As far as I know, the last time a Big Ten men's basketball team went through the Big Ten season undefeated was a Bobby Knight Indiana squad that went swept the league, went 32-0 overall, and won the 1976 NCAA championship. This was the back half of an unprecedented two-year stretch for IU, during which they only lost one game, and won every conference game.
The closest any team has come to matching this performance since was Illinois' one loss season in 2004-05, where they lost at Ohio State on a last minute shot in the last game of the regular season. You don't come much closer to going undefeated than that. And, if you'll recall, that team had two first round NBA draft picks on it, and all five starters have spent at least some time in the league.
I'm not saying that I expect this year's University of Wisconsin men's basketball team to go through the Big Ten season undefeated, or even match Illinois' feat of two years ago. If anything, the 31 years that have passed since it was last done indicate how ridiculously difficult it is to go through the season undefeated. In re Wisco this season, I think it's wise to strive to win every game, but not to be unrealistic. If more talented teams like the Fab Five, year two, or the Mo Pete/Cleeves Sparty, or the Deron/Wee Brown Fibs couldn't get it done, our chances are remote. But still, we must dream the impossible dream!
Wisconsin is in the middle of what appears to be one of the two most difficult patches of the Big Ten season. At the Fibs last weekend, a talented but undisciplined Michigan team, followed by today's game at Iowa, where Iowa had won 28 out of the past 29 games, then capped off by Wednesday's game at Indiana, where he of the excessive phone calls, Kelvin Sampson, has the Hoosiers playing quite well. We took care of business this afternoon, either stifling Iowa's two leading scorers or getting intensely lucky since they both had poor shooting nights. But Indiana will be a toughie, as the Hoosiers have the most efficient offense in the league (an outlandish 1.16 PPP), largely due to the rate at which they're hitting 3's. They hit 10 on Saturday, shooting 50% from beyond the arc. That equates to a scary 1.5 PPP on possessions during which they launched a three-pointer. But, but, you (and I) protest, Indiana lost at Illinois to a Fib team lacking it most talented player, the 6'8" small forward Brian Randle, in the "how dare you recruit our recruit who gave us a non-binding verbal commitment" game. Yeah, I saw that too. That game was a colossal brick-fest. If we can bring some serious defense to the table, keeping their shooters from getting open looks, and frustrating Deeg White with our assortment of bigs, then I think we can take them. So far, we're playing the best defense in the league, although our stats must have been helped tremendously by the straight-brokedness of Iowa this afternoon. If Indiana starts hitting 3's though, look out, we're in trouble. What may bode well for Bucky is that Indiana plays good perimeter defense but iffy interior D. Teams are shooting only 23% on 3's against the Hoosiers, but they're apparently quite gracious once you get inside the arc--allowing opposing teams to hit 52% of their two-point shots. Since we typically prefer to focus our offense on the interior anyway (partly because we haven't shot the ball well from outside this season), this could spell some offensive success. That's if the "they're really good at stopping what we're not very good at so don't really try to do" logic makes sense to you. It may not. It's understandable.
At the end of the Big Ten season, Wisconsin dives into its second rough-looking stretch. We play at Sparty and at Ohio A&M, and then end the regular season with Sparty at home. Yeesh. And by the looks of MSU's furious comeback in Columbus and the stats (they're one of the four teams in the league with a solid efficiency margin so far (that is PPP scored minus PPP given up)) they're actually a decent team. What may make this last stretch tolerable is that there's plenty of time between games. We play at Sparty on 2/20 (a Tuesday) and then at The Ohio A&M College on 2/25 (a Sunday). Then we don't play our last game until 3/3 (the following Saturday). So there'll be time to recuperate and focus on the next game, at the very least.
So I haven't said much about the Iowa game, yet, huh? Haluska, the Big Ten's leading scorer, did not look all that impressive. He was hustling and did get some open looks, but very little was hitting the sink. Iowa's big freshman, Tyler Smith, who an Iowa paper compared to a young Alando, also struggled from the field. I'm not sure if Smith's and Haluska's struggles were due to them having off games, or our defensive intensity. Hopefully it was both. Good defense certainly doesn't make those shots go in any easier. And finally, Alando was back on offensively, hitting jumpers, floating to the basket, making contested lay-ins in the paint. A-Tuck hit 78% of his shots, scoring 27 points, or roughly 50% of our offensive output. A game recap briefly mentioned something about Alando having a sprained thumb during the past few weeks (did you notice the tape on it the past few games?), and that injury healing may have had something to do with a return of his shooting form. Butch also hit three 3's, and was a rebounding machine, ending up with fourteen boards. Folks who may not have watched the game may be thinking something like "if Iowa's two leading guys played so poorly, and Alando was on, why didn't we win by a larger margin?" Three reasons-- (1) Iowa got to the line more often than we did (Haluska is a fine actor, and went 9 of 10 from the stripe), (2) no one else was shooting all that well (Kam went 1 for 7 and hit that one shot early in the game), and we turned the ball over a decent amount-- 12 times. Kam hits a few more open jumpers, we get a few more calls (Alando got called for a suspect charge underneath the basket), we win the game by the high teens.
