Things That Go Clang In The Night

The Night of the Grateful Red returned for its second incarnation last night at the Kohl Center. From missed layups and dunks in the first warm-up drill to a painfully developing slam dunk contest, the session looked every bit like the "first practice of the year" that it is.

Every year, I know this going in. Yet I still get that occasional twinge in my stomach, thinking "shouldn't these guys be better at this?" That is, until I get home and see similar contests across the league via the Big Ten Network's Midnight Madness special [highlights]. The fact is that all of these dunk contests are hard to watch.

This year's event did not include a scrimmage, so I was disappointed that we did not get to see any of the new players in action for the first time.

So on to the recap ...

This year's dunk contest field grew to five participants, including newcomers Ryan Evans and Rob Wilson. Keaton Nankivil got a nice dunk in after a try or two, but it was Morris Cain leading the way in round one. Rumors persisted that Evans was freaky athletic and that proved true as he topped Cain in the finals and capped the night off with an East Bay Funk-style dunk between the legs (after three or four tries, admittedly).

Prior to that, the seven contestants in the 3-point shooting contest displayed their skills behind the new white 20'9" arc. Jon Leuer struggled and his form still looks incredibly goofy. Frosh point guard Jordan Taylor handled himself well in his first performance on the new floor of the "Herb Garden." It was a great move to put Joe Krabbenhoft in this contest and believe it or not, he won it! We can only hope that is a sign of things to come. Maybe that has been the problem all these years -- Krabby is just too strong for the shorter 3-point line. Yeah, that's it ... too strong.

There was no way for Bo Ryan to top last year's dance video and I think they knew that. They tried to spice it up this time with an old school vs. new school dance-off between Bo and Marcus Landry that fell flat.

Despite adding cheerleaders, the whole dance concept is a little tired. However, it does give some individual flavor to each player as they are introduced. For example, Wquinton Smith is by far the best dance man on the squad. He could do Dancing With The Stars easily. I thought Jared Berggren, Tim Jarmusz and Brett Valentyn were awful. But then I saw J-Bo attempt to dance. Not pretty. Too timid. He is going to get grief from Bo all year long for that.

Final thoughts: Nankivil still looks like he should be able to pack more muscle onto that big frame of his. But after two seasons of waiting, maybe it's not going to happen ... While Wquinton was the same height as his dance team partner, Ian Markolf showed he was a legit 7-footer by kneeling next to his cheerleader and still edging her height-wise ... The cowboy hat during player intros might become an annual tradition. Last year it was Trevon Hughes, this time it was Krabby.

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Links:
- This running the hill business has taken on a life of its own. At any rate, I look forward to seeing the Bo Ryan's best-conditioned team yet.
- Mike Wilkinson is out of action due to a knee injury, so back in town for the Penn State game, he explained how fanatic Greek basketball fans are compared to Wisconsin football fans. The craziest part of the article is wife Alexis telling how she used to get death threats from Michigan fans. Ah Wolverines ... stick to football.
- One of my favorite new blogs is Jerry Tarkanian's Shark Bytes for the Las Vegas Sun. If you followed college hoops in the late '80s or early '90s, this will be a hilarious retreat.

Chopping Up Green Bay

On a snowy Saturday, I made my way to the Kohl Center to cheer on the Badgers from the student section for the first time as an alum. In front of a mainly subdued home crowd, Wisconsin started a 17-0 run with 13 minutes left in the first half to erase a 15-7 deficit and bury UW-Green Bay, 70-52.

The biggest ovation of the evening wasn't for the team, but for Scott Van Pelt, who was spotted in the crowd with Andy North. He was gracious and bowed to the students, who returned the gesture. Beyond that, only a selection of the sparsely-populated student end of the arena got riled up for much of anything on Saturday. Unless you count the halftime performance by the Bucket Boys -- right up there with the gymnastics routine in my book!

As for the game, I was happy to see Marcus Landry dominate the first half by posting up, but disappointed that he was not utilized in the second half. Trevon Hughes was invisible. Jason Bohannon got plenty of open looks and struggled from 3-point land, as did his teammates. [box score]

Count me officially frightened by Hughes' poor free throw shooting. He plays more minutes than anyone on the team and handles the ball twice as much as the next guy. Shooting 5-of-12 on freebies just doesn't cut it. It got to the point where sinking both attempts was a genuine surprise. His misses are not "near misses."

So where did the victory come from? With the exception of Butch and Krabbenhoft, the Wisconsin bigs shot incredibly well. Krabby did make his mark on the offensive glass, with several one-handed rebound and put backs clustered together in the second half. He finished with six offensive rebounds and led a balanced scoring attack with 12 points.

The story, though, was Kevin Gullickson. He played a season-high 20 minutes against the Phoenix in light of Jon Leuer sitting out the game with an ankle injury. The former walk-on from Stillwater, Minnesota did not miss a single shot all night (4-4 FGs, 1-1 FTs). While Gullickson has had his ups and downs as well as plenty of fan criticism, what I love about him is that he wants to score. When he has an opportunity to take a shot, he gets himself into position and makes it happen. If the rest of the team shared Gullickson's approach, UW would be much better. I see too much passive play from Badgers not named Hughes or Butch.

In a related note, the most irritating storyline of the season continues: Tanner Bronson running out the clock at the end of the game. It is bad enough that he is the first scrub into the game at garbage time and that these players never get any burn. But what is so annoying is that he acts like he is the "good sportsmanship steward" who maintains order by not passing the ball to anyone else in the last 30 seconds, lest they -- gasp! -- find an open shot to take. All I ask Tanner is that you remember back a few years when you were the little fan favorite who everybody went wild for when you got to take a shot. That's all we want in the closing seconds, for someone else to get a chance.

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In other Big Ten news:
-Michigan's basketball program is in disarray. Michigan (4-7) lost to Central Michigan (4-5) at home and you cannot even find a story about the fiasco on the Detroit Free Press website.
-Young Purdue stops slumping Louisville.