| Badgers Long Road to BIG DANCE started in South Texas |
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Thursday, 15 March 2007
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 The road to the 2007 "Big Dance" for the Wisconsin Badgers began in the sand and sun of South Padre Island, Texas just outside of Corpus Christi in "The South Padre Island Invitational Tournament" (Nov. 24, 2006) . Too much sun and a Missouri State upset win turned out to be just the slap that got the Badgers attention in the early season tourney there. Bo’s (Ryan) boys , with a stifling defense allowing only 58.3 points per game and featuring Alando Tucker the Big 10 Player of the year, rolled to a 29 win season. Three tough Big Ten road losses (Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State) the only other blemishes on a season that even featured a quick pit stop at No.One in the nation. Some writers called the tourney a "Road to Redemption" but again it turned to another road bump from those dreaded "The Ohio State University" Buckeyes in the championship game. (66-49) Now, it is time to get in the fast lane, and playing in Chicago’s United Center, the game is just a few red lights down the road from Madison. Tucker, who is from the Chicago suburb of Lockport, thinks this will be the first time his parents get to see him play in the tourney. The expected road kill are the Southland conference champions (tournament and regular season) Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders. (26-6) They are taking a road never traveled. The school just started competitive basketball back in 1999. They hired former San Jacinto Junior College coach Ronnie Arrow ,who coached the school to three juco National Chamionships, to head the program. Arrow’s career also had an historic last to first in one year and NCAA tourney berth at University of South Alabama. He took the new job at Corpus because the "sailing was great" at the island university. . The first year it was tough sailing as the school didn’t even have a nickname. Arrow began recruiting wearing a Texas A&M tee- shirt. A few recruits even called College Station (Texas A&M) after recruiting trips unaware of the "new" school. The next 6 years the school drifted in the vast basketball wilderness known as Division 1 Independents. They won more than 20 games the past two seasons but nobody noticed. This basketball season the Islanders made the most of their first year in the Southland Conference. But the mighty Badgers will put the pedal to the metal Friday ( -13 point favorites) . There are 3 things the Islanders have going for them that may cause the cheese-heads to slow dance and take notice. (1) Texas A&M CC has six of its top seven scorers as well seasoned seniors. It is a much more athletic and skilled team than most SLC champions. Last year the league champion, a 14th-seed Northwestern State of Louisana upset Iowa in the first round of the tournament. (2) Chris Daniels, a 7 foot center, was the player of the year in the SLC and averaged 15.2 points per game. But coach Arrow still feels the senior, with one more year of eligibility, is still not physical enough averaging a mere 6.2 rebounds per game. The Islanders unlike the Badgers are not a physically strong group on the boards.
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 16 March 2007 ) | |||||||