Iowa rattled us a bit on offense by playing tight pressure D on the perimeter, and doubling quickly when our main guys, like Kam and Alando, tried to drive past it. Other guys have to cut and get open.
A final note-- Jason Bohannon, the freshman from Marion, Iowa, who I like to affectionately refer to as Boyannyon, was roundly booed by the Iowa City crowd. Jason was Iowa's Mr. Basketball a year ago, led his team to a state championship during one of his high school years, and is the oldest son of a former Iowa quarterback, Gordy Bohannon, who started for an Iowa Rose Bowl team in the early 80's. It's kind of the equivalent of Darrell Bevell's kid choosing to go to Illinois. Or, wait a minute, it's almost the exact equivalent of the Wes Matthews, Junior situation. Wes's dad, Wes Matthews Senior, was the Badgers leading scorer and best player in the late 70's and went on to play in the NBA. Wes Jr. went to Madison Memorial (suspect), was Wisconsin's Mr. Basketball his senior season (edging out Marcus Landry for the honor), and decided to go to Marquette (argh...), turning away from his hometown team and his dad's legacy. Now I love me some Badgers, but it's hard to blame Wes, and thus, if I were an Iowa fan, it'd be hard to get mad at Jason. Would you feel comfortable being a high-profile athlete at a school where you father or mother (or even an older sibling) was a star? Wouldn't you want to create your own legacy? And avoid potentially nasty comparisons? Though don't tell this to Flowers or Nankvil, there's also something to getting the hell out of Dodge, and trying out a new place.
I understand the boos that Wes got in Madison last year and that Jason got this afternoon, but I hope they fade in time as fans start seeing them as players, not as a legacy that their school was entitled to. Hitting that first three pointer must have felt pretty good, Jason.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Michigan or Michigan't?
Michigan basketball has been quite odd under Tommy Amaker. He seems to attract talented basketball players, and they're very capable of beating (even up) on lesser teams. But when they get into games against tough opponents, particularly in unfriendly environs, the Wolverines wilt. The blowing of the lead at NC State this year. The absolute pounding by UCLA. And this is on a team with a bunch of seniors-- guys you'd think would be experienced and tough competitors, but apparently, ummm, aren't.
And so it goes...Michigan started out 4-1 in the Big Ten, beating Illinois, Penn State and Purdue at home, and taking down Northwestern on the road, but suffering a double-digit loss at Purdue.
So predictably, Michigan comes into Madison, feeling optimistic and a little pleased with its 4-1 record, and gets spanked. The final margin was 13, 71 to 58, but the Badgers were up 24 points with eight minutes left and 21 with 3 minutes left. A bit of a beatdown.
The Big Ten Wonk notes a core reason for Michigan's problems--they can't stop turning the ball over. They turned the ball over 19 times Wednesday night, nearly a third of their possessions ended not with a shot, but by handing the ball back to les Badgers. Not particularly impressive, and something that doesn't speak well for Coach Amaker. And it's not all the young players. Senior PF/C Courtney Sims turned the ball over 7 times last night. If kids that have been in your program for several years are turnover machines, I'll just let that one sit.
It's interesting that Wisconsin actually performed better on offense without Alando in the game, which they had to do since he was out for the majority of the game due to foul trouble. Normally that's not the case. I was trying to figure out how that might be, and my theory is this-- other teams spend much of their defensive preparation planning for ways to stop A-Tuck, so when he's not in the game, their defensive gameplan breaks down a bit. But it's probably a one game anomaly. Small sample size and all.
Anyhow, we shot absurdly well last night, partly because almost all of it was within the three-point line (we only shot six threes). Thus, a very solid 1.09 points per possession for the game, while holding turnover-prone Michigan to a less than stellar .89 PPP. Excellent.
Other thoughts--
Did anyone see 6' 2" Michael Flowers block 6' 11" Courtney Sims? That was quacktastic.
As were the unusually high number of successful drives to the hole (Flowers, sure, but the Hoft, Landry, and, of all people, Butch? Fantastic!) If we can't shoot the "three-ball" consistently because Bo won't play Boyannyon and Pop Hughes, than I guess we should take it to the rack. Wait a minute, if we don't shoot the three well, then why in God's name would Michigan be guarding our guys so closely on the perimeter? My guess is that it's an attempt to slow down our perimeter passing, which is one of the key facets of the swing offense. So it becomes a matter of picking your poison. You either let us blithely and quickly rotate the ball from side to side, or your come out and get burned as we drive to the hole. Or your have Oden rotate over, and your shot gets partially blocked, but lets not think about that. (No more years! No more years!)
Also, did anyone notice Packer's play-by-play man Wayne Larrivee repeatedly attribute Michael Flowers' accomplishments to other players? I swear he did that multiple times.
Atmosphere note--during the Petway freak out/technical foul/fouling out five minute break, it was great to hear multiple repetitions of H-cock's favorite basketball cheer-- the immortal, dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum, "Drop the Puck!"
