Leuer's Surgery Set For Tuesday

Right or wrong, one of Wisconsin's biggest victories of the year suddenly seems like a consolation prize.

Even though Jon Leuer played 38 minutes in #17 Wisconsin's huge win over #4 Purdue [box score] that put the Badgers firmly in the Big Ten championship hunt, the university confirmed today that the junior forward will be out of action indefinitely with a fracture in his non-shooting (left) hand. Leuer is scheduled to have surgery to repair the bone on Tuesday.

Leuer has developed into one of the toughest matchups in the conference and is arguably Wisconsin's best scorer. Watching Leuer grow into his role as a go-to player on this team have been one of the most enjoyable facets of the season thus far. Unfortunately, he now joins a list of marquee names from Big Ten teams to be sidelined for a significant time this season. I suppose one reason for optimism is that if one of your best players is going to suffer a major injury, it might as well be in the same year as Kevin Coble, Evan Turner, Lewis Jackson and Maurice Creek.

Another silver lining is that if Wisconsin maintains its composure and makes the NCAA tournament as we all expect, the team could getting one of the biggest pre-tournament boosts of any team in the country just in time for a deep run. Giving the wrist a fair 8-week timetable to heal, a 100% healthy Leuer could potentially return right around Big Ten tournament time to a UW team that may be flying under the radar. I'm sure the team would welcome the new challenge of reintegrating Leuer into the rotation.

However, if Leuer's progress is slow, this could end up being the most significant injury for the program since Alando Tucker missed nearly the entire 2003-04 season with a foot injury. Since Leuer is not eligible for the medical redshirt that Tucker took, we will all be keeping our fingers crossed that Leuer can make an impact on the court year again this season.

No one can replicate Leuer's experience or his exact value to Wisconsin, but a group of guys is certainly going to have to try to replace his production. I cannot imagine Jared Berggren would go from not playing straight to Bo Ryan's starting five, but that's a somewhat arbitrary distinction anyway. It seems like Ryan Evans or Jordan Taylor, fresh off his career-high 23-point showing, would be the best bets to step into the lineup.

Michigan State Outslugs Wisconsin

The game was pretty easy to figure out: the home team won. Or to put it slightly less vaguely: two teams played good defense and shot poorly. The more aggressive team emerged victorious.

Michigan State is most comfortable in the aggressor's role and Wisconsin never forced the Spartans out of that position. Two obvious examples are rebounding and free throw shooting.

For starters, the Spartans were allowed to crash the boards unhindered in most cases, out rebounding the Badgers 28-23 overall. It was frustrating to see MSU get second chances all the time (10 offensive rebs), just by being hungrier for the ball and having the skill to acquire it. Wisconsin's big men have a ways to go collectively. Secondly, while both teams shot the same percentage on freebies, MSU outscored UW by 12 points by stepping to the free throw line 30 times. [box score]

It was a tough, hard-fought battle between the Badgers and Spartans. Both teams were held far below their average efficiency numbers on offensive. For this I applaud the defense on each side more than I care to insult the shooters.

Though Michigan State managed to still be more efficient than the average Badger opponent, Wisconsin was less efficient that the average Spartan opponent so far this year. It was easily the least efficient offensive performance of the year for UW, surpassed by only the Xavier and Duke losses in the previous two seasons. To compound matters, the Wisconsin's shot selection (21.7% on 23 3-pointers) played right into Michigan State's hands. So it seems Bucky brought out the best in Michigan State defensively.

I was impressed by Michigan State's big sophomore Draymond Green, and also junior Chris Allen, who had a rock solid game for Tom Izzo. On Wisconsin's side, Jon Leuer proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is for real with those 18 second-half points. Also, based on the replays I feel like Trevon Hughes' ankle should be good to go next game. I don't think the ankle injury had a whole lot to do with this particular loss.

Badgers, Spartans Jockey For Early Position

With Minnesota's loss to Purdue, Wisconsin's next two games will go a long way to shaping the early conference pecking order. Before the Badgers (12-2) get a shot at Purdue, they face off against arch-nemesis Michigan State (11-3). Wisconsin has lost four in a row in East Lansing, dating back to Bo Ryan's first loss to Tom Izzo in 2005.

This seems like two evenly matched teams, though Vegas has installed Sparty as the clear favorite. As the guys from MSU blog The Only Colors point out, both of these teams are doing what they do best. Namely, the Badgers are taking care of the basketball and the Spartans are hoarding their own missed shots. But no team in the nation limits opponent's second chances like Wisconsin.

The 17th-ranked Badgers enter the game scoring about 72 ppg, 10 fewer than the 10th-ranked Spartans. But MSU also gives up approximately 10 more ppg than UW does. See that evenly-matched theme again? As usual, it will come down to execution.

Trevon Hughes has led UW in scoring the past two games to snap out of the sleepwalk he was in prior to facing Ohio State. But the trepidation for Badger fans stems from Jon Leuer's inability to stay out of foul trouble at all in the team's first two Big Ten games (the same Leuer, btw, that The Only Colors mentioned as a possible Big Ten POY). Guys like budding rebound machine Draymond Green could make life difficult again for Leuer when coupled with MSU's ability to drive past the Badgers' perimeter defense to the cup.

