Dick Jerardi | Tucker a force behind Badgers' rise
IN THE YEAR OF the freshman big man, there is a throwback fifth-year senior up in Wisconsin putting up great numbers for a throwback coach from Chester.
Alando Tucker is a 6-6 chameleon for No. 2 Wisconsin, which has attained the highest ranking in school history. Coach Bo Ryan, the Chester High point guard 40 years ago, loves players who can create matchup problems. Tucker is a matchup nightmare.
"He is different than most guys in that he's so flexible in where I can play him and the things that he can do," Ryan said. "But that's also another advantage. It's hard for them if they are going to put a smaller, quicker guy on him. He can beat people in different ways."
Tucker is averaging 19.8 points for the 17-1 Badgers. Wisconsin is off to its best start since 1915-16. Its 13 consecutive wins are the longest streak since 1940-41. All of that has put Tucker right in the middle of the player of the year discussion.
"He's just steadily crept up," Ryan said. "The awareness factor kept rising over the years for him."
Tucker's 1,858 points are second only to Michael Finley's 2,147 at Wisconsin. And none of them has come the easy way.
He is a fifth-year senior because he took a medical redshirt in 2003-04 after a foot injury limited him to four games. Last season, he had to wear a mask for 13 games because of a nasal injury.
"I remember seeing him at the Palestra dunking on one of the side baskets with a boot on," said Ryan, referring to Wisconsin's visit to play Penn in 2003. "I had to jump him about that. He was so anxious about getting back."
Ryan had a vision of Tucker when he was recruiting him. Tucker has turned the vision into reality.
"He was a slasher," Ryan said. "He always thought of himself as a guard coming out of high school. He needed a lot of work on perimeter skills. He also needed to understand he could create matchup problems for other teams and take people into the post. He needed to score in the post, as well as on the perimeter, and he was willing to accept that."
Ryan might not have seen 2,000 points in Tucker's future. He did see something special, though.
"I just saw his personality and saw his demeanor and knew that he was hungry," Ryan said. "Those are the kind of guys that you can connect with . . . When you're in this for a while, you can tend to find these guys. We've been fortunate that we've been right about most of our guys."
Wisconsin does not go after the flash. It is simply not Ryan's way.
"I haven't recruited guys that had entourages and they're about themselves, that have relatives or street people that are around them working schools and coaches," Ryan said. "I don't recruit those kind of guys. I just don't get into that."
Instead, he gets players like Alando Tucker and has Wisconsin on the verge of the best season in school history.
The TV deal
Much has been said about the A-10's TV deal with CSTV. The biggest issue has been the lack of games for local teams on Comcast SportsNet. A limited schedule was announced 2 weeks ago.
Contrast that with Drexel, which has a record 12 games on CN8 and CSN.
The A-10 clearly went for CSTV money. Drexel and the Colonial went for local exposure. Eventually, the A-10 might get exposure as well, but not this season.
Owls-Hawks crowd
