Milwaukee Lutheran vs. Port Washington: Two For the Price of One

Last night I headed out to Milwaukee Lutheran to watch the Red Knights play host to Port Washington. The draw of this game was three-fold. One, I wanted to see Wisconsin recruit Josh Gasser, who based on the Badgers’ roster make-up, has the potential to play an important role for them next year. Two, I wanted to see Milwaukee Lutheran star Chim Kadima, who I have somehow not managed to see over the past two years. And finally, I just wanted to see a good game, as I hadn’t been to a high school game in a month (save for my trip down to the Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook Shootout). All three objectives were met (at least until Port Washinton pulled away in the fourth quarter). My thoughts below:

1) Milwaukee Lutheran is always one of my favorite places to watch a high school basketball. I’ve been to a handful of games there over the past few years, and I always leave smiling because of the atmosphere. There’s always a huge student section (they were quiet last night, but are typically very spirited), an excellent pep band, and generally a larger crowd that you see at most high school basketball games. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big game or not–the Milwaukee Lutheran fans always seem to show up. It’s something that most schools should be envious of.

2) For all of the good things about Milwaukee Lutheran, I find its fieldhouse to be one of the least awe-inspiring of the handful of huge high school fieldhouses that have popped up around the Milwaukee area in recent years. And it all boils down to two things–lighting and color. The vast grayness of the Milwaukee Lutheran fieldhouse makes you forget that it’s probably about the same size as the fieldhouse out at Cedarburg, or that the bleachers at Milwaukee Lutheran are far less flimsy than those at Milwaukee Pius. All that said, even if the Milwaukee Lutheran fieldhouse can be sort of drab and depressing at times, it’s still better than no fieldhouse at all. I can’t tell you how jealous of today’s students I am every time I walk out of a school that has a climbing wall. Where was that when I was a teenager? (Side note–I’m told that Brookfield East and Central both have new fieldhouses, and I’m anxiously looking forward to checking those out).

3) Because high school basketball is much lower profile than college hoops, I often find myself in the amusing situation of having read oodles of material about a given player and being very familiar with a name, but having no idea what the guy actually looks like. Such was the case last night with Josh Gasser and Chim Kadima. Whenever this happens, I like to play a game with myself and see if I can figure out who the star is during warm-ups, before numbers and identities are revealed to everyone. Usually, it’s pretty easy to guess who the star is due to a unique height, race, or abundance of athletic ability. Kadima, for example, was given away by the superior athleticism that he displayed during warm-ups. Gasser was nearly impossible to pick out, though. He’s a 6'4" white guy with short brown hair. A brief perusal of the program revealed that six of Port Washington’s twelve players were 6'4", and nearly the entire team had short brown hair. Part of me wonders if the reason that Milwaukee Lutheran played a lot of zone defense in the first half is that they couldn’t tell anyone apart. As to my attempt to figure out who Gasser was, I got it wrong, guessing that he was teammate Cory Steinmetz. I was disappointed in my effort, but at least I picked another starter, and one of the more solid players on the team.

4) I can’t say that last night was always fun for me to watch, as the first half featured both teams playing a lot of zone defense (I don’t know if I ever saw Port Washington go man-to-man). While I don’t necessarily have anything against zone defense, both teams were sort of at a loss regarding how to attack a zone defense for a good portion of the early part of the game (Milwaukee Lutheran didn’t score its first points until nearly 5 minutes into the game). It was a bit better late in the game once both teams figured out what they were running (and Milwaukee Lutheran increased the amount of man-to-man played), but the start of the game dragged a bit and tainted my opinion from the onset.

5) Because of the size of the Milwaukee Lutheran fieldhouse, a ball boy or girl is deployed at each end of the court to chase down any loose balls that happen to make their way into the vast abyss that is the area beyond the baseline. Last night the public address announcer mentioned the names of the two kids working the game and noted that both were part of a program where fifth graders at a local Lutheran school that recognized a student’s positive performance by granting them the honor of serving as ball boy/girl. Part of me wondered if it really was an honor to be stuck sitting on a 2x3 rectangle of carpet with nothing but a towel and bottle of water for roughly an hour and a half, with the only reprieve being the moments when it became necessary to chase down a sweaty basketball. Of course, much as it seems like a punishment to me now, in fifth grade I probably would have totally loved doing something like that.