Finally, I leave you with the video footage of Bo Ryan doing the "Hambone;" first shown during the Illinois broadcast. Alternately amusing and disturbing.
And so it goes...Michigan started out 4-1 in the Big Ten, beating Illinois, Penn State and Purdue at home, and taking down Northwestern on the road, but suffering a double-digit loss at Purdue.
So predictably, Michigan comes into Madison, feeling optimistic and a little pleased with its 4-1 record, and gets spanked. The final margin was 13, 71 to 58, but the Badgers were up 24 points with eight minutes left and 21 with 3 minutes left. A bit of a beatdown.
The Big Ten Wonk notes a core reason for Michigan's problems--they can't stop turning the ball over. They turned the ball over 19 times Wednesday night, nearly a third of their possessions ended not with a shot, but by handing the ball back to les Badgers. Not particularly impressive, and something that doesn't speak well for Coach Amaker. And it's not all the young players. Senior PF/C Courtney Sims turned the ball over 7 times last night. If kids that have been in your program for several years are turnover machines, I'll just let that one sit.
It's interesting that Wisconsin actually performed better on offense without Alando in the game, which they had to do since he was out for the majority of the game due to foul trouble. Normally that's not the case. I was trying to figure out how that might be, and my theory is this-- other teams spend much of their defensive preparation planning for ways to stop A-Tuck, so when he's not in the game, their defensive gameplan breaks down a bit. But it's probably a one game anomaly. Small sample size and all.
Anyhow, we shot absurdly well last night, partly because almost all of it was within the three-point line (we only shot six threes). Thus, a very solid 1.09 points per possession for the game, while holding turnover-prone Michigan to a less than stellar .89 PPP. Excellent.
Other thoughts--
Did anyone see 6' 2" Michael Flowers block 6' 11" Courtney Sims? That was quacktastic.
As were the unusually high number of successful drives to the hole (Flowers, sure, but the Hoft, Landry, and, of all people, Butch? Fantastic!) If we can't shoot the "three-ball" consistently because Bo won't play Boyannyon and Pop Hughes, than I guess we should take it to the rack. Wait a minute, if we don't shoot the three well, then why in God's name would Michigan be guarding our guys so closely on the perimeter? My guess is that it's an attempt to slow down our perimeter passing, which is one of the key facets of the swing offense. So it becomes a matter of picking your poison. You either let us blithely and quickly rotate the ball from side to side, or your come out and get burned as we drive to the hole. Or your have Oden rotate over, and your shot gets partially blocked, but lets not think about that. (No more years! No more years!)
Also, did anyone notice Packer's play-by-play man Wayne Larrivee repeatedly attribute Michael Flowers' accomplishments to other players? I swear he did that multiple times.
Atmosphere note--during the Petway freak out/technical foul/fouling out five minute break, it was great to hear multiple repetitions of H-cock's favorite basketball cheer-- the immortal, dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum, "Drop the Puck!"
Finally, I leave you with the video footage of Bo Ryan doing the "Hambone;" first shown during the Illinois broadcast. Alternately amusing and disturbing.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
The Chicago Bears vs. the United States Saints
Gregg Easterbrook (brother of the bombastic federal judge Frank Easterbrook, aka Judge Eastercreek) has taken to referring to the Saints as the "United States Saints" apparently searching for a new euphemism for "America's Team." This refers to the sympathy everyone either has, or is expected to have, for everyone who was in the shit in Louisiana a year-and-a-half ago. This makes me wonder where all the Saints sympathy was last season, when they sucked hard, going 3-13. Are people only paying attention now because the Saints drafted Reggie Bush, and have an excellent and exciting offense? That is, now that they're good and exciting they're suddenly the team everyone's rooting for? Wouldn't it have been even more inspiring for the people of New Orleans if they had been a good team last I think the answer to that is maybe. Coming back to New Orleans is clearly a big deal, especially when a lot of people thought that the Saints would head for a better market after last season. But if they were a really boring, mediocre team, would anywhere near the same amount of people care? I'm dubious.
That said, anyone with any sense should be rooting for the Saints this afternoon. That's because a Saints Superbowl, with their offense and probably a rejuvenated Joe Horn (he's injured now, but remember his cell phone celebration?), would be awesome to watch. A Bears Superbowl would be terrible. Not only would I, a Packer fan living in the Chiccy-G, have to sit through two more weeks of media fellatio, but the Bears would probably be annihilated in a boring game that would be over before the midpoint of the third quarter. They have one standout player--Brian Urlacher-- and their defense has been only decent since losing their other stud--Tommie Harris. Their offense is mediocre, and led by a quarterback who can't handle pressure and has no scary wide receivers. The Pats, with two weeks to prep, would handle them easily. The Colts would run the score up like mad.
Now it would be funny to see the Bears get smacked on international television, but as a Packer fan, I have to say that their mere presence in the game would be a bit terrifying, because it would make it mathematically possible for them to win the game. Brady could break his coccyx taking a bath, after all. If you think Bears fans are obnoxious now...
