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The big quote from Bo Ryan’s players after the Wisconsin Badgers’ 57-50 victory over the Indiana Hoosiers was a variation on one of basketball’s finest cliches: Any time you can go out and win a game despite shooting poorly, that’s a very good thing.

Sometimes, the cliches hold true. Wisconsin shot just 39.8% from the field and just 4-for-17 (23.5%) from three, good for just a 43.8% effective field goal percentage (or, 0.872 points per shot from the field). It was the seventh time the Badgers posted an effective field goal percentage below 45% on the season. One of those games was the Badgers’ ugly victory over Nebraska at home two weeks ago. The other five were Wisconsin’s five losses on the season.

So given the quality of the opponent the Badgers faced yesterday — top 20 in most predictive measures, #17 in the AP Poll, and a team that has already taken down both Kentucky and Ohio State — the fact that the Badgers were able to pull out Bo Ryan’s ninth straight win over Indiana speaks to how well the Badgers played in every other aspect of the game, both offensively and defensively.

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The Badgers will look to reestablish their dominance on the floor of the Kohl Center as they take on the 17th ranked Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana sits a game behind Wisconsin in the Big Ten standings and two games behind the three-way tie atop the conference. These teams have already seen their share of adversity in the early conference season, and while their records are only a game apart, the recent past of each colors them very different.

Everybody had a pretty good idea of what Indiana was when this season began. Bringing good coaching and even better recruiting, there is little doubt Tom Crean has the program headed in the right direction. But after winning only 3 conference games last season, this team was still a long way off from regaining lost Big Ten glory. Or so we thought. After starting the year with eight straight wins against moderate competition, Indiana shocked the college basketball world with a buzzer-beating victory over top-ranked Kentucky. The Hoosiers finished non-conference play with a perfect 12-0 record before suffering their first loss at Michigan State to open Big Ten play. But another stunning upset kept them climbing up the rankings, as they knocked off #2 Ohio State, then followed it up by taking down #13 Michigan.

Since then, however, Indiana is 2-3 with a pair of wins over conference lightweight Penn State flanking a three-game losing streak. Even coming off a 19-point win, the Hoosiers have lost some of their “giant killer swag” and are looking far more like the team most expected. They’ve beaten just one conference opponent on the road (Penn State). Continue reading this post »

Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson, who recently announced he would pursue a professional football career instead of returning to Major League Baseball, will join four other Wisconsin seniors in the 2012 Senior Bowl. Despite a record-setting season with the Badgers, Wilson still has many questions to answer for NFL scouts. Will his height prevent him from being an effective NFL quarterback? Will his mobility and accuracy on the run–the qualities that made him so lethal at Wisconsin–translate to the pro game? Against a number of top NFL Draft prospects, he’ll get his chance to prove he’s ready for the big stage.

Joining Wilson on the North roster are fullback Bradie Ewing, punter Brad Nortman, long snapper Kyle Wojta, and offensive lineman Kevin Zeitler.

For the full Senior Bowl roster listings, see the game’s official website.

Jordan Taylor hit a key jumper with 38 seconds remaining and made 5 of his 6 free throws to close out the game, as the Wisconsin Badgers defeated the Illinois Fighting Illinis 67-63 in Champaign. Taylor finished with a game-high 19 points to go along with a team-high 9 rebounds, five assists, and zero turnovers.

The Badgers battled with Illinois all game, with neither team extending the lead beyond 7. After Ben Brust’s transition and-1 jumper gave Wisconsin a two-point lead in the final minute of the first half, a late bucket by Joseph Bertrand (15 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) knotted the score at 26 to end the half. The first 20 minutes were dominated by defense, as both teams slogged their way to a 73.6 ORtg. The Badgers were uncharacteristically imprecise in the first half, committing 4 early turnovers (8 total in the opening half) and missing 6 of their 8 free-throws.

Wisconsin and Illinois emerged from the break sporting matching intensity, as the margin hovered within 4 points for much of the second half. Both teams put up remarkably similar second-half stats: 14 made field goals apiece, both 8-10 from the free-throw line, a minuscule turnover rate. But the Badgers grabbed 6 offensive rebounds to Illinois’ 3 and shot better than 40 percent from deep. Illinois finished 3-12 from behind the arc.

Beyond Bertrand’s solid game, the star for Illinois was undoubtedly Meyers Leonard, who scored 16 points on 6-12 shooting and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. The Badgers struggled to cover Leonard all game, frustrated especially by some nice post entry passing by the Illinois guards when Wisconsin fronted Leonard. But Illinois was repeatedly hurt by one of their own, as Brandon Paul–he of 63 points in his last two games–repeatedly attacked an established Badger defense and hoisted difficult, contested shots. Paul finished with 10 points on 3-11 shooting in a game that resembled his first 17 far more than his last two.

Wisconsin got 18 points from Jared Berggren, who made 3 shots from deep and 7-of-14 overall. Berggren looked good on offense, even with Illinois’ perimeter pressure giving Wisconsin’s guards fits, but he missed his share of defensive rotations, particularly in the second half. Ben Brust added 9 points, Josh Gasser scored 6, and Rob Wilson, Mike Bruesewitz, and Ryan Evans each contributed 5.

With the victory, Wisconsin has now won 4 straight conference games after starting Big Ten play 1-3 and sits only a half-game behind the three-way tie for first place. There are still concerns for this team: the offense looked flustered by Illinois’ tight pressure in the half-court and prevailed largely on the back of solid three-point shooting. But with the the Big Ten unfolding in distinctively “anybody-can-beat-anybody” fashion, there’s little reason to count the Badgers out of the Conference Title race just yet.