6) Beyond Josh Gasser, the other big name in last night’s game was Milwaukee Lutheran’s Chim Kadima, best known for an array of injuries over the years and his backing off an acceptance of a scholarship to Iowa State. Kadima showed no signs of his prior injury last night, and while not a superior athlete, is still pretty athletic. Add in a nice night from three-point range, and I was generally pretty pleased with Kadima’s 20-point performance.

7) In addition to scoring 17 points and looking like Port Washinton’s top forward, Pirate forward Shane Kennedy wins last night’s Andreas Helmigk Award for outstanding achievement in sweat production. Port Washington’s team colors did him no favors, but Kennedy managed to easily sweat through his jersey quickly.

8) How did Gasser look to me? To borrow a phrase from Steve “Homer” True, solid but unspectacular. He’s not a guy that wows people with his athletic ability, and while he has a nice looking shot, nothing managed to fall for him beyond the three-point arc last night. It was tough to get a read defensively, due to Port Washington’s reliance on zone defense. Gasser does excel at passing (kudos for his teammates for being able to catch some of his more impressive assists last night), which bodes well for where Wisconsin may need to use him next year. But beyond that, he’s basically like a human version of the Wisconsin team–no glaring weaknesses, but no characteristics that are going to get you overly excited at first glance, either. So he should fit right in with the Badgers.

9) I do have to admit that I left the game wondering exactly how hazardous it is to be a cheerleader at Milwaukee Lutheran. During pre-game and time-outs, there were several instances where team members pulled mats out onto the floor with them for routines, and my unofficial count revealed that the team was wearing a grand total of six braces on various body parts, as well as three patellar bands. Maybe some of the girls should go out for something more safe–like the football team.

10) I understand that every moment of a game is important to a high school team, but I really wasn’t too excited to see Milwaukee Lutheran calling timeouts in the final minute and being instructed to foul while down by 11 points with 35 seconds left. As a fan, there comes a time when you just want to go home.

With Port Washington sealing its victory with a nice fourth quarter run, I headed home with a bit more knowledge about next year’s Wisconsin team and was able to cross two players off of my must-see list. I also solved one of the great mysteries of my life when I passed by nearby Divine Savior Holy Angels high school on my drive home and finally figured out where that school is. Despite the fact that DSHA is in Wauwatosa, and I’ve crossed paths with a handful of its graduates, I honestly didn’t know where that place was for the first 30 years of my life. I’d say that all of those things together made for a pretty good night.

Tonight brings Wisconsin-Michigan State and Marquette-Georgtown. I’ll be attending the latter, and watching the former either on my DVR, or with MU fan friends poking at me at a bar.

Wrapping Up Jeronne Maymon (and Fun With Quotes!)

For as much as I’ve alluded this week to a discussion of it, I’m not sure there’s much that I can say about Jeronne Maymon’s departure from the Marquette basketball team that’s unique. It would be tough for nearly any reasonable person to look at the decision made by Jeronne Maymon and not think it’s a remarkably hasty choice that’s bound to impact him in a negative way. Coach Buzz Williams and Maymon’s father, Tim, have both confirmed that the departure is due to Maymon’s disagreement with the way that he is being utilized. Maymon has been asked to play primarily a post position, despite an understanding at the time of his commitment that he would be spending time at shooting guard and small forward.

What Maymon’s dismay with this situation overlooks is that Marquette is currently a team with a number of guards and without a healthy, legitimate post player above the height of 6'6". At 6'6" and 250 pounds, he was the player most well-suited to pick up minutes in the post and was the logical player to fill that hole for the Golden Eagles. Not an ideal situation for anyone, but given the current roster, Maymon playing down low was a borderline necessity. He should have been able to see this, particularly with senior teammate, Lazar Hayward, thriving in the role that Maymon likely wished to fill, after years of playing out of position in the post. Maymon was literally playing alongside a guy doing exactly what he wanted to do, and who had started exactly the same way as Maymon was starting out and somehow failed to notice. Making things even more frustrating, Maymon was showing nice progress on the court, and looked like he would have been a solid contributor for his career at Marquette had he continued to plug away. But ten games in, he apparently was frustrated that he wasn't there yet.

