A Tale Of Two Cities

Heading into the NCAA Tournament, the memory of Wisconsin's last performance still has me shaking my head.

Sure, we knew Illinois was capable of giving UW fits after the Illini pick-and-rolled the Badgers to death in February. Wisconsin appeared to have its groove back, however, when Jon Leuer and Co. overcame foul trouble to stomp Illinois on its home court, 72-57. The seeds of a letdown were there though. Foul trouble. The senior guards shooting 5-of-18. Mediocre free throw shooting.

Then, 120 miles east of Champaign, Wisconsin delivered a colossal stinker of a performance in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals where they shot less than 29% as a team. [box score]

The most puzzling thing to me about the loss is enigmatic performances of Mike Tisdale. Doesn't Wisconsin watch film on this guy? If Tisdale got to face the Badgers every game, he'd be a first team All-American. Tisdale even hit both 3-pointers he tried -- on his third and fourth attempts of the season!

The Riverton, Ill. native posted monster games against Northwestern and Indiana, but in the last nine games he's had his third, fourth and sixth-highest scoring games of the year against Wisconsin. And it's the shooting efficiency (74%) against UW that is the most impressive:

DATE	CITY	RESULT	MIN	FG	FGA	FTM	FTA	3PM	3PA	PTS	REB	BLK	PF
2/9	Madison	W 63-56	37	8	11	3	3	0	1	19	3	1	1
3/7	Champaign	L 72-57	29	4	6	8	8	0	0	16	4	1	2
3/12	Indy	W 58-54	35	8	10	3	5	2	2	21	8	1	4

Tisdale fouled out with 10 points in the following game as Illinois fell in double OT to Ohio State.

So are there any sweet-shooting 7-footers on the Wofford squad? Hardly. The Terriers' tallest rotation player, Corey Godzinski, is listed at 6'9" and averages 3.7 pts and 1.9 rebs in 13 min/g. Temple has a couple big men in the starting lineup and Cornell has a very good 7-footer in Jeff Foote.

After Trevon Hughes missed his first 11 shots last Friday and Jason Bohannon finished 1-of-10, I hope their propensity for bricks successfully transferred to E'Twaun Moore. Moore shot 1-of-14 from the field as a struggling Purdue team got railroaded by Minnesota on the same day in the same building. Both teams hope that kind of shooting is behind them.

Big Ten Braces For Wild Finish

UPDATE 2/25 - 3:40 PM: Robbie Hummel is out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL.

After Wisconsin's uncomfortably close home win against Northwestern, it was easy to worry about the Badgers. Wisconsin shot a blistering 75% in the first half against the porous Wildcat defense, but needed every ounce of energy to hold on in the second half. [box score] Even though the team reached the 20-win mark for the sixth time in Bo Ryan's tenure, something has not seemed right as Jon Leuer tries to get assimilated back into the lineup off the bench.

But tight finishes turned out to be the growing norm in the Big Ten this week.

On Wednesday night, Purdue needed a Keaton Grant jumper to overcome Robbie Hummel's knee injury at Minnesota and Ohio State ended up getting all it could handle from Penn State. So if Wisconsin was planning on making up ground when someone else above them stumbled, it's time for Plan B.

Despite splitting it's last four games, Wisconsin still had an efficiency footprint identical to the streaking Boilermakers prior to Wednesday's games. Along with Ohio State, these teams clearly have posted the best combined offensive and defensive efficiency numbers in league play. That is a compliment to how well the team started out in conference. But it's not time to go back to the drawing board for the Badgers, since there is still positioning and seeding to play for.

Among the five top tier teams in the Big Ten, only three of their 21 combined losses have been to "bottom six" conference teams. And those losses came only to Northwestern (twice) and Minnesota (once). So it's safe to assume that Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan State, Illinois and Wisconsin can be penciled in for wins against anyone named Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Penn State. That leaves about 3-4 important games left in the Big Ten:

Minnesota @ Illinois (Feb. 27)
Michigan State @ Purdue (Feb. 28)
Illinois @ Ohio State (Mar. 2)
Wisconsin @ Illinois (Mar. 7)

Purdue has now won 10 in a row, but it's reasonable to think they may drop a game or two unexpectedly if Hummel is shelved for an extended period. The Boilers' tilt with the Spartans is the most likely spot. If Purdue can win, say hello to your 2010 champion.

