White Suburban Punk

Former University of Wisconsin athletic director Pat Richter had some strong words for North Carolina coach Roy Williams on his radio show in May regarding the Badgers’ upcoming matchup with North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the ACC/Big Ten challenge.

“I know darn well that you’ll never get Roy Williams here. He won’t come to Wisconsin; he’s afraid the people are going to boo him and everything else. I think that’s all bogus.  They should have been at our place a long time ago and it never happened.  And here we go again — we’ve got to go down there when they’re supposed to have all these horses back, and it’s going to be a tough road for us. Who’s going to benefit but Roy Williams?  And I think Roy Williams squeals. He’s never really had to pay his dues, so to speak, like a Bo Ryan and Dick Bennett.”

North Carolina will undoubtedly be #1 in next year’s preseason rankings.  Richter apparently has a long memory.  When Williams was the coach at Kansas, he took a shot at Wisconsin and then-coach Dick Bennett after Kansas beat UCLA 99-98 in its season opener in 2000.  Wisconsin had lost to Michigan State in the previous Final Four, a game with a halftime score of 19-17.

Williams said, “Are you going to tell me you don’t like this more than 19-17 at halftime? I’m not a nuclear physicist, but you make the choice. We’re trying to make it a game of basketball skills, not a weight room contest.”

The Final Four appearance was the pinnacle of Bennett’s long and storied career and Williams’ comments were widely viewed as a cheap shot at a highly respected coach.  Kansas played in the 2002 Midwest Regional at the Kohl Center and Williams was booed vociferously by the Wisconsin crowd.  He’s never been back.  The Badgers are 152-11 at the Kohl Center in 10 seasons under Bo Ryan, including 16-0 last year.

Williams responded to Richter on Tuesday.

“Former athletic directors don’t have enough to do,” Williams said.  “I guess that’s what that was.  The fact of the matter is that Wisconsin had home games in two straight years.  The fact of the matter is that I’ve been here eight years and [in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge] we’ve played three true home games and Illinois in Greensboro. And we’ve played three true road games and Michigan State in Detroit. So you can say that’s four and four. The fact of the matter is that in 12 years [of the Challenge], Carolina is 6-6. The fact of the matter is that in 12 years, Wisconsin is 6-6.  The fact of the matter is I called and said ‘Who are we going to play?’ I have never told them I want to play anybody. I’ve never told them I don’t want to play anybody. They have more important things to do then think about what the dickens I want to say anyway.  The fact of the matter is I was on the rules committee and said the style of play was getting too physical.  The fact of the matter is that I am very good friends with Dick Bennett and Tom Izzo.  The fact of the matter is I don’t care what somebody else says.”

For somebody who doesn’t care what anybody else says, the fact of the matter is that he had quite a lengthy response and took the time to check the Badgers’ record in the last 12 years.  But at least he’s good friends with Izzo; that will surely endear him to Wisconsin fans.

The Wisconsin beat writers have to be psyched — first Tucson, now on to New Orleans, the Badgers’ fourth Sweet 16 appearance since 2000.  Jacob Pullen was awesome for K-State, but Bo Ryan’s teams tend to do well against one-man shows.  And a date with Jimmer could be in the cards for Saturday.  I would think Bo would put a variety of guys on Jimmer and see what happens.  I’d expect some Jordan Taylor, some Josh Gasser, and maybe Ryan Evans and even Mike Bruesewitz could harass him for a while.  But Whoa Nellie, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The biggest shot of the K-State game had to be Bruser’s three with 1:31 left — on a fast break!  It’s actually incredible the Badgers overcame Taylor’s 2-16 shooting, but looking at the box score, he was 6-6 from the line, had 6 assists, and ZERO turnovers, not to mention his clean block of Pullen’s three at the end.  Wisconsin had just five turnovers as a team.  Tim Jarmusz was 3-3 from the floor, Josh Gasser 3-4 with 7 boards, and Bruser 3-4 with 6 rebounds.

Butler appears to be a team with strong guards who can really shoot and play good defense.  So Taylor may not get a chance to take 16 shots this time.  I would think this should be a game where Jon Leuer gets fed a lot and Keaton Nankivil and Bruser get some looks, too.  The great Ken Pomeroy gives the Badgers an 81% chance of winning against Butler (it was 72% for the K-State game).