Of course, we’ll never know how good Maymon would have been at Marquette, because he was unable to show the patience to wait his turn and contribute as asked this season. I’d be angry at Maymon if it wasn’t such a sad situation. While Maymon himself has had the good sense not to speak publicly about his departure, his father has been characteristically outspoken. Comments from Tim Maymon reveal an inflated opinion of his son’s abilities, and imply a misguided belief that college will only be a short detour on Jeronne Maymon’s journey to the NBA (a journey that, in reality, is a long shot, at best). Such beliefs would appear to be the only explanation for the prompt departure of Jeronne Maymon, who by any reasonable standard, was essentially thriving in his limited role as a freshman. One would hope that despite the misguided approach to his career, he’ll manage to at least find some benefit from his basketball abilities in the form of a college degree. Because it will be a sad ending when the NBA doesn’t come calling if all that Jeronne Maymon has to show for his talents is a couple of high school trophies. The fact that it took all of 10 games for him to sour on his first attempt at playing college ball doesn’t bode well, but I’m hoping that Jeronne Maymon can learn from this and stick out his next situation long enough to see some true benefits.

Of course, given that Jeronne Maymon has not commented to the media, we’re left wondering how much of this is actually his idea. So we’re left only with outrageous comments from his father to shed light on the situation. Below I’ve compiled some of the more outlandish and misguided comments attributed to Tim Maymon in various articles, and I’ll leave you with those today. Mr. Maymon’s comments appear in italics, while my own sarcastic comments follow each one in regular type. I wish I was making some of these up, but you can find every quote here, here or here. Enjoy the comments, and enjoy your weekend:

He'll play some two and some four depending on the teams. We're going to create a lot of matchups. Jeronne is going to be a hard matchup for any team we face, and depending on who their best player is, whether he's at the two, the three or the four, Jeronne will be pretty much guarding him and they'll pretty much have to guard Jeronne. We're not going to give leeway to teams because, ‘Oh, Jeronne's playing the two so we're going to move you to the three so Jeronne can't guard you.' No, Jeronne will be able to move to the two, three, four.

There are two obviously ridiculous things from this quote from Tim Maymon at the time of Jeronne Maymon’s original announcement that he would attend Marquette. First, there’s the notion that Maymon was going to step in and immediately be the team’s go-to, lock-down defender as a freshman. Not only that, he’s going to guard whoever the opposing team’s best player is, regardless of position, because he’s just that versatile. No one can hide from Jeronne Maymon. Second, I love the idea that a team would be able to avoid a matchup by simply labeling what position the player is playing. I don’t recall Buzz Williams’ press conference after losing to Villanova last season behind 27 points from Scottie Reynolds, but I’m pretty sure that he never said anything to the effect of “Well, we wanted to put Jerel McNeal, our best defender, on Reynolds, but coach Wright said that he was playing the three spot tonight, so we were forced to use Wesley Matthews on him instead, because he’s our small forward. My hands were tied.”

School's going great. That part is good. But he's not getting many touches. They're not trying to run the offense for him. They've got him playing center and that ain't what he does. So we just kind of moved on and regrouped for next year.

Well, at least Tim Maymon had realistic expectations for his son. As we know from the previous quote, he was going to immediately be a lock-down defender who guarded the best opposing player, regardless of position (*so long as that player’s not a center). As we know from this quote, he was also going to instantly be the focal point of the offense, and all sets would be designed around his skills. Oh, and from what I can glean from the previous quote, the opposing team’s best player will always be guarding him (*so long as that player’s not a center). That seems like a normal season for a freshman.

Right now, it's like he's up for recruitment. All I can say is ever since Buzz made the announcement Monday night, my phone has been ringing off the hook.

I’m going to venture that at least 50% of those calls are coming from reporters looking to get more outrageous quotes for their articles.

The bottom line is Jeronne just wanted to transfer. He just felt like it was time.

Well, at least he gave it some time. If things aren’t going to come together in almost a whole semester and nearly a dozen games, when are they?

We've just asked for a (scholarship) release so we can get out of here, because it ain't working out. He's not being used the way he needs to be used, so we're moving on.

Don’t you mean “We’re not being used the way we need to be used,” Tim?

