why cant we find the next big man in the state of wisconsin?

[tower912]

Majerus called him "the biggest sleeper since Rip Van Winkle."   Ended up following him to Ball St.

[reinko]

And who could forget Sam Okey.  A quick google turned up this gem of a website from a guy who I am sure is in prison for stalking.

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Stadium/9566/

[jce]

Gavinski is not being run off at Wisconsin.  He just isn't good and isn't getting playing time. 

And Brian Butch was a much better player than Ooze.  If anyone tells you that you wouldn't have made that trade, they are either too much of a homer or they are lying.

[shaquilvaine]

Read between the lines with Gavinksi... Bo plays walkons before he plays JP.  He may not be being run off, but it sure seems like a message has been sent... "Hey JP, you'll never play.  If you want to graduate early so we can use your scholly go for it.  I'm glad you decided to red-shirt even though we won't be using that last year of it anyway.  By the way, it was you who decided to redshirt and not me telling you to, right?  wink wink"

[NotAnAlum]

Wisconsin is a football state first (can you say Packers) and most of the big talent are likely to be football fans.  Watch how many of the UW recruits are entertained at FOOTBALL GAMES.  MU is at a disadvantage for these guys because we don't have football.  Besides MU has always tended to draw much more of an urban and nationwide group so it shouldn't surprise that players seem to follow the same profile.  Also recently MU has tended to be "built for speed" while UW is "built for power".  Look at UW break the huddle on TV sometime, it looks like a Polar Bear rally.  Personally I prefer our brand of player although a little more height would be nice.

[mviale]

Gavinski is not being run off at Wisconsin.  He just isn't good and isn't getting playing time. 

And Brian Butch was a much better player than Ooze.  If anyone tells you that you wouldn't have made that trade, they are either too much of a homer or they are lying.

about 4 pts better to be exact

[ChicosBailBonds]

Most kids outside of Milwaukee and even a large percentage in Milwaukee are raised Badger fans regardless of where/if their parents went to college and they grow up dreaming about playing for Wisconsin.  The only way to get them to look at MU is if Wisconsin is just awful, or the coach is terrible.  When MU got McIlvaine and Lovette, both of those were true.  Wisconsin was awful when McIlvaine was in high school, and Steve Yoder was a terrible recruiter.  They were better when Lovette's recruitment was going on, but they never went after him because of Stu Jackson's issues and the coaching change.  His final two were MU and UWGB. 

Now that they are consistently good, it's tougher.  Throw in the fact that they have a Wisconsin sports legend as a coach, and getting a big farmboy isn't in our favor.

I agree....Wisconsin has such a "small state" mentality sometimes.  I never got it quite frankly.  I see this with Wisconsin fans all the time.  They complain MU doesn't have enough Wisconsin kids.  WTF. 

I just don't get that.  The pride is great and all to see the local kid do well, etc., but it's a bit self serving too.  I guess it comes from that provincial thought that it's truly the "state" taking on another state or something.  But if that's their thought process, they shouldn't take anyone from out of state.  If they do, they're just being hypocritical.

MU is an asset, they're drawing a national student body athletically and academically.  That should be a source of pride for people in Wisconsin that people from all over the world and within this country are coming to their state to attend MU and represent MU on the fields of play.

[willie warrior]

Yes, I remember Majerus' statement about Mueller. Little did we know that the guy really was a sleeper.

[chapman]

I agree....Wisconsin has such a "small state" mentality sometimes.  I never got it quite frankly.  I see this with Wisconsin fans all the time.  They complain MU doesn't have enough Wisconsin kids.  WTF. 

I HATE when people try to say this.  I then have to inform these Badger fans that UW-Madison has the lowest percentage of in-state students of any public school in the country and has been known to admit out of state students with lower grades and test scores than in-state students.  If they care about the school having Wisconsin kids they would be better off supporting UWM, which actually has more Wisconsin students despite having about 16,000 less total students.