A loss against the Saints would be far preferable, because the team would fall apart, and loyal Bear fans would start eating their young, specifically Charles Tillman and Gross Rexman (aka Mex Grossman, according to the elder fool, for reasons having to do with the desirability of the Bears QB position). That's always very amusing to watch. Go U.S. Saints!
That said, anyone with any sense should be rooting for the Saints this afternoon. That's because a Saints Superbowl, with their offense and probably a rejuvenated Joe Horn (he's injured now, but remember his cell phone celebration?), would be awesome to watch. A Bears Superbowl would be terrible. Not only would I, a Packer fan living in the Chiccy-G, have to sit through two more weeks of media fellatio, but the Bears would probably be annihilated in a boring game that would be over before the midpoint of the third quarter. They have one standout player--Brian Urlacher-- and their defense has been only decent since losing their other stud--Tommie Harris. Their offense is mediocre, and led by a quarterback who can't handle pressure and has no scary wide receivers. The Pats, with two weeks to prep, would handle them easily. The Colts would run the score up like mad.
Now it would be funny to see the Bears get smacked on international television, but as a Packer fan, I have to say that their mere presence in the game would be a bit terrifying, because it would make it mathematically possible for them to win the game. Brady could break his coccyx taking a bath, after all. If you think Bears fans are obnoxious now...
A loss against the Saints would be far preferable, because the team would fall apart, and loyal Bear fans would start eating their young, specifically Charles Tillman and Gross Rexman (aka Mex Grossman, according to the elder fool, for reasons having to do with the desirability of the Bears QB position). That's always very amusing to watch. Go U.S. Saints!
Saturday, January 20, 2007
"Champaign is Like the Confederacy"
So said a native Chicagoan to me on Friday. No joke. He was talking about how he's confused by the Chicago-area's support for the University of Illinois' athletic programs because the city seems more culturally attuned (and is about as close) to Ann Arbor and Madison. I'm not going to plumb the depths of that comment, I'm just putting it out there.
Both this game, Wisconsin's 71-64 victory over Illinois in Champaign-Urbana (hereafter known as Shampoo-Banana), and the Northwestern victory last week, were very lose-able games. On the road, stuck in an ugly, sluggish game in an embarrassing venue against a persistent and organized but untalented foe (in Evanston), or playing in a 1980's space-ship, surrounded by thousands of pumpkin-clothed under-entertained downstate Illinoisians, where the home team is making absurd bank-three pointers and getting a career game from one of its main scorers (in this case, U of I's PF/C Shaun Pruitt). But somehow, this season (so far) we've been pulling stuff off. Today's game, for example.
We're down one with two minutes left, and we end up winning by seven. In order for that to happen, things need to break your way (get lucky) and people on your team need to step up (you need to be good).
Maybe we can break it down bit by bit.
(1) The Stiemer makes two free throws (stepping up, especially for someone who hasn't played much).
(2) The Fibs take nearly 35 seconds to miss a jump shot (stepping up defensively as a team). (3) That utterly crazy possession: Kam's three is blocked by Randle, so Alando jumps up and grabs the misdirected shot but a Illinois player is jumping with him. Alando falls to the floor with the ball in front of him, facing away from the basket. He either slides the ball along the floor to Kam, or the force of him falling just sends it that way. Kam grabs the ball, realizes all the conundrum has distracted the Illinois defenders and immediately drains a 16-foot jumper. Ridiculous. (Final verdict: lucky and stepping up, Alando was in the right place at the right time but both he and Kam made great plays.)
(4) Flowers gets called for an off the ball foul on the already spear-bald McBride. (unlucky) McBride makes only one free throw. (Lucky).
(5) Landry scores but gets called for the offensive foul immediately after shooting--basket counts, but Fibs get free throws at the other end. (Good but also unlucky)
(6) Randle makes one free throw before missing the other. (Lucky)
(7) After the miss, there's a scrum for the rebound, Alando grabs it, pirouettes along the baseline while being swarmed by Fibs, then makes a wonderful jump and pass around the defenders to get the ball to Kam, who is fouled while sprinting to the other end. (Another example of stepping up and making important plays.)
(8) Kam makes both free throws. (good.) We're now up five with 30 seconds left.
(9) Frazier (whose name I can't say without hearing Mohammad Ali say "Fraaay-Zhaaa!"), misses a relatively rushed three. (good and lucky)
(10) Flowers makes both free throws (good)
(11) Jamar Smith airballs his second three of the night, and the game is basically over.
In review, we got lucky in that they missed shots that they had made at earlier points, and missed two free throws. We made a bunch of heady plays, put the ball in the hole when he could, didn't turn the ball over, and made our free throws. Plus, Illinois got a bit lucky with both of its foul calls toward the end of the game, meaning we were unlucky in that regard. But players kept their cool, played smart, stayed intense defensively, and hit their free throws. That's what it takes to pull out a win sometimes. In this case, when Alando was struggling from the field, when Pruitt was having a career night, when McBride was rediscovering his 3-point shooting, and when Illinois (home court advantage at play?) was shooting more free thows. Huge.
Other things:
- We finally shot free throws well! Even down the stretch. Hooray!
