Shameless Self-Promotion: An Early Look at 2014-15 Purdue basketball

Hello there, it's been a while. If there's anybody out there, I took a few weeks or so off from the blog world after Michigan's loss to Kentucky, partially from spring malaise but mostly because discerning spring football tea leaves or worse, talking about recruiting, isn't really my thing.

In any case, I've started a little preview/retrospective basketball series over at Maize n Brew, which will run each Wednesday from today until there are no more teams to preview (yes, I will even do Rutgers and Maryland).

I started with the struggling Purdue Boilermakers today, who didn't make the tournament for the second straight season and appear to be in for another rough season, barring several guys really blowing up. Could it be Painter's last season in West Lafayette? The best early guess is yes, but when a team like Nebraska can jump up into the top four of the conference, anything is possible.

Michigan's comeback falls short, Badgers knock off Wolverines in Ann Arbor

No. 15 Michigan 62, No. 21 Wisconsin 75

The Wolverines have taken care of business on the road this season, notching wins in Madison, East Lansing and Columbus; on Sunday, Michigan's season became about defending its home court. 

The No. 21 Wisconsin Badgers rolled into Ann Arbor this afternoon with a three-game winning streak, on the heels of a 1-5 stretch. Wisconsin's defense tightened up after that brutal stretch and, lo and behold, the Badgers got back on the winning track. 

However, winning at home (or on the road against a team like Illinois) is a different animal from winning in Ann Arbor against the team tied for the top spot in the conference standings. 

The Badgers clearly came ready to play, as they jumped out to an early 12-2 lead, paced by a pair of threes from Josh Gasser. The script was a little different this time around; this time, the Badgers were the ones shooting the lights out early in the game. 

Meanwhile, Michigan struggled on the offensive end, with just seven points by the second media timeout. Also, as is Wisconsin's defensive style, the Wolverines didn't have a single three-point attempt to their name by that point in the game. 

Michigan had no answer for Frank Kaminsky on the block and the slashing Sam Dekker, either. The Badgers are by no means a great offensive rebounding team --in fact, Bo Ryan de-emphasizes it in favor of getting back on defense-- but UW had six offensive boards through 11 minutes or so of play. If the Wolverines couldn't find a way to clean up on the glass and toughen up on the block, it appeared as if the Badgers were poised to upset them in Ann Arbor. 

Michigan continued to take the long twos Wisconsin routinely offers, but, unlike the matchup in Madison, the Wolverines couldn't connect. More importantly, the Badgers consistently held Michigan to one-and-done. 

With UW dominating every aspect of the game in the first half, the Wolverines might have been lucky to be down "just" 34-19 at the break. 

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Nebraska

It wouldn't be a Big Ten road game without some late game drama. The Michigan Wolverines moved to 3-0 tonight in the conference, but not without some struggles. Nebraska drove around Wolverine defenders all game, from the pick and roll or 1-on-1, resulting in one of the most frustratingly poor defensive performances since Michigan's loss to Penn State last season.

But, in the end, Michigan had one more point than Nebraska when the game ended, and that's all that counts when you hit the road in this conference. In any case, my recap of tonight's excitement went up at Maize n Brew a little while ago, as usual.

Spartans survive Buckeye comeback bid, hand OSU first loss of the season

No. 3 Ohio State 68, No. 5 Michigan State 72

While the temperatures in the Midwest continue to plummet, the mercury rose when the undefeated No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes headed to East Lansing tonight. The opening salvos? A thunderous dunk by Ohio State, then answered by two straight Spartan threes. 

Although the Buckeyes came in unbeaten, they had not been tested by an especially strenuous schedule to date; a trip to the Breslin Center would change that the minute the ball went up to open the game. 

Neither squad shot particularly well early, but four Buckeye turnovers helped the Spartans jump out to an 11-5 lead about seven minutes into the game. 

The pace picked up, and the Buckeyes rode a 7-0 run to a 1-point lead. Through about 10 minutes, neither team got much going in the halfcourt game; that is, when either of them took the opportunity to pull up and and run some offense. More often than not, the half progressed at breakneck speed, resulting in stretches of sloppy play. 