If not, we could be looking at a three-way tie at 14-4, depending of course on OSU's ability to get by Illinois. Illinois has three tough remaining games. Wisconsin should control it's own destiny with respect to finishing above Illinois for fourth place (to keep that other "streak" alive) because of their season finale in Champaign.

Any way you slice it, the top of the Big Ten will be a cluttered mix of quality teams.

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While the Badgers are probably anxious to work out the kinks on their road trip to Bloomington, Trevon Hughes is will continue to move up the Wisconsin record books. With one more steal, Hughes will tie Michael Finley for fifth place in career thefts. With one more made free throw, Pop will tie Dick Cable for ninth on that all-time list.

The Demetri McCamey Game

I'm not sure what I just witnessed.

Wait, yes I do. That was a beat down. And the result was No. 11 Wisconsin's first loss to a unranked Big Ten team at home under Bo Ryan.

Wisconsin was cruising in the early going, but could not stop Demetri McCamey at any point in this game. Illinois embarrassed Wisconsin with the pick-and-roll. I did not see any real adjustment at halftime, which means the Badgers let the Illini stars beat them instead of forcing some of the unproven Illinois players to make plays.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin struggled mightily to finish any plays at the rim. Ever since Jon Leuer went down and Wisconsin put on it's "perimeter-oriented team" pants, you knew this game was coming. Wisconsin scored just one (!) meaningful basket in the final 9:56 of the contest. The Badgers settled for 30 attempts from 3-point land. [box score]

McCamey scored 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting while handing out 7 assists. He set up Mike Tisdale time after time, allowing the 7'1" center to have a remarkable shooting game of his own (8-of-11, 19 points). In fact, Tisdale's early buckets were about the only thing keeping Illinois from getting blown out in the first half. Wisconsin went into the break up, 35-33, on a Trevon Hughes 3-pointer.

Both Hughes and Jordan Taylor left their best defense in the locker room tonight. But their job was made nearly impossible because they could not trust their interior help defense to stop McCamey. McCamey caught fire hitting shots over the Badger guards and then simply toyed with Keaton Nankivil when there was a switch on the pick. When he's on, McCamey can drive or stop and pop; he kept Wisconsin off guard all night.

It was probably one of the most frustrating games of Hughes' career. His body language was awful and he couldn't get anything going. Pop shot a horrendous 22% (4-of-18) from the field. He led the Badgers into panic mode late with an increasingly poor shot selection once Illinois took command. He's got to learn from this game and get back into early-season form.

Jason Bohannon led Wisconsin with 15 points. His shot looked great. But no one else was effective. I am shocked that Rob Wilson did not play more in the second half. Among significant contributors, the team's offensive efficiency was the highest (1.07 PPP) when Wilson was on the court. (ed. note: Ryan Evans and Jared Berggren posted nice efficiency numbers over a small sample size)

Some interesting touch fouls at times during the game, yet none of the typical calls you expect around the basket. Wisconsin was visibly frustrated by this. But UW got most of the favorable calls anyway, so I'm not complaining.

Instead of rising to second place in the Big Ten, Wisconsin (18-6, 8-4) drops to fifth for now. Illinois (17-8, 9-3) takes one more step closer to Michigan State.

On the Stove Top: 2/8/10

Unfortunately, I still have not seen the Wisconsin-Michigan game in it's entirety due to the Camp Randall Classic festivities. I caught glimpses of the second half and apparently I missed all the good parts. Because neither team wanted to score in the final 10 minutes. [box score]

There's no doubt that Jason Bohannon has hit his stride. J-Bo destroyed Michigan with 64% shooting, adding four rebounds and five assists. In the process of leading UW's long-distance barrage, Bohannon passed Devin Harris on Wisconsin's all-time 3-pt FG and 3-pt FG attempts lists.