Buzz had expressed to Jeronne that if he came there -- because he's losing three starters, not one - that Jeronne's playing time is enormous. ‘You, coming in with your talent level, you're going to play. That's just the bottom line. You're going to start and you're pretty much from 25 to 30 minutes a game.'

I’m firmly of the belief that what Tim Maymon heard and what Buzz Williams said are two completely different things. However even if you don’t believe that, it’s interesting to note that Maymon was well on his way to getting those 25 minutes per game that are talked about here. They simply weren’t at the right position for him. (Is it possible that Marquette was simply playing a lot of teams with great centers, and they simply needed Maymon to guard the best player all of the time?)

We're looking at some decent programs, like Central Florida, where Michael Jordan's son (Marcus) plays," Tim Maymon said. "That would be a great school that he could go in and they could pretty much get to the Final Four and do some damage.

Seems logical enough. I’ve long thought that adding a player who was averaging 15 minutes per game for a middle-of-the-pack Big East team was just what the storied Central Florida program needed to put them over the top in their quest to play in a Final Four. I can't believe these words actually came out of someone's mouth.

Wisconsin vs. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: Even Worse Than Expected

Last night, I sat down with every intention of closely watching the Wisconsin-Cal Poly game and compiling comments. As I sat down to take in the game, I opened up my Blue Ribbon Yearbook to get some background on Cal Poly. Turns out, they were picked to finish dead last in the Big West Conference (which is not exactly the west coast equivalent of the Big East, in case you were wondering). Their grade for Bench/Depth was “F,” marking one of the only times that I’ve ever seen such a harsh assessment in the Blue Ribbon Yearbook.

And even with this indictment of the team by the gold standard of college basketball publications, Cal Poly still played worse than I expected. The only semi-run that they made during the game came around the 8-minute mark of the first half, when they suddenly went to the Marathon Oil/Athletes in Action offense and just started tossing up threes. But going Marathon Oil seldom works for more than a couple of minutes. This might have been the worst performance that I’ve seen by a division one basketball team since the infamous Chicago State team that I saw at the Kohl Center as a student near the start of the decade. Highlights of that awful Chicago State team included most of the team laughing and joking on the bench during their lopsided defeat, and a team manager who openly conversed with the Wisconsin student section during the game about his exploits as a player for the Chicago State football team, which did not actually exist. Because Cal Poly’s team actually appeared to care about the game, I still rank them as better than Chicago State. But it’s a pretty low standard.

Didn’t see the game? Well, here’s all that you need to know–in the closing minutes of the game last night J.P. Gavinski rolled to the basket and threw down a thunderous dunk. I always enjoy seeing Gavinski and love it when he does well in garbage time, but even I must admit that a team has really mailed it in if Gavinski is looking that good. Yes, though, I still pumped my fists and let out a scream when he threw that sweet dunk down. It was an exciting night in my living room.

So no, there’s not much more to say about last night. When a game gets that out of hand that fast, there aren’t a lot of legitimate things to be gleaned from a game. Perhaps the only good thing that can be said about last night’s contest is that the Badgers got a much needed night off during exam week. Now if only they’d wrap up those pesky tests and start playing again, I’d be a happy man.

Back tomorrow with my final thoughts on Jeronne Maymom, which should not be all that surprising.

Germantown vs. Whitefish Bay: A Pleasant Tuesday Night Diversion

Last evening I took a break from reading about Jeronne Maymon (more on that in the coming days–needless to say, the more information that comes out, the less impressed I am with his decision), headed out into the cold, and took a trip out to Germantown to see the Warhawks host Whitefish Bay. Normally I’d have been pushing for a trip to the Marquette-Tosa East game, but there were a handful of compelling games in the area last night, and frankly, I didn’t care which of them I saw. So I let my friend Kevin choose the game, as I trust his opinion as much as anyone's in terms of picking out a high school game to see. He made a good call, and I got the chance to get out of my box a bit and see two intriguing North Shore Conference teams play. My quick thoughts below:

1) Germantown broke out what seems to be a dying concept these days–the pep band. It was sort of a double-edged sword to have the pep band there during the pre game and first half. On one hand, the band was impressive, belting out tons of pep band standards (who doesn’t love “Hey, Baby”), and generally setting the atmosphere for the game. On the other hand, Germantown has always been ahead of the curve in terms of using its PA system to play amusing sound cues and songs during breaks in the game (who doesn’t love to hear chimes after made free throws, like at Bucks’ games?), and the band supplanted the usual AV creativity during the early parts of the game. I guess any way you slice it, Germantown has turned into a nice place to watch a game (a far cry from my feelings about the place back in high school, when I was scolded by an annoyingly sarcastic supervisor for bringing a soda into the gym.)