- Another tough night on offense for Alando, but he still made huge contributions, and ended up scoring 17 points, and getting 8 boards.
- Butch was working well down low on offense in the first half, but I think they went away from him because they were worried about defensive match-ups. It was either Carter or Pruitt for Butch-- both tough assignments for Brian.
- I guess that's why they went to Stiemsma. That and because Chappell got into foul trouble. Way to hit your jump shots, Greg. He played pretty well on defense, though no one did that good of a job on Pruitt. Career highs in minutes and points-- hitting those free throws at the end. Well done. You'd expect a 6'11" guy who played at Randolph High School and won multiple state championships probably must have a decent free throw stroke, because when you're 6 inches taller than everyone else you must have gotten fouled a lot.
- Kam's three-point shooting stroke sort of returned, but everyone else's is still AWOL.
Anyhow, wee haw! We beat the Fibs deep in the heart of Fib-dom. First time since 1997. Hell, yes. And we don't play them against this season. Now I can relax, and watch the Bears crap the bed tomorrow with my mind at ease.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Brick-City
Funny how change changes your perspective. Back in the day, when the most awesome looking coach ever (Gene Keady) was patrolling the sidelines, everybody would have been ecstatic to sneak out a five point victory over Purdon't. But when you win at home (a lot), oftentimes by comfortable margins, you start to expect a beatdown when you play a home game against a team, that, I don't know, has lost 27(!!) straight road games.
From that perspective, the performance of the UW men's basketball Badgers, in beating Purdue 69-64 last night, was disappointing. Our two leading scores shot 27% from the floor, missing nineteen total shots, and shot a middling 65% on free throws. The team also shot a woeful 17% on their three-pointers, many of which were solid looks since Purdue was sagging heavily towards Tucker. Given those statistics, winning the game was actually an impressive accomplishment. It depended in large part on the oft-underappreciated Chappell, who played solid and frustrating defense on Carl Landry and started knocking down jump shots after realizing he was being purposely left open by Purdon't; and Flowers, who chased Purdon't's second leading scorer, Teague, all over the floor, and made some smart and/or impressive drives to the basket. In contrast to Tucker/Taylor, Chappell/Flowers shot 69% from the floor, 80% from the line, scored a total of 28 points, gathered 13 rebounds, laid out four assists (all from Chappell, often on high-low passes), and garnered 2 steals. A fine performance from those two, who must have grown concerned about the perfomance of T/T as the game inched along and the bricks piled up.
Other observations--
- Carl Landry is an excellent college player, but will probably not make it in the NBA. He's got a great power forward's game-- great strength, good post moves, a fine turn-around from within 15 feet, a decent mid-range jump-shot. But athletic 6'10" forwards like Robert Horry or P.J. Brown will make him look bad in the league. Chances are better he ends up in Europe.
- Purdue is not a bad team-- if they win a few road games this season they could make the tournament. And even though Teague and Landry are seniors, the team's future looks bright: most other guys are underclassmen, and bizarrely, Purdue has the 7th ranked recruiting class in the country coming in next season (according to Rivals.com). That puts them ahead of Duke! Painter looks to be a solid in-game coach as well. The Makers of Large Containers in which Water is Boiled look like a tough out for years to come.
- A big reason for the close game was the play of Gordon Watt, number one for Purdue, a redshirt sophmore transfer from Boston College. He repeatedly owned Butch, facing him up and driving right by him for slashing scores. (See photo above.) And Watt is a 6'6" small forward, making you wonder why the hell was Butch guarding him in the first place. Center guarding Small Forward, unless in the post, equals a poor defensive match-up. When Landry or the Hoft guarded him, he got shut down. But him on Butch was a total mismatch, and it kept happening again and again. I figured that this was due to Butch not being able to guard the elder Landry either (thus forcing him to guard Watt), and Landry the First's guy not wanting to leave him to help Butch out when Watt started driving. Since Butch played decently on offense, maybe Bo thought it was worthwhile to have him in there, overall. That wasn't the case-- Watt scored 18, the majority of which came against Butch.
- Is Chappell our only decent low-post defender? Besides drawing a charge on Landry, Stiemsma did not look particularly good against him (a bit slow of foot), and they didn't even seem to want Butch to try. If that's the case, it'll be really funny if we start getting beat up in the low-post again (like in our Elite Eight year two seasons ago) after Chappell graduates, since no one appreciates Chappell now. Is it because of the sleepy-eyed, "where's the intensity?" look?
- You'd think we could have gone to the bench a bit more. We only played 9 guys last night-- Pop Hughes and Gullickson didn't see any time, and Bohannon and Stiemsma played minimal minutes. With Tucker and Taylor struggling, why not give the other guys some more time? Kam played the ENTIRE GAME, and shot 0-6 from 3-point land. I don't know if those things are related (especially since he missed most of the 3's early in the game), but why not give Bohannon and Hughes more minutes and let Kam get his legs back? Bo seems to choke up on his bench as the year progresses, playing the starters and main bench guys more. It's hard to complain about the results. But with our team being as deep as it is, I don't see the point in letting your leaders get exhausted. Give 'em a rest and let the younger guys contribute.