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Illinois is a team I feared would give Wisconsin fits after Jon Leuer went down, due to their skilled big men. But the other reason was Demetri McCamey, one of the few point guards around who can overpower a Trevon Hughes or Jordan Taylor. While Wisconsin seems to have figured things out heading into Tuesday's game with the Illini, McCamey is on top of his game also. The junior shared Big Ten Player of the Week honors with high school teammate Evan Turner for this past week. McCamey scored 23 point and dropped 11 dimes in Illinois' win over Michigan State.

Meanwhile, Illinois' front court has not been all it was cracked up to be this season. Mike Davis lost his starting job four games ago. Center Mike Tisdale will be playing at less than 100% versus the Badgers after injuring a different knee in each of the past two games.

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Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Jeff Potrykus blogged about Jon Leuer's Sunday shootaround with coach Gary Close. Apparently Leuer's wrist has been healing well enough to impress onlookers with his accuracy. It's a great sign, but there's still no timetable for his return. It's a big step from shooting to colliding with another 6'10" dude for 40 minutes.

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Rob Wilson got a little media ink last Friday when the Journal-Sentinel did a nice summary of his recent improvement. Wilson continued to play well on the road against Michigan, playing 20 turnover-free minutes. His scoring was down (5 pts), but he chipped in three rebounds and got to the line.

"He is tough driving into the lane," Bo Ryan said of Wilson. "He's got that little floater that when he is on the scout team we have a hard time stopping."

At the risk of jumping to conclusions, I hinted after the Purdue game that Bo was starting to transition away from heavy use of Tim Jarmusz now that some of his younger players are stepping up. Even though Ryan Evans only played 25 minutes in the next two games, Wilson has played 44 minutes to TJ's 45 minutes since then.

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Howard Moore continues to recruit Chicago. Illinois Prep Bullseye reported that Moore was spotted a couple weeks ago at a Chicago De LaSalle game with his eyes on junior Mike Shaw and freshman Alex Foster:

"Among the coaches in the gym were University Of Illinois head coach Bruce Weber, Purdue University assistant coach Rick Ray and University Of Wisconsin assistant coach Howard Moore.

"Weber was also there to get yet another look at De LaSalle's talented underclass duo of 6'8 class of 2011 forward Mike Shaw and 6'7 class of 2013 forward Alex Foster. Ray's main focus was on Foster, who has already received a scholarship offer from Purdue (as well as Illinois), while Moore was also taking a close look at both Shaw and Foster."

Shaw has been ballyhooed for years and would seem like an odd player to recruit considering the AAU handlers that seemed to be involved in his recruitment. That leads me to believe Moore was particularly interested in Foster, one of three Class of 2013 youngsters being hailed as the collective second coming in Illinois.

Wisconsin's Basketball Rivals

It's "Rivalry Week" according to ESPN. All that really means is that Duke is playing North Carolina this week. Wisconsin happens to be hosting Iowa, a border rival, on Wednesday night.

While I don't put much stock in the Worldwide Leader's labels, I would consider the Hawkeyes decent rivals. Iowa has been within two spots of Wisconsin in the final Big Ten standings six of the last 10 seasons. Though it has not won the regular season Big Ten title in that span, Iowa's program has some history. These two teams have also shared some memorable Big Ten Tournament matches. Yet, despite upsetting Wisconsin earlier this year, Iowa has not been keeping up its end of the deal lately in this rivalry.

Only four teams have accounted for 13 of the 14 Big Ten champions in the last decade -- Illinois (4), Michigan State (3), Ohio State (3) and Wisconsin (3). Indiana was a part of the four-way tie in 2001-02. Because the Badgers have been so successful under Bo Ryan, it has been natural for Wisconsin's games with conference heavyweights like Michigan State and Illinois to take on more meaning to fans and players ... and certain coaches too.

The two biggest ingredients in a rivalry are that the games always matter and the teams are close in proximity. When it comes to conference rivals, I automatically discard five teams (Penn State, Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern and Michigan) which have not sustained the same level of success as UW. These contests simply have not been meaningful as often when you are talking about title chases. Some of these teams also have more natural rivalries of their own due to location.

