It is becoming a magical year for the Wisconsin Badger football team. After a slow, inconsistent start that led to some white-knuckling wins over UNLV and Arizona State and a terrible loss to Michigan State, this club has turned it on. It’s not every year that Wisconsin wins against the then-number one team in the country Ohio State and then follows that up with a convincing win on the road against a highly ranked Iowa squad. Then in the weeks that follow, they blow out Purdue, put 83 up against Indiana for their second 70-plus game of the season and then score 48 in a win at the Big House against Michigan.
The Badgers have been good the last two decades, but they always seem to stub their toe in the second half of the Big Ten season. This year, the toe stubbing happened early, and now they have convincingly become the best team in the Big Ten and arguably the best team in the nation. If we had a playoff, everyone would be talking about Wisconsin as a favorite to win a national championship.
Instead, we have the BCS system, and Wisconsin along with some other very good teams such as Stanford, Ohio State, Nebraska and Oklahoma State aren’t even considered in the mix because they lost a game. Wouldn’t it be something if the only teams we were considering in the NFL right now at two or three losses.
But it is not my point to complain about the BCS the rest of this blog. Instead, my question is regarding who do we cheer for along with the Badgers to help this invisible one-loss team out.
Well, it depends on what the ultimate goal is. Since, we are dealing with the BCS, a national championship is out of the question (although I’ll ponder it in just a bit). So what do we need for a Big Ten Championship and a Rose Bowl berth? First, the Red Machine needs to beat Northwestern on Friday. And if Brett and the boys could run up the score like they are accused of doing even though that’s what the NCAA requires you to do if you want to be considered good (sorry I’m complaining again), that would be great. Then they need one of two things. The easiest would be for Penn State to upset visiting Michigan State. Given, the Spartans have lost the last eight times they’ve been in Happy Valley, this could happen. But Penn State is down, and Sparty has been very lucky. The second scenario is to have Ohio State beat Michigan but still finish behind Wisconsin in the B(C)S rankings. Wisconsin currently leads OSU, but the Buckeyes should make a charge since their opponents this past week and this next week are better than the Badgers’. The computers are going to favor Ohio State in the end, so Wisconsin needs to continue piling up points and actually needs teams like Nebraska, Stanford and LSU to continue playing well so that the voters will feel the need to put these teams ahead of Ohio State. Fortunately, the two human polls continue to rank Wisconsin as the best one-loss team. LSU continues to stay ahead of Ohio State. And maybe Stanford can begin getting the consistent nod ahead of OSU.
It would be a real shame if Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin finish in a 3-way tie and Ohio State ends up going to the Rose Bowl even though they didn’t beat MIchigan State or Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Bucky beat OSU and Sparty beat Wisconsin. They have both proven they can beat a big-time team in the conference while Ohio State has not.
So that is the most realistic dream: a Rose Bowl invite. Now if you are still a little insane and think the Badgers could still slide into a Top 2 spot in the BCS, here is what we need. Oregon needs to lose to either Arizona or Oregon State. Auburn needs to lose to either Alabama or South Carolina. Boise State needs to lose to Nevada. TCU is not going to lose. LSU needs to lose to Arkansas. Stanford needs to lose to Oregon State. Nebraska needs to lose the Big 12 title game. And Wisconsin needs to win the Big Ten with one of scenarios above. The Badgers have needed the aforementioned teams to lose one game the past three weeks now, and they all continue to win. So the odds are about as long as the Milwaukee Brewers winning the World Series next year. Okay, no odds are that long, but you get the idea.
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Saturday, November 20, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Bucks Struggle Early On
The Milwaukee Bucks were a pick by nearly all of us to be a shoe-in for the playoffs. After a surprising run to the number six seed a season ago and a 7-game series with the favored Atlanta Hawks, it seemed like a no brainer that the Deer would return to post season again this year.
It’s early, but it’s not looking too good so far.
After a come from behind victory over the lowly Indiana Pacers, the Bucks are 2-4. This includes a horrific loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team that will struggle to win 15 games this year, a pounding at home at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers and a disappointing season opener at New Orleans. Arguably, their best game came in an overtime loss at Boston last Wednesday.
