Corey Williams Reaction

I know this is hopelessly outdated, but hey, I was on vacation when it happened. Anyhow, I don't think this is a bad deal. Although the Packers, especially now that Favre's retired, certainly could have afforded to have paid Williams his franchise salary, a second-round pick is pretty fair value for the guy. Williams was a solid-starter. A passable run defender, and a good pass rusher at the DT position. Not a star, not a pro-bowl guy. His success depended on the people around him being pretty good. He didn't create mismatches by himself. Rather, he was able to take advantage of favorable match-ups that other players created. That became very clear when Ryan Pickett missed a couple of games late this past season. In that stretch, with Pickett no longer drawing double-teams, Williams disappeared. When Pickett returned, and Williams started getting more favorable match-ups again, you started hearing Corey's name far more often. I think that's proof that Williams wasn't worth paying like a franchise guy season-in and season-out. He's just not a top-of-the-line defender-- just a good, solid player. The kind of guy that beats iffy opponents one on one, plays solid opponents to a draw, and gives ground to really good opponents. He may look like a star for a year or two in Cleveland playing next to Shaun Rodgers (that was a huge pick-up for the Browns), but really he's just a solid starter, not an all-pro. Better than most guys in the league, but not the cream of the crop. So it's a loss, but not one to be too sad about.

And a second round pick is pretty good value for a solid starter, especially given Thompson's positive draft record, though I would have liked the pick to be higher. (It's the 25th pick of the second round, the 56th pick overall.)

As I mentioned before, you have to wonder a little why the Packers didn't just pay Williams the franchise money this season, then franchise him again next season and trade him then. They have a lot of money lying around, and don't look like they're doing much in free agency this season. But it sounds like Corey became significantly "disgruntled" after the Packers tagged him. He always had nice things to say about the franchise during the season, but upon arrival in Cleveland the only thing he said about Green Bay was that "he wanted out." He said this more than once.

And I can understand being pissed. Given the short career-span of football players, you may only get one chance to sign a big fat deal that sets you up for life. By franchising him and then trading him, the Packers never allowed Williams to sample the market, and the market may very well could have given him even more guaranteed money than Cleveland. And remember, Corey Williams was a sixth round pick. He's been playing for relatively little (in NFL terms) for several years. I think I'd be pissed too.

Going forward, the Packers D-Line rotation looks like this-- LE- Kampman, DT-Jolly (if healthy), DT-Pickett, RE-Jenkins. Back-ups are KGB, Mike Montgomery, and Jason Hunter at end, and Colin Cole, Daniel Muir and Justin Harrell at tackle. That's not a bad group, if people start living up to expectations and if guys like Jenkins and Jolly can get and stay healthy. I'd like to see another end or a pass rushing tackle picked up in the draft though.

P.S. Check out the section of this article, from the Boston Globe, titled "Browns Make Score, But Give Packers Extra Points". (It's about half-way down.) It summarizes Thompson's strategy pretty succinctly, I think.

Easier than It Looked

That's what Wisconsin's victory Saturday afternoon over Northwestern was. Close and frustrating (because, predictably, of too many turnovers from Northwestern's zone press), until the last few minutes of the second half. Then, NU stopped scoring, and Wisconsin calmed down, stopped turning the ball over, and worked their way inside for decent looks, or crashed the boards hard for rebounds and tip-ins. Northwestern's biggest guy is 6'8" and none of their guys are very stout. Their most muscley player is probably their freshman point guard. That's why they play a 1-3-1 zone-- they're trying to keep the ball out of the perimeter, because they know if you get decent post position on them, you have an excellent chance of scoring. That's what happened from the 15 minute to the 30 minute mark.

Combine smart offense with what happened on defense, where Wisconsin stopped overplaying Northwestern's cuts, and you have a serious Wisconsin style "run"-- no scoring from the other side, consistent, but not spurting offense, and after a while, a big fat lead. It was 19 points with 10 minutes left, basically insurmountable given Northwestern's O and the Badgers' D. Wisconsin relaxed a little bit, and let NU trim the lead to 11, but the game was essentially over with 10 minutes left. All in all, that was a fine accomplishment given Wisconsin's history of frustrated, lackluster play in Evanston, both on the basketball court and on the football field.

Random game notes--

- Trevon took a bit of a beating in this game. He had a few turnovers, got shoulder checked in the face on a moving pick, Coble backhanded him in the gnards on an obvious uncalled foul, and the game ended with one of the Northwestern seniors, Tonjua Jones, a back up guard cursing him out, and getting called for a technical foul. (On senior day, no less!) Nice job, jackass. You would have hoped your $200,000 education had sunk in a little more. Thank goodness Trevon totally ignored the guy. Way to keep your cool, Pop. You're the big winner.

