Nothing But Iron: One Down, Five to Go March 19, 2005 by Steven R. Lagman, M.D. C.A.S.W. In the March 15 column I wrote that all five Big Ten teams deserved their NCAA bids. Even in the wake of first-round knockouts of Iowa and Minnesota, I still believe that, though some of you will probably say, "I’ll bet that guy knows a lot about soil pH." Very funny. The toughest burden for Iowa fans was not managing the disappointment of Thursday’s loss to Cincinnati. It was deciding which team to cheer against in the match-up between the despised Golden Gophers and hated intra-state rivals of Iowa State. Bad fish or smelly socks? I’m sure the choice was agonizing. By the way, since when do Cincinnati teams play defense? I also made a point of emphasizing, in jest of reader Mark Hamilton, also known as the Jayhawk in Badgers clothing, my Kansas over Bucknell pick. No, I am not an expert in plasma physics. In my chest-thumping defense, I did nail the UW Milwaukee win over Alabama. More on the Pride Pool below. Based on my non-expert observation, Milwaukee’s win was no fluke. The Panthers played better. The Panthers were better. It’s nice to see a university from that part of our state succeed in the post season. Hey, that reminds me; congratulations to Marquette on its long run in the NIT. Now that was just mean. It’s official, I am a bad person. The Wisconsin University stayed alive by beating Northern Iowa, a much better opponent than one would expect from a directional college. Some fans considered it an ugly win. I thought it pretty enough. I was pleased that the Badgers adapted to NIU’s insistence on clogging up the inside. Had Wisconsin suffered one of its occasional game-long beyond-the-arc droughts, today’s article would be about spring baseball, but the uncharacteristically productive UW back court got it done. Denying Mike Wilkinson and Alando Tucker easy opportunities was a well-conceived, well-executed strategy that ultimately cost Northern Iowa the game. It speaks to one of the challenges of playing the Badgers: An opponent, on any given day, has no idea which of five players–Wilkinson, Taylor, Chambliss, Morley, Tucker or some combination–will fill the gaps. Bo Ryan says he doesn’t even know. Most importantly, I saw resilience as the Badgers shrugged off a number of tense charges by the Panthers, who got close, but never did secure the lead in the second half. Resilience is an essential quality for teams hoping to play on. The team does have its down side, if any of you should choose to focus on negatives, which I don't recommend.  Poor free-throw shooting teams tend to have low viability in tournaments like this.  I have a difficult time thinking that UW’s inability to hit clutch free throws won’t be an issue at some point. If I were Ryan, I would insist, starting Sunday, that players make all their free throws.  On the D side, Wisconsin seems to have a lot of trouble, relative to tradition anyway, managing on-ball screens.  I have a hard time identifying the strategy, which, in the recent past was, help and recover (switch for a few seconds and switch back once the on-ball defender has cleared the screen.) Now I see a lot of switching. Sometimes I see help and don’t recover, which, to the untrained eye looks a lot like plain old communication failure. Finally, with all due respect to Clayton Hanson, the Badgers lack a true shut-down defender.  First one to say "Devin Harris" has to run sprints.  Oops.  Guess that was me.  Kelly, reporting live from Oklahoma City, says the Badgers will have to play a lot better tomorrow than they did in their first round game. Either that or they’ll have to play better than Bucknell does.  Her point is that Bucknell is good, which would make sense, given its win over Kansas last night.  On the other hand, she felt that the Bison were foul prone, did not make good decisions down the stretch and that their hooves provided little traction on the basketball court. Good hunting, Badgers. The 2005 Pride Pool, NBI’s legal, not-for-profit NCAA pool, flourishes with 32 competitors. Tennis star, Ralphie Boy Kamps distinguished himself in yet another arena by grabbing the early lead. I won’t tease any particular contestant about being in last place, but risk-taker Eric Evans finds himself poised to overtake 31st-place Ashley Anderson as early as the Final Four. On the strength of picks like Nevada, LSU, Pitt and UCLA I stumbled out of the blocks landing butt first in 26th place, but still within view (speaking of butts) of my youngest and smartassest brother Ambrucino Lagmanini, in 18th place. Notables: Kris Miller, who told me she selected her picks based on "I’d like to go there" criteria, second. Mark Hamilton, third. Kelly Lagman, 28th. Patrick Lagman, 29th. Connor Lagman, in fifth, leads all Lagman family entrants. Three players, john rogerson, kurt rongstad and mike lagman, cracked the top ten, only to find themselves subject to a devastating 50-point penalty for using all lower-case letters in the spellings of their names. As in basketball, it’s the little things that make a difference. Quotes: There’s a whole lot more basketball left to be watched. ______________ Nothing But Iron is an amateur electronic sports column. ©2005 DrTM Enterprises. All rights reserved, including the right to publish old data.  In the time it took to write this closing, Gonzaga lost to Texas Tech and the author dropped to 27th place.