So why, the struggles early on. A lot has been placed on the injuries to John Salmons and Andrew Bogut which prevented the two stars from playing most (or in Salmons’ case all) of the preseason. Chris Douglas -Roberts is still trying to get back after missing preseason as well. A little has been placed on new role players trying to learn Scott Skiles’ intense defensive schemes.
I think these are both accurate assessments to the early season problems. But then it hit me that as nice as some of these off-season acquisitions looked, there is a very terrifying link to all these new players. The new guys are Drew Gooden, Corey Maggette, Keyon Dooling, John Brockman and Chris Douglas-Roberts. Where did these five guys play last year? Gooden was with the Los Angeles Clippers. Maggette was at Golden State. Brockman belonged to Sacramento. And both Dooling and Douglas-Roberts were playing with the New Jersey Nets. The theme? All four of these teams were horrible last year. They all lacked a sense of team. They all, for the exception of Sacramento, underachieved. Talent was abundant, but the players never learned how to make the most of that talent.
Now, here they all are playing with the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that does not have a true all star. Andrew Bogut has had one good season. Brandon Jennings, at this point, simply has potential. And John Salmons is streaky and not a guy you can count on all season long. So now we throw into the mix five guys who are not used to the team concept. They are used to looking out for themselves and putting up individual stats with only a mild concern on how the team does. Add into the mix that they are in Milwaukee, a small market that has struggled mightily the past two decades to be relevant. The combination of all these factors is not good.
Here is the one things I see that this team has going for them early on. The coach is Scott Skiles. I am convinced that Skiles is one of the best coaches in the NBA. He has a way of making something with nothing and a lot with something. Right now he has something. So we’ll see if he can work his magic. And once we get through our preseason which is basically the first two to four weeks of the season, maybe this team can start winning again and be a factor in the East.
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It’s early, but it’s not looking too good so far.
After a come from behind victory over the lowly Indiana Pacers, the Bucks are 2-4. This includes a horrific loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team that will struggle to win 15 games this year, a pounding at home at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers and a disappointing season opener at New Orleans. Arguably, their best game came in an overtime loss at Boston last Wednesday.
So why, the struggles early on. A lot has been placed on the injuries to John Salmons and Andrew Bogut which prevented the two stars from playing most (or in Salmons’ case all) of the preseason. Chris Douglas -Roberts is still trying to get back after missing preseason as well. A little has been placed on new role players trying to learn Scott Skiles’ intense defensive schemes.
I think these are both accurate assessments to the early season problems. But then it hit me that as nice as some of these off-season acquisitions looked, there is a very terrifying link to all these new players. The new guys are Drew Gooden, Corey Maggette, Keyon Dooling, John Brockman and Chris Douglas-Roberts. Where did these five guys play last year? Gooden was with the Los Angeles Clippers. Maggette was at Golden State. Brockman belonged to Sacramento. And both Dooling and Douglas-Roberts were playing with the New Jersey Nets. The theme? All four of these teams were horrible last year. They all lacked a sense of team. They all, for the exception of Sacramento, underachieved. Talent was abundant, but the players never learned how to make the most of that talent.
Now, here they all are playing with the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that does not have a true all star. Andrew Bogut has had one good season. Brandon Jennings, at this point, simply has potential. And John Salmons is streaky and not a guy you can count on all season long. So now we throw into the mix five guys who are not used to the team concept. They are used to looking out for themselves and putting up individual stats with only a mild concern on how the team does. Add into the mix that they are in Milwaukee, a small market that has struggled mightily the past two decades to be relevant. The combination of all these factors is not good.
Here is the one things I see that this team has going for them early on. The coach is Scott Skiles. I am convinced that Skiles is one of the best coaches in the NBA. He has a way of making something with nothing and a lot with something. Right now he has something. So we’ll see if he can work his magic. And once we get through our preseason which is basically the first two to four weeks of the season, maybe this team can start winning again and be a factor in the East.
Visit my website at www.songerstudio.com
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