- The excellent statistical games of Landry in the first Northwestern game (21 points), and Butch in this one (20), demonstrate Northwestern's problem. They have no bigs, and their zone scheme is only effective when it forces turnovers or keeps the other team out of the post. And the secondary flaw with their zone is that it takes their 100-pound weakling of a team and puts it in poor rebounding position. You get a strong, reasonable-sized competent post player, and they're going to go to town on NU. First time around, it was Landry with the lay-ups and the tipped misses. This time around it was Butch. I think that's actually quite encouraging, and shows that Butch has improved his quickness, because on the defensive end, whoever your frontcourt guy is, he has to run guard what are essentially a bunch of small forwards. Butch got all the points because Bo was comfortable leaving him in defensively. That was not as much the case in the first game, where Brian played fewer minutes.

- If they want to get better, which they apparently don't, Northwestern has got to do some serious things. I've got three steps.
Step one-- lower the admission requirements for basketball players. As Duke has shown, a school can benefit tremendously from having a good men's basketball team. And hell, the number of students you have to make exceptions for is tiny. It's three or four kids a year. Northwestern has a pretty campus, is an excellent school in a big league, and sits atop of one of the nation's hotbeds of basketball talent. They shouldn't have to rely on Eastern Europeans and French-Canadians to fill up their roster.
Step two-- play more attractive basketball. This step may require the school to fire Carmody, who only seems to know irritating zone defenses and the intensely boring Princeton offense. That offense lets smaller, less athletic teams make up their physical deficits with smarts and skill (passing and shooting). Unfortunately, in the Big Ten, you get teams, like Wisconsin, that are bigger, more athletic, and just as smart and skilled. Or teams (like Sparty and Indiana), that are so much bigger and more athletic, that it doesn't matter. After this year's one-win team, it's time to go back to the drawing board. I suggest playing a more attractive style of basketball to attract the less academically qualified recruits they'll now be admitting.
Step three-- fix that awful "arena." Welsh-rarebit is an embarrassment. Even though it's tiny, it's always half empty, except when visiting fans overwhelm it. Then there's the weird lighting, terrible concessions service, and awful layout (concession lines blocking bathroom access). It's easily the worst basketball stadium in the Big Ten. Hell, UIC's and UW-Milwaukee's stadiums are far nicer. It might be the worst basketball stadium in the Horizon League.
Of course, hopefully, from Wisconsin's perspective, Northwestern will do none of these things and remain a doormat. The less competition the better, I guess.

- Jason Bohannon is now one of the best free throw shooters in Wisconsin history, having made more consecutive free throws than any other Badger player ever. I love that this had happened-- that he's become the ice-man at the line. It's great to have one of those guys on your team. Plus, he's confident about it. Check this out, from Rob Schultz in the Cap Times-- "Bohannon's knees weren't exactly knocking after he stepped to the line with 3:44 to go to attempt the free throw that would break [Wes Matthews Sr.'s] record. He stunned junior swingman Joe Krabbenhoft by turning around to face him while doing a little play-by-play before he took the shot. 'He looked back at me and said, "This is for the record,"' Krabbenhoft recalled. 'I said, "Turn around and shoot it. Don't even think about it." Of course, he goes up and knocks it down.'"
Awesome. Confidence is a good thing.

The Big Ten tournament awaits, starting Thursday. The Badgers' first game is Friday morning at 11. Since the tourney has relocated to Indianapolis for the foreseeable future, you'd think that gives a homefield advantage to IU and Purdidn't, but thankfully, with the Badgers winning the Big Ten outright, those two teams are on the same side of the bracket, so will likely knock each other out. Bucky will face the winner of Iowa and Michigan, two transitioning teams that have made some improvements as the year progressed. Wisconsin swept both of them in the regular season, but had to work hard for the wins the second time around. The third round could get interesting. If Wisconsin manages to beat the winner of Iowa/Michigan, then it would play the winner of OSU/Sparty in the semis in another likely very tough game. Should be a fun week of basketball ahead.

Random Badger Observations

- A really neat compliment that Larivee and the BTN color analyst relayed last night-- the PSU coach said that UW was "unscoutable" since pretty much every one of the team's first eight players is capable of doing some offensive damage on any given night. That is a remarkably cool thing to hear about your team-- that they're so cohesive and varied, you can't figure out where the points are going to come from. It may not get UW a bunch of all-conference players (I doubt UW will have any first team guys), but it has gotten them at least a share of the conference title.