However, a 7-0 Spartan run at the end of the opening frame sent OSU into the half down 28-21. The Buckeyes shot just 33.3 percent and turned it over 10 times in the first half. 

OSU's leading scorer, LaQuinton Ross, managed just three first-half points, albeit on only two field goal attempts. The Buckeyes would have to find a way to get him involved in the second half if they were going to avoid the sort of the fate they doled out to Marquette back in November. 

Wisconsin struggles in first half, pulls past Iowa in second after McCaffery ejection

file photo 

Wisconsin 75, Iowa 71

One more win would give the No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers their best start in program history (15-0); however, the visiting No. 22 Iowa Hawkeyes posed UW's toughest test yet.

The Hawkeyes, who many --myself included-- have been predicting big things for these last couple of seasons, seem to have finally hit their stride. The Hawkeyes entered tonight's game with a 12-2 (1-0) record, with an overtime loss to Villanova and a 3-point loss at the Hilton Coliseum in Ames the only black marks on their record to date.

Combine Iowa's desire to push the pace and UW's seemingly newfound ability to do so this season and you had all the makings for an up-tempo, decidedly un-B1G game.

The Hawkeyes gave UW problems early with their size, allowing them to jump out to a 9-3 lead, partially helped out by rebounding four of their first five misses of the night.

The Iowa lead ballooned to 15-4, as Iowa had no answer for Iowa on the boards or in transition. Tell me if you've heard this before, but UW's best chance at winning this one seemed to be slowing things down and winning it halfcourt possession by halfcourt possession.

The Badgers started the game 3-of-16 from the field, with Frank Kaminsky converting all three makes. Somehow, UW trailed by just seven after a frigid start from the field.

Things heated up quickly for the Badgers, who rattled off a 13-4 run to pull within two, powered mostly by two triples from Kaminsky and one from Josh Gasser. With a little dribble penetration, the Badgers started to find some open looks. Even so, the Badgers would have to tighten things up on the defensive end, starting with the defensive boards, where the Hawkeyes absolutely demolished them in the opening 20 minutes for an offensive rebounding percentage of 61 percent.

Then again, a combined start of 0-of-9 from the field from Sam Dekker and Ben Brust couldn't continue either if UW planned on walking out into the Madison chill with a victory.

Michigan moves to 2-0 in the Big Ten, tops Northwestern 74-51

Michigan 74, Northwestern 51

The only questions coming into this afternoon's game against Northwestern revolved around Glenn Robinson III's injury status and the magnitude of Michigan's margin of victory against the lowly 7-7 Wildcats. 

On the first point, the Wolverines got a boost when Robinson took the floor as one part of Michigan's starting five. With that question settled, only one remained. 

However, nine minutes into the game, the Wildcats led, 10-9, with the Wolverines having shot just 33 percent and turned it over three times already. 

Northwestern's packed in defense gave Michigan trouble, as the Wolverines couldn't hit their outside shots early in the game. Northwestern's defensive strategy was not unlike that of a World Cup underdog, playing conservatively with one striker and hoping to beat a more talented team 1-0 via one swift counterattack goal. 

Chris Collins's Wildcats did their best to slow the game down, walking the ball up the floor and taking as much out of each 35-second possession as possible. However, Michigan eventually decided it was having none of it, and that's when it started to build up a bit of a lead. 

Michigan went into the half up 31-24, but it felt as if the Wildcats had played Michigan to a tie. Regardless, the story of the first half was Jordan Morgan. The fifth-year big man scored eight points and reeled in five boards while flashing the transition speed that has made him a fan favorite over the years. 

When the two teams stepped onto the floor in the second half, Northwestern would try to keep the game slow, while the Wolverines would once again put the pedal to the metal. Either way, the Wolverines would have play better defense, especially Nik Stauskas. Matched up against NU star Drew Crawford, Crawford scored 13 of NU's 24 first half points. 

Michigan's 1-of-8 mark from beyond the arc also conspired to keep the game close; the Wolverines would have to connect more frequently than that in the second half if they planned on pulling away before the game's final minutes. 

The two teams traded 5-0 runs to start the second frame; clearly, the Wildcats did not plan on going away without a fight. 

