Nimreitz

Frank Kaminsky is getting a lot of positive press down in Illinois. I'm excited about his future.

Nimreitz

Just need to put this somewhere, but also tip off anyone who might be in Wisconsin.

Kevon Looney, freshman at Milwaukee Hamilton, that would be the class of 2014, seems like the real deal. Tom Diener is at Hamilton these days, so he is in great hands for his development (hopefully his AAU team isn't run by crooks). They play Madison Memorial on Friday night who we all know are a traditional power, but don't seem to have the kind of talent they've been blessed with the past decade. Anyway, it's at 6:35pm on Friday. I won't be able to see it, so hopefully one of you guys clicks over and give a bit of a scouting report on the kid.

Dornado

Thanks for the heads up... I hope to have something better to do Friday night, but will keep my eye out for Looney in general. I haven't been following prep hoops enough lately.

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Nimreitz

My alma mater Whitefish Bay is playing for the D2 title tonight against some school called Merrill. Never heard of them, but they have Paul Jesperson who's committed to Tony Bennett and Virginia.

D1 is De Pere vs. Madison Memorial. No prospects to speak of. Couldn't care less.

Nimreitz

I love going back and reading this thread:

On Jordan Taylor after his freshman year
So damn right.

I trashed Bruesewitz and the direction of our recruiting, but by December of his freshman year I was already on the Bruiser bandwagon.

And just because I've been harping on this for 4 ****ing years... Keaton Nankivil was given the choice by the staff to redshirt; we don't force redshirts on any player at Wisconsin, but he was behind Butch and Steimsma (the latter who wasn't even getting minutes) and chose not to take the redshirt. He played exactly 45 minutes his freshman year. We could realllllllllllllllly use him next year.

Nimreitz

Wrong. So ****ing wrong.

As of right now here are Sam Dekker's national recruiting rankings:

ESPN: 27
Rivals: 35
Scout: #9 SF

Compare to Tokoto:

ESPN: 66
Rivals: 55
Scout: #17 SF

This significant gap between players was about reversed in May. I called Dekker a Jarmusz in 2011! The dude is borderline 5 Stars right now on ESPN. Dave Telep the other day: "Sam Dekker (Sheboygan, Wis./Lutheran) will play a major role for Wisconsin the next few seasons. Over time, he's exactly the type of recruit who can play himself into Big Ten Player of the Year honors and brings the requisite toughness to Madison."

Bo Ryan, I ****ing love you. Enjoy your boy Huckleberry, this is the first time ever I'm glad that we got the white guy.

EDIT: One more

Oh, and if I had to bet money on our second recruit for the 2012 class it would probably be Adam Woodbury out of Sioux City, Iowa. Big skilled white center of course.

bball2223

I was never high on Tokoto to begin with, but I think Roy can turn him into a valuable role player by the time he is an upperclassmen.

What do you expect out of Wisconsin next year? Big 10 title contenders or what?

Nimreitz

Honestly have no idea. Doesn't look like the Big Ten is great though, so Bo should keep them Top 4 as usual.

Nimreitz

Bronson Koenig commits to the Badgers! I thought he was a heavy UNC lean, as in, I didn't think we had a shot in hell at Bronson. HUGE commitment for Bo. Bronson should have the chance to get a ton of minutes from the second he steps on campus, with the only other real point guard in 2013 being George Marshall, who is going to be Taylor's understudy this season.

Nimreitz

Are you kidding me right now?

Nimreitz

Looks like we're only going to take Dekker in 2012 unless someone comes out of nowhere (Tokoto decommit? EDIT: Actually he's probably signed by now). Not the worst thing in the world. Koenig signed up for 2013, and it looks like the other guys Bo is looking at in that class are all 6'8'' black kids which is the type of player I've been desperately begging for the past 10 years that we never seem to get (except Marcus Landry).

Other point of note is that Kevon Looney who I mentioned in March, class of 2014, is currently the #14 player nationally in his class according to ESPN. Interest from UW, MU, Iowa, and Georgetown. Hopefully Tobacco Road stays away from this one. As I said 8 months ago, he's at Milwaukee Hamilton which is now coached by former Vincent legend Tom Diener (same family as Travis) who won five titles with them and coached the best Wisconsin High School Team I remember in 2002 Vincent who had a senior class of: Carl Landry, Boo Wade, and Greg Brown (the Mr. Basketball). And then they lost in the first round at State to Dornado's Tosa East. So sad. Anyway, the point is that Looney is in great hands with Diener, and he also has a relationship with Wisconsin, sending us Boo Wade and Marcus Landry. Other former Diener players include Rodney Buford and Diante Garrett (Iowa State).

Dornado

Is tonight's game on TV?

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Nimreitz

Tomorrow night on ESPN3. I won't be able to watch it live, but I'll try to catch a replay online if ESPN keeps it up. Very curious how Wisconsin is going to overcome the loss of Leuer.

Dornado

ah, yeah, read the schedule wrong. I'll have to try to watch it on the xbox.

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Nimreitz

I don't have really detailed thoughts after watching Wisconsin's 68-41 win over Colgate tonight.

1) Ben Brust is an assassin from deep. Thrilled with how good he looks.

2) Frank Kaminsky looks like he could be ahead of the curve for UW big men, but then again I've seen a lot of freshmen look good before new year's only to rarely see the court in the second half.

3) George Marshall is redshirting. Normally I want guys to redshirt, but Marshall needs to learn. Even if he doesn't play much I kinda think I'd still rather have him on the active roster especially for garbage time early in the year. No idea who's going to be the starting PG next season, but if Marshall redshirts, I'd say the most likely backcourt next season is Gasser and Brust, which don't get me wrong I like both players, but... I don't know about that.