- Speaking of first team all conference guys, I predict Jamar Butler, DJ White, Kevin Coble, Raymar Morgan and Eric Gordon. I hope and wish that Flowers wins defensive player of the year, but I think it might be White with all his blocks, despite the fact that he does statue impersonations whenever he picks up a foul or two. Other all-conference defensive players should be Al Nolen, Chris Kramer and Ekepe Udoh.

- I'm not sure what the deal with Kevin Gullickson is. To remind those out there, except for his minute of garbage time at the end of the PSU game, he hasn't seen the floor since getting his third ticket for public drunkenness in January. (He also turned 21 in February, thankfully.) I don't know if we'll ever find what's going on. I know UW has already signed four high school seniors for next season, but the various recruiting sites keep mentioning UW as being in contact with other random uncommitted seniors, including a power forward from the Quad Cities, and swingmen from Moline, Champaign (Shampoo-Banana), and Arizona. That makes you wonder whether there's going to be some unanticipated freeing up of a scholarship beyond the four seniors (Flowers, Butch, Stiemsma and Bronson). With Gullickson's exile to the back of the bench after one too many drinking tickets, you have to speculate-- will Kevin be leaving the team after the season ends? Personally, I like the kid a lot. He's a gamer (see his valuable minutes against Texas), by all accounts an excellent student, and by getting really drunk and wandering around campus he was merely following established Wisconsin traditions.

- Worst moment of last night's game-- JP Gavinski airballing an 8 foot turn-around jumper, while being guarded by a shorter back-up PSU forward. Ugh. That was the worst non-shot clock running out shot I've seen a Badger take in several seasons. If Gavinski turns into a Dave Mader like contributor by the end of his career, I think we'll be lucky.

- Again, boy do I wish Stiemsma had redshirted his first year. He looks more and more confident and comfortable, both on defense and offense. He'll probably never have Butch's dribbling ability and range, but he's bigger, stronger, a better passer and more athletic, and has some traditional post moves (ambidextrous hook shots) that Brian lacks. Is it crazy to think that he has a future in the pros, either domestically or overseas? Along those lines, is it crazy to think that Flowers has a future in the pros, either domestically or overseas? Could he not be just as good as Chris Duhon is on the Bulls? (A back-up point guard who can hit jumpers, make an occasional drive, take care of the ball, and play solid defense.)

- My father has recently referred to Welsh-Ryan Arena, where the Badgers will play their final regular season game come Saturday, as "Welsh-Rarebit." For those of you who don't know what that is, click here. I remain a bit nervous about Saturday's game, although since NU has finally managed to win a Big Ten game, UW has already clinched a share of the title, and this Badger team has been so smart and determined recently, I'm feeling oddly optimistic.

- The talk that the Badgers are "overachievers" and that the "whole [of this team] is more than the sum of its parts" is wrongheaded and tired. Look at the recruiting numbers (according to Rivals): Stiemsma and Butch-- four and five star players; Bohannon and Hughes-- four star players; Krabby-- a five star player; Leuer-- a four star player. The only guys who appear to have overachieved are "three-star" guys Flowers and Landry. Personally, I think the recruiting folks blew it on Landry, and that Flowers is a great athlete and competitor who's worked his butt off and developed. Now, the team may be better than the sum of its parts, but that's due to good coaching and dedicated, unselfish players, not iffy talent. Nearly every good team is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

Krabbenhoft Dunks!

Woo hoo! Forget the Big Ten Championship-- the Hoft actually threw one down, for the first time ever in his collegiate career! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for that kid to two hand a shot through the basket. Alleluia! In fact, I believe this game featured more dunks by more goofy looking over-sized upper-Midwest Caucasians (three of them featured above) than any collegiate basketball game in history. At least since the retirement of George Mikan. Butch threw one down, Stiemer threw down two big ones, the Hoft had his aforementioned slam off a nice Stiemsma feed. Hell, even JP (no personal offense, but boy I wish we could have your scholarship back) Gavinski dunked a miss in garbage time. (The BTN cameras smartly cut to the bench afterward, where the regular rotation was on its feet, laughing hysterically.) Tanner Bronson swished what will probably be his last shot as a Badger, Wquinton Smith, the new walk on, got on the floor, Jarmusz hit the first three of his career, and even Kevin "I'm now of legal drinking age" Gullickson, got back on the floor and made a shot. (Does this mean he's finally out of the doghouse?)