Even though Wisconsin and Ohio State are two of the stronger programs in the league, Ohio State is just far enough away that any bad blood that develops simmers down in between games. The recruiting turf rarely overlaps and the fan bases do not deal with each other on a day-to-day basis. Conversely, Wisconsin shares its longest border with Minnesota and the Gophers will always be a big rival in most sports, so you have to throw them into the mix for "top rivalry." With the resurgence under Tubby Smith, Minnesota gets the nod over both Iowa and Ohio State. For the foreseeable, this will be a "homecoming" game for the handful of Badgers plucked from Minnesota.

That leaves Illinois and Michigan State. I have said many times that I look forward to the games with Michigan State the most. Since rivalries are based on a lot of emotion anyway, I am sticking with mine. Depending on what course the programs take over the next 10 years, though, I think the Illini are a better bet to remain a long-term rival. Thus, I consider Illinois to be Wisconsin's "Rival 1B". It is interesting to look back on the ebb and flow in the intensity of the competition between the Badgers and some of their Big Ten neighbors.

With that in mind, Marquette has to be considered Wisconsin's number one basketball rival. The public vs. private institution juxtaposition fuels spirited debates that boil over into hatred. Both schools are drawing form the same recruiting base and even have maintained contrasting playing styles lately, which only drives the intense "my dad can beat up your dad" pride on both sides even further. Whether the teams are both nationally ranked or not, this game always matters, at least to people in the state. And it will always be that way. Plus, without a football team, the Marquette community has to hold the annual clash in high regard.

Ranking UW's conference rivalries:
1. Michigan State
2. Illinois
3. Minnesota
4. Iowa
5. Ohio State
6. Purdue
7. Northwestern
8. Michigan
9. Indiana
10. Penn State

Ding-Dong, The Streak Is Dead

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Monday, predicting six more weeks of winter, but I am calling shenanigans. The "Deep Freeze of 2009" began to thaw tonight as Wisconsin closed out a big home win against Illinois to snap a ridiculous six-game losing skid.

I had a good feeling this week about the Badgers catching a break against the Illini due my reservations about Illinois' guard play. Those hopes were realized in a game where a Badger opponent was finally the one suffering from ice cold shooting. Illinois will have no complaints about the number of open shots it took. With center Mike Tisdale in foul trouble, Illinois had to rely on more outside shooting, which never materialized after a couple of early Demetri McCamey buckets. Illinois sank only 4-of-21 on threes. [box score]

You can attribute some of Illinois' 33% shooting to improved Wisconsin defense. For the most part, Wisconsin did a good job on the perimeter staying in front of penetration. McCamey was able to drive past Joe Krabbenhoft on a number of occasions, but the other Badgers picked up the slack to hold the Illinois sophomore to 12 points -- 13 fewer than he had in the previous meeting.

Wisconsin was impressive in the paint on both ends. With Keaton Nankivil sitting with a sore ankle, Jon Leuer got his first start. He and Marcus Landry combined to score 31 points and grab 12 rebounds. Jason Bohannon's hot start opened up the offense (funny how that works, huh?) so the post men could be aggressive going to the basket. This resulted in more free throw attempts for Wisconsin. More importantly, the Badgers made those bunnies that they worked so hard to get. Easy baskets and defense win games.

Though Wisconsin got pounded on the offensive boards, guys like Leuer, Landry, Krabby and Kevin Gullikson boxed out well so that those rebounds that Illinois did get were not automatically converted into gimmes around the rim.

If you compare the numbers from the Northwestern loss and this win, you realize that college basketball is just an odd thing. And it confirms that defense cannot really be measured, because Wisconsin did not all of sudden solve all of their defensive problems between these two games.




The Badgers shot better from the field and from the free throw line against the Wildcats than they did against the Illini. Wisconsin also outrebounded Northwestern, yet still lost. Really the only two areas where Wisconsin improved versus Illinois were turnovers and fouls.

The biggest bench contributions were Gullikson's post entries and Jordan Taylor's defense. Taylor also hit an important 3-pointer with about 12 minutes left to regain the momentum lost on J-Bo's missed dunk. If you count Tim Jarmusz, Bo Ryan went eight men deep. Rob Wilson saw three minutes and the team finally got to empty the bench again. A very good feeling ...

