Location: Madison, Wis. | Founded: 1848 | Enrollment: 41,466 | Colors: Cardinal and White
Coach: Bo Ryan | Home Court: Kohl Center | Capacity: 17,142 Record:
(20-13, 10-8
Big Ten)
The win total varies from year-to-year -- sometimes it ends up at 30, sometimes it eds up at 20 -- but the end-of-season story remains remarkably similar at Wisconsin during the Bo Ryan era.
For the eighth time in eight years under Ryan, the Badgers made the NCAA Tournament. For the seventh time in eight years, the Badgers won their opening-round game. And, for the fifth time in eight years, the Badgers are done after the tournament's opening weekend. After upsetting Florida State in an East regional first-round game, 12th-seeded Wisconsin dropped a 60-49 decision to fourth-seeded Xavier on Sunday at Boise.
"It makes a huge statement for the type of guys we have (that we made the final 32)," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan told reporters after the Xavier loss. "We might have been a little short in some areas -- and not necessarily height -- but just in some areas of the game of basketball that we didn't particularly function well in during the year, that came back to bite us a little bit here."
One other near-constant in Madison? The Badgers head into the offseason knowing they have to replace multiple crucial seniors (Marcus Landry and Joe Krabbenhoft) who left an indelible mark on the program. Landry (12.7 ppg, 4.6 rpg) was a second-team all-Big Ten pick by the coaches in his final two years. Krabbenhoft (8.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg) became the first Badger to account for at least 750 rebounds and 250 assists over his career.
"After losing six games in a row and finishing the way we did," Landry said after the Xavier loss, "just to get into the NCAA Tournament was great. I never heard of any other team that has done that."
As Landry suggests, Wisconsin's 2008-09 season can be split into at least two parts. During the first 15 games, the Badgers sorted out their roles (particularly defensively) in the wake of Brian Butch's and Michael Flowers' graduation. Wisconsin went 12-3 during that span -- with its lone losses to No. 2 Connecticut, No. 9 Texas and No. 25 Marquette -- but it also struggled to beat also-rans such as Iona and Idaho State.
Then came the six-game losing streak from Jan. 11 through Jan. 31 as the Badgers, so accustomed to winning tight games and home games, squandered late leads in four of those contests. The back-to-back overtime losses to Minnesota and Iowa were particularly galling.
But then came starting forward Keaton Nankivil's ankle injury, which forced sixth man Jon Leuer into the starting lineup and started the Badgers' strong finish. Wisconsin went 8-4 with Leuer in the lineup while Nankivil almost disappeared (only to make a big splash in the NCAAs).
Nankivil (4.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg), who came off the bench to produce 14 points and four rebounds against Florida State, figures to have first call on Landry's starting spot, though redshirting freshman Jared Berggren was a Top 100 recruit who's believed to have a big upside.
As for Krabbenhoft's role as the "glue guy," junior-to-be Tim Jarmusz (3.4 ppg) seems to be built in that mold. The Badgers also have sophomores Jordan Taylor (1.6 ppg) and Rob Wilson (1.5 ppg) waiting in the wings. Wisconsin also welcomes a pair of freshman -- guard Diamond Taylor from Bolingbrook, IIl. and forward Mike Bruesewitz from Mendota Heights, Minn., -- into the mix next year.
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The nonconference schedule is not completed but frankly from what I can see even if the rest are cream puffs the Badgers will have one of, if not the best SOS in the nation next year. Not only do they play Duke next year but they also play in the Maui Invitational (a hugely tough tourney), and they'll play Marquette and the other two in state schools. Knowing Greg Gard though I suspect an
According to Rivals.com Evan Anderson drops to a 4 star and is now ranked #37 overall for the class of 2010. He also dropped to #3 for centers in his class. He is still 6'11" and 250 lbs.
I was asked to keep this a secret when i was told by Van Blue...but he officially re-opened up his recruitment today. Im a good friend Van's and he has pretty much known that he was gonna decommit from UW for a while now, and i say good for him. He doesnt deserve to dumb his game down to fit into Bo Ryans system that no longer works in my opinion. Him opening up his commitment me
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Yep, I think Bo knows what is going on. I think he's alot smarter than some of the vocal MINORITY of posters (**cough** motion **cough** **cough** MT **cough**) on this board give him credit for:
The question is relatively simple. Shoud Bo Ryan move Jason Bohannon back to the bench?
I think he should, for a couple of reasons, Jason is probably the best 3 point shooter on the team. He struggled mightily at times last yer with his shot. It just seems like he needs to be on the bench to get in the flow of the game. I like Jason as a player, I just think h
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Although the matchups have not been officially announced yet, I think I know what the matchups will be for the first round. The way I think they do it for these tournaments is they rank the teams in the order of last season's RPI numbers, so based on the RPI, here is what I think the matchups will be.
Hey guys, I just saw something interesting about one of our former Badgers, Freddie Owens. He of course was the guy who made one of the most clutch shots in Badger history during the 2003 tournament against Tulsa. I saw that he was just hired as an assistant coach at Montana, so I am pretty certain that they will be paying a visit to Madison in the not too distant future. Bo will
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J.P. Tokoto became one of the youngest players ever to receive a scholarship offer from the University of Wisconsin Wednesday afternoon.
The multi-skilled and ultra-athletic 6-foot-5 wing player recently completed his freshman season at Menomonee Falls and is now playing on the grassroots scene for the Wisconsin Playground Warriors.
RUmor has it that JP Gavinski will give up his scholarship for his senior season. Rumor also has it that a 3 star Xavier recruit (JD Weatherspoon) who had verbally committed to Xavier but just recently decommitted might be the one taking this scholarship. Weatherspoon is known to be an athletic forward. We'll see what develops here. He would join Vander Blue and Evan Anderson in the
Anyone else notice that one of the key bench reserves for the Dayton Flyers was Mickey Perry (former Wisconsin Badger who transferred). Dayton had a very good team this year and from what I understand Perry was part of their guard rotation averaging 14.5 minutes per game and appearing in 33 games and from what I understand his minutes grew as the year went on. I always thought Perry was a prett
First of all, congratulations Badgers on a great first round! I love to see the Florida teams go down.
I know there are a handful of areas that need improvement for next season to be more successful than this one was. The biggest one I can think of is finishing the games strong. There more than a handfull of times this season where we could just not fin
Not bad for losing so many seniors. I had you guys going into the Sweet 16 beating Xavier. You know how much I must have thought of you considering I have suffered some heart ache at the hands of Bo Ryan and the Badgers. That score skews how close the game really was. Shockingly, Xavier won by playing down and dirty Big Ten ball. Good luck to y