Fortunately for the Wolverines, Northwestern's offensive attack could most generously be deemed "punchless." Sanjay Lumpkin missed a layup that would have cut Michigan's lead to four; after that, Michigan slowly pulled away. 

Michigan's offense was far from a well-oiled machine, but its defense did get a little better, as Crawford had zero second half points by the 8-minute media timeout. 

A pair of monstrous transition dunks from Robinson later, and Michigan found itself up by 16 with under eight minutes to play. 

The lead continued to balloon, as the Wildcats simply did not have enough to make a serious push. Northwestern might be a tough team to play in two or three years, but, for now, a last place finish in the conference appears to be a certainty. 

With the 74-51 win, Michigan moves to 10-4 (2-0) on the season. Nik Stauskas led the way with 18 points, while Jordan Morgan played Crazy Eights (8 points, 8 rebounds). 

Michigan heads to Lincoln on Thursday, where they'll face the 8-6 (0-2) Nebraska Cornhuskers. 

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Kansas State, Minnesota

It's been a little quiet here of late, but now that Big Ten basketball is underway that should hopefully be changing. In any case, if you missed my last football recap of the season, I wrote about Saturday's Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl over at Maize n Brew.

In sunnier news, my recap of tonight's basketball game against Minnesota at The Barn went up at Maize n Brew a little while ago; you can read that here.

If you told me that Michigan would win a Big Ten game on the road without Mitch McGary, without Glenn Robinson III for most of the second half and with Zak Irvin leading the way in scoring, well, I would not have believed you. But, that is exactly what happened. The fearless freshman scored 15 points for Michigan tonight, all from beyond the arc (5-for-8 from three).

A big performance from Jon Horford (14 points, 9 rebounds) paced Michigan in the frontcourt. The Wolverines did not show up on the defensive glass --Minnesota rebounded 46.8 percent of its misses-- but that was by no means Horford's fault.

Michigan will have to do a better job on the glass the rest of the way, but, for tonight, a win is a win. The most important numbers of all are the following: 1-0, Michigan's Big Ten record.

Big Ten Basketball Weekend Roundup

While Michigan fans were busy sweating out a triple overtime victory against Northwestern, several Big Ten basketball squads were in action yesterday, all four scoring victories of varying significance. Of course, the Wolverines face off against Iowa State later today in Ames.

Here's what happened around the Big Ten yesterday:

No. 20 Wisconsin 69, Green Bay 66

The Badgers jumped on US-151 yesterday and headed for Ashwaubenon, Wis., where they faced the Green Bay Phoenix of the Horizon League.

Bo Ryan's squad went down 15-9 early, but the Badgers pulled into the half with a 34-29 lead after averaging 1.14 points per possession. Sam Dekker led UW in the first half with eight points on 4-of-6 from the field. Josh Gasser bounced back from a scoreless Florida outing to put up seven points in the first half.

The Phoenix not only hung around in the second half, they owned a 4-point lead with just over 10 minutes left to play. Green Bay guard Keifer Sykes killed the Badgers all game, finishing the night with 32 points.

However, a 10-0 run by the Badgers put them up 60-54 with six minutes left to play, a lead they would not relinquish. Frank Kaminsky, not known for his play down low, came up big late in the game with several big baskets from the post. Kaminsky logged a double-double on the night (16 points, 11 rebounds).

Possibly Kaminsky's biggest play of the game came with four seconds remaining and the Badgers up 68-66. After Traevon Jackson split a pair of free throws, UW-GB had the chance to tie or take the lead. Sykes drove hard to the rim, but Kaminsky helped, swatted the shot and corraled the rebound. Kaminsky went on to also split a pair of free throws at the other end, giving Sykes once last chance at a desperation three.

The shot at the buzzer landed just off the mark, allowing the Badgers to escape with a victory that was probably much closer than they expected it to be. UW-Green Bay will be a team to watch in the Horizon League going forward (and come March Madness, should they make the field).

No. 10 Ohio State 52, No. 17 Marquette 35 

The football team was busy notching its 22nd victory in a row, a 60-35 victory at Illinois. Meanwhile, the basketball team notched a victory with a nearly identical score, which should be a pretty solid indicator of the type of basketball team Thad Matta has this year. They'll have to find more scoring as the year goes on, but that defense is nasty. 