Sideline reporter Sam Ryan said that Leuer’s scalp would need to be shaved to properly treat his head wound.  So maybe in a show of unity all the players will do it?  It would be great if every player except Bruser came out bald.

Other notes: Leuer passed Danny Jones to take over third place on the Badgers’ all-time single season scoring list.  He is one point behind Michael Finley and five behind Alando Tucker.  Taylor passed Mark Vershaw on the all time assists list.

In honor of today’s national semifinals, here’s a story from 1999 about the classy Coach K and Duke “winning the right way,” by screaming at William Avery’s mother, “your son is going to f#$% my program!”

Here’s another story about Duke using an ineligible player in the Final Four, Corey Maggette, just like Memphis did with Derrick Rose.  Memphis’ records were erased by the NCAA, but for some reason, this hasn’t happened with Duke.

Don’t believe the hype.

The Final Four is now set in basketball and hockey.  Duke managed to flop their way past Baylor and West Virginia exploited Kentucky’s poor outside shooting.  I really don’t like the way Tennessee plays, and I still can’t believe Ohio State let that game get away from them, but Michigan State plays even uglier and somehow got them through to play Butler.  Can I hope for a Butler/West Virginia final?  I guess on principle I should root for the Big Ten, but I really don’t think I can.  Hopefully the crowd will really be behind Butler, given that the campus is just a few miles away, but I suspect a majority of the spectators will not be local.

BC fired Al Skinner, and it apparently happened last week.  This is just bizarre.  When I heard that he had interviewed at St. John’s, I wondered why he hadn’t been fired for expressing interest in another job, like AD Gene DeFilippo did to former football coach Jeff Jagodinski.  Turns out the deed had already been done.  DeFilippo apparently believes that someone else can do better than Skinner.  Two of the last three years have been below .500, but he had 7 NCAA tournament appearances since 2001.  Skinner had success with “weak” recruiting classes and DeFilippo has got to be delusional if he thinks that BC is going to become a destination for blue chip players, even if they are in the ACC.  Just like with the firing of Jagodinski, there is a strange arrogance at work here.  In big time college athletics, BC is just not that great of a job.

In hockey, however, Jerry York does have a great job.  I still can’t figure out who this BC team is, but they keep winning.  They blow a late 6-4 lead to Maine in the Hockey East championship game and then win 7-6.  Then they struggle with a tough Alaska Fairbanks team but beat them 3-1.  Then they score 9 goals against Yale but still have trouble putting them away and win, 9-7.  Maine scored the second-most goals in Hockey East, Fairbanks allowed the second fewest in the CCHA, and Yale led the nation in goals per game, so it appears BC struggles to stop good offensive teams but can score almost at will against the weaker defensive units.  So far in the tournament they have played two flawed teams, but that will not be the case with Miami, who are fourth in the nation in goals scored and second in goals allowed.  Miami has not been setting the world on fire lately, though, which BC does have to its advantage.  Miami lost in the CCHA tournament to Michigan, and then beat Alabama – Huntsville just 2-1, before beating Michigan in double overtime.  Miami has had a great season, but it still would’ve been cool to see Michigan playing at Ford Field.

Wisconsin came out kind of flat in the first period against Vermont but then took over in the second period and ended up scoring three power play goals to win, 3-2.  I hate to say this, but this team’s only real weakness appears to be the goaltender, Scott Gudmanson.  It’s not that he’s bad, he’s just inconsistent.  He definitely made some saves to preserve the game in the third period, but it probably shouldn’t have been that close in the first place.

The regional final against St. Cloud State was a better all-around performance by the team, although there was another soft goal given up by Gudmanson. This time the Badgers came out with fire and took a 3-1 first period lead, chasing the St. Cloud State goalie who had shut them out in the WCHA playoffs.  Each time St. Cloud cut the lead to one goal, the Badgers answered quickly and won, 5-3.