On Saturday-- Illinois deep in the heart of Fib-dom. Weber has given us trouble since he's been there (has Bo beaten him more than once?), and Illinois is coming off a serious bludgeoning of the 'Sota. They're still having some health problems, but they're a solid team. Pruitt is a good low-post scorer, Smith and McBride are streaky outside shooters, Frazier (if he can play-- he has a groin problem) is a decent point, Carter is a long small forward, and Randle is actually a very talented player (he was injured for the first portion of the season). We can definitely lose this game, especially if we shoot as poorly as we did against Purdon't. I hope the guys are rested up for this one. Maybe we can buy the team a hyperbaric chamber?
Monday, January 15, 2007
Oh - Zone
We struggled against their zone. They mostly played a 1-3-1. In the future, I would like to see Trevon Hughes get more playing time against a zone. Aside from Flowers twice (2 tough finishes) and Boyanyon once, our guards never got to the rim. They barely even got past the key. Trevon Hughes is from New York City. He doesn't care about Northwestern's zone. Tell me Trevon Telfair wouldn't have broken someone's leg in that ridiculous gym. He could've scored 40 points dribbling the ball behind his back. PLAY HIM! We definitely need to make some changes against zone defenses. It didn't look like Ryan even practiced for it. Not that it should change our offense, but can we please get a ball handler out there that can penetrate. Trevon Hughes. I don't think he touched the floor.
Thank Goodness
We managed to beat a cursedly boring Northwestern team in that bizarre high-school hybrid hell of half-assedness, Welsh-Rarebit arena. So I, the other poster to this website, and a bunch of other assorted Wisco alums/leaners attended the game on Saturday, as did about 4,000 other Bucky fans. Observations:
- At first glance it seems sad and pathetic that Northwestern is basically an extended home game for every team in the Big Ten, as it was at this game (at least 60% Wisconsin fans). But then it starts to make sense. First off, population. Every other Big Ten school has more graduates living in the Chicago area than Northwestern. Yep, even Minnesota and Penn State have more alums. Northwestern only has about 2,000 undergrads per graduating class, and the kids come from (and go back to) all over the country. Second, unlike Madison, which tends to embrace the school, its students, and its athletics as a source of fun and culture and as a proud symbol of the state, many non-Northwestern affiliated Evanstonians dislike NU and its students. Evanston has always been a fussy town (a bastion of the temperance movement), and residents resent NU's property-tax exempt status, which shunts larger and larger tax bills on local land-owners with every new university acquisition. There have also been some well-publicized and unfortunate encounters between delicate Evanston residents and intoxicated students. The end result: the city does not give a lot of support to the school or its athletic program (unless they're winning the league in football). But third, and perhaps most importantly, "Northwestern Basketball" is a horrible thing to watch. The Princeton offense, as run by Carmody and his epic hairstyle, is designed to limit the number of offensive possessions in a game. That is, slow the pace and keep scoring down. NU's various zone defenses work to stifle passing and penetration and create silly turnovers, while giving up offensive rebounds. In short, a terribly boring and ugly style of basketball is played in Welsh-Rarebit. Plus, besides the random influx of an occasional decent player (Vukusic or Jitim Young were both solid), Northwestern's players are far from compelling. Whether this is due to poor recruiting, unrealistic academic standards and/or their intensely unattractive style of basketball is up in the air. The end result of all this-- there is little demand for a Northwestern basketball game unless you are a fan of the opposing team. So no one goes, except for folks looking for a free babysitter for their five-year old, young alums who haven't figured it out yet, bored faculty/staff (they get a discount), and retirees who have no idea what good basketball looks like. Oh, I forgot about their 90 person student section.
-- TMCC duly noted that the dress de rigueur by the elderly retirees/staff/faculty set is purple sweater over a white turtleneck, with the white turtleneck folded over once. Seriously, those must be on special somewhere. We were surrounded by this.
-- Worst non-ironic national anthem ever. Not joking. Wisco fans started singing over her at the end to try to stop the disgrace of our nation and to bring her interminable rendition to an end. The woman was apparently a Northwestern "student" according to the PA announcer. I hope she wasn't a student at the music school, because if so, somebody in admissions should get canned.
-- I'm not sure if we would have been much better with Flowers not in foul trouble, but without him, we sure looked like crap. He may be far more valuable than typically thought. See here.
-- TMTCC got bitched out by a turtlenecked retiree in her seventies for shouting "YOU SUUUUCK!" at this-one-goes-to-eleven volume during the game's quiet moments (TMTCC was directing his comments toward Vince Scott whilst Scott shot free throws at our end of the stadium-- I think I'm going to give TMTCC credit for one Scott miss, by the way.) We couldn't really understand what exactly she was saying in her various squawkings, but it appeared that she was wearing a purple and white boa and that she didn't like the heckling. (Lady, if you get your season tickets in a section right next to opposing fans, you're going to have to learn how to deal.)
-- Butch and Landry kept us in the first half with their offensive rebounds and put backs. Not sure why we weren't able to make decent entry passes to Butch in the second half. No one on their team could stop him from putting in lay-ups, he just had to get the ball near the basket.
