Back in Madison

Yeah, so I went to the Wisconsin-Michigan basketball game yesterday with a good friend who's a Michigan alum. (He was not the dick Michigan fan shouting "Miss it!" in an otherwise deathly quiet Kohl Center when the Badgers were shooting free throws.) As many folks are saying, this is a win that puts the Badgers in reach of the tournament. A win at Minnie this week (followed up by a home win over Indiana) would seal it I think. With a loss at Minnie, and a win over IU, I think I'd want a first round win in the Big Ten tournament before I'd be relatively comfortable with their chances. Yeah, I know their RPI is good, and their strength of schedule is excellent, but still. I'd like them to be safe. Anyhow, various observations:

- UW and Michigan are sort of like polar opposites. Michigan starts a guy who was a walk-on. Pretty much all of their seniors are former walk-ons, and most of them (like Lee and Merritt) play a fair amount. The point is, they have little depth. DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris are burgeoning stars-- true sophmores with legitimate All-conference ability. Zach Novak, their pure shooter 2-guard is a true frosh. Everyone else on that team is pretty fungible. They lack solid role players. UW, by contrast, seems to have a team full of solid role players-- Bohannon is an excellent spot shooter, Krabby is a fine defender and excellent rebounder, etc. But I don't know if UW has a guy with the ceiling that Sims and Harris have. Maybe Leuer. Sometimes Pop, I guess, but he only has one season left. Anyhow, it made for a funny contrast.

- So the Pops' seats are at the baseline, about ten rows up behind the visiting bench. They're good seats, and thus we're surrounded by the Madison bourgeoise-- a class that seems to be rapidly aging, and growing increasingly persnickety. That is, clapping or shouting during Michigan's offensive possessions (along with the student section) earned me a bevy of stinkeyes from the folks in the rows in front of me. Particularly from this pallid high schooler who was a ringer for the bizarre arty son in Wedding Crashers, and a red-sweatered sextegenarian working a salt-and-pepper afro. Sorry, folks, I like to cheer, and I think making things loud for the opposing team helps UW's cause. We also got some hilarious chatter from the retirees behind us about the referreeing. Apparently every time Marcus Landry touched the ball he got fouled. Who knew? (I tried to get my UM fan to appreciate the comedic value of their complaining. Like the time they started complaining about Michigan goaltending on a rebound on the far baseline--those seats have the worst angle in the stadium for making that call.)

- Whenever the typical Jarmusz-for-Krabby substitution occurred, I experienced a feeling of dread. Don't know why, and I'm not sure if the Badgers' performance merited that feeling. As much as I'd like Timmy to be the new Krabby, I'm just not seeing it-- maybe the new Clayton Hanson, if Hanson was taller and somewhat afraid to shoot...

- I don't know if Michigan will make the tourney or not. I think they have one more conference game. If they win that, and win their first rounder in the Big Ten tournament, then maybe? My buddy kept ranting about how they were the worst road team in the conference-- even when I pointed out that Iowa and Indiana are clearly worse. Anyhow, their best players (Sims and Harris) are both sophs. Novak is a frosh. Transfer Lucas-Perry (who has fallen out of favor, but is still pretty talented) is a soph. They have four decent looking prospects coming in next year, including the 14th rated point guard in the country. Their zone defense in the last 8 minutes of the first half was excellent. I look for them to get better and better in the next few years, although I wouldn't be surprised to see Sims leave early.

- Anyhow, this was a bit of an ugly game. UW was dominant in the first ten minutes, with Michigan coming out man-to-man, and getting owned. Then Wolvie switched to zone and (after a few mintues) really established themselves, and UW did their uber-frustrating "pass the ball around the perimeter until the shot clock is almost up" thing, or turned the ball over. At the other end, UM drained a bunch of threes. During that strech, UW scored once in 8 minutes. Ugh. Thankfully, Hughes and Boyanyon each nailed a three to make the halftime score respectable. Then, to start the second half, UW either put the clamps down defensively, or Michigan went into the dumper. Either way, again, Michigan scored one basket in the first ten minutes of the second half. But the pace was so slow, or UW wasn't hitting enough shots, so they only built up a nine-point lead. Yeesh. It was ugly and semi-tightly contested from then on, especially, as a UW fan, all the missed free throws down the stretch. Not a pretty game. Good thing it was on the Big Ten Network.