2) My friend Kevin had seen Germantown prior to last evening’s game, and noted that it was a much different team from last season. He wasn’t lying. Last year the Warhawks were anchored by two big men, including outstanding forward Ben Averkamp, who has since taken his talents to Loyala. The new-look Warhawks start four sophomores and a junior, and look to be most talented at the guard spots, with highly regarded Zak Showalter and aggressive defender Josh Mongan holding down the backcourt. The frontcourt has some promise too, though, and Germantown will be a team to watch in coming years, once the players get a bit more experience under their belts. They’re actually not too shabby now, even though last night’s game wouldn’t be the best example of their talents.

3) Kudos to the young man in the Germantown student wearing the sweater with built-in Christmas lights. Awesome look. Yesterday when I went to Germantown High School’s website to find the address of the school, I happened to notice that the school was having some sort of holiday spirit week and that yesterday was ugly sweater day. Glad to see that this carried over to the game a bit, as terrible holiday sweaters are generally fun (the trend of ugly Christmas sweaters will likely be a tired one in the near future, but we’re not there yet).

4) I was not expecting to be nearly as impressed as I was by Whitefish Bay big man Jamie Schneck. During warm-ups, he looked like a skinny, fairly nondescript player, save for his 6'7" height. Then the game started. Early on, Schneck found himself leading a fastbreak, and showing off far better ball handling skills than a 6'7" center for Whitefish Bay should have. Throughout the game, he showed far more confidence, aggressiveness and court instincts than I would expect out of a player just starting his junior year. I’d not heard of Schneck before last night’s game, but his is a name that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. I can’t wait to see what he does over the next two years.

5) One confusing aspect of the evening was that it was parents’ night at Germantown last evening. So, we got to sit through the ritual of players and dance team members being introduced and handing a flower to their parents. While I certainly have no problem with an evening to honor parents, it has generally been my experience that parents’ night comes later during the season, and not during the first few weeks of the season. I guess if we want to get mom and dad out of the way, last night wasn’t a bad way to do it. But it felt weird to see such a display when it wasn’t part of winding the season down.

6) The score doesn’t indicate it, due to a mini-run of sorts by Germantown during the closing minutes of the contest, but Whitefish Bay controlled this game from the opening tip and had a large cushion for most of the game. I would love to see a shot chart of this game, because Whitefish Bay scored the vast majority of points on shots no more than 3 feet away from the hoop. (Actually, I’m not sure I’d want to see a shot chart, as I’d just end up feeling sorry for the guy taking the chart, who had nowhere else to draw circles after awhile.) What made the rout by the Blue Dukes particularly impressive is that Germantown is far from a bad team. Bay just played a great game last night, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the next time these two teams meet the game goes down to the wire.

And with another one in the books, I headed back out into the ridiculously cold weather and headed home as quickly as I could. After all, I had to see if more Jeronne Maymon news had broken...

Jeronne Maymon: The Most Confusing Departure Ever

It was 9pm last night when my friend Gus called and asked if I’d seen the news. Knowing Gus, I knew that it could be just about anything basketball-related, or something about one of the characters in our hometown. But even though it turned out to be basketball-related news, I absolutely did not expect him to tell me that Jeronne Maymon had quit the Marquette team. That totally floored me, and after spending the night thinking about it, I’m still perplexed at this turn of events. The timing just seems so confusing.

Maymon, of course, was something of a gamble to bring to Marquette. Though he was the state player of the year, there were plenty of questions surrounding his academics, and his outspoken father made lots of people cringe when he opened his mouth. Similar to another departed Marquette player from a few years back, Trever Mbakwe, there were enough red flags that you knew there was some risk in bringing Maymon aboard. But I thought it was a good gamble for Marquette. Grabbing a state player of the year from the same city of one of your biggest rivals is always a good move, and despite some of the questions about Maymon, he always seemed to be an excellent teammate. The positives were plentiful enough and the upside was big enough that it made sense to give Maymon a scholarship. But it seems that things didn’t work out.