Marquette shot an abysmal 18.9% from the field. Shannon Scott and Aaro Craft led the Buckeyes with 13 and 10 points, respectively; F Sam Thompson pitched in 13 from the bench. LaQuinton Ross, however, who had himself a nice tournament run this past March, went 0-of-6 from the field and scored zero points. 

It wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing game of all time, but a win against a ranked Marquette team, in Milwaukee, will likely end up a quality victory come tournament time. 

Penn State 83, Penn 71

The Nittany Lions lost the second half by 11 points; luckily for them, they went into halftime up by 23. In case you didn't already know, Tim Frazier is back: he scored 29 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Frazier also added seven assists, but did cough up six turnovers. 

Penn State is now 2-1 on the season. 

Minnesota 74, Richmond 59

Richard Pitino's Minnesota squad also hit the road on Saturday, traveling to Richmond's Robins Center. The Gophers jumped out to an early 12-0 lead but went into the half up just 40-37. 

From there, the game was fairly even for the first 13 minutes or so of the second half. The Spiders went up 59-55 with 7:25 to play, but the Gophers surged ahead with a 19-0 run to close the game. Andre Hollins paced the Gophers with 26 points; Austin Hollins, Malik Smith and Joey King also cracked double-digits. 

One Vote For Wisconsin Basketball Not Being "Boring"

Kohl Center--Feb. 9, 2013 (Fouad Egbaria)

Continuing with this year's theme of "just posting whatever, whenever I want" rather than doing things like building a coherent BRAND, I wanted to drop this Andy Glockner article here before we get to t-minus one week to Michigan football.

As excited as I was for the 2012-13 basketball season--an excitement that rivaled its football counterpart for the first time ever--it's hard not to get excited about this season, too. Yes, Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. are gone, and I won't get to use the "Trey Burke is not human" and "adventures in THJ's shooting" tags here anymore. Nonetheless, the Wolverines will once again be in the thick of things in the Big Ten; and, as we saw in March, anything can happen in the Big Dance.

I'm also excited for Big Ten basketball in general, in a way that's somewhat more difficult to feel about Big Ten football because of the respective quality of the two leagues. Big Ten football has seen better days, but the basketball league is perhaps as strong as ever.

Anyway, after visiting Madison a couple of times this year (one time for, yes, that game in February) and another just to see the town, I've developed a little thing for that Ann Arbor-esque town situated between two lakes in southern Wisconsin. With that thing has come an increased following of Badger sports. The Glockner article above is worth a read if you're looking for a basketball fix before we plunge into the black hole that is football season.

Glockner attempts to make a case for some vague sort of aesthetic value to be found in UW's Gradgrindian efficiency, which, like he says, is "very much in the eye of the beholder." Whether or not you agree with him is irrelevant (no, UW basketball is not as fun to watch as, say, Louisville, Kentucky, and yes, Michigan at the height of its powers), but there are some interesting bits in there, including this, regarding when UW takes its shots:

Wisconsin is well known for making defenses defend late into the shot clock, but even that reputation isn’t entirely accurate. Two coaches at league rivals said more or less the same thing: The Badgers are the most bimodal team they face, with the vast majority of shots coming either in the first seven seconds of the shot clock — yes, the first — or the last seven. 

Popular opinion of the Badger offense claims that they simply swing it for 30 seconds before Jordan Taylor/some 6'8'' lumberjack/whoever throws up a trey, but that doesn't always seem to be the case. That will definitely be something to keep an eye on this season, as I've generally been of the aforementioned popular opinion.

Also, there's this:

Last season the Badgers struggled with very poor outside shooting from the frontcourt but still won 23 games and earned a 5-seed in the NCAAs (where they lost to Ole Miss in the Round of 64). Ryan believes last year was a bit of a fluke in terms of the shooting, with point guard Josh Gasser missing the season due to injury and forward Jared Berggren, who made over 37 percent of his threes in 2012, connecting on just 25 percent last season.