- Speaking of free throws, the students need to start doing something when the Badgers are shooting charities. It's too quiet, enabling spoiler visiting fans to be heard. Unfortunatley, given the administration's successful effort to muzzle the student section, I doubt anyone will come up with anything. Speaking of that, there were a lot of empty seats in the lower bowl of the student section. A lot of kids standing around, a fair number sitting, many not really into the game, not dancing with the band. Again, the university needs to change the way they allocate tickets so that passionate student fans get the prime seats down low. The student section was helpfully loud at times, but compared to years' past, it was lame. Come on, Biddy! UW's lost more home games since the student ticket policy was changed than the previous four seasons combined. Time to try something new.

- Final note--for post-game munchies, I can highly recommend the chorizo-egg torta at this establishment, very conveniently located for those heading out of town to the East (just between East Wash and Willie Street).

Awesome

Jeff Potrykus is the Wisconsin football beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. I think he does a fine job covering the team, though he can be a bit crusty, an attribute that especially comes out when hosting online chats during the season. Today, he turned his disdain on full bore for Michigan Coach Rich Rodriguez. I don't know how you feel about Michigan football this season (since I'm friends with some Michigan alums I kind of feel bad, though I really wish UW had beat them), but Rodriguez just seems to be a hard guy to like, significantly more of a huckster than your typical Division I coach. Anyhow, since the worst season in decades for the Wolverines is almost over and Michigan knew it was going to get thumped by Ohio State today, Rich Rod opted to preemptively defend himself. Potrykus is having none of it. Funny stuff.

p.s. Also, UW will be especially thin in the defensive backfield this afternoon-- both Jay Valai and Mario Goins are out. That's unfortunate, as Cal Poly runs a ton, and both guys are good, solid tacklers.

It's Michigan Tomorrow

Michigan is the process of wrapping up a first round victory over Iowa in a battle of the-struggling-and-new-but-highly-experienced-coaches. This makes me a bit nervous, given how closely Michigan played UW in Madison about seven weeks ago. I thought that game might be a turning point for them and they'd finally put it together, but they've continued to be up (beating OSU) and down (losing at home to Northwestern) since. Any predictions?

Don't Get Cocky

That was the lesson of last night's frighteningly close game against the University of Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team. Les Badgers had leads of eight and ten, and let the skunk-bears (which is essentially what a wolverine is) claw their way back into the game, slicing the lead down to three, then one, and then tying the game. Unfortunately, the tie came with less than four minutes left. And this is a Michigan team that is currently 10th in the Big Ten and has a losing non-conference record. Uh oh. Thankfully, Bucky made some clutch plays to pull out a win-- Flowers' jarring a loose ball, the Hoft grabbing said loose ball and calling a TO, Hughes making a nice pass to Landry for a three with 30 or so seconds left. The four-point lead that shot created pretty much sealed it up, though Michigan missing a three on their next possession and Sconnie getting the rebound and getting fouled certainly helped matters. So, phew, a nervously close win over an apparently overmatched but tenacious foe. Still, there are more takeaways from this game than just that.

- First, Michigan is an improving team. That have some solid talent (Manny Harris was Michigan's Mr. Basketball last year and turned down a schollie from UW), and probably have more athletic size (Udoh) than Wisconsin does. They seem to be picking up the 1-3-1 defense decently. And Tommy Amaker is no longer in Ann Arbor. John Beilein is a proven coach, successful at every college stop he's made. Michigan's going to be pretty good next year and could be pretty good toward the end of this season. I'm glad UW played them twice early in the year, and I hope they avoid them in the Big Ten tournament.