-- Alando's dunk, step back three and circus off the glass lay-up ruled. His mom claimed he started playing decently after she showed up (she arrived late).
-- Dear Kam, if you're going to be the guy we get open to receive inbounds passes when we're protecting a lead late in games, you have to make your free throws. Get it together. (G.I.T.)
-- Everything about Tim Doyle screams YMCA-- the knee bands, the number (00), the absurd/constantly traveling post-ups, the complaints about lackluster fan support (last year he complained about fan attendance at their home upset win over Iowa). Hmm, where and when would I want Doyle on my team. Pick up game at YMCA on Saturday morning, yes, good. Starting in Big Ten, ummm, no.
-- Carmody's hair is ridiculous.
-- General comments on the half-assedness of Welsh-Rarebit:
(1) Why does Northwestern darken the vast majority of the stands during most of the game? Are they trying to hide the fact that the "arena" is mostly opposing fans?
(2) What is up with the safety mat underneath the cheer squad? If you need a mat, maybe you shouldn't be doing the air toss, flip move. Also, NU cheer squad/legal staff-- the cheerleader was getting caught well off the mat, so if/when you drop her it's not going to do any good. She's still going to break C-1 through C-7.
(3) Worst organization of concessions lines in any stadium I've ever been at. The line at the counter forms to prevent people from getting to the bathroom.
(4) NU AV guys-- way to try to drown out the "Lets Go Badgers" cacophony that drowned out the NU band by blasting that "whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa" techno song. Great retort. That totally made me forget that the place was 60% Badger fans. Much less embarrassing.
(5) I think the most central seats have purple backs so it looks like there are NU fans sitting in them when they're empty.
(6) I'd complain about Willie the Wildcat not wearing any pants, but Bucky doesn't wear any either.
(7) Unsurprisingly, Northwestern knows how to treat the media. They have the whole bank of courtside seats on the south side. Wisconsin moved them to the upper-deck this season.
(8) The retaliatory booing of Landry to our booing of Scott was so typically Northwestern. (Scott and Landry fell down and got their legs tangled and it appeared Scott kicked at him or tried to do some Royce Gracie leg lock maneuver on him while he was standing and Landry was on the ground. Since Landry is the Precious, tensions were raised and booing ensued.) "You're doing to our guy so were doing it to your guy!" Umm, our guy didn't do anything, morons. This is like Stanford students yelling "sucks" after the Badger fans at the 2001 Rose Bowl called out "Ron Dayne" after each of Ronnie's carries. No, the NCAA career leader in rushing doesn't suck. You're wrong.
That's all I got. We should be able to take Purdue at home this week (not playing them on the road this year is a serious plus, since we've one there precisely once in the last twenty years), and the first Landry/Landry match-up could be neat.
As a current Chicago resident, I was amused to see the overly-jubilant reaction to the Bears barely beating an injury-riddled Seattle team. They would have lost to Dallas and they are so NOT winning the Super Bowl. I think Bears fans probably think they'll walk all over the Saints next weekend because they're a warm weather dome team and the game's in Chicago. Uh, the Saints kicked the crap out of Dallas in December, and put up 31 points in a November game in Pittsburgh. The Bears will probably be favored, but if I were a betting man, I'd take the Saints with the points.
p.s. TMTCC-- happy birthday. You will be missed in the Chiccy-G, my friend.
- At first glance it seems sad and pathetic that Northwestern is basically an extended home game for every team in the Big Ten, as it was at this game (at least 60% Wisconsin fans). But then it starts to make sense. First off, population. Every other Big Ten school has more graduates living in the Chicago area than Northwestern. Yep, even Minnesota and Penn State have more alums. Northwestern only has about 2,000 undergrads per graduating class, and the kids come from (and go back to) all over the country. Second, unlike Madison, which tends to embrace the school, its students, and its athletics as a source of fun and culture and as a proud symbol of the state, many non-Northwestern affiliated Evanstonians dislike NU and its students. Evanston has always been a fussy town (a bastion of the temperance movement), and residents resent NU's property-tax exempt status, which shunts larger and larger tax bills on local land-owners with every new university acquisition. There have also been some well-publicized and unfortunate encounters between delicate Evanston residents and intoxicated students. The end result: the city does not give a lot of support to the school or its athletic program (unless they're winning the league in football). But third, and perhaps most importantly, "Northwestern Basketball" is a horrible thing to watch. The Princeton offense, as run by Carmody and his epic hairstyle, is designed to limit the number of offensive possessions in a game. That is, slow the pace and keep scoring down. NU's various zone defenses work to stifle passing and penetration and create silly turnovers, while giving up offensive rebounds. In short, a terribly boring and ugly style of basketball is played in Welsh-Rarebit. Plus, besides the random influx of an occasional decent player (Vukusic or Jitim Young were both solid), Northwestern's players are far from compelling. Whether this is due to poor recruiting, unrealistic academic standards and/or their intensely unattractive style of basketball is up in the air. The end result of all this-- there is little demand for a Northwestern basketball game unless you are a fan of the opposing team. So no one goes, except for folks looking for a free babysitter for their five-year old, young alums who haven't figured it out yet, bored faculty/staff (they get a discount), and retirees who have no idea what good basketball looks like. Oh, I forgot about their 90 person student section.