Both teams have some depth, with a rotation of seven players and the ability to go 10 (UW) or 11 (MSU) deep if they have to. After seeing Ryan Evans perform against Duke earlier this year, I feel pretty comfortable with Bo's rotation staying composed in a big game. Can he duplicate this poise on the road?

With all the recent history between the two teams, it was not surprising to hear reports that Kalin Lucas allegedly toed the MSU company line with some comments in a recent interview, much like Goran Suton last season. But why would Lucas need to artificially inflate this game by ignorantly calling Wisconsin dirty? Are these guys being brainwashed by the head coach? There is not a single dirty player on this Wisconsin roster; in fact, if anything, many of the current Badgers are still learning to be less passive. Greg Stiemsma ain't walking through that door, Kalin.

Could it be that the Spartans need to pump themselves up to get that marquee win that has eluded them since beating Gonzaga? Since starting 4-0, Izzo's bunch has dropped every game against quality competition -- on a neutral site versus Florida, at North Carolina and at Texas. Incredibly tough slate, no doubt, but you can see why Michigan State might be searching for a balm of sorts. Right now the conference buzz is about Purdue, but a win over this year's new media darlings from Madison would put the Spartans right back at the forefront of the title chase. I, for one, have not forgotten that talent-wise Michigan State is just as stacked as it was to begin the year.

Links:
- Hughes was named one of 20 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award yesterday. I'd handicap this year's award for best point-guard as a two-horse race between Duke's Jon Scheyer and Kentucky's John Wall, with Sherron Collins at Kansas an outside consideration. Hughes is among the second-tier group after those three, but we shall see ...
- Sounds like Milwaukee native Calvin Godfrey is pretty comfortable with his new high school team up in Minnesota. The former Milwaukee Custer forward lit up Jordan Taylor's old crew, Benilde-St. Margaret's, on Tuesday night as the Twin Cities Hoops Czar chronicled.

Big Ten Opener: Ohio State @ Wisconsin LIVE

Pre-Game Thoughts
The last day of the decade brings a brand new season of Big Ten basketball to Wisconsin, as the Badgers welcome the Ohio State Buckeyes to town. Join us for the live blogging event that will begin about 15 minutes before the 1 p.m. CST tip time.

Since Evan Turner's injury, OSU junior David Lighty has been needed to pick up the slack offensively. As the team's best defender, it will be interesting to see how that affects the other half of his game. I assume Lighty would be charged with checking Hughes or Bohannon, since "locking up" Tim Jarmusz would kind of waste his skills.

Thad Matta has kept his rotation very shallow even after losing Turner. He only seems to be playing six guys regularly in the last four games. Jon Diebler has missed Turner the most, since he is primarily a spot-up shooter that benefits from someone like Turner breaking down an opponent's defense. Conversely,sophomore William Buford has picked up the slack in many areas. Either way, Matta's key players are playing a ton of minutes.

Jon Leuer will face an imposing interior defender in Dallas Lauderdale. But I am already having visions of Leuer dumping the ball off to a lurking Keaton Nankivil for a dunk. At the very least, one of the two Badger big men should be able to corral a few second-chance opportunities in this contest.

While Leuer and Jordan Taylor continued to excel in the final tune-ups against Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Illinois-Chicago, Trevon Hughes faded to the background somewhat. Against the Buckeyes, Hughes will need to turn the switch back on. As I mentioned earlier, Lighty is a plus defender, but I'm not sure P.J. Hill and Jeremie Simmons are going to stop a locked-in Hughes.

Who Is the New Badger Villain?

While completing my holiday hibernation, I agreed to answer a few questions for the Wisconsin preview that is up now at From The Barn. The impressive Minnesota basketball blog is compiling thoughts from around the league as we prepare for the conference season.

The toughest question for me to answer was an unexpected one about which Badger is most likely to rub Gopher fans the wrong way. It's no secret that guys like Brian Butch, Greg Stiemsma and especially Joe Krabbenhoft have been disliked by rival fanbases over the years. The feelings usually stem from the way the players look and alleged dirty plays to the fact that the guys are successful players who simply seem like they've been on the team forever. Most Big Ten fans would call this the Jess Settles Theory.

A few names are already popping into your mind right now, but you will have to read the preview to find out who I selected. After you do that, send me some feedback on these two questions:

1. Who is your most despised "villain" on any Big Ten opponent's current roster and why?




2. Which current Badger player do you see playing the role of villain in other fans' minds?

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As far as the Badgers recent performances are concerned, it was nice to see Jason Bohannon break free a bit against Illinois-Chicago, hitting 5-of-6 from deep en route to 15 points in 31 minutes. I hesitate to say it was his best game of the year because he did more damage against Maryland, plus he was one of several Badger guards who coughed up a possession in uncharacteristic fashion against the Flames on Sunday. Jordan Taylor had one such mental error (a bad pass) that still has me scratching my head. The Badgers need to get serious in a hurry after feasting on a couple of non-conference appetizers because hosting Ohio State on New Year's Eve is an important task.