Big Ten Champs Grab A 3-Seed

Wisconsin will ride a 10-game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament as a 3-seed in the Midwest region. The Badgers will play Thursday versus Big West champion Cal-State Fullerton (24-8) in Omaha, NE.

I think the Badgers had a legitimate argument to be a #2 over either Duke or Texas based on performance in the last 10 games, but I'm not surprised that the Big Ten seedings were down in general. Wisconsin's thorough domination of Illinois to capture the Big Ten Tournament title did not come into play during the seeding process of course, thus Georgetown's loss to Pittsburgh and Texas' loss to Kansas could not drop them below the Badgers.

Still, UW fared better than other Big Ten teams. CBS' Seth Davis felt fifth-seeded Michigan State was a likely upset candidate, while Purdue fell to a 6-seed. The crumbling Indiana Hoosiers were given an 8-seed and Ohio State saw its bubble burst Sunday afternoon.

Looking ahead, I hope Michael Flowers has the chance to shut down freshman phenom O.J. Mayo. For the record, Wisconsin should advance to the Sweet 16 against either USC or Kansas State in my opinion, but first they will have to get past the 14th-seeded Titans, who have a shutdown defender of their own.

I'm still a little bummed about not getting third shot at Purdue this past weekend. As a consolation, UW has captured both conference championships in the same season for the first time ... hopefully the first of many conference trophy sweeps. More importantly, at 29-4, Wisconsin has every opportunity to win 30 games for the second year in a row and break the school record set last season.

The game also featured a couple of plays that are quickly becoming Wisconsin trademarks. Just as Jim Nance and Billy Packer were discussing the early days of NCAA basketball being financed by NCAA boxing income, Krabbenhoft laid out an Illinois guard with another vicious pick. It was the very same kind that knocked Eric Gordon down and temporarily made thousands of Illini supporters become Badger fans. Secondly, inbounding from under the opponent's basket against full-court pressure, Michael Flowers threw the ball off of the back of unsuspecting Calvin Brock to start an unlikely fast break.

The Badgers, Flowers in particular, routinely proved Packer clueless during the game by burying 3-pointers. Wisconsin hit 9-of-18 treys and only shot two free throws [box score]. Marcus Landry was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the all-tournament team by Flowers, who added three more steals against Illinois.

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Off-topic, today was my first exposure to the very sweet new Pontiac G8 GT commercial which recreates the old Spy Hunter video game. Two thumbs up!

Harley Is Back On The Mantle

When I was little, my grandparents always had a ceramic horse and buggy on their mantle above the fireplace. Over the years, the horse (named Harley), was knocked over enough times that he had a broken leg, a missing ear and busted pieces on his buggy.

Every once in a while, the pieces would get reattached with super glue so that Harley could maintain his rightful place atop of the mantle in all his majesty. But was the horse and buggy all that attractive or valuable? Not really. What was the purpose of keeping Harley on the mantle?

Wisconsin's game against Illinois last night was all about putting the ornament back on the mantle. Even though the Badgers have clearly taken the Fighting Illini's place in the upper echelon of league powers, the mantle had been missing something in Madison.

Here came Illinois, a mere 8-7 entering Thursday, carrying their own three-game home losing streak. Yet, the very same team was riding a two-game winning streak in Madison. In fact, Illinois is the only Big Ten school to beat Bo Ryan at the Kohl Center!

Some things never change in the Big Ten. Illinois (8-8, 0-3) still gave Wisconsin (13-2, 3-0) a run for its money. With 9:35 left to play, there were the Illini, down only three points. They severely out-rebounded the Badgers (33-24) and shot the lights out from 3-point land (60%). The result? Offensively-challenged Illinois put up 60 points on UW!

But all was not lost ... far from it in fact.

