THEY'D LOOK GOOD IN MAROON AND GOLDHindsight, as they say, is 20-20 -- or, in the case of forward Jon Leuer and point guard Jordan Taylor, 19-18. Those are the respective per game scoring averages of Leuer and Taylor, two Minnesota high school basketball products who are symbols -- unfortunately so, if you are a Gophers fan -- of everything going right with the Wisconsin men's basketball team.
If you're looking for the root of success for this year's Badgers, take a hindsight trip back to the fall of 2006. That's when Leuer, then a senior at Orono, signed to play with Wisconsin ... and it's when Taylor, then a junior at Benilde-St. Margaret's, committed to play for the Badgers ... and it's when the Gophers fired head coach Dan Monson.
It's hard to say if things would have turned out differently if the Gophers' program wasn't in disarray at the time. Minnesota already had recruited Al Nolen to play the point, while Leuer was a late-bloomer who grew 9 inches from his freshman to junior year and had multiple big-time offers after blowing up on the national scene during summer camps before his senior season.
And yes, new coach Tubby Smith has recruited several talented players -- some from within our borders -- since arriving.
But Taylor once said, "I cried and I threw my ball out in the middle of the street," when the Gophers lost to Kentucky in the 1997 Final Four.
Taylor grew up rooting for the maroon and gold, and when he poured in 27 points while Leuer added 12 points and six rebounds to help Wisconsin knock off No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday -- fair or not, regardless of how well they fit in with the Badgers -- it was hard not to think about how both players would look in those colors now.
MOVABLE OBJECT VS. RESISTIBLE FORCE
While folks in Cleveland probably would not share this sentiment, it was observed with a twinge of sadness that we were denied an all-time "something has to give" game Sunday night.
