was slightly disappointing to me. Secondly, Bo said that the staff pointed out to both Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil that those players were not exactly where the team needed them to be physically last year. It seems the two guys have responded. The coach noted how Nankivil in particular "blew up" the Hill this off-season. Leuer says he has bulked up [video] to 228 lbs. (up from 190 as a freshman):

"I've put on about 15 pounds. Playing in the Big Ten, it's a physical league and there are a lot of guys that are bigger and stronger than you are, so you have to deal with that. If you haven't worked to get stronger, you're going to get pushed around. That was a major emphasis for us this offseason--getting stronger in our legs and core so we couldn't get bumped around, especially in the post."

Some early season previews have the Badgers falling well out of the Top 25 this season, but often still as a tournament team:

• #40 by Rivals
• #36 by CollegeHoops.net
• 7th in the Big Ten by Jeff Goodman at Foxsports
• 10-seed by ESPN's Joe Lunardi

: : :

UWBadgers.com has profiled the team's two redshirt freshmen, Ryan Evans and Jared Berggren, leading up to the new season. Nothing hard-hitting, but it's still twice as much as you've heard from either of them so far.

The Sports Bubbler also posted video interviews with all the non-seniors from Media Day and I picked out a few in addition to Leuer's that were interesting. Berggren was named the player to watch by most of his teammates. To see the whole video series, visit SportsBubbler.com.

• Ryan Evans: profile / interview [video]
• Jared Berggren: profile / interview [video w/Mike Bruesewitz]
• Jordan Taylor: interview [video]
• Rob Wilson: interview [video]
• Ian Markolf: interview [video]
• Keaton Nankivil: interview [video]

: : :

Illinois Wolves director Mike Mullins spoke with Talking Illini yesterday and they discussed the Diamond Taylor situation for about three minutes or so [audio: start at 38-min mark]. The comments from Mullins reinforced that Taylor's dismissal was handed down from above Bo Ryan and the Athletic Department. The interview covers Chasson Randle also, whom Mullins says is no longer accepting scholarship offers, so his decision is creeping closer. Wisconsin is not expected to be a finalist for Randle's services at this point.

: : :

Speaking of the Class of 2011, a few of the high school juniors who have drawn interest from Bucky decided to verbal to other teams today. Luckily, nothing heartbreaking, but Villanova and Penn State will both be getting nice players.

Removed the following prospects from the recruiting sidebar:
: : : Class of 2011
SG Achraf Yacoubou, New York [s] [+] [+] {Villanova}
PG Trey Burke, Columbus OH {Penn State}

Officially Blueless

So Vander Blue committed to Marquette on Sunday ... surprised?

Of course not. All Badger fans should be disappointed, but this may have been inevitable. Blue's own comments since his latest commitment spelled out the bottom line: Blue is most comfortable at Marquette.

He will be able to continue playing with best friend Jeronne Maymon and run in a traditionally up-tempo offense. Anyone who has watched Memorial press and run opponents out of the gym know why Blue enjoys running with less structure -- it is what made him a national recruit in the first place. You cannot fault the kid for wanting to play in the Big East either. And best of all for mom, he get this within state borders.

For years, we have known that Wisconsin fights an uphill battle with recruits like Blue who (perhaps unknowingly) care more about pace than efficiency. After all, they just want to play. Defense might win championships, but rarely does it net you top recruiting classes. When you have to fly in Devin Harris to explain to a prospect how the offense might open up if he commits, you've already lost that particular battle.

Using Ken Pomeroy's statistics that go back to the 2003-04 season, Wisconsin's adjusted tempo has been noticeably lower than Marquette's in every year except one (2004-05). Furthermore, over the same span, the 2005-06 season was the only time the Badgers played at a faster pace than half of the BCS conference teams. You will remember that year's squad as the one which lost Marcus Landry and Greg Stiemsma midseason due to academic ineligibility and the only one on this list that failed to win 20 games.

Year /	Record /	Adj. Pace /	BCS Rk /	Teams Faster
'08-09	20-13	59.9	#70	95%
'07-08	31-5	62.1	#71	96%
'06-07	30-6	64.4	#56	75%
'05-06	19-12	66.5	#33	44%
'04-05	25-9	63.6	#63	91%
'03-04	25-7	62.4	#65	94%

Coincidence? Don't think so. This is how Bo wins games. Wisconsin ranked as the 24th-most efficient offense on average among BCS teams through those six years.

