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Lucas: Jayhawks, Badgers in same club of disrespect?

Mike Lucas  —  3/22/2008 6:35 am

OMAHA, Neb. -- A seemingly innocuous question to a teammate spawned a curious response from Kansas guard Mario Chalmers whose perspective on what constitutes being "overlooked" and "under the radar" dropped some jaws and raised some further questions for everyone at this NCAA tournament site, including the University of Wisconsin basketball team.

When senior power forward Darnell Jackson was asked whether tonight's ballyhooed showdown between two of the nation's most skilled and celebrated freshmen --- Kansas State's Michael Beasley and Southern Cal's O.J. Mayo -- had overshadowed the Big 12 champion Jayhawks, the No. 1 seed in this region, Chalmers chimed in, "We've been overlooked kind of the whole season and right now we are just staying under the radar."

Welcome to the madness, March madness. If tradition-rich Kansas is viewed to be in the shadows of Messrs. Beasley and Mayo, where does that leave the Big Ten regular season and tournament champion? Whatstheirname? You know, the No. 3 seed, everybody's high seed picked to lose? And that's exactly how it was framed to UW seniors Michael Flowers and Brian Butch during the interview sessions here Wednesday at the Qwest Center.

Butch shrugged it off and insisted "we just worry about playing basketball" and pointed to the 29-4 record, while Flowers acknowledged that no one had the Badgers winning anything this season, especially two conference titles. Plus, with the advent of the Big Ten Network, Flowers added, it was even more difficult to follow what was going on. Addressing the lack of exposure, if not the lack of respect, he said, "We're a sleeper in that sense."

Lacking respect?

The aforementioned Chalmers did have a change of heart when challenged on his original contention that the Jayhawks have slipped under the radar. "(We're) not necessarily under the radar," he said, back-pedaling. "But when people talk about the best two teams or the best teams, you always hear about North Carolina or Memphis or maybe even Tennessee or UCLA. Not many people say Kansas is the best team in the nation right now." Fair enough. To this end, he emphasized, "We feel, in our heart, we're the best team. That's what I mean when I say we get overlooked a little bit."

Despite the heartfelt clarification, Chalmers' comments were brought up to Kansas coach Bill Self. "I would say for the most part we don't fly under the radar that much," he said, knowing perhaps that he has become one of the most scrutinized coaches in the tournament every year because of his inexplicable failures. "But for a team that experienced as much early season success as we did, we probably flew under the radar in large part because of the Memphis success or (North) Carolina success or UCLA success. So we may be under the radar a little bit based on how others have perceived teams throughout the year. I do think that maybe we're not as thought of as highly as some of the other (No. 1) seeds." Welcome to the club, the club of disrespect.

Every coach is looking for an edge, a manufactured slight, if necessary, to motivate his players. Such was the case when Southern Cal coach Tim Floyd was quizzed on whether he felt slighted because his No. 6-seeded Trojans were playing so close (a three-hour drive) from the campus of Kansas State, the No. 11 seed. "That's a great observation. One that I won't comment on." But he did say this about the Wildcats, "I'm still trying to figure out how they got an 11 seed finishing third in a league as strong as the Big 12. But I view this as a team that you would play in the Sweet 16 because of their talent. I don't know that anybody in the first round has a great challenge than (USC's) Davon Jefferson and Taj Gibson have with the tandem of (Bill) Walker and Beasley. Both guys are capable of having 40-point nights. In Beasley's case, a 50-point night."

He wasn't exaggerating, either. Beasley scored 40 or more points three times, including 44 against Baylor. He had 39 against Kansas. "It should be a fabulous game," Self said of the USC vs. K-State matchup. "Both teams are young, really young and they're both really talented. I'm very, very impressed with what USC has done, especially lately, because their offense is catching up to their defense." While applauding the positive impact that Beasley and Mayo and some other potentially "one and done" freshmen have had on the college game, Self admitted, "You have so many guys that are new on the scene that get so much attention and maybe some other guys don't get the attention they've probably earned but, hey, that's life."