Obviously, with so little information about what went down, speculation about the reasons behind Maymon’s departure abound. I’ve yet to come up with a reason that makes sense to me. Grades are an obvious first place to look, given Maymon’s reported past troubles. But the timing of his departure, prior to the end of the semester, means that he’d be leaving before any grades were even in. There’s little logic to a move like that.

I’ve seen some talk that Maymon could potentially be upset with his role as a supporting player, or that he doesn’t like the fact that he’s had to play a post position could be reason for conflict with Buzz Williams. But that doesn’t make sense to me either. In high school, Maymon seemed to be an almost frighteningly ego-less player to me. Two years ago, he dominated the state high school tournament like few others have ever done. Last year, teammate Vander Blue took over the breakout star at state, as Maymon seemed content to support his teammate and fill up the stat sheet in ways that didn’t involve being in the spotlight, so long as it meant his team would win. I don’t know of too many 18-year-old kids who reach a peak like that, and then step aside to let a teammate blossom, all in the spirit of success. To complain now would seem out of character, given Maymon’s past history as a seemingly outstanding teammate. And any rational person could see that his confinement to post-play this year is due to a freakish rash of frontcourt injuries, as well as the Brett Roseboro pre-season departure. I don’t claim to be an expert on Maymon’s demeanor, but leaving so quickly because of a dispute over how and how much he’s being used doesn’t add up to me.

Finally, I’d initially thought that his opinionated father was somehow involved in this, but early reports are that as of this morning he’s claiming to have known nothing about what went down. I’m not sure if I totally believe that, but for now, I’ll take the man at his word. Perhaps the only other thing that I can think of is that Maymon is involved in some sort of legal or other type of trouble, as Marquette has traditionally been good at protecting player privacy in those sorts of situations. But that’s a completely wild theory, and one that I can’t say that I actually believe.

So why Jeronne Maymon is no longer a member of the Marquette team is a question that I can’t answer. But there are other questions raised by his departure. Namely, the following two:

1) What happens to Vander Blue? Maymon’s relationship with Vander Blue seemed to be an important part of Blue’s decision to attend Marquette. With Maymon out of the picture, does that change things? If Blue’s smart, it shouldn’t. To start with, the letter of intent that he signed with Marquette would provide an extra hurdle to him should he decide to go elsewhere. Even if he could get Marquette to release him, his options would likely be limited. Aside from that, Blue has already publicly changed his mind once. To do so again would be bordering on ridiculous, particularly when he’s walking into a fairly good situation at Marquette. Marquette has a whole lot more to offer to Vander Blue than a chance to hang out with one of his friends. Given the early comments from his mother, I'm expecting that she'll read this situation well and will guide him in the right direction. It’s not even worth discussing Blue going elsewhere at this point, because I don’t see it happening. (I’ll only add that as great as it would be to see a player of Blue’s caliber in Badger red, after all that’s happened in his recruitment, it would probably be wise for him to leave the state and clean his slate, should he be inclined to depart Marquette.)

2) What will happen to Marquette this year? Well, practices just got a bit tougher, given that there are only 10 healthy players on the roster. Hopefully some of the assistant coaches are in shape so that they can practice if someone goes down or needs a breather (a la Rob Jeter and Tony Bennett for the 2001-02 Wisconsin team, the last season that I’ve seen a roster meltdown of this magnitude). In terms of actual games, I actually think Marquette will be more okay than we think right now. No, Youssoupha Mbao isn’t ready to play, and Rob Frozena will never rise above his walk-on status. But in the limited minutes that he’s played, I think Erik Williams has looked promising. Buzz Williams might disagree with me, though, given that I’ve never seen a coach berate a player like Buzz laid into Eric Williams during a timeout in the midst of garbage time in an early non-conference game. But Buzz Williams doesn’t have many other choices of players to go to now, and I think that the younger Williams will be up to the task. The already depleted Golden Eagles have looked somewhat better than expected so far, and let’s not forget–that 2001-02 Wisconsin team that I referenced earlier may have had a similarly cursed roster, but they also won the Big Ten championship that same year. I’m not saying that Marquette will rise to those heights, but let’s not start eulogizing this season just yet.