It doesn't hurt Marquette's cause that Buzz Williams and the Golden Eagles put on a flamboyant Midnight Madness show last weekend and Blue bonded immediately with all the guys on the team (maybe the school even threw the ex-baller cutie in as Blue's academic advisor on purpose). Conversely, Blue did not get along as well with current Badgers and Bo is known to be more laissez faire than many of his coaching counterparts.

Buzz and the Madison Memorial-to-Marquette pipeline worked hard to get this pledge from Blue. It was a priority. The Journal-Sentinel noted that Blue is Marquette's highest-rated recruit in almost 30 years.

Blue was only 15 years old when he verballed to UW; I know I was personally surprised at how fast that happened, so I don't blame him for reconsidering. So whether or not the Badgers took their "foot off the gas" after Blue initial commitment, this chapter of the saga seems to have ended.

Only time will tell if Blue's decision to stay in his comfort zone will pay off as he hopes.

: : :

I was also going to complain today about how any self-respecting basketball power could not hold some sort of Midnight Madness event. While it's true that the program has taken on the identity of it's no-frills coach, it seems Wisconsin is not the only one bypassing the contrived event this year. In the Big Ten alone, Ohio State, Purdue and Penn State did not hold such an spectacle this year either.

: : :

Removed the following prospects from the recruiting sidebar:
: : : Class of 2010
SG Vander Blue, Madison WI {Marquette}
: : : Class of 2011
PF Nnana Egwu, Chicago {Illinois}
SF Sam Thompson, Chicago

Big Ten Previews, Charts and Graphs

Once again, Michigan basketball blog UMHoops has gathered a number of fellow bloggers together for a slew of Big Ten previews. For the second year in a row, I was happy to take part in the process. If you are down with O.P.P. (Other People's Previews), check out my Wisconsin preview that kicked things off last Monday. I think they are about halfway through the league by now.

(I just now realized I had this post all typed out and then just, uhm, forgot to post it.)

Hopefully I accurately gauged the general pulse of Badger fans heading into the year, tainted only slightly by my own opinion. Let me know if you agree or think I royally missed the mark.

One of the links Dylan included over there as an intro to the previews was a grid showing what percentage of statistical production returns for each conference team this season.

For a different perspective, The Only Colors -- a Spartan blog -- has a 2009-10 preview aerial focusing on last year's efficiency rating vs. returning minutes. Compare that graph to to last year's efficiency margin vs. returning minutes aerial by the Big Ten Geeks and you will see these things aren't always the best predictors of success.

So yes, if you are scoring at home, I'm officially down with O.P.P., O.P.C. (Charts) and O.P.G. (Graphs).

Sagarin Ranks Wisconsin 28th All-Time

If it's in an encyclopedia, it's gotta be true, right?

USA Today's Jeff Sagarin lent his rating expertise to the editors of ESPN's new College Basketball Encyclopedia to determine the greatest college basketball programs of all-time. In fact, he ranks 330 qualifying schools and places Wisconsin 28th on the list.

The ratings cover the last 72 years of college hoops. The Badgers ranked 13th in the 1940s and 11th in the most recent decade (2000s) according to Sagarin's system. Wisconsin did not appear as a top-40 program in any other decade.

Despite the lofty rating, Wisconsin was only 9th all-time among Big Ten teams. The conference dominated this list overall, placing five teams in the top ten and eight in the top 15 (#5 Indiana, #6 Illinois, #8 Purdue, #9 Ohio State, #10 Iowa, #13 Michigan, #14 Minnesota, #15 Michigan State). The ranking criteria doesn't seem to give as much weight to high-end success as evidenced by MSU's spot behind the Hawkeyes and Gophers.

ESPN's Pat Forde attacked the merits of these rankings immediately, but mostly singled out the "midwestern bias" for his barbs. Basically he argues that success in more recent years should be given more weight. The Badgers get dinged by name when Forde points out how #32 Arkansas got the shaft from Sagarin. Point taken.

Really ESPN and Sagarin just prove yet again that there is no ranking system that everyone can agree upon. But for those interested in intrastate bragging rights, Marquette ranked slightly higher overall than Wisconsin, at 24th all-time. The Warriors/Golden Eagles ranked 3rd in the 1970s and 32nd this decade.