- Second, if Wisconsin wants to win, it has got to rebound better. Wisco gave up twenty (20!) offensive rebounds last night. Wisco's entire defensive philosophy is based on not fouling, forcing tough shots, and then getting the rebound. If you don't get the rebound, the whole chain breaks down-- team's get an additional possession, or are often in great position to get an easy shot and draw a foul. That happened a lot last night, to the tune of Michigan scoring 22 second chance points. And watching the game, it wasn't just luck (like long rebounds) or getting out jumped by more athletic Michigan players, it was positioning. Guys just weren't getting positioning like they normally do. It was bizarre and disturbing. As Landry said, it was "ridiculous on our part. As a team we know we're better than that. We just can't let that happen again." That is correct, big guy. Thankfully, identifying the problem is usually a big part of solving the problem.

- Third, the 1-3-1 zone defense is annoying. Michigan ran it last night. Northwestern ran an even more annoying version of it on Saturday. That defense makes Wisconsin look ugly. It forces a lot of dithering in the back court as the guards try to get through traps, which I guess is the point, because that gives your team less time to get the ball into the post. I think this D was part of the reason both the Northwestern and Michigan games were too close for comfort. It's not a common style of D, and it's frustrating. Wisconsin definitely handled it better against Michigan (only 11 turnovers and over 50% shooting) than against Northwestern, but still, it takes a lot of effort to get through, and makes the game ugly.

- Fourth, I caution UW fans not to look at the teams gaudy record (16-2) and rankings (11th in both polls) and get overexcited. The team has generally beaten who it was supposed to beat, and, with the exception of Texas, lost to teams it was supposed to lose to. The Badgers are currently 6-0 in conference, but that's only a third of the conference season and all of the games have come against squads in the bottom half of the league's standings. Things get a lot harder directly, going to Purdon't on Saturday, and then hosting Indiana next Wednesday. Then a game at much improved Minnesota. I'd be delighted and surprised if UW wins all three of those games. Personally, I think UW is overrated right now. I'd say they should be ranked around 20th or so, and should be a four or a five seed in the tournament. They're balanced, pretty disciplined, play great team defense, and have some good talent. But I do not think they're the 11th best college basketball team in the country. At least, not yet.

Morgantown to Ann Arbor is like . . .

Seriously, I've been to both towns, and I think there's a reason successful West Virginia coaches are happy to eat million dollar out-clauses in order to skip town for the school of another economically washed-out state, that is, Michigan. Specifically, Morgantown makes Ann Arbor look like Shangri La. Like Bali Ha'i (the island full of hot Polynesian women in "South Pacific"). Like Paradise City. And I'm not saying Ann Arbor is all that great. To be plain, Morgantown is not a nice place. It's ugly and charmless. It's populated by crazy hillbillies/rednecks. The WVU stadium looks like a Travelodge. The town's redeeming features are a monorail that mostly serves as a monument to Federal pork barrel spending (Yea, Robert Byrd!), its proximity to Pittsburgh, and a Chic-Fil-A that's in a foodcourt at a crappy mall.

Now, I'm sure Michigan and Rodriguez will probably be a fine match. He has a solid record and runs an interesting offense and defense, which'll be a change for Michigan. But like Beilein, he's won at relatively unconventional places through unconventional tactics-- the question will be, will his tactics work at a very, very conventional place where he can get highly touted conventional kids? Or will he just change tactics and become more conventional? Anyhow, I'm not too worried about a guy who's built up his fame by winning the crappiest and smallest BCS conference. Also, I have got to pass along his myspace page. The comments (and the unintentional comedy) from jilted WVU fans are priceless.

Also, relating back to Wisconsin football, the Tennessee offensive coordinator, David Cutcliffe, has just accepted the head coaching position at Duke. While I certainly can't condone anyone accepting such a god-awful job, I do hope that this proves to be something of a distraction for Tennessee in their preparation for the bowl game. In fact, Cutcliffe had a press conference announcing himself as the new Dukie head coach last Saturday. At the same time, Doeren, Hankwitz and Chyrst will probably be busy game-planning. And there's talk that Cutcliffe is going to steal several Tennessee assistants, and a report that Tennessee's wide receivers coach has been offered a coordinator position at Baylor. Looks like distraction central over in Knoxville. Given the Badgers' injury problems going into the game (maybe no Hill, no Henry, no Chapman, no Swan, no Langford), they can use all they help they can get.