Here’s looking to whatever news comes out in the coming days. It’s sure to be interesting, particularly if the rumored press conference involving Maymon’s father actually occurs.

I Don't Want To Talk About It

Yep, last night Wisconsin lost to a UW-Green Bay team that I predicted that they would "pummel." Apparently UW-Green Bay played a great game, but still, Wisconsin shouldn't find themselves on the losing end of a game with the Phoenix. No matter how much snow is on the ground, or how well Rahmon Fletcher plays.

I'd rather not think about last night's game today, and I'm betting that you'd rather not, too. So instead of dwelling on the loss, enjoy this link to UWM's 300+ pound star forward James Eayrs joyfully describing his perfect team. And by "team," he means a burrito at Chipotle. If that doesn't take your mind off of things and bring a smile to your face, nothing will.

Braving the Weather For Some Hoops

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself last night, given an array of game choices, and the obstacles posed by the major snow storm entering the Milwaukee area last evening. The obvious choice was to head down to the Bradley Center for the Marquette-UWM game, a contest that I look forward to each season. However, with the fear that downtown could be a mess with the oncoming onslaught of snow, the prospect of a nearby high school game was also an intriguing, and less treacherous option. I also gave some thought to just staying home and staying out of the weather mess altogether. After all, better safe than sorry, right?

Ultimately, I opted for my second choice, and headed out to my first high school game of the year at Marquette High. The Hilltoppers hosted Menomonee Falls in a showdown of two of the favorites in the wide-open Greater Metro Conference race. My rationale behind the choice was multi-faceted. First, a trip to Marquette High would be shorter and easier for me than heading downtown, where the combination of snow and parking ramps was sure to cause minor gridlock. Second, I had to test out the weather early on last night, as my beloved 1999 Mystique that took me to so many games died this summer, and I wanted to see how my new vehicle handled in the snow before things got too bad. Third, with the Marquette-UWM game on TV, I could take in the high school game early, and be home in plenty of time for the local college game as a nightcap on the DVR. Finally, the combination of weather scaring off fans, a general lack of awareness by fans of early season games, and a huge Marquette gym led me to conclude that this might be one of the few opportunities to see rising Menomonee Falls star J.P. Tokoto this year without finding myself crammed in a crowded gym next to random parents berating referees. What can I say–I like my space.

For the most part, I think I made the right call. The game was easy in and easy out (well, as easy as it could be, given that it occurred during the start of the first snowstorm of the year) and it provided me an early look at two teams of interest. The post-game look at Marquette-UWM didn’t quite work out, as my Directv feed went out due to heavy snow on my dish. I’m mildly bitter about that, but will concede that I’d be much more upset had I not seen an entertaining game earlier in the evening.

The evening’s thoughts below:

1) J.P. Tokoto may be the most widely talked about player in the state, but because his name isn’t pronounced in the way that you would intuitively say it when reading it, announcers sometimes don’t get it right (for the record, based on what announcers have been saying, I’m led to believe that it’s pronounced toke-a-toe). Tonight’s public address announcer slipped up during player introductions and audibly apologized. It sort of reminds me of when I went to games as a kid and even the home announcer couldn’t figure out how the heck to pronounce Gary Grzesk’s name during his sophomore year in high school. It’s sort of amusing to get to see a player that everyone knows is great, but who’s so new that few know the most basic facts about him yet.

2) I was sort of surprised to see Marquette go nearly the entire first quarter without subbing a single player in. I found this unusual for two reasons. First, one of the things that I always notice about Marquette is that their coach tends to go deep into the team’s bench and sub freely, something that’s kind of nice to see with a high school team (particularly one that’s typically competitive, like Marquette). Second, even teams that don’t sub much tend to slip players in and out of the game more freely early in the season as they try to find a team identity. Marquette went 9 or 10 deep by the end of the night, but it wasn’t as busy a night at the scorer’s table as I’ve seen in nights past.