-- TMCC duly noted that the dress de rigueur by the elderly retirees/staff/faculty set is purple sweater over a white turtleneck, with the white turtleneck folded over once. Seriously, those must be on special somewhere. We were surrounded by this.
-- Worst non-ironic national anthem ever. Not joking. Wisco fans started singing over her at the end to try to stop the disgrace of our nation and to bring her interminable rendition to an end. The woman was apparently a Northwestern "student" according to the PA announcer. I hope she wasn't a student at the music school, because if so, somebody in admissions should get canned.
-- I'm not sure if we would have been much better with Flowers not in foul trouble, but without him, we sure looked like crap. He may be far more valuable than typically thought. See here.
-- TMTCC got bitched out by a turtlenecked retiree in her seventies for shouting "YOU SUUUUCK!" at this-one-goes-to-eleven volume during the game's quiet moments (TMTCC was directing his comments toward Vince Scott whilst Scott shot free throws at our end of the stadium-- I think I'm going to give TMTCC credit for one Scott miss, by the way.) We couldn't really understand what exactly she was saying in her various squawkings, but it appeared that she was wearing a purple and white boa and that she didn't like the heckling. (Lady, if you get your season tickets in a section right next to opposing fans, you're going to have to learn how to deal.)
-- Butch and Landry kept us in the first half with their offensive rebounds and put backs. Not sure why we weren't able to make decent entry passes to Butch in the second half. No one on their team could stop him from putting in lay-ups, he just had to get the ball near the basket.
-- Alando's dunk, step back three and circus off the glass lay-up ruled. His mom claimed he started playing decently after she showed up (she arrived late).
-- Dear Kam, if you're going to be the guy we get open to receive inbounds passes when we're protecting a lead late in games, you have to make your free throws. Get it together. (G.I.T.)
-- Everything about Tim Doyle screams YMCA-- the knee bands, the number (00), the absurd/constantly traveling post-ups, the complaints about lackluster fan support (last year he complained about fan attendance at their home upset win over Iowa). Hmm, where and when would I want Doyle on my team. Pick up game at YMCA on Saturday morning, yes, good. Starting in Big Ten, ummm, no.
-- Carmody's hair is ridiculous.
-- General comments on the half-assedness of Welsh-Rarebit:
(1) Why does Northwestern darken the vast majority of the stands during most of the game? Are they trying to hide the fact that the "arena" is mostly opposing fans?
(2) What is up with the safety mat underneath the cheer squad? If you need a mat, maybe you shouldn't be doing the air toss, flip move. Also, NU cheer squad/legal staff-- the cheerleader was getting caught well off the mat, so if/when you drop her it's not going to do any good. She's still going to break C-1 through C-7.
(3) Worst organization of concessions lines in any stadium I've ever been at. The line at the counter forms to prevent people from getting to the bathroom.
(4) NU AV guys-- way to try to drown out the "Lets Go Badgers" cacophony that drowned out the NU band by blasting that "whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa" techno song. Great retort. That totally made me forget that the place was 60% Badger fans. Much less embarrassing.
(5) I think the most central seats have purple backs so it looks like there are NU fans sitting in them when they're empty.
(6) I'd complain about Willie the Wildcat not wearing any pants, but Bucky doesn't wear any either.
(7) Unsurprisingly, Northwestern knows how to treat the media. They have the whole bank of courtside seats on the south side. Wisconsin moved them to the upper-deck this season.
(8) The retaliatory booing of Landry to our booing of Scott was so typically Northwestern. (Scott and Landry fell down and got their legs tangled and it appeared Scott kicked at him or tried to do some Royce Gracie leg lock maneuver on him while he was standing and Landry was on the ground. Since Landry is the Precious, tensions were raised and booing ensued.) "You're doing to our guy so were doing it to your guy!" Umm, our guy didn't do anything, morons. This is like Stanford students yelling "sucks" after the Badger fans at the 2001 Rose Bowl called out "Ron Dayne" after each of Ronnie's carries. No, the NCAA career leader in rushing doesn't suck. You're wrong.
That's all I got. We should be able to take Purdue at home this week (not playing them on the road this year is a serious plus, since we've one there precisely once in the last twenty years), and the first Landry/Landry match-up could be neat.
As a current Chicago resident, I was amused to see the overly-jubilant reaction to the Bears barely beating an injury-riddled Seattle team. They would have lost to Dallas and they are so NOT winning the Super Bowl. I think Bears fans probably think they'll walk all over the Saints next weekend because they're a warm weather dome team and the game's in Chicago. Uh, the Saints kicked the crap out of Dallas in December, and put up 31 points in a November game in Pittsburgh. The Bears will probably be favored, but if I were a betting man, I'd take the Saints with the points.
p.s. TMTCC-- happy birthday. You will be missed in the Chiccy-G, my friend.
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