[Editor's note: Pushed to the front page in the light of the news Joe Paterno is in serious condition. I still believe everything written here applies to the situation which so wracked the college football world and the world of State College, PA two months ago.]

The scandal at Penn State is now fully out of control.

Whether you’re a sports fan or perhaps a fan of simple human decency, there is only one possible reaction to the news of child abuse by a former Penn State defensive coordinator: outrage. Simple outrage, with regret over the lost opportunities to prevent the pain caused by Jerry Sandusky’s horrific actions.

But I am not here to write about what Jerry Sandusky did. That is for different outlets and better writers, like Spencer Hall and Drew Magary. I have nothing to add on this front.

Instead, it is the developments of Tuesday night that I would like to discuss. Beginning around 7:00 local time, a significant chunk of the student body of Penn State began to swarm around the house of revered coach Joe Paterno, and perhaps the oddest — and, in my opinion, the most misguided — demonstration of my short life began.

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Seven games in and the Big Ten has seen zero separation.  With Penn State’s upset win against Illinois on Thursday, every team in the league sits between 5-2 and 2-5 in conference. Wisconsin sits at 4-3,  just a game back of the lead and a half-game behind Illinois, Saturday’s opponent in one of the bigger games of Wisconsin’s remaining schedule.

Although it seemed like home court was hardly sacred any more in the Big Ten early on — Iowa beat the Badgers at the Kohl Center, the Badgers beat Purdue at Mackey Arena, Minnesota won at Indiana — things have righted themselves over the past week. The only road victory in the Big Ten since January 12 — the same night Wisconsin and Minnesota beat Purdue and Indiana respectively — only one team has won on an opponent’s floor in 10 tries, and that was Minnesota over a usually-hapless Penn State team (but not always-hapless, as Illinois found out).

As much as home court advantage plays, however, the loss at Penn State showed the vulnerabilities of the Illini. Can the Badgers capitalize at Assembly Hall on Saturday?

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The talk of upsets was unavoidable heading into the broadcast on Big Ten Network. Even the the Badgers got back on track with victories against Purdue and Nebraska last week, the Badgers didn’t look particularly good against the Cornhuskers and, of course, lost a home game to Iowa earlier in the season. A shocking last-minute victory by Nebraska over Indiana only spurned the talk on at Big Ten Network headquarters.

It was close for the first half, but Northwestern’s key weaknesses — rebounding, shot defense, and depth — bit the Wildcats in the second half. The Badgers grabbed nine offensive rebounds on 27 misses (33.3%) while the Wildcats managed just three on their 26 missed shots (11.5%) and didn’t grab their second offensive board until less than three minutes remained in the game. The Badgers also shed their three-point woes, coming back from a stretch of 10-for-68 (14.7%) three-point shooting at home to nail 12-of-23 (and 11 of the first 17) to pull away, eventually settling on a 77-57 victory.

Ryan Evans was solid with a 17-point, nine-rebound performance, and Mike Bruesewitz was active, particularly in the first half with 13 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. But it was Jordan Taylor who truly powered the Badgers in the win. The key piece of his performance? The return of the three-point shot — Taylor drilled four of his six three point attempts, three of which began the run which opened the game up in the second half.

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The Dean of Links encourages you to sign Google’s petition against SOPA and PIPA today. End piracy, not liberty.

Now, links.

From the Department of the Exterior:
UW football: Canada’s old boss says he’s a ‘perfect match’ for Badgers – Madison.com

The Badgers hired Matt Canada to take over as offensive coordinator earlier this week. Although Canada isn’t a big name in college football, he’s been at the head of some very prolific offenses over the course of his career, mostly at Northern Illinois from 1998-2003 and again in 2011, as the Huskies won the MAC Championship and had one of the nation’s best offenses, scoring 38.3 points per game. Canada’s team ran a spread offense with Chandler Harnish under center, but as Madison.com reports, Canada is versatile and should be able to fit well at Wisconsin.

Wow, made it through that whole paragraph without a Canada pun. Pretty impressive, eh?.

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The differences between the Jordan Taylor of 2011 and the Jordan Taylor of 2012 have been stark. The senior point guard certainly hasn’t lived up to the All-American designation last year’s performance earned him in the preseason. Still, there can be no denying: he remains Wisconsin’s most dangerous offensive player, and although his shot still didn’t fall in Sunday’s 50-45 victory against Nebraska, his court performance saved the squad from a second embarrassing home loss in conference play.

Taylor was just 4-for-11 from the field in the victory over the hapless Cornhuskers — now just 1-5 in their inaugural Big Ten season — but he attacked the free throw line, converting on 11-of-15 attempts, including five in the last 30 seconds of what was a one-possession game until the final 10. Overall, it was a 19-point game for Taylor, who is now back to his scoring ways, averaging a solid 17.8 points per game in the Badgers’ four January contests.

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Entering Thursday night, the last time Wisconsin won at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette was seven years ago. Shariff Chambliss ran the point, Alando Tucker was the team’s budding superstar, and at least on January 5, 2005, Zach Morley — this dude — was the team’s leading scorer.

And that comprised a full one half of Wisconsin’s wins at Mackey Arena. The other came on February 12, 1972, at a time when box scores looked like this:

Just “G”, “F”, and “T”. That’s “Goals” — they were all worth two back then — “Free,” and “Total.” Then total fouls and scoring by half. That’s all you get.

The point is, the Badgers don’t win very often at Mackey Arena. After starting Big Ten play off 1-3, their third win in the building couldn’t come at a better time.

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