3) It’s going to be a busy night in the laundry room for the Marquette team today, as both Quinten Calloway and John Korpiva had to change jerseys at separate points during the game, presumably because of blood ending up on their originals. Calloway’s jersey change took far too long, as a Marquette assistant coach went to the locker room to grab the spare, and for reasons that I still don’t understand, the referees did not re-start play promptly after removing Calloway from the game to deal with the issue. It seemed inappropriate to stop play for the extended amount of time that they did, and there seemed to be no point to the long break when ultimately, Calloway was not allowed to immediately re-enter the game after finally changing jerseys. The end result was neither coach looking happy with the situation, and attendees like myself grew frustrated sitting around with no action going on. Thankfully, Korpiva’s jersey swap later in the game was no distraction at all, as I didn’t even notice that it had happened until after the fact.

4) Marquette will miss the inside presence of Garrett Maloney, who graduated last year, but John Korpiva looks up to the task of filling in down low. Korpiva isn’t quite as crafty as Maloney was (who is?), but he’s a better athlete (as evidenced by a near-block on Tokoto’s first dunk attempt) and should be a very solid player by the time he’s done (he’s just a junior, folks).

5) While the end score will indicate that this one was a rout, that’s not exactly how things went down. At the end of the first half, I believe the game was either tied or within one point. Falls really pulled away in the third quarter, though, going on a nice run as they turned up some full court pressure on Marquette. Interestingly, I’m not sure that J.P. Tokoto, their star player, even scored a point in the major run of the game (he very well may have, but he clearly wasn’t the focal point). While Tokoto is clearly the most talented guy on the floor, the guards at Falls are no slouches either, and this was their game last night. I recalled liking John Cording last year, but backcourt mate Connor Cassidy was outstanding last evening, and the smallest guy on the bench, Jalen Ramey, gave the Indians some excellent minutes last night. Against a Marquette backcourt that included Quinton Calloway, one of my favorite surprises of last season, it was a very nice performance. For all the talk that Tokoto gets, he’s clearly got some support from good players who have varsity experience.

6) Okay, enough about the Falls guards–how did J.P. Tokoto play last night? (Yeah, I know that’s what most of you really want to read about.) The box score says he had 19 points, and I’d guess he fell just short of 10 rebounds. His gifts are still obvious. He can jump higher and more quickly than anyone else on the floor (yes, he had a handful of dunks), he’s got a solid mid-range shot, and he has a sweet touch around the rim. Last night he settled for a few outside shots without even looking to attack in other ways, simply because he could shoot over the top of his defenders so easily. There were also quite a few instances of him trying to dribble upcourt with 2-3 defenders surrounding him, a recipe for disaster for even the best ball handlers. With all the hype, you sometimes forget that Tokoto is just starting his sophomore season, and is going to have a bad habit or two simply because he’s so young. But I expect that he’ll get those minor issues worked out in no time, as he is definitely not overhyped.

7) It was sort of a downer of a game from an atmosphere standpoint. The snowstorm kept the crowd somewhat sparse, and it being the first home game of the year for Marquette, there were no halftime contests or other non-game related attempts at entertainment. The only semi-entertaining crowd activity was a Falls student repeatedly attempting to taunt one of Marquette’s star football players who was sitting across the gym in the crowd. And that was only amusing because it was such a poor attempt at taunting. (FYI, potential taunters, every student at Marquette High has had someone point out to them that there are no girls at their school. They’re aware of it. It’s a fact that’s irrelevant to any sports situation, and is completely unoriginal. And I say this as someone who was usually looking to run down Marquette during my student days.)

8) Last evening contained two of the most confusing jump ball calls that I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure that a player from Falls got a shot off while a jump ball was called at one point last night.

9) I’m hoping that both teams spend a decent portion of this next week working on their foul shooting. I can’t recall ever seeing a game that contained so many instances of a player heading to the line and missing two straight shots. There were some absolute bricks (not to mention an airball) thrown up, too. It’s early, so there’s time to right the ship, but neither team should be proud of how they looked from the line last night.

10) I get the sense that Menomonee Falls guard Kevin Scroggins is very well-liked by his teammates, due to the audible disappointment displayed by the bench when Scroggins missed the first of his foul shots after being inserted to close out the game with around two minutes to go.

And as the public address announcer sent the crowd off with the words “May all your snowblowers start on the first pull,” (a legitimately nice line, I must say) I headed out into the winter air to brush off my car and head home. My new ride got me home safely, and I had seen a good game. Not a bad night, even though the DVR failed to record the big game of the evening. Perhaps I can catch the replay of it tonight if I get done shoveling in time...