That sets up the ancient rivalry with RIT, the Rochester Institute of Technology, which is not RPI.  RIT won the Atlantic Hockey regular season and tournament, and has been in Division I since 2005.  The have no scholarship players, no draft picks, and no names on their uniforms.  They beat #1 seed Denver, 2-1, which was certainly an upset, but maybe not that much of a surprise.  Denver had been kind of reeling, losing two games in a row for the first time this season in the WCHA playoffs, to North Dakota in the semifinal and then Wisconsin in the third place game.  Coach George Gwozdecky had even benched his top line and had to pull his Hobey Baker finalist goaltender in the Wisconsin game.

But to not only beat UNH, but actually blow them out?  OMG RIT, WTF?  Wisconsin is fortunate for the long break between games, as that should diminish some of RIT’s momentum, but if they score an early goal against the Badgers, look out.  That is the first game of the two national semifinals, at 5:00 Eastern on ESPN2, Thursday, April 8.

Photo from US College Hockey Online

Yes, this shot went in

Wisconsin was beaten by the better team Sunday.  They were out of it from the opening tip, as Cornell raced out to 16-4 lead 5 1/2 minutes into the game.  At that point, Cornell had four missed field goals but had four offensive rebounds and Wisconsin’s Keaton Nankivil had just picked up his second foul.  Nankivil finished the game with no points and two rebounds in just five minutes.  The Badgers closed to within 24-21, but that was as close as it got.  It was 43-31 at the half, and Wisconsin had 6 turnovers, 5 by Trevon Hughes.  In a game in which Hughes had to play great, we got the bad Trevon instead. He’s been a good soldier for his four years, and has definitely improved a lot, but he remained maddeningly inconsistent, even in his senior year.  It’s Jordan Taylor’s team to run now, and Jon Leuer will be the clear star.  Next year’s team will go as far as he takes them. 

Other than the Badger game, the tournament has been truly outstanding.  It’s too bad about Kalin Lucas, but the end of the Michigan State/Maryland game was incredible.  Ohio State also looked strong, and Purdue landed the last punch in their brawl with Texas A&M.  Maybe the Big Ten wasn’t so bad, after all, with two round two wins vs. ACC and one vs. Big 12.  Five of the final 16 teams are from non-BCS conferences (Northern Iowa, Butler, Xavier, Cornell, and St. Mary’s), plus #11 seed Washington is still alive.

NCAA Basketball Tournament Conference Breakdown:

                          Round 1                   Round 2                                         

Big Ten               4-1                              3-1

Big 12                  5-2                              2-3

ACC                     4-2                               1-3

Big East              4-4                               2-2

SEC                      2-2                               2-0

NCAA Hockey Tournament

The field was picked Sunday morning and Michigan kept their 20 year streak alive by winning the CCHA tournament.  Wisconsin plays Vermont in St. Paul, with the winner getting the St. Cloud State/Northern Michigan winner.  Michigan is in Ft. Wayne playing tough Bemidji State (who will join the WCHA next year), with the winner playing Miami/Ala. Huntsville.  So, Miami.  Cornell gets to haunt me in another sport by playing UNH, with the winner getting Denver/RIT in Albany, and BC plays Alaska Fairbanks in Worcester, with the winner getting North Dakota/Yale.  The Fighting Sioux are on one of their patented late season hot streaks, winning the WCHA tournament as the 5 seed.  Wisconsin got shut out by St. Cloud after their goalie stood on his head in the semifinal, and then beat the snot out of Denver in the third place game.

The games are Friday/Saturday and Saturday/Sunday, and most are on ESPNU.  Some of the listings say they’re on ESPNU HD, but I don’t have an HD ESPNU channel on Direct TV.  Maybe something will happen this week?  Yeah, right.

I still have to get caught up on soccer.  Liverpool beat Lille to advance in the Europa League, but lost to Man United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Photo from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

I thought the tournament was supposed to be fun.  It had been up until this game, which was excrutiating.  Jon Leuer played great throughout, and definitely converted Clark Kellogg to his fan club.  Trevon Hughes had an excellent first half, but he started doing his dribble too much, drive, and throw up a wild shot that doesn’t have a prayer in the second half.  I expected a much better team performance from the Badgers coming off their worst game of the season vs. Illinois in the Big Ten tourney.  Wofford hit their first 8 shots of the second half, but to their credit, the Badgers stayed poised.  Leuer was truly awesome, especially at the end.  He hit the go ahead jumper with 17 seconds left, caused Wofford to turn it over on their next possession, and then hit both free throws to win it with 4 seconds left.  The Badgers had just 4 turnovers for the game, but also just 3 assists. 

