Link of the Night

The Ohio State blog Eleven Warriors had an interesting post today about one guy's behind-the-scenes experience at the Big Ten Network headquarters. Unfortunately Hoops Marinara has no such access anywhere. Sigh.

Before I delve into the offseason in the coming weeks, I wanted to note how happy I am that Trevon Hughes' Game-winner against Florida State was named the tournament's Pontiac Game Changing Performance. The American voters got it right. The Siena and Villanova clips were equally deserving, maybe even Oklahoma State, but I would have rolled my eyes a bit if the Gonzaga or Pittsburgh clip had won (the Missouri entry was a joke).

I am always afraid that these contrived contests will end up like those episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos, where the clip of the dog in a life jacket wins the money over the only finalist video that actually made you laugh.

In the context of the whole tournament, I though Scottie Reynolds' game-winner (sent 'Nova to Final Four) and Kalin Lucas' three-point play (regional semis against defending champs) were the two most important shots on the list. But Pop's shot was the only one that combined four essential elements: 1) it was an upset, 2) his team was trailing, 3) it was overtime, and 4) it left little to no time for the opponent to get another good chance to score.

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Other old news:
- Gopher-to-be Royce White was named Minnesota Mr. Basketball over Badger signee Mike Bruesewitz. Tubby fans rejoice.

- I did not stick around for the montage after the butt-whippin' UNC served up to Michigan State. But after hearing Wisconsin got two clips into this year's One Shining Moment reel, I finally watched the thing. Nice memories ... - Kirk Penney was named the 2009 MVP of the Australian NBL. He led the league in scoring at over 24 ppg after finishing second in scoring last season.

Big Ten Network Panders to Shut Ins

The Big Ten Network is attempting to fill its gigantic summer programming void by dedicating one entire day in June to each of the 11 conference schools. Wisconsin Day will be June 19.

But the interesting tidbit for Badger basketball fans is that three different men's basketball games will air. Not too shabby for a "football" school. Included are Wisconsin knocking off #2 Minnesota on two Ty Calderwood free throws in '97, this past season's Big Ten Tournament Championship game versus Illinois, and the Brian Butch bank job against Indiana from four months ago.

My suggestion to the network is MORE PANDERING. How about three days of classic games each? That equates to about a month of programming, locked and loaded. If a whole day is devoted to Wisconsin and there is not one Rose Bowl* or one Devin-to-'Do alley-oop involved, someone needs to speak out. (*Note: The network has since clarified its schedule and will air the 1999 Rose Bowl in the wee hours of June 20th.)

As it is, one day apiece for eleven teams does not even provide two weeks of content, so they spread it out. I mean, do they want to fill this month or not? I would argue that you could snag more hardcore fans by extending the dedicated block for each school than the number of normal viewers you might lose for a couple days by temporarily ignoring the other 10 schools. Those people are tuned out anyway--it's summer.

And another thing: A lot of people might have DVRs now, but I don't (I don't even have the Big Ten Network). What if I am busy on June 19? No glorious Badger revelry for me. I guess more manpower in the BTN editing bays is the only answer.

The 24 hours of coverage begins at 6 AM Central Time and will include two hours of "campus programming" (Zzzzzz ...). The day reaches its apex I suppose with the Big Ten Tonight's half-hour Year In Review (in HD!!!) show for each university. For Wisconsin, spring football, women's soccer, track & field championships and the 2003 Ohio State football game round out the programming items.

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NBA Pre-Draft Camp Measurements

We did not have the pleasure of digesting Alando Tucker's measureables last season because he skipped the Orlando workouts. This year, Brian Butch is the team's lone draftable commodity, though even that is debatable in many communities.

As for his workout, Butch measured out with few surprises. He is not remarkably fit (10.8% body fat) or strong, but is very slow (3.52 secs in a 3/4-court sprint). Actually, Butch did fare surprisingly well in the lane agility. The Polar Bear was one of only five players 6'10" or taller to run a sub-12 sec drill. Sadly though, Butch also posted one of the worst maximum vertical jumps (26.5") ever recorded in the last 18 years. Butch may already be positioning himself for a European contract by his choice of agent, Chris Luchey.