Seriously, this was a dominant, great Wisconsin win, a wonderful way to send out the seniors, and a fitting game to clinch a share of the Big Ten title. The Badgers only had six turnovers. They played lockdown but clean defense on PSU, allowing less than 30% shooting, and only fouling PSU 7 times. The team shot the lights out, but shared the basketball, with no one taking more than 8 shots and 11 players scoring. (And it would have been 12 had Leuer not bricked two free throws.) Plus, even though PSU was without its best remaining player in Jamelle Cornley, the Badgers didn't relax. They put the pedal down, exemplified most by Michael Flowers, who I swear had more than double the two steals the box score gave him. The margin became huge because they played tough, smart, and with energy but no nerves. And they played together. Team, team, team. Well done, Badgers.

Now, as they might say in Mortal Kombat-- Finish Him! Go to Northwestern and rewrite the history that has you struggling there. Make your own destiny. Dominate them like you can and should and keep the Big Ten Title all to yourselves. Represent.

GB4

So goes today one of the best to ever lace them up, Brett Favre, choosing to retire. Mr. Favre has been my favorite player in any sport, ever. He was in short, my sports Shane. He rode in, bested foes, defined masculinity both on the field and off, and now is riding off into the sun. 

My cap goes off to him as I've enjoyed him longer than any fan deserves to enjoy the actions and antics of any one player. He played EVERYGAME. He won a Super Bowl, he could've won more. He won 3 MVPs. He and Reggie White changed the entire perception of Wisconsin on a national level. He stiff-armed D-Linemen. I'll repeat it cause we may never see it again, he stiff-armed D-Lineman. He always got up. Other times a defender would come flying in and when 95% of QBs would take a sack, he became the all-time leader in the "mini-roll right, pump fake, step left, find guy and fire". 

I'm so glad he and Green Bay met. They're a perfect match. There are atleast 20 hilarious clips where the camera and microphone catch him tearing up the room with funny remarks. He's old school, he's funny, he was our quarterback.

So long Brett, I've already forgotten all of your frustrating weaknesses.

Great

Now we get to watch the Brett Favre unretirement media frenzy. Mortensen is gonna have a camera in Favre's garage. We're gonna hear shit like; 'he's been keeping himself in great physical condition... swimming with aligators and walking his daughter to prom and such... He went ahead and had the other half of his lower intestines removed and Brett told me yesterday he's never been lighter on his feet... Back to you, Stan'.

Honestly, I'm still mad about the four picks to brian williams when we lost at home to the vikings in the playoffs 4 years ago. Aside from that, I don't really believe he's going to be able to stay away. Especially when the team is decent and needs him to step in. Which is what will happen.

Strahan's his boy, and he hasn't even said a thing about winning the superbowl because he's still talking shit on Brett's voicemail about how he didn't have to go through training camp. Favre just doesn't want to work, but he knows he can't just skip it. He wants to give Rodgers some work, end the stupid streak (knowing when he comes back from retirement it will continue anyway), and play a 10 game season with no preseason. watch.

By August, Mark Clayton will be giving us updates on what Favre 'had for lunch today'.

R P I

I never looked at what it was. But after seeing that Purdue currently has an RPI of 28 behind cupcakes like Michigan St., Pittsburgh and Arizona (or, if you think those teams are good, Butler, BYU and UNLV). Also, Louisville (not a cupcake), whom they beat 67-59 in West Lafayette. 'How could this be'? I thought.

In their losses they've been beaten by an avg. of just over 5 pts/gm and 5 of their 6 losses came on the road. The one home loss to Wofford. Which apparently is killing them? I used to think we got no respect.

the following is cut and pasted from www.basketballprospectus.com to which there is a link on the right down there. I highly recommend it for setting up yo brackets.

The RPI is calculated by adding three parts.

Part I (25% of the formula): Team winning percentage. For the 2005 season, the NCAA added a bonus/penalty system, where each home win or road loss get multiplied by 0.6 in the winning percentage calculation. A home loss or road win is multiplied by 1.4. Neutral games count as 1.0. More on the effect of these changes can be found here.

Part II (50%): Average opponents’ winning percentage. To calculate this, you must calculate each opponent’s winning percentage individually and average those figures. This is NOT calculated from the opponents’ combined record. Games involving the team for whom we are calculating the RPI are ignored.

Part III (25%): Average opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage: Basically taking all of the opponents’ Part II values and averaging them.

so apparently wofford is 12-39, with over 2 dozen losses to the worst division 1 teams in America? I still can't imagine how Purdue doesn't have a better RPI. Maybe I'm just impressed that they beat us twice. They're just as good as us. But I guess beating Texas counts as much for you, as losing to Wofford counts against you. Makes sense. But... I'm sure it works out.