Trevon Hughes finally looked like his pre-injury self, slicing to finish strong at the hoop and being disruptive defensively on the perimeter. Despite the 60 points allowed, Wisconsin was a collective pest on the defensive end. Hughes snagged a career-high six steals out of UW's nine total thefts. Meanwhile, Marcus Landry contested every shot inside, getting credit for two of Wisconsin's five blocked shots. [box score]

Landry should have been credited for even more blocks as well. He had two gems versus Shaun Pruitt alone. On the first, Landry was reading Pruitt all the way as help defense and jumped on a Pruitt shot fake. But he put his fast-twitch muscle fiber to work to immediately stuff Pruitt on his second jump. Then you had the second-half block from behind where Landry's hand pinned the ball between the rim and backboard on Pruitt's dunk attempt.

At the same time, it was painfully evident that Landry is destined to be a post player for life. With just under ten minutes left in the first half, Illinois cranked up the man-to-man pressure two full notches. Give them credit. But the Illini were overplaying so aggressively that Landry's defender left the entire wing and baseline area open for a drive. But Landry just couldn't pull the trigger and the offense continued to stagnate. I hate that feeling, yelling at a player to do something through the television screen.

Luckily, UW now has a workhouse in Brian Butch to mop up rebounds and press the issue inside. He and Landry make a fine duo in the paint. The slimmer Polar Bear is doing everything a fifth-year senior should be doing. And if Hughes continues to play under control, even I might get optimistic for this team. That is saying something.

The team made the necessary adjustments in the turnover department, with only two in the first half and nine in all. And thus, things are now right with Illinois at the Kohl Center. That particular ornament is back in one piece above the fireplace.

After both my grandparents had passed, my dad took the ceramic horse and buggy back to our house, to put on our mantle. That's the funny thing about Harley: even though he's not so pretty, it feels good to see him up on the mantle.

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-Wow. And you thought Bennett-ball was bad.
-Could Kenny George [pic] have tipped in a few of those misses? Watching him play is both painful and amazing, at the same time, as Chris West points out.

Happy Holidays!

Enjoy a Merry Christmas tomorrow and do not dwell about the stink bomb Wisconsin threw out against Valparaiso on Saturday night, which included the following lumps of coal:

-a season-high 20 turnovers
-shooting 17-of-36 from the FT line, including 7-of-19 from UW's starting guards
-a puzzling over the back call on a monster Butch put-back slam

In light of those blemishes, pulling out a win could be viewed as a gift from God. In reality, lock down second-half D provided the Badgers with the backdrop for a few minor Christmas miracles:

-an ill-advised Trevon Hughes 3-point attempt from 23 feet that hit nothing but net to give the team its final lead
-Kevin Gullickson's surprisingly swift running bank shot in which he was temporarily afforded gazelle-like speed
-the interception/prayer/and-1 shot by Michael Flowers to ice the game

And with Michigan State's victory over undefeated Texas this past weekend, there is hope for a great Badger contest next Saturday afternoon in Austin.

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Congratulations are also in order for Illinois. The Illini escaped with a one-point win on rival Missouri's home floor and got word that former Michigan commit and now ex-Kentucky guard Alex Legion will transfer to Illinois. Legion will have two and a half years of eligibility remaining after sitting out the next two semesters. Bruce Weber has a stockade of good clay to mold in his backcourt over the next few years.

Scratch That: Another Chicken Stays in the Coop

Word came out yesterday that Sterling, Ill. junior Joseph Bertrand has verbally committed to Illinois, swiping one of Wisconsin's prime '09 recruiting targets right off the table. Bertrand is capable of playing either guard spot and will probably wind up playing point guard for the Illini even though he's said to be still growing.

The commitment completes a very nice recruiting class for Bruce Weber, one he sorely needed if you ask those who live and bleed orange. All three players are well-regarded backcourt talents, which could lead to a hellish flashback for opponents in a few years. You cannot blame Weber for trying to recreate the Dee Brown/Deron Williams/Luther Head magic. Combine his 2009 class with a top-notch freshman guard (Demetri McCamey, from Isaiah Thomas' alma mater) and an early commitment from 5-star stud Jereme Richmond for 2010 and you just wonder why it took so long.

While it is sad to remove an excellent player's name from UW's list of potential signees, the completion of Illinois' class means that the Badgers have playing time and open arms to offer Bertrand's capable AAU teammate Diamond Taylor.