Remember when UW got thumped at Florida, 74-56, early in the season? And how the Badgers finished 13th in the nation in three-point attempts but 225th in three-point percentage? Not that you didn't know this already, but, like him or not (and for everyone not wearing Badger red, that would probably be "not"), Bo Ryan is a sorcerer. After that Florida game, I figured there was no way the Badgers would finish the way they did, with a first-round Big Ten Tournament bye and a 5-seed in the Big Dance. Of course, they did, and no one was all that surprised.

Ryan does get guard Josh Gasser back, Brust will likely continue to give fans of other Big Ten teams night terrors and Sam Dekker is a rising star. On the other hand, the Badgers have a lot of production to replace, this time in the frontcourt, with the graduation of Mike Brusewitz, Jared Berggren and Ryan Evans.

However, as 2012-13 showed once again, the Badgers are institutionally conditioned to weather these sorts of things, and I'd imagine they will be in or near the top third of the Big Ten standings this season.

Fortunately for Michigan, they will get a crack at the Badgers at home this season. That said, a trip to the Kohl Center is also on the docket, and the Wolverines will once again look to come away from that place with a win for the first time since 1999.

Miscellaneous Minutiae, 11/20/12

This is the first one of these in a while. With school winding down for the Thanksgiving break, I should be able to get a few things up this week leading up to The Game. 

60 Minutes piece. In case you missed it (and you probably didn't), Michigan was featured prominently Sunday in a 60 Minutes spot on the state of college football. Nothing "new" was presented --yes, college football has always been about the money, even when it supposedly wasn't-- but it was interesting to see Michigan chosen as one of two representatives of the industry of collegiate athletics:


I would be lying if I didn't say that, on the heels of Saturday's smashing victory, that the part of the brain that sends out neurotransmitters telling you to be SO PROUD weren't firing as I watched Michigan run out under the banner, Kovacs make a Kovacsy tackle on the edge and the Big House crowd going wild. I honestly have not delved too much into the reaction to the piece, but I imagine there was some hemming and hawing about Dave Brandon saying the things that Dave Brandon is wont to say.

All I'll say is this: I have been generally supportive of Brandon, and plan on being so until something truly egregious happens. No, uniform experimentation, Legends patches and all the other mildly annoying but decidedly ancillary things that Brandon has engineered do not fall under this umbrella. My only criticism is his point that playing games in places like Dallas generates fan interest for games at home. Even I, the endangered species that is the DB supporter, cannot get behind this byzantine logic.

Again, this is nothing new, but it's hard not to feel a little bit queasy (okay, a lot queasy) at the mere notion of what college football actually is, outside of the boundaries of standard platitudes about the mythical student-athlete and all the other things that we like to think exist but don't. Unfortunately, Pandora is out of the box, and it's not going back in.

Speaking of the industry...via Kyle Meinke, Brady Hoke has dropped down to the 12th highest paid coach in college football, down from 8th. He is "only" making $3,046,120, down a couple of hundred thousand from last season. During the 60 Minutes piece last night, Nick Saban was asked whether or not he is "worth it" (re: his ridiculous salary).

Saban self-deprecatingly answered "probably not." I wonder what Hoke's response would be? "Wellll there's no question that cheese pizza is the best food that you have and in no way should chicken come into the equation and those great kids in the Michigan community that eat that pizza know what the tradition of cheese pizza means to this university and the fans and past eaters of cheese pizza." 

Obligatory expansion ire. So, Maryland and Rutgers. If anything in sports would inspire a lukewarm at best reaction, it would be this.

On the bright side, at least the Big Ten will finally tap into the college football haven that is New York City, where Rutgers University is in fact located. What's that? *Checks map.* Ah, I see.

This puts the conference at 14 teams, two away from attaining superconference status. If these acquisitions confuse you, just wait until the Big Ten makes the now seemingly inevitable move to 16 teams.

GIFs, Ohio State edition. Just in case you needed reminding, Ohio State is our rival and we do dislike them to a certain extent. Here's a GIF of David Boston looking like he's in a game of Fight Night (via Eleven Warriors, HT mgoblog), from the tremendous time-space known as "1997":

Good, good. Let the hate flow through you.

