Hoops Marinara on Twitter

It's official. I broke down and joined the Twitter madness.

As much as I wanted to stay away from tweeting personally, there is no doubt that it is a great way to gather and disseminate information, which is what this blogging thing is all about. A Twitter presence will only make Hoops Marinara better (this blog just went third-person on ya, believe it).

So visit here and start following!

A Big Step Backwards For Two Freshmen

The basketball season doesn't start for another two months, but the Badgers are already playing from behind.

The basketball careers of Wisconsin freshmen Diamond Taylor and Jeremy Glover are in serious jeopardy after being arrested on burglary charges early Sunday morning. The news has shocked the players' parents, the UW coaching staff and fans alike. From all accounts, both players come from solid family backgrounds. What a holiday weekend ...

It sounds like two young kids got drunk and made a couple of extremely poor decisions together, but the motive is still fuzzy at this time. The duo admitted to entering the Sellery Hall dorm rooms uninvited and taking several items. Madison's WKOW originally reported that the two were also suspected in a few burglaries on Langdon St.

Taylor and Glover have been suspended from practicing with the team until further notice. The students were believed to still be in Dane County Jail as of Monday night. Both have been cooperative.

Previous Bo Ryan players who have run afoul of the law have been on opposite ends of the spectrum and played out much different from each other: Kevin Gullikson's drinking issues in recent years were largely dealt with in-house while Marcettus McGee's 2002 sexual assault case led to the freshman immediately withdrawing from school. This weekend's burglaries fall somewhere in between those scandals, so it will be interesting to see how swiftly and harshly they are judged.

I am wishing both Taylor and Glover the best in learning from this situation and straightening up, but it doesn't look good for them right now. Looking forward to the very near future, Wisconsin may be under the gun to replenish its depth at guard earlier than expected, which could make next year's freshman class even more important than it was before.

Rivals150 Revisited: 2009 Edition

In a somewhat annual event, I took a closer look at the final Rivals150 rankings for this fall's incoming freshman to see how the Big Ten recruiting fared in the nation's eyes.

"A bit better" was the answer, perhaps in part due to last season's league-wide improvement. Again the Big Ten ranked fifth among all conferences. But the 19 signees were up slightly from a year ago despite a drop in the total number of Top 150 recruits Big Ten states produced ... all without Ohio State signing a single player for 2009.

As you can see below, it was a down year among Ohio preps. Conversely, Minnesota churned out a bumper crop. And as we know, the Illini are back on their horses when it comes to recruiting and Bruce Weber got a good chunk of his in-state talent to stick around. So did Thad Matta just luck out that he didn't need any players this year or was this a part of his master plan?

Here's where coaching comes into play when looking at these lists. The SEC (17) ranked just behind the Big Ten in total Top 150 signees, but landed eight of the top 30 recruits -- seven of them five-star recruits. The Big Ten only had one five-star recruit (Royce White) in the top 30. Even when you factor in the Calipari effect at Kentucky, this is a big disparity. However, last year's performances back up the notion that the Big Ten is set up very well to take advantage of the talent it does get. We'll see if that continues this season.

2009 Rivals150 recruits: 19
Indiana: 5
Illinois: 4
Michigan: 2
Michigan State: 2
Minnesota: 2
Wisconsin: 2
Penn State: 1
Purdue: 1

Players-by-State in 2009 Rivals150: 27 (2008: 30)
Illinois: 7 (7)
Minnesota: 5 (2)
Indiana: 4 (4)
Pennsylvania: 4 (3)
Michigan: 3 (2)
Wisconsin: 3 (1)
Ohio: 1 (9)
Iowa: 0 (2)

Same rules as last year apply for why I pulled this particular data, though I should note one thing. I counted D.J. Richardson as an Illinois product and Johnnie Lacy as a Wisconsin product since these players went the prep school route for their final year only. If you look strictly at the "hometowns" that Rivals provides, you get a skewed picture of which states produce the most talent each year based on the prep school powerhouses that are based in states like New Hampshire (Brewster Academy, Tilton School), Nevada (Findlay Prep), Virginia (Oak Hill Academy, Hargrave Military) and Massachusetts (Notre Dame Prep).

Statsheet.com uses the RSCI rankings to provide a plethora of info, charts and graphs on this same subject. Over the last five years, consensus Top 100 centers and point guards have been the toughest players to find. Only Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan State pulled at least one player from the RSCI Top 100 into the conference this fall.

Slight Redesign

I made some tweaks to the site this weekend, mostly notable adding the left-hand column. That enabled me to add the tag cloud that I never got around to adding before.

All the sidebar content should be easier to see and get to now. Yes, there are a couple of ads, but also a better site search tool and more fluid ways to share content via ShareThis. Next task would be a new header banner, but no promises. Any feedback is welcome!

Big Ten Schedule Officially Released

The 2009-10 Big Ten schedule was released today. With Wisconsin's full schedule now available, having only one true non-conference away game doesn't look so laughable since the Badgers will be on the road for four of the first six conference tilts. At first glance, Wisconsin looks like an 11-7 Big Ten team to me.

Under the new ticket plan, half-season student ticket holders will split up a nice slate of home contests with Duke, Marquette, Purdue, Michigan State and Illinois coming to the Herb Garden ... not to mention Ohio State and Michigan. As you probably know, Wisconsin plays Minnesota and Iowa once a piece this season. It would be nice to flip those venues (travel to Iowa City, stay at home for the Goofs), but oh well.

: : :

In yet another reminder of the fluid nature of recruiting analysis, try to find Evan Anderson in the updated Rivals150 for the Class of 2010.

Ha! You won't find him. Back in December, Wisconsin was lauded as having a top 10 recruiting class with both Anderson and Blue regarded as Top 40 prospects. As Anderson drifted off the list, Blue decommitted and other schools signed their own studs, the Badgers slipped off the national radar, joining Mike Tyson in Bolivion ...

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Removed the following prospects from the recruiting sidebar:
: : : Class of 2010
SG Cameron Wright, Cleveland {Pittsburgh}
SG Jacob Thomas, Minneapolis