DraftExpress does a great job, as usual, of presenting the winners and losers of this circus event. Luckily, The Bratwurst's sleeper pick that I have blindly adopted (Richard Hendrix) fared well, as did Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo and Joe Alexander. The site also takes a fun trip down memory lane with a history of draft measurements. There does not appear to be a overall ranking of the players this year according to their measurables, which is probably for the best.

All-Big Ten Awards Announced

Butch named first team; Bohannon wins Sixth Man of the Year
The Big Ten Conference announced its 2007-08 awards live on the Big Ten Network Monday afternoon, a first in college basketball. Wisconsin's Brian Butch was the lone Badger named to the All-Big Ten first team. He was selected by both the coaches and the media.

D.J. White and Eric Gordon are the Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, respectively. Purdue's Robbie Hummel was a first-teamer on both ballots also, while Matt Painter was named the Coach of the Year. The coaches chose Marcus Landry for the second team and Michael Flowers for the third team; the media flip-flopped Flowers (second-team) and Landry (third).

It's a little surprising to see a conference champion with such little representation overall, but understandable. Not a single Badger was honored as the conference's player of the week throughout the season. You will notice quite a contrast in the statistics between Wisconsin players and Wisconsin as a team.

Despite naming Drew Neitzel to the first team, the coaches did get one thing right and that was naming Jason Bohannon the Sixth Man of the Year unanimously. Bohannon is a true representative of the "sixth starter" concept, much like a Jason Terry has with the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA.

Before you go ballistic about Michael Flowers being passed over for Defensive Player of the Year laurels, remind yourself that it is a good idea to not take such awards too seriously. History could have predicted that scoring average would be a big indicator of what players are picked for first team recognition. It seems the same can be said for steals and the Defensive POY. When the award went to Purdue's Chris Kramer, it was not completely unexpected, but still highly disappointing for Badger fans who have seen how good Flowers really is for four years now.

Kramer was tops in the Big Ten season with 2.6 steals per game, while Flowers was only seventh with 1.6 spg. But Mike averaged fewer fouls than all but two of those ahead of him in steals per game and plays better position defense in my observation. Flowers will have to take pride in knowing he clearly is a superior all-around player.

As for other Badgers, Trevon Hughes was a honorable mention pick on both ballots. Joe Krabbenhoft joined Flowers on the coaches' All-Defensive Team. Krabby strikes me as the type of guy that might laugh when informed of the news and then point towards his new Big Ten Championship hat and t-shirt.

The Big Ten still has some integrity in this process though. Elsewhere, the awards are getting out of hand. As we saw with the high school All-State team selected by the WBCA and now the All-Big East Awards, these designations are nowhere near exclusive anymore. There were 11 players named First Team All-Big East -- that doesn't make any sense!

This just reminds me of children's leagues like YMCA flag football where everyone gets a participation trophy. Enough coddling ...

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Jeronne Maymon has been named the AP's state Player of the Year; Jamil Wilson was also named to the first team.

Could It Be ... Yi?

I felt like I should get at least one post in during the month of August, even though it has been one of the busiest months of my life.

My plan to discuss some of the recent Badger basketball history and players over the course of the summer turned out to be a complete sham. As I found out, continually updating the site with recruiting info through the dry spell involves many unexciting rumors and wasn't nearly as worthwhile as I anticipated.

Luckily, the only news pertaining to Wisconsin basketball lately has involved the horrors of the Big Ten Network implementation. As of now, 11 of UW's 18 conference games are scheduled to be shown on the BTN. So if you don't have DirecTV, good luck catching every Badger game. Both the cable companies (like Charter) and the BTN can suck an egg.

More pertinent news came yesterday with a few roster moves that affect the Milwaukee Bucks. In Yi Jianlian's case, the calm came after the storm. Larry Harris and the Milwaukee brass quietly got the deal done that they had to get done. They even traveled to China (*gasp*) and it looks like everyone will save face. Even Yi's cute girlfriend.

As expected, however, Ruben Patterson moved on to greener pastures -- and warmer weather -- after having a career year with the Bucks last year. So in the course of one day, Milwaukee lost its best defender and took on another player who will perennially be in the running for "worst defender."