Hoopraker

With last grains of 2007 slipping through the hourglass and the eighteen questions of the Big Ten exam looming the conference’s teams enjoy a brief tabula rasa moment, taking stock of what has passed and girding themselves for the three and a half most important months of their new year.

Hail Bo And The Badgers

Wisconsin’s gutty win in Austin was the best and biggest win of any Big Ten team thus far. Responding valiantly without lead guard Trevon Hughes against a foe with arguably the most dangerous guard tandem in the country, the Badgers exorcised the Duke and Marquette losses and gave themselves a huge momentum win.

This was Bo Ryan basketball at its best - patient half-court execution, crisp ball reversals, pick and rolls, team defense, intangible-rich effort. And then, with the game on the line, one of those well taught screens gives Michael Flowers a clean look. All of it then sealed with a hustling defensive play.

Bo Ryan fighting back tears in the postgame interview when Doris Burke asked what the win said about his kids was beautiful to watch. How can you not love Bo and his program? Big hearts and basketball smarts are alive and well in Madison.

The Cultural Revolutions

With many of the conference teams puffing out their chests with impressive preseason records, the new programs at Michigan and Iowa sport more modest ledgers. That said, there have already been indications, small but sure, that Beilein and Lickliter are going to be change agents for programs that were in dire need.

Despite inheriting rosters of players who haven’t had good basketball teaching since high school (if they were lucky) and having to throw several freshman into heavy minutes both squads have shown glimpses of what will be restorations of proud basketball traditions.

Many of the quotes emanating from Ann Arbor and Iowa City suggest both coaches have had to strip the game to its barest essentials - how to make a good pass, how to set one’s feet on a jumpshot, how to move without the ball, how to play team defense - both out of necessity and because they teach basketball systems where the smallest details are valued. It is in the focused attention to such details and the accumulation of them that Beilein and Lickliter teams succeed rather than undue reliance on blue chip talent.

It is telling to observe the success of the teams both coaches left behind in Morgantown and Indianapolis. Unlike the programs they inherited, they have set up Bob Huggins and Brad Stevens to succeed. West Virginia’s 10-2 start and Butler’s 12-1 current mark are due in large part to the work of Beilein and Lickliter. Meanwhile both men are using every inch of their coaching prowess to take the Amaker and Alford scraps to five hundred basketball.

Champagne Wishes And Caviar Dreams

While the mess he left behind in Lexington sits at 5-6, Tubby has Monson’s solid core at 10-2 and is feeling the love in the Twin Minny. Buoyed by the felicitation he’s also wasted no time in calling for a sooner than later replacement for the Barn. Perhaps pampered by years of skewed priorities and gilded basketball luxury in Lexington, Tubby Smith, rather too predictably, has put the silver spoon before the barn, calling for both a new arena and practice facility after spending a mere few months as a Minnesotan and before he has coached a single Big Ten game.

Still in the honeymoon phase where even a cashmere soft 10-2 record has the hungry Gopher fan base showering Tubby with nothing but platitudes, it behooves him to stop producing barn-burning quotes. Despite his backside covering caveats, Tubby’s comments venture too closely to the kind of johnny come lately, money first, win second mentality to be considered completely innocuous.

One would’ve hoped his nearly two million per annum in salary, already an untoward drain on the university coffers, would motivate a greater degree of modesty and institutional regard. This fact becomes especially true when one considers the multi-million dollar investments in Williams Arena - the extensive 1992 renovation that was part of a $41 million investment in campus sports facilities and the $2.3 million used to create luxury “barn lofts” in 1997 - were significant and relatively recent expenditures. The Barn may be eighty years old, but these renovations, which included new locker rooms, training rooms, offices, and team meeting rooms, have likely made the building more than a polarizing relic.

Now, if Tubby parlays the positive vibes of these first twelve games into a solid string of top tier conference finishes and postseason showings in the next five years, all of it accompanied by revenue bursting attendance records and program fundraising, then he can malign the Barn. He can sully the Barn when - unlike his friend Clem Haskins, the man who helped convince him to take the job in the first place - he puts together a good stretch scandal-free. He can take shots at the Barn when he starts locking down stateside studs like Royce White and stops the border poaching from chief recruiting rival, Bo Ryan, a coach earning approximately half his salary.

When Tubby starts finishing near or ahead of Bo Ryan in the Big Ten standings year to year, he might be able to start complaining about the building that’s indelibly ingrained in the proud history and tradition of the university he likely knew nothing about until his lawyer and Clem told him to check it out last summer. Until then, Tubby should tread lightly, speak softly, and win Big Ten games.

Has The Vagabond Found A Home?

A karmic evening of the Eric Gordon angst or a new set of headaches arrived in Champaign last week when freshman Alex Legion committed to his third college basketball program. Originally an Amaker recruit at Michigan, Legion switched his allegiance to Kentucky when Amaker was fired last spring. After six games in Lexington, Legion found the wind was blowing him away from Billy Gillespie, eventually drafting him into the Jerrance Howard, Bruce Weber fold at Illinois.

The question is whether Legion and those influencing him will take their eyes off the exits and settle in at Illinois for a duration that is mutually beneficial. If he does, there is no question Weber could use the backcourt depth and shooting that Legion is capable of providing. With the return of Jamar Smith, and the continued maturation of McCamey at the point, Weber’s three-guard motion offense will have plenty of perimeter strength. Based on reputation Legion will also provide a scoring punch that is in short supply so far this year. And Legion, if he sticks, will surely benefit from the teaching of one of the best and more principled coaches in the business.

Concerns about Legion’s commitment dissuading one or several of Weber’s 2009 backcourters from staying in the Illinois fold are unfounded. The graduations of Frazier, Meacham, Brock, and Holdren after next season ensure there will be plenty of minutes for the new bunch once they arrive in Champaign.

Yet Another Danger Of Early Recruitment

As the signature Hoopraker expose here persuasively argues, recruitment of junior high and high school freshman and sophomores is a most questionable practice. It is also one fraught with double recruitment and potential defections. The appearance of Tracy Webster bright and early at the Elgin Holiday tournament begs suspicion.

Of course, shady double recruitment can occur with even later commitments as the Sampson-Gordon scenario proved. But, it seems that the earlier the commitment, the more inducement there may be for rival programs to attempt to poach. A verbal that is three years removed from college matriculation is one that ethically challenged rivals may consider too tempting to resist.

Posted by DJ Elsass on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 11:11 am.