The Greatest Basketball Story Ever Told

There are a lot of great basketball stories out there, amazing firsts (1966 Texas Western basketball) and individual accomplishments (J-Mac is hotter than a pistol and if you don't get tears watching this video; you really might not have a heart).  One of my all time favorites, however, is the story about the mighty men of Milan. You probably know of them as Hickory or... Hoosiers.   Recently, I read the book by Greg Guffey, The Greatest Basketball Story Ever Told about the Milan Miracle squad.

Naturally, I thought this book was a great read but there were some things that really stood out to me about the team and the small town in the middle of nowhere.  They had enough talent to make it to state the year before they won it all says something about the squad and the ability to meet and exceed the immense pressure they had and the enormous expectations.  The whole town rose and sank with their wins and losses; small school basketball in Indiana doesn't play for the team.  They played for their school, previous players, players not even born yet, families, their friends and their town.  These towns had bragging rights that went above a day or week; they held onto teams and their wins for years, even decades... heck, in this case, maybe even a century! 

Something that really shocked me about the team and community, however, was the amount of athletes they had.  I'm not talking small-school really good local athletes that didn't compete at the next level.  I am talking, legit, multi-sport athletes that could play in college:

Bob Plump (Real life Jimmy Chitwood, except the whole he doesn't play bball thing) played at Butler and earned 4 varsity letters.

Bob Engel had offers from Xavier and Cincinnati (who later got Oscar Robertson to play there.. fast fact: Milan beat Robertson's team at state when he was a sophomore).  Engel didn't play college basketball because he was worried about not being in shape due to a back injury.

Ron Truitt played college basketball at the University of Houston.

Gene White played college basketball at Franklin College.

Ken Wendelman tried out with the Cincinnati Reds and holds/(held?) the Milan long jump record at over 21 feet.

Ray Craft joined Bob Plump at Butler University.

Roger Schroeder played at Franklin College with Gene White.

Bill Jordan also had a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds and then went to Hollywood to make it big as an actor.

Glenn Butte earned a scholarship to play basketball at Indiana University and earned a letter in 1960.

Rollin Cutter joined Plump and Craft at Butler, but had to quit because of injuries.

For those of you keeping track at home, that's 10 kids and 7 played college basketball, another turned down the opportunity and the other 2? Well, they tried out for the Cincinnati Reds. Disgusting athletes in Milan.

I think the biggest part of the book for me was they continued theme on "what it used to be like..." They talk about when they were kids, they talk about the 1 class system, they talk about the consolidated schools, the community, the integrity,

Hard work, determination, kids that didn't have much that thought playing basketball and running for 2 hours was enjoyable and a break from their regular life. They worked tough jobs during the summer and when they weren't working? They were playing basketball or baseball. A big night for them was going downtown Milan. No texting, no video games, no tv, no IPOD's, no cars; just a tight knit group of hard-working friends that had some natural talent. You know that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.. in this case, they had talent and worked hard... a coach's dream.

Reading something like this makes me feel sick about the future of basketball and even kid's today. Do they have it rough? Yeah, but it's a different kind of rough, I certainly wouldn't mind that kind of rough over the days of today. Society brings it on them and parents and kids don't deflect it.

This is a great book; one that I'm going to purchase and read to my son/daughter when they are young and afterwards.  Skipping the children's books and going to this, the Pistol Pete and Larry Bird books. They won't have a choice, but to want to play and work hard!

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

Only one team will end the D1 college season with a W, and every year I want that to be the Badgers.  Sadly, every year since 1942ish it hasn't been the Badgers annnnddddd this year is no different.  The Badgers season came to a crashing halt Thursday night against Butler thanks to an awful shooting night from the field.. 17-56 overall, 7-29 from 3, and a paltry 13-19 from the line which dropped their FT % below the national record.  Butler's defense had something to do with it as did a few missed open looks that went in every game this year (well, except Penn State).

As ugly as the game was offensively for Wisconsin they did some great things down the stretch.  They showed heart being down 20 and charging back to 4 with 1:30 left in the game.  Tim Jarmusz played his best basketball of the season the last few games aggressively looking for his shot, which was what Badger fans have clamored for all year long.  Trusting your system and your style got them back into the game, when they rushed, things fell apart and they missed shots because they took them out of their personal flow (not the flow of the offense, out of their personal mental flow).

Jon Leuer clearly didn't go out the way he wanted and played maybe his worst overall game of the season in arguably the year's biggest game.  1-12 from the field, 1-6 from 3, 3 points, 6 boards, 2 dimes and 2 turnovers as he fouled out.  Yikes.  In addition to that, Andrew Smith (who) beat him up on the block a few times.. including once with a horribly gimpy ankle.  Keaton was Keaton.. few nice j's then long stretches where he wasn't part of the offense.. and a few in and out 3-balls that could have changed the complexion of the game.  However, when all was said and done, Butler walked off the floor victorious, playing enough defense, winning enough 50-50 balls with their hustle, and hitting enough shots to advance.  Congrats to them and Brad Stevens, what a fun team to watch.

Naturally, Jordan Taylor's emergence this year (despite his last two games on the offensive end), The Ginja Ninja's blow up during March, Jared Berggren being a legit low post threat and hopefully development of Josh Gasser's outside shot make me optimistic about next year. 

Keys to a successful 2011-2012 season:
1.  Give Jordan Taylor help (not just offensively, but in minutes played per game, he was clearly worn out to finish the year)

2.  Find a legit low-post scorer.  The swing typically relies on at least somebody being a legit low block scorer, Leuer was a finesse block player that had to turn and face or go over his left shoulder every time.  I think Berggren can fill this role.

3.  Josh Gasser:  shoot 82973204802834029384 jump shots per day this summer.

4.  Ben Brust/Duje Dukan becoming a 3-point shooter off the bench.

5.  Huge, consistent minutes from Ryan Evans.

6.  X-Factor (Again):  Rob Wilson


Early next season's projections:
Starting 5:  Taylor, Gasser, Rob Wilson, Ginja Ninja, Jared Berggren
Best Badgers off bench: Brust, Dukan, Evans
Must Have: Uthoff, Anderson or Kaminsky play meaningful minutes

Leading Scorer: Taylor
Leading Rebounder: Ginja Ninja
Best outside shooter: Brust
Best scorer in the paint: Berggren
Freshman that gets minutes: Traevon Jackson (backing up Taylor)
Media projections: 4th-6th in the Big 10
Real Finish: 3rd
Record:  26-8
Amount of times fans whine about losing recruits like JP Tokoto: 898723984729387402384092384
Amount of times media says Wisconsin is slow and plodding:  99923084724872398742937429872
Amount of times I get annoyed by above comments:  Every single time I hear it.
Amount of times Bo Ryan gets investigated for cheating:  0