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So anyway, what about next year? The Milwaukee JS ran a story along these lines today (Badgers return some key players ).
As Joe Krabbenhoft (Krabbenhoft, Joe) and Marcus Landry (Landry, Marcus ) move on, who will move in? Bo Ryan is a really lucky coach. His players are always getting better the longer they are here. I'm guessing that Jordan Taylor, Keaton Nankivil, and Jon Leuer especially will improve. Rob Wilson appears to have a big upside with his athleticism.
I even expect Tim Jarmusz to improve - lots of room for it. After all who would have guessed when Krabbenhoft arrived from South Dakota that we would lament his departure??
Notice I did not mention Trevon Hughes or Jason Bohannon. They are close to maxing out their ability, although Hughes could improve simply by being more consistent.
Jared Berggren will play next year and could start to provide a big man presence that the Badgers missed this year. Ian Markolf could do the same.
Freshmen don't usually make much of an impact for Bo. But Diamond Taylor could provide some much-needed ability to create and score. Mike Bruesewitz was named Minnesota Player of the Year (Sibley's Bruesewitz is Metro Player of the Year). But neither ranked in ESPN's Top 100 recruits. View the complete ESPN 100 .
The 2010 class, however, sports two players in ESPN's Super 60. Evan Anderson did not shine at last week's WIAA Boys State Tournament, but Vander Blue certainly did. Blue has game to go along with his great moniker.
Next year could look a lot like this year. But it looks like the program will become a bit more athletic in the next couple years.
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Did you know Bo was written up in Forbes magazine?
In Pictures: America's Best College Basketball Coaches - Forbes.com
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Two standouts, Jamil Wilson (headed to Oregon) and Jeronne Maymon (Maymon fulfills his promise ) (Marquette) are headed elsewhere.
Flavien Davis led Wisconsin Lutheran to the state division two title and is undecided, but isnot looking at Wisconsin.
Doug:
ReplyDeleteNice round-up of the Badgers season. I think Bo has recognized he needs to get more athleticism into the lineup -- he really only had two athletic guys in the line-up this year (Hughes and Landry) and both had limitations -- Hughes as you say is inconsistent, particularly with his outside shooting, and Landry moreso by where he was forced to play. I never thought I'd say this, but Bucky missed Brian Butch a lot this year, not just for what he brought (some scoring, rebounding, inside toughness) but what he allowed Landry to do, which is to be a true small forward. I think Jordan Taylor and Wilson have some promise, but I worry about them getting stuck behind the Hughes/Bohannon rotation. And if Bucky is to succeed next year, it really seems to rest on those two -- Bohannon needs to become something beyond what he is (a one-dimensional shooter), and Hughes has to be a consistent scoring threat inside and out for the rest of it to work. Jarmusz I'm not sold on, yet -- he's a skinnier, slightly better shooter than Krabbenhoft, who often did a very good job of holding down the other team's best scorer. Bucky's bigs have yet to prove anything -- I think that's a real black hole for the team right now, because Leuer is really a guard in a 6-10 body (with a huge reluctance to mix it up inside), and Nankivil has yet to adjust to the physical demands of Big 10 hoops. They can get there (both are pretty talented), but it's going to take some big improvements from each next year, not a little step at a time.
And mark my words -- Vander Blue will be by far the better recruit of Memorial's two stars. I watched much of the state tourney (some in person) and Blue was the most talented ballplayer in the field -- just physically at a different level than anyone else. Maymon has the physical tools, but he plays in an incredibly soft way. If he doesn't adjust, he'll get eaten up in college ball. Blue looks like he could start for Wisconsin tomorrow. I wished Wisconsin had pursued Wilson from Racine a little bit more aggressively, but he apparently wanted to wait for other offers, plus he's quite skinny and I wonder if he may need one or two years to firm up to handle college ball. (And UW has long been reluctant to recruit Racine players...) The player I wish Bo would pursue is the Hottenstine kid from Bayport -- he's big enough (6'3"), gutsy as heck (dislocated his thumb in the semi's and popped it back in before shooting his free throws), and doesn't back down from anyone -- he pretty much held Blue down in the great semi game between Bayport and Memorial, and even blocked one of his dunks. Every team needs someone like him, and with Krabbenhoft gone, I wonder if anyone from Wisconsin will fill that void. They strike me as an overly soft team, unlike Michigan St. and Purdue, which are the two toughest teams in the league and consequently the two best.
Ditto on all that. Even the last two years when Butch was hurt, they did not fare well. His elbow injury in his junior year robbed us of a chance at something special.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I hear the redshirted big guys may be pretty good. Bo lets players decide whether to redshirt and you have to wonder if they would have benefited from one of those guys playing this year.
If Jarmusz could just knock down a couple shots that would help the whole offense.
They do some more nasty now that Krabby is gone.