Classic Badger Games

The Big Ten Network has several shows on Hulu.com, and I recently used that partnership to watch one of the Big Ten's Greatest Basketball Games.

March 5th, 2003: Illinois @ Wisconsin

The game was hard-fought, with the winner taking the Big Ten Regular Season Championship. I'm not going to recap it here - either read it at ESPN or watch the game.

However, I will share some things I couldn't help thinking while the game was on:

1. Holy cow, look how young Alando Tucker looks. Nice 'fro.

2. Actually, Wilkinson looks like a preteen too. Wow.

3. Dave Mader...what an oaf. I think UW's Big Lumbering White Guys All-Star team can compete with anybody else's. Mader, freshman-sophomore year Stiemsma, J.P. Gavinski, Jason Chappell - that's a solid group.

4. That game took place over 7 years ago, and I found myself still getting excited when Devin would hit a three, or Bo got his technical foul. Good times.

Mapping the Bracket

I thought it would be interesting to get a glimpse of where the schools in this year's NCAA tournament are located, since I had no idea where I would find Siena, or Lehigh, or Morgan State, or...you get the picture.

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Texas leads all states with 7, followed by Pennsylvania with 5 and California with 4. 5 states had 3 schools in the dance, and 9 states put two schools into the tournament. I think I'd like to take a week and look at the last 10 years of tournaments, and maybe find out the percentage of eligible schools per state that have gone to the dance. For now, we'll have to settle for the 2010 rounds of 64 and 16.

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With 3/16 teams in the Sweet Sixteen, the leading conference is...the Big 10! I would have been more excited to hear that last week, before the Badgers sapped me of my interest in college basketball. Until next year.

Come Along with Me

At Slate today, Jan Swafford explores the differences between playing Beethoven on today's pianos compared to the ones that Ludwig van used to write his music. It's a great read, if you feel like reading about why ancient pianos were way better (well, maybe not better. Different.) than modern pieces.

In the article, there are clips of pianists of both eras playing two of Beethoven's compositions - the second is his piano sonata No. 23, and the first is the Moonlight Sonata.

Isn't the Moonlight Sonata the one that turns you into an omnivorous mammal under the bright, shining light of the moon? I think so.

Good news

I received a Facebook post from Mike Schroeder this morning with a link to this article about Jon Leuer's potential return to the Badger basketball team. Reading it certainly brightened my morning. As unfortunate as Jon's broken wrist was, I'm reminded that it could have been worse - Brian Butch (who, by the way, had a good weekend) destroyed his elbow immediately before the Big 10/NCAA tournaments in 2007, and that season ended in bitter heartbreak. At least this season we get to have our hearts broken at full strength...

Photos from an Imaginary Basketball Game

So. There's a big blank spot in my memory of last night from around 6 to 8. I just...don't have any recollection of what I did then. There's a vague (okay, pretty specific) feeling of disappointment and indigestion, but...who knows why?

It's not like the Badgers lost to an unranked Big Ten foe - AT HOME - that ended up pushing them from what would have been a tie for first place to fifth. No...that would be absurd!

If that HAD happened, and I HAD been there...these are the photos I would have taken (before the game slowly, inexorably went downhill and I stopped using the camera).

The seats weren't as close as I had thought, but whatever. It's Badger Basketball, who cares?

Wrong. While the seats were fine, all of the people around us were either old, Illinois fans, or OLD ILLINOIS FANS. Ugh.

This is a Badger huddle while they were up by 10 or so in the first half. Remember that? They were winning by double digits at points in this made-up game.

Goodness. Bruce Weber found a lot of things of to whine about last night. He spent more time on the court than Jared Berggren or J.P.Gavinski...maybe they could have stopped Mike Tisdale from going 8/11 from the field.

Dear Jon,
I don't know if your presence on the court last night would have meant a win. I just know that February, March, and early April have a chance to be far more enjoyable if your left wrist there heals. Quickly.

Get on that.

Love,
Jeff

Illinois @ Wisconsin 2010

The Illinois Fighting Illini travel to Madison tonight to take on the Badgers tonight. I wouldn't bring this up except that I snagged tickets to the game tonight on StubHub...in Section 101, Row C.

I have no idea how the tickets weren't gone right away, because they were priced very reasonably. Anyway, third row seats to a game that could see the Badgers jump to first place in the Big 10? Deal.

I'll put up some pictures tomorrow...unless they lose. If that happens, I will attempt to erase any memory of the game.

Saturday Recap

Saturday was not very successful in terms of wins and losses.

My broomball team went 0-2, being shut out in both games. To add injury to insult, I was checked not into the "boards" but over them by Dan Holmes, and Calli took a soccer ball to her left eye. Everybody involved will be sore tomorrow for sure.

Joe, Kelly, and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Monona to watch the Badgers game. They lost by 9 to the Ohio State University...oh how I hate that. If I have children, I think that I will be adamant about them not attending these schools:

Ohio State
Michigan State (or wherever Coach Izzo is blessing fans with his presence)
Iowa
Minnesota

(That list is not final by any means.)

So the Badgers lost, the Dirty Girl Scouts lost (that was the broomball team name), and the guy sitting next to us lost the BW3 Blazing challenge...

At least the Cubs didn't lose.

Good news/bad news

Sometimes, people come back to places they never should have left. That happened (again) today, as Greg Maddux returns to the Chicago Cubs organization as an assistant to GM Jim Hendry. While I love Maddux and am glad he's back working for the best team in baseball, it sure would have been nice to have him from 1993-2003 as well...stupid Cubs.

In the bad news segment of this post, Jon Leuer broke his left wrist in Saturday's game against Purdue. It's not good news - Leuer has stepped up his game this year, and when he's not in foul trouble (v. Ohio State and Penn State) or breaking his wrist (v. Purdue) is pretty tough to guard. Thankfully, he's only expected to be out 4-6 weeks, and his broken wrist is on the non-shooting hand.

Badgers v. Spartans, take 1.

In just 3.5 hours, the Wisconsin Badgers are going to play the Michigan State Spartans. In ~5.5 hours, Tom Izzo will limply shake Bo Ryan's hand, avoid any interaction, and then whine to East Lansing sportswriters about either the officiating, his team's shots "not falling," Hughes/Leuer/Bohannon "catching fire," or some combination of the three.

I rely upon Kenpom to satisfy my college basketball jonesing. Pomeroy consistently provides more intelligent analysis than any of ESPN or SI.com's writers, although Luke Winn will regularly cite his statistics. Besides the great analysis, I got sucked into the site with my old roommate Mike Schroeder because it doesn't overlook the Badgers. Tempo-free statistics look past the "boring, glacial Big Ten pace" and illustrate the true talent level of an offense. Tonight, Pomeroy projects the Badgers to win 67-66 (preview) in 63 possessions, with a 55% confidence level. You won't find many people picking the Badgers to win tonight, but I've learned not to doubt Bo.

Apparently, Kalin Lucas thinks the Badgers are a dirty team. Last year, center Goran Suton said similar things - I'm looking forward to their post-game interviews.

Prediction: Badgers 70, Spartans 64 in 66 possessions.

Big Ten Expansion?

I created a map and chart examining some of the potential additions to the Big 10 - you can read the post at Buckys 5th Quarter, the Badgers blog hosted on SBNation. Go check it out!