Cornell is next.  Their strong perimeter shooting could spell the end for Wisconsin, although I still think the Badgers are due to play a great game.  I thought it was going to come today, but it didn’t, so either it’s about to happen or they’re just not that good.

“Up above Cayuga’s waters, there is an awful smell,

Some say it is Cayuga’s waters, others say it is Cornell.”

ON WISCONSIN!

Big Star’s Alex Chilton died yesterday.

With springtime and baseball right around the corner, the best four days in sports are upon us.  Wisconsin got a #4 seed, probably deserved.  I figured they would get a #5 or #6 because they usually get disrespected by the committee.  They should get by Wofford, but the Temple/Cornell winner could be trouble.  Especially Cornell, as Temple is pretty weak offensively.  If they somehow win that, I honestly think they could give Kentucky problems.  The Badgers struggle against teams that shoot well, especially from the perimeter, which is what makes Cornell a tough matchup.  But Kentucky doesn’t do that well.  Everyone talks about Kentucky’s youth, and sure, they turn it over and don’t make free throws like a young team, but I think the real factor with them is that they’ve haven’t played anybody.  Their best three games out of conference were North Carolina, Connecticut, and Louisville, and let’s face it, the rest of the SEC really wasn’t that good.

For today’s games, I think Northern Iowa/UNLV and San Diego State/Tennessee will be close in the Midwest.  I like UTEP over Butler (12/5) but I’m not getting on the Murray State bandwagon against Vandy.  I also like BYU to make a deep run.  Those games are in the West region.  In today’s East games, I like Texas over Wake Forest and Washington over Marquette.  That’s a tough one, as I really like Marquette, but they just have no size and Washington is hot.  In the South, Richmond/St. Mary’s should be a great one, and I like the winner to take out Villanova Saturday.  I think Baylor will make a deep run, and Old Dominion will beat Notre Dame.

Speaking of ND, the great Charles Pierce of the Boston Globe (and Marquette grad) says that Digger Phelps is despised.  And no one says it better.  Not exactly surprising news, anyway.

Tonight is the Penguins at the Bruins.  Seemingly everyone is calling for blood revenge for the hit on Marc Savard by Matt Cooke.  I sincerely hope it doesn’t get too ugly.

“Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton, when he comes around,  They sing, I’m in love, what’s that song?  I’m in love, with that song.”

Badger hoops played an almost impossibly bad game and still only lost by four points to Illinois.  The Badgers shot 28.6%, and that was after hitting a bunch of prayers late, so it was actually must worse than that.  Truly unreal, but at least maybe they got the bricks out of their system for a while.  I was really down on Illinois after Sunday’s blowout, but apparently they’re going to make the tournament, although there was another example of a player acting like a little brat in the first half when Dominique Keller ignored Bruce Weber on the bench.  At least Weber didn’t let him back into the game like he did with McCamey last week.  I don’t see high character guys on that team.

I’m not even going to go over the atrocious numbers from this game, but I’ll just reiterate: it’s almost impossible to shoot as bad as the Badgers did in this game.  There were at least five missed layups in the first half alone.  They couldn’t even make free throws, for crying out loud.  There’s no reason to think that this is a trend or that the Badgers have been exposed.  This was an extreme outlier of a performance, and luckily it doesn’t matter.  Much.  They’re probably looking at a 5 or 6 seed now, and there’s no chance of playing the first two games in Milwaukee. 

How does John Beilein not at least have somebody harassing Evan Turner?  With 2.2 seconds, you should at least be able to have someone get in his way, make him go around someone.

Badger hockey beat Alaska Anchorage in game 1 of the best of 3 playoffs last night, 4-1, but apparently they didn’t play very well.  It wasn’t on TV, but hopefully the WCHA Final Five will be.

Photo from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Badgers displayed a workmanlike, clinical precision in a quality road win at Illinois that effectively ends the NCAA tournament hopes for the Illini.  They will lose again to the Badgers Friday in the Big Ten tournament and then will be NIT bound.