Scouting the Titans

That's how the Badgers are treating their status, or non-status among the higher profile teams in this bracket. But they did get some love indirectly from Floyd when he was reminded that there was another team from SoCal in Omaha. That would be Cal State Fullerton which scrimmaged USC prior to the start of the season. "I'd never met Bo Ryan," Floyd said of the UW coach. "I just met him and said good luck. I said they (the Titans) beat us by 22 in our scrimmage early in the year. They're a good team. And Bo knows that. I think Cal Fullerton will represent their conference (Big West) well. I'm not saying they're going to beat them. Wisconsin is terrific. But it's going to be a better game than people think." A backhanded compliment is better than no compliment at all.

UW assistant coach Greg Gard, who prepared the scouting report on Cal State Fullerton, had nothing but complimentary things to say about the Titans. As far as their unique playing style -- dictated by having no one taller than 6-5 in the starting lineup -- he compared them to a Winthrop (which pushed the Badgers into overtime before losing 82-79 last season at the Kohl Center) and a Valparaiso (which nearly pulled off an upset this season in Madison before falling 68-58). Gard noted that Fullerton also had some similarities to the UW-Milwaukee teams from a few seasons back. What Gard couldn't find was a suitable opponent on this season's Titan schedule that mirrored the way Wisconsin plays. The closest was St. Mary's, which beat the Titans 69-59.

"They like to get their scoring off transition and off bad shots, quick shots, turnovers, that type of thing," he said of the Fullerton offense. "They like to get out and go and they like to shoot the 3s. Not that they shoot a ton. They average about 23 a game which is average. Iowa shot 23 a game, so did Michigan. With the shots they take, you get a lot of long, wild, uncharacteristic offensive rebounds and they take advantage of those as well. The (Scott) Cutley kid inside is a post presence, very similar to Jamelle Cornley at Penn State. Defensively, they try to get you to speed up. For the most part, they've been locked in, maybe 95 percent of the time, to halfcourt defense. They've played very little zone."

Looking back

As far as the expected matchups tonight, Flowers will be on Josh Akognon, Trevon Hughes will be on Ray Reed, Joe Krabbenhoft on Frank Robinson, Marcus Landry on Cutley and Butch on Marcus Morgan. When some of the Titans were pressed to identify the X-factor in the Wisconsin lineup, there seemed to be a consensus opinion. "He's that number 45, I can't say his name and I don't want to mess it up," volunteered Robinson, referencing Krabbenhoft. "He doesn't score that much. But everything else he does helps the team win."

Krabbenhoft, for one, shared a flashback Wednesday from last season's first-round game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Chicago. The Badgers fell behind 25-7 before rallying for a 76-63 win at the United Center. "They gave us a run for their money," he recalled. "Getting down was exhausting and we used a lot of energy to come back in that game. That's not an excuse why we lost to UNLV (in a second-round game) but it just goes to show that you have to be ready to go from the start. I can still kind of taste that loss (to the Rebels)." So can Landry, who hasn't forgotten that empty feeling after being eliminated from the tournament. "You take that feeling and you remember what it felt like to lose," he said of his motivation for this season. "It was a horrible feeling because I felt like I let my best friend down, Alando Tucker. I apologized to him and told him that I was sorry. Last year he didn't get what he wanted."

Without Tucker, the Badgers have lacked star power, explaining why they have been overlooked and shortchanged in many instances by the national pundits. Cal State Fullerton coach Bob Burton implied that Wisconsin's star, or at the very least, Wisconsin's strength is coach Bo Ryan. "I was such a Bo Ryan fan when I was a junior college coach," Burton confided. "To be honest, I hate to say this, I've been a Wisconsin fan because I love his program. I love him and the way his kids are, the kind of kids he recruits. And I think that he's really figured this thing out, like Ben Howland has at UCLA, they've both got a plan." To get what they want.

Mike Lucas  —  3/22/2008 6:35 am