Big Ten basketball is not terrible hey let's talk about it. I haven't gotten into the college basketball season yet in earnest due to time-related reasons, but here's a very brief roundup of the Big Ten's performance thus far to give you a vague outline of how things have played out:

• Michigan: 4-0. Best team in the history of organized sports. Will win every game by no fewer than 84 points. The Wolverines take the floor at the World's Most Famous Arena Wednesday night against Pitt. 

• Iowa: 4-0. Hasn't played anybody of note, but this is a team that could make some noise this year. Roy Devyn Marble and now sophomore Aaron White are averaging 15.5 and 14.8 ppg, respectively. 

• Indiana: 4-0. Like everyone else, they've taken care of business against a bunch of nobodies. They were tied with Georgia at the half last night but pulled out a 66-53 win. As expected, they can definitely fill it up (#1 in ppg as a team coming into last night's game). The question that lingers from last season is whether or not they can actually play defense. 

• Nebraska: 3-0. Good start for the Huskers under new HC Tim Miles. Did have a close 2-point victory against Valparaiso, which is at least a known mid-major brand. 

• Purdue: 1-3. Easily the biggest disappointment of the conference to date. This is not a vintage Matt Painter Purdue team to say the least. I'm not sure where the points will come from with this roster during life after Hummel/Lewis Jackson. The Boilers have losses to Bucknell, Villanova (in OT) and Oregon State to their name already. D.J. Byrd as your leading scorer with 11 ppg is fairly grim. 

• Ohio State: 3-0. Again, early season caveats, but the Buckeyes did beat Washington to win the Hall of Fame tourney, so that's something. The Buckeyes do have a date with Duke coming up on the 28th. 

• Wisconsin: 2-1. 2012 is the year that will prove once and for all whether or not Wisconsin can really Wisconsin around and somehow go .500+ in the Big Ten without really having a point guard. Swing offense, yeah! Anyway, the Badgers took a pretty ugly loss on the road at Florida in between blowouts of Southeastern Louisiana and Cornell. The Badgers take on a ranked Creighton team on the 23rd.  

• Penn State: 2-2. Lost to NC State by 17 (who just got destroyed by Oklahoma State) and got bludgeoned by Akron in Puerto Rico, 60-85. They do still have Tim Frazier, so hopefully he will continue to enjoy doing everything, all the time. 

• Illinois: 3-0. The John Groce era is off to a nice start, if you ignore the fact that the Illini had to battle back from a 16-point second half deficit to beat Hawaii in overtime, 78-77. 

• Michigan State: 2-1. The Spartans took a tough loss to UConn on the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany (Read that sentence again...welcome to sports in 2012!) The Spartans bounced back to knock off Kansas in their next game, though. 

• Northwestern: 3-0. Same song here: three games, three blowouts. The only currently ranked team left on Northwestern's non-conference schedule is #24 Baylor. Given the Wildcats' struggles in the conference schedule, anything less than 10-2 in the non-conference probably means another year without a tourney invite for Carmody's 'Cats. 

• Minnesota: 4-0. Four meaningless blowouts. They take on Duke on Thursday before traveling to Florida State on the 27th. Oh, also, Rodney Williams Jr. is shooting a ridiculous 73.5% from the field. 

So, there you have it. Nothing of note so far other than Purdue looking like it could be very, very bad this season. Michigan, Indiana and Ohio State are, as the rankings would indicate, the class of the conference, and Michigan State will of course be in the mix as well. Wisconsin is probably in for somewhat of a down year, but a tournament appearance should still be in the cards, as I'm sure they'll find a way to somehow win 10 Big Ten games.

More? DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK.  "On the latest Sports Retort, how do Big Ten traditionalists make peace with the new, less-pedigreed teams headed for their conference, which now includes miles of Atlantic coastline?" AHHHHH. "How does the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry compare with that of the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers?" AHHHHHHH. 

Apropos of nothing, the line for the Iron Bowl currently sits at 'Bama -31.5 (I probably didn't need to include the "Bama" part). Auburn fans, welcome to Michigan football circa 2008. 

BHGP on Saturday...I know that feel, man.