Jon Leuer was almost the entire offense in the first half, and it was clear throughout that Illinois had no answer for him.  He was still hurt when Illinois won in Madison earlier in the year.  Demetri McCamey, who scored 27 points for the Illini in Madison, had two points in the first half and 11 overall.  His decision making and shot selection were atrocious and then he compounded it by acting like a brat on the bench.  The game was considered a must-win for Illinois and they seemed to play very tight under the pressure.  Simply put, they don’t deserve an NCAA bid if that’s how they played in their biggest game of the year, at home. 

The Badgers built a 16 point lead in the second half and Illinois made a run to get within 55-50 after picking up the aggessiveness and getting a lot of calls from the refs, who were extremely inconsistent both ways.  Both Leuer and Trevon Hughes picked up 4 fouls before the halfway point of the second half.  But as soon as Illinois got back into the game, they started doing dumb stuff again.  McCamey forced a colossally stupid shot, then on the other end Keaton Nankivil got an offensive rebound and put back of a missed free throw.  On the ensuing possession, Illinois turned it over in the paint and McCamey intentionally fouled Jason Bohannon.  McCamey went to the bench pouting and tried to walk through Bruce Weber and then refused to make eye contact with him as Weber tried to talk to him.  Poise!

The Badgers cruised from there and won, 72-57.  Jordan Taylor played all 40 minutes and finished with 20 points, Leuer also had 20 on 8-13 FGs, and Hughes had 14 points and 11 boards.  Wisconsin dominated the offensive glass, picking up 17, including 7 by Hughes.  Wisconsin outrebounded Illinois 40-30 total.

The rematch is in Indianapolis at 2:30 Friday afternoon on ESPN.  Badger hockey clinched the #2 seed in the WCHA with a win Friday night at Minnesota and will host Alaska Anchorage next weekend in the best 2 of 3 conference playoff.

Iowa City, Iowa.  Evanston, Illinois.  Madison, Wisconsin.  Ann Arbor, Michigan.  State College, Pennsylvania.  And Piscataway, New Jersey?  Are you kidding me?  The established Big Ten cities are destinations, quaint Midwestern towns suggesting intellectualism, camaraderie, beautiful architecture, and dynamic campuses within vibrant urban areas.  Rutgers is largely a commuter school, suggesting not a destination, but a place one must endure and escape from.  New Jersey is New York’s septic system.

Let’s talk accents.  The Minnesota and Wisconsin accents are cute, almost lovable.  WiscAHNsin is beloved by Sconnies and East Coasters alike.  The Minnesota accent became a countrywide phenomenon in the movie Fargo.  The New Jersey accent, on the other hand, makes me want to smash someone in the face with a baseball bat.  It is all about anti-intellectualism, the celebration of ignorance, spray-on tans, big hair, and loud, obnoxious, belligerent people.

Rutgers would boast the cast of MTV’s The Jersey Shore.  Mike ‘The Situation’ and Snooki would be celebrated guests at sporting events.  In basketball, they are 5-11 in the Big East conference this year, 15-14 overall.  In the previous five years, their conference records are 2-16, 3-15, 3-13, 7-9, and 2-14.  Overall records over the same time period are 11-21, 11-20, 10-19, 19-14, and 10-19.  That will really increase the conference’s prestige.  Their basketball arena, the Rutgers Athletic Center, was built in 1977 and seats 8,000.  Their football program had a good year in 2006, finishing 5-2 in conference and 11-2 overall.  They’ve had one winning conference record since then.  They were 4-3, 7-5 in 2005 and had losing records 2002-2004.  U.S. News and World Report’s 2009 rankings of public schools places Rutgers behind Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, Purdue, and Minnesota.  This is far from a seamless fit.  Another argument is that the Big Ten wants to open up the New York media market.  New York sports fans follow Rutgers?  Really?  I mean, really?  More than Syracuse?  Really?

Unfortunately, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney is from South Orange, New Jersey.  Given his keen insights in the past, this is probably as good as done.  But Piscataway, New Jersey will make Urbana/Champaign and